how many on the crew

[arboromega]

my boss is fond of sending out 2 man crews. i absolutely hate this. keep in mind 2 men are fine in small jobs, but he will run two men all week on every type of job, including removals.
before this company i worked for 3 others where avg crew size was at least 4 men.
what do you think what is an ideal crew size, for removal especially.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Small job? Two men.

For me, the best number is between three or four men, with three being the most common.

 

[rbtree]

And the 0.5 would be from the waist down or up? brains or brawn??

 

[murphy4trees]

I don't like a two man crew either...To me its a safety issue. I dropped a log across a man's back and broke his shoulder blade many years ago... Never would have happened with a third man on the job.... It could be argued we both got lucky there... a couple of inches up or down and he could easily have been killed or permanently crippled... Total cost of rehab after emergency room cost was $12, for a sling for his arm...

 

[NeTree]

2 man crews work well for me, even for smallish removals.

Anything big gets 3 or more.

 

[Dadatwins]

2 - 3 person crew about average for normal work. Anything high traffic or large scale extra person or two will not hurt. For small work 3 -4 man crews always end up with one guy sitting on a curb or wandering off.

 

[rbtree]

I like to adjust the crew size based on some variables.

One, job size and two, total amount of work load, ie, how busy we are.

So, an easy job when business is slow , crew size 2, 3 if busy.

complex job with multiple trees or technical rigging, crew size 3-5,

Examples:

One large, wide tree to prune- 2-3 climbers, one groundie.
Multiple easy pruning 2-4 climbers, 0-2 ground
multiple complex pruning 1-2 climbers, 1-3 ground.

Multiple removals, 1 climber 2-4 gmen or 2 climbers, 2-5 ground support.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

THe question is, what becomes of the other crew members when you work a small crew? You can't pay 1.5 guys, 3 days a week to sharpen saws and sweep the shop.

 

[My like trees]

hMaster Blaster is right, you must be good master balaster, you keep saying things that solidify your abilities in my mind. You and Rb. Three guys is the norm. and two is perfect for the most part and realisticaly.

 

[SilverBlue]

Ideally for the average job it’s one climber and two on the ground although one should be able to climb to assist the man in the tree just in case.Three dragging brush and you get...

 

[My like trees]

I agree.

 

[SteveBullman]

depends who you got working for you, in my experience, 2 men work better than 3.
we usually work 2 man crews, 3 only when necessary

 

[blue]

it depends on size of job and how close you can get the chipper.

2 man crews work well as long as the groundie can keep up clearing and chipping even if i have to stop while he chips for 5-10 mins.

if alot of lowering is involved then a 3 man crew is essential to gettin the job done. 1 cuttin,1 runnin ropes,1 clearing makes sense to me

 

[Lumberjack]

I run a 3 man crew on almost everything. If its a bigger job, such as removing multiple trees I bring in a 4th person.

 

[MasterBlaster]

CARL!!!

What's up, Graduate Dawg?

When ya headed off to boot camp?

 

[xander9727]

I usually like a three man crew. I have two part time guys that I can call in for the large removals with limited access. I would rather add equipment than people if given the choice. As long as the access is good I bring the loader and grapple. Most of the time 4 or 5 means someone's observing.
My $.02

 

[wiley_p]

I've run up to seven men on a large rigging tree. The norm is 5 which can be split into two modules. Even then it is hard to keep hours down. Sales arborists, they kind of don't really understand work.

 

[bushman]

Got to love the two man crew , we climb and prune then drag and chip our own brush. its not fun on take downs or a safe way to do jobs.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Originally posted by bushman
Got to love the two man crew , we climb and prune then drag and chip our own brush. its not fun on take downs or a safe way to do jobs.

You can't get a third hand on those kinda days?

 

[arboromega]

i wonder if bushman is an aka for one of the guys i work with?????
to clarify my original...
2 man crew for most things including good size removals and even large cabels where you both have to climb up with all that dmn hardware.
2 climbers are the crew, up down drag and chip your own brush. it really does suck. there are only 5 employees two part time 3 full time. there are two 2 man crews per day while one guy sprays and ferts and the fert guy rotates. it is impossibly tough on myself and the other two full timers. none of want to quite but we do want to change this system. that is why i was seeing what size crews you guys to try and gague what the avg is. lloking like at least tree men per crew. maybe i was spoiled by working for companies in the past that ran bigger crews.