Crane Investment?

[Eddie Bee]

Hi I'm looking into investing into a large crane to basically do all my tree work with. Wondering if anyone had any advice in investing in a brand new Crane/ log truck? How much can a crane truck bring in per day? How many men do you run in that crew? Is it worth the investment? Any advice would help!!
Thank you!

 

[FayettesFinest]

My dad works for a crane company, and granted it's a whole different ball game, you might be better off with a bucket truck or something. Everything that involves a crane is incredibly expensive. If you have the funds, then you're a step closer than I am, lol. I've never heard of someone using a crane for tree work, but if you're in the right environment, it might be a worthwhile investment. I don't know if you have any crane experience or not, but the biggest thing I'd be worried about is someone that can competently run it. One slip up could make or break you.

 

[BuckmasterStumpGrinding]

Start renting a crane and selling crane removals. That way you will price crane removals the way they should be priced and not underbid them without considering crane rentals. If your crane rentals get insanely high it is probably time to buy a crane and hire an operator. If you are not spending enough on crane rentals to justify the purchase you will save yourself a fortune.

 

[KrisSchmandt]

I made the mistake years ago of buying a skid steer because it would be "another service I could offer that would make me $$$". $17k later I think I got 2 jobs directly because of it. Don't get me wrong it was a handy tool to have and I did use it on jobs where I could but "it" never even came close to "making" what it cost.

In retrospect if I had spent 1/10 of that on advertizing and just rented a skid steer when I needed it I would have been better off. The lesson learned was have the work first, you can always rent, when you have the work to justify the purchase then pull the trigger.

If you have the equipment to get the job done now spend your money on marketing until you can't help but buy bigger better equipment just to keep up.

 

[ATH]

Go up to the commercial tree care and climbing forum here and search "crane". Plenty of reading. You can also figure out pretty quickly who knows what they are doing and who is clueless. Ask the guys who know what they are doing for pointers. Of all the things in tree care where I think being self-taught is doable with sharp mind, some common sense, and a willingness to learn, I am not sure a crane is one of them. I think that is best learned directly under the guidance of somebody else...but maybe that is just me.

 

[Climb-Ax™]

There can be many benefits of using a crane on tree jobs. Owning one gives you all kinds of new responsibilities. My suggestion is to hire a crane service, unless you are spending at least five times what the rental rate would be a month.