Business expansion... what shoud I buy, do I really need it?

[ATH]

Two more thoughts/factors to weigh:

1) Would having the chipper allow you to do more tree jobs in a year? In other words, are you going to make more money because you have it?
2) Are you crunched on time to fit in the trees you do? For example, if you have a full time job and use vacation days to do tree work, would you go finish a tree and go into work to save a few hours of vacation?

 

[tidy]

apart from being time consuming the micro chippers also consume a lot of effort to feed, you have to manually push all the material thru. I work out of a trailer regularly and we slash all the brush down once trimmed and loaded inside the trailer, slashing it down to mulch. Its not fun but it works.

 

[CUCV]

Get yourself a mini skid steer with grapple. It's a very versatile machine which will open up doors to new work. It's also simply amazing how much more brush one can load into a dump with the compressive forces of a grapple. Since your main source of income is stump grinding you could remove grindings with the mini and bring in loam.
I had free use of a near new 6" chipper when I was starting up my business. They are just a toy IMO. I brought it on a job with a ton of brush and after a full day of chipping I hauled the rest of the brush to the dump on a 14' landscape trailer. I used to run two ropes under the brush so I could quickly side unload.
I know what your saying about the the small single stage snowblowers, I've gone through several of them in the past 15+ year and they are simply amazing. However, I don't feel chippers are the same. A 10" chipper is several times more productive than a 6" chipper.

 

[jefflovstrom]

Those who get rich do so by the sweat on other people's brows.

Our salesman makes $100k, I make 50. Do you think he could make that money, selling and doing the work himself?

you do understand business,right
the market set's the price,,,,,,
Jeff

 

[BC WetCoast]

Yes, I understand business. We were discussing whether he should hire an employee. If the employee makes you more money than he costs, then it makes sense to hire an employee.

My example probably wasn't the best. But as Henry Ford showed, people focusing on a single task makes it more productive for the company than a single person doing all the tasks. So for the OP, him doing the climbing/cutting and having a groundie should be more productive than him doing all the work himself. Therefore, he makes more money.

 

[treesmith]

I do a lot of hazardous tree reductions/removals/pruning in reserves, parks and bushlands running a landcruiser V8 TD 4x4 tipper and a bandit 65xp, it gets where no truck can follow and is a very effective combo, cutting branches to fit and keeping knives sharp make it a pretty quick and efficient setup. Anything over 6" gets logged for firewood and removed or left for habitat on site. The company has two big rigs with a 1590xp each, two with a 1090xp each and two 65xp on smaller rigs, the bigger chippers are very restricted access wise on where they can go and the weather. There is no way I'd consider a chipper smaller than 6", I'd rather burn all the brush and save a ****-tonne of hassle. In fact, I worked in scotland for years without a chipper, we had the most enormous bonfires and a non stop supply of sellable firewood. Work out what you want to spend time doing and go from there.

Regards to employees, I'd much rather hire an intelligent mind

you can make a thinking man work, you can't always make a working man think

Muscles can be grown, brain cells can't

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[treesmith]

I removed this tree with a 6" bandit

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[JeffGu]

Wouldn't it have been easier to cut it up with a chainsaw first?

 

[Jimbo209]

I do a lot of hazardous tree reductions/removals/pruning in reserves, parks and bushlands running a landcruiser V8 TD 4x4 tipper and a bandit 65xp, it gets where no truck can follow and is a very effective combo, cutting branches to fit and keeping knives sharp make it a pretty quick and efficient setup. Anything over 6" gets logged for firewood and removed or left for habitat on site. The company has two big rigs with a 1590xp each, two with a 1090xp each and two 65xp on smaller rigs, the bigger chippers are very restricted access wise on where they can go and the weather. There is no way I'd consider a chipper smaller than 6", I'd rather burn all the brush and save a ****-tonne of hassle. In fact, I worked in scotland for years without a chipper, we had the most enormous bonfires and a non stop supply of sellable firewood. Work out what you want to spend time doing and go from there.

Regards to employees, I'd much rather hire an intelligent mind

you can make a thinking man work, you can't always make a working man think

Muscles can be grown, brain cells can't

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Is that a 70 series or a 100/200 landcruiser. In Wagon or Ute. So do you chip into the Ute tray?? Or elsewhere

I am the grunt kid mentioned and the boss has a 250xp.
Your smaller setup sounds nice would be nice when I can locate one out west

 

[Jimbo209]

We do alot of hedge and garden clearance and the 14" 250xp hyd feed blitzes through the brush, if sometimes a bit big. But it's a <3000kg trailer and have the afore mentioned access problems resulting in turning down the occasional job with sandy bog access.
Like the op a small unit or trailer chipper would be ideal.

Just My .02c from the last 6-8 months

 

[treesmith]

It's a 2014 truck cab tipper with chip bin, V8 turbo diesel think it's a 4.5l, works well, not too bad off road loaded and a chipper, good tyres help

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[Jimbo209]

It's a 2014 truck cab tipper with chip bin, V8 turbo diesel think it's a 4.5l, works well, not too bad off road loaded and a chipper, good tyres help

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Thanks.
Boss favors the patrols. Have people on both sides of the fence though so who knows
Work car is a MQ 4.2 n/a 6cyl which is a squeeze with the seat laid back
Big tree firm shares yard had 2 GQ single cabs.
I just need to fit my 7'/210cm frame Into the cab, which I remember a 75/6 cruiser Ute being a bit small in single.
That said the crewman cross8 looks handy, Also as a daily.

 

[JeffGu]

Fits in the back of a pickup, or on a trailer... I've been hauling it on an aluminum 5.5' x 10' trailer along with a Carlton SP-2000 stump grinder and other equipment. I like it, and as I said.. it works for me. I just put it up against the back of a pickup truck and shoot the chips in there. It will handle up to 3.5" stuff, but it isn't fast.

 

[TimberMcPherson]

Your gear has to match your working environment.

Trucks, chippers, stumpers, saws, all come in 2 sizes

To big and to small

you can make as much with a 3 inch than a 12 inch chipper, its a matter of the right work gear for the right work.