Bucket truck and chipper questions

[RandyS]

We have a landscaping business but we also do quite a bit of tree work. My partner was talking about getting a used bucket truck. For me one with a 35' reach seems OK as it comes on a 3500 series chassis and is more maneuverable. Will do less lawn damage also. Does this sound logical or is bigger better?
We have a pto 6" chipper but would also be interested in getting a used chipper also, maybe 6"-9" capacity. Any recommendations or what to look for?
Also my partner was saying that in order to do pruning we would need an arborist license. What does that entail and where do we go to get that?
Thank you.

 

[NYCHA FORESTER]

http://www.ctpa.org/

 

[diltree]

35' reach is not ok.......you need at least at least a 55'-60' aerial lift of conn. , there are actually a ton of 55' forestry package rigs in circulation in our area (companies use to use them to do telephone line clearance contracts), you should be able to pick a nice one up at a fairly reasonable price. I don't know where in conn. you guys are but aerial lift is based in milford, and in my opinion make the best bucket, and provide the Best service. If you want something cheap, lewis tree has retired equipment for sale, they would have plenty of forestry units

 

[priest]

I wouldn't dismiss the idea of a 35 ft one-ton truck completely. I have one and it works great for a lot of applications. Mine is a 92 Dodge Cummins diesel with a 32 ft lift. It works well pruning medium sized trees (40- 50 ft total height). You can get underneath the tree and then insert the bucket into the interior of the tree.

I had a big utility truck with a 55 ft boom, and it did not work for pruning small to medium-sized trees a lot of the time because the huge boom could not be manuvered around the limbs.
The small truck has major drawbacks too, however. Keep in mind that 35 ft is at complete vertical above the truck. Reallistically you have to be at least 10 or 15 ft from the truck to keep from dropping limbs on the truck (unless you rig the limbs). That reduces your work height to more like 25 ft. You can run a pole saw or power pole pruner from the bucket, however, and gain greater reach.

You will be short on reach a lot of the time. If you plan to work on tall trees frequently (especially removals), you'll need a big truck. But if your main focus is on pruning small to mid-size trees and you'd like to be able to drive around the yard easily, consider the one-ton. You can still climb to get higher limbs when you need to.

Here's a picture of mine.

 

[diltree]

Priest.......let me give you some advice....your bucket is way too small........spend some money and buy a rear mount.... you are loosing like 25 feet of radius using that Cable TV Truck. No Offense but you need a wake up call!!!!!!!

 

[Redbull]

???? Dil, he looks like a lot less of a hack than the comp. in my area. At least he's using proper PPE. Hell, it's uncommon to find a tree crew with all there shirts on in my town.

 

[CoreyTMorine]

arborist certification

Randy, most people get their arborist certification from the ISA (international society of arborculture). They have a self-study book (70.00$ i think, its good in that it puts all the basics/test questions at your finger tips, but there are better books out there) you order it, study the book, and then go find a test site. The isa holds tests every so often in your area. I think it costs 200.00$ for the test. Then to maintain your certification you have to take so many credits worth of classes every year, classes offered by the ISA, this can get expensive and time consuming.
Another option if you live in Connecticut is to get your Massachusetts arborist license, the initial test is more difficult, but it is easier/ cheaper to maintain. Shelter tree in North Attleborough is a good resource down in SE mass, I think George is the name of the fellow that runs things down there, he would be able to get you more specifics in both cases.
I like Shelter tree, they have a nice showroom, but they are on the expensive side, and know exactly what you are buying and what it should cost. I bought chipper knives down there once and they tried to charge me for knives of the next size up. Also once i bought a 9/16 doublebraid, they assured me that it was really 5/8 and charged me accordingly. When i got home and started splicing it I couldn’t get the 5/8 bury to work, had to use the 9/16, making me pretty sure that the rope is 9/16. I don't think that Shelter tree is immoral; i don’t get that feeling at all, but keep your eyes open.

good luck, the small truck sounds like great fun to me, and there is a market for that kind of work.

 

[diltree]

Sorry priest, i didnt mean to come off like that, but seriously, your truck was designed to fix cable wires, not to do tree work.

 

[kf_tree]

we have a 65ft altec..........but even if you have a 75 footer it will still be 10 feet short most of the time.


if that's all i can reach i guess i'll butt tie it right here.

 

[Mike Cantolina]

Priest, I know what your saying, we use them in back alleys for trees right under the wire. Much easier for trees right under the wire with the telescopic boom than a larger truck.

Mike

 

[dhuffnmu]

I agree with you priest. You have a way to do it and so does everyone else. What works for you may not for someone else and vise versa. I personally like them the biggest I can get them. The smaller trees that I have problems getting it in, I just climb them dosn't take to long. But like I said everyone has to start out somewhere. Even the biggest companies witht he best equipment more than likely started out with lesser equipment and worked there way up to what they have now. If I had all the money I would probably have a smaller truck like that as well. It would be a lot nicer on some smaller jobs for the lawns and cement and such.

 

[Ax-man]

There have been many times I wish had a smaller truck like one of these telescoping rigs with a smaller boom, especially when we get busy in the middle of the season. A truck like this is nice for crown raising the smaller trees, roof clearance over a single story ranch type house, sneaking in tight places where trying to manuver a bigger boom around obstacles and wires is tough. A truck like this is also good for those roadside jobs where you only need to raise tree limbs 16 to 20 ft. to provide clearance for semi's, you don't have to waste time with setting outriggers or worry about putting an outrigger in a steep ditch, without having to waste time with stabilizers one guy can pretty much stay in the bucket and do the cutting while the other can drive and position the truck and do the ground work, three guys works even better for this type of work.

The first lift truck I had wasn't much taller than the one Priest has, only it was rear mounted , we took down many trees taller than the boom by butt hitching limbs and sometimes almost an entire lead as long as we had the space to do it.

Either way you decide to go Randy, a hydraulic lift short or tall will save a lot of climbing and speed the work up, each has it's pro and con, just depends on the type of tree work you plan on doing down low or up high.

Larry