Around here you can have a 4-5 man crew and average $2,500-$3,000 a day almost always going into overtime and paying out about $1,000 in operating cost a day between labor and equipment. You also have to feed this machine by hustling that much work to keep all those guys busy. I can go out and make an average of $1500 a with me, one ground guy and very little equipment and afford to sell work for much less than my competition and always manage to be home by 5:00 so I think smaller is definitely better since I can afford to turn one week worth of work into two and always stay busy. Also, if work is scarce I am still making a profit going out and doing a $400 job and enjoying my winter break. I don't really see the need for a climber to drag brush if they are working in sync with the ground guys. Getting a tree on the ground fast doesn't mean getting the job done fast, with good teamwork the ground should be cleared by the time the wood starts coming down but if you are part of a team nobody should ever be above helping in any way possible to get the job done.