i finally bought a wood chipper !!!!!

[MillerTreeMN]

isnt she beautiful?

well, i looked for a while for a chipper, and i never found one that- fit my price range, fit the weight or specifications i was looking for- or the ones i could afford were beat to crap.

for a few grand more than i was looking to spend, i bit the bullet and bought a clam truck. with a chipper- i need a chip truck, or someone to pull the chipper to the jobs to chip into my dump trailer. i didnt like that idea either. 99% of my jobs are residential and i cant chip into a pile and leave the chips, my tractor isnt big enough to tow a 5,000+ pound chipper through people's yards, so...

i decided to get the clam truck. for a certain amount of months per year, i can dump brush and logs for free at a local dump.... and there are numerous dump sites around here that take brush / logs so i dont have any problem getting rid of it.

this is a 2001 International 4900 with the DT466E motor / auto transmission. the grapple can lift 8,500 pounds if the log is right next to the truck. 1500 pounds if extended all the way out. the truck only has 29,000 miles on it. im sure my neighbors will LOVE seeing it on the side of my driveway :embarrassed:



so now, its time to put this thing to WORK... as much as possible. i will sub contract out to other tree services to do removals if they just cut the trees down and stack them by the curb, or also consider doing debris removal / demos, but for the most part i decided this would be important for MY business.

the dilemma now, is trying to figure out how much to charge other companies for my services....

 

[MillerTreeMN]

i tried to edit the post 4 times to add-

if i charge too much for doing their cleanups, they wont hire me, if i charge too little, i dont make enough $

my other equipment- 2011 F350 Crew cab diesel 4x4, 2010 Midsota 18' deck over dump trailer, 2010 John Deere 2320 diesel tractor with forks + bucket, 2007 Rayco 1635 stump grinder

 

[NCTREE]

isnt she beautiful?

well, i looked for a while for a chipper, and i never found one that- fit my price range, fit the weight or specifications i was looking for- or the ones i could afford were beat to crap.

for a few grand more than i was looking to spend, i bit the bullet and bought a clam truck. with a chipper- i need a chip truck, or someone to pull the chipper to the jobs to chip into my dump trailer. i didnt like that idea either. 99% of my jobs are residential and i cant chip into a pile and leave the chips, my tractor isnt big enough to tow a 5,000+ pound chipper through people's yards, so...

i decided to get the clam truck. for a certain amount of months per year, i can dump brush and logs for free at a local dump.... and there are numerous dump sites around here that take brush / logs so i dont have any problem getting rid of it.

this is a 2001 International 4900 with the DT466E motor / auto transmission. the grapple can lift 8,500 pounds if the log is right next to the truck. 1500 pounds if extended all the way out. the truck only has 29,000 miles on it. im sure my neighbors will LOVE seeing it on the side of my driveway :embarrassed:



so now, its time to put this thing to WORK... as much as possible. i will sub contract out to other tree services to do removals if they just cut the trees down and stack them by the curb, or also consider doing debris removal / demos, but for the most part i decided this would be important for MY business.

the dilemma now, is trying to figure out how much to charge other companies for my services....

I know a guy around here who has a setup like that, he does a lot of clean ups on crane jobs. He charges $300 a load.

 

[MillerTreeMN]

NCTree

i was thinking somewhere in the $250 - 350 range, depending on location, who the other company is, and dump fee

i told one company i know this price and he didnt think too highly of it, since he gets a roll off dumpster to the location for $200. but if i cleaned up 2 of his jobs for $350, isnt that better than 2 roll off dumpsters for $200 a piece? id sure think so

 

[zogger]

have to dump stuff?

I would think in Minnesota that the logs could be processed for firewood and sold and delivered and the chips sold cheaply to some landscapers for mulch. You actually have to just throw away good wood?

For the chips, maybe look for organic farmers in your area, they might take them year round to make compost from. The straight spray farmers don't seem to care about soil tilth (why, I have no idea...), but the organic guys are hip to it..

Anyway, cool machine.

Oh wait, thought of something. Big poultry operations use a lot of softwood shavings..not chips, shavings. So shavings mills might be a place to get rid of pines. The market got skewed when they went to making chipboard for construction and the prices for shavings went up severely. My boss owns the largest poultry operation in our area (by far) and what he started getting charged for shavings by the big truckload delivered (he needs enough all the time to have a large dedicated storage barn for them, plus a large dedicated shavings spreader truck) inspired him to get his own shavings mill. It is almost finished being built, hopefully I might make a little more coin and get to do a lot of the cutting and delivering pine to the mill right off the property here.

Wood is a valuable resource, dang if I could just throw it away..I'd look harder at getting a market for what you might get paid to haul away..get paid both ends of the work like that.

 

[ropensaddle]

Yeah nothing like a grapple truck but those kind would be hard to load right imo. Mine you set on top so you can see where your putting things. I guess you'll get used to it I would have to have some way to see! It is a nice looker

 

[MillerTreeMN]

I would think in Minnesota that the logs could be processed for firewood and sold and delivered and the chips sold cheaply to some landscapers for mulch. You actually have to just throw away good wood?

For the chips, maybe look for organic farmers in your area, they might take them year round to make compost from. The straight spray farmers don't seem to care about soil tilth (why, I have no idea...), but the organic guys are hip to it..

Anyway, cool machine.

Oh wait, thought of something. Big poultry operations use a lot of softwood shavings..not chips, shavings. So shavings mills might be a place to get rid of pines. The market got skewed when they went to making chipboard for construction and the prices for shavings went up severely. My boss owns the largest poultry operation in our area (by far) and what he started getting charged for shavings by the big truckload delivered (he needs enough all the time to have a large dedicated storage barn for them, plus a large dedicated shavings spreader truck) inspired him to get his own shavings mill. It is almost finished being built, hopefully I might make a little more coin and get to do a lot of the cutting and delivering pine to the mill right off the property here.

Wood is a valuable resource, dang if I could just throw it away..I'd look harder at getting a market for what you might get paid to haul away..get paid both ends of the work like that.

easier said than done. 2010 was my busiest year EVER, and i only did 2 jobs removing oak trees. i sold the logs from those jobs by putting ads on craigslist days before the jobs so all i had to do was load and deliver. i dont own large property so i have no room to process and store firewood. the rest of the year it was boxelder trees, maples, poplars, diseased elm trees. people in this area ONLY want to buy oak and birch. all of the birch trees we remove are dead and dry rotted. with the emerald ash bore problem we are starting to have here, you can ONLY take ash wood to the dump- or get fined. as far as i know, only one place around here pays you for logs- but im not driving 45 minutes each way- so sell $15 bucks worth of logs.

 

[ropensaddle]

easier said than done. 2010 was my busiest year EVER, and i only did 2 jobs removing oak trees. i sold the logs from those jobs by putting ads on craigslist days before the jobs so all i had to do was load and deliver. i dont own large property so i have no room to process and store firewood. the rest of the year it was boxelder trees, maples, poplars, diseased elm trees. people in this area ONLY want to buy oak and birch. all of the birch trees we remove are dead and dry rotted. with the emerald ash bore problem we are starting to have here, you can ONLY take ash wood to the dump- or get fined. as far as i know, only one place around here pays you for logs- but im not driving 45 minutes each way- so sell $15 bucks worth of logs.

I sold around 4k in logs this spring it sure is nice and sometimes ends up being your profit. I got around 300.00 per load and that ain't chump change when your being paid to haul off the brush!

 

[MillerTreeMN]

Yeah nothing like a grapple truck but those kind would be hard to load right imo. Mine you set on top so you can see where your putting things. I guess you'll get used to it I would have to have some way to see! It is a nice looker

thanks. we'll see how much of a headache just owning it will be.

day 1- i didnt plug in the block heater last night. just to kinda test how it would start this morning in the cold. i think its 19 degrees out now, and it obviously got colder through the night.

turned the key- CLICK. like the starter pushed forward, but didnt spin.

i put this brand new battery in there yesterday, its got like 1000-1100 cold cranking amps. :smirk: and when i put it in yesterday, it turned over like a brand new car. but the block heater WAS plugged in yesterday.

so, im hoping its just simply because i didnt have the block heater on it. im going to let that warm up for a bit then try it again- im hoping i dont have some wires or something pulling power from the battery when it sits over night. might have to put a dead man switch on the battery

 

[MillerTreeMN]

I sold around 4k in logs this spring it sure is nice and sometimes ends up being your profit. I got around 300.00 per load and that ain't chump change when your being paid to haul off the brush!

in my area, its mostly residential, no big farms, no sawmills, etc. i honestly cant think of anyone i know who sells the logs they remove. and on top of that, since we are doing residential removals, we dont end up with 8' logs or logs long enough to make boards out of.

 

[ropensaddle]

thanks. we'll see how much of a headache just owning it will be.

day 1- i didnt plug in the block heater last night. just to kinda test how it would start this morning in the cold. i think its 19 degrees out now, and it obviously got colder through the night.

turned the key- CLICK. like the starter pushed forward, but didnt spin.

i put this brand new battery in there yesterday, its got like 1000-1100 cold cranking amps. :smirk: and when i put it in yesterday, it turned over like a brand new car. but the block heater WAS plugged in yesterday.

so, im hoping its just simply because i didnt have the block heater on it. im going to let that warm up for a bit then try it again- im hoping i dont have some wires or something pulling power from the battery when it sits over night. might have to put a dead man switch on the battery

Mine has four deep cells check your connections! Hopefully you'll figure it sometimes it is simple switch left on!

 

[ropensaddle]

in my area, its mostly residential, no big farms, no sawmills, etc. i honestly cant think of anyone i know who sells the logs they remove. and on top of that, since we are doing residential removals, we dont end up with 8' logs or logs long enough to make boards out of.

Buuuuuuuuuuuumer mang

 

[MillerTreeMN]

Mine has four deep cells check your connections! Hopefully you'll figure it sometimes it is simple switch left on!

well, there shouldnt be any switches to leave on... ill double check the nuts on top of the battery posts. and, there is only one battery, but being brand new, and the truck ran for about 2 hours after installing it, it should be plenty charged up.... maybe i just need a second battery.

 

[ropensaddle]

well, there shouldnt be any switches to leave on... ill double check the nuts on top of the battery posts. and, there is only one battery, but being brand new, and the truck ran for about 2 hours after installing it, it should be plenty charged up.... maybe i just need a second battery.

Is the alternator putting out ?

 

[zogger]

Ain't it funny..

easier said than done. 2010 was my busiest year EVER, and i only did 2 jobs removing oak trees. i sold the logs from those jobs by putting ads on craigslist days before the jobs so all i had to do was load and deliver. i dont own large property so i have no room to process and store firewood. the rest of the year it was boxelder trees, maples, poplars, diseased elm trees. people in this area ONLY want to buy oak and birch. all of the birch trees we remove are dead and dry rotted. with the emerald ash bore problem we are starting to have here, you can ONLY take ash wood to the dump- or get fined. as far as i know, only one place around here pays you for logs- but im not driving 45 minutes each way- so sell $15 bucks worth of logs.

--some areas of the nation, maple and so on is valuable for firewood and you can sell it.

with this killer winter lately...just wondering, if a guy was to offer half price for maple and elm what the other guys are getting for oak and birch.. Or if a guy could find another guy to take all of it in bulk form for some money, and that guy was the wood processor and seller, eliminating the need for you to branch out into selling...

anyway, good luck! I ran a search, tons of organic farms in minnesota and some market for shavings as well.

emerald ash borer and so on...another thing I just can't grok why this couldn't still be turned into an asset, ash burns just swell ..biochar production (although most farmers have never even heard the term, if it ain't in their chemical farm rags, it doesn't exist) or co-generation boilers for someplace (factory or wherever) to make heat/hot water/electricity on a commercial scale. Good ways to get rid of diseased wood and kill off the diseased part. Seems better than just burying it at the dump, but what do I know. It's got to go someplace, a lot of BTUs and charcoal just getting expensively disposed of. And with the state of the economy, millions of people out of work..abandoned factories.....

I just get a little antsy when you can see broad solutions that would help, but because they don't fit the "established" wallstreet business model they don't get done.

Remonds me of the big workers co-ops now up and running all over, like down in Argentina. with a huge top heavy boss class and stockholders (non workers) to support, Tons of factories not profitable with that old "regular" method, so they closed, put everyone out of work, etc. Factories sitting them decaying. Then, opened back up with worker owned and run, full profit sharing, equal salaries, they just "co-operate" to get the product out the door, best guy for the best job no matter what inside, etc, they become instantly profitable.

That co-op model is pretty big in other nations now, not so much in the US, we seem to like the-what I call- the " three way internal war" method, which is management versus stockholders versus rank and file workers model. always at war with each other..that eventually gets shipped to china when it doesn't work here.

Just seems strange to me why almost everyone thinks the "house divided" method would work, rather than the "house united".

 

[MillerTreeMN]

Is the alternator putting out ?

it continued to just "click" like there wasnt enough juice to spin the starter.

with the block heater on for an hour, and the other truck + jumper cables on it for 20 minutes, it finally turned over and fired right up.

i bought a 2nd battery for it, brand new, 1000 cold cranking amps and put it in.

i drove it to a shop to have them test and see if something is draining the battery when the truck is off. i also told them to fix the right brake lights, and the reverse lights, and to check the valve / sensor / buzzer for the low air warning buzzer. hopefully the bill doesnt give me a heart attack. i told them not to spend any excess time on any issue.

 

[ropensaddle]

it continued to just "click" like there wasnt enough juice to spin the starter.

with the block heater on for an hour, and the other truck + jumper cables on it for 20 minutes, it finally turned over and fired right up.

i bought a 2nd battery for it, brand new, 1000 cold cranking amps and put it in.

i drove it to a shop to have them test and see if something is draining the battery when the truck is off. i also told them to fix the right brake lights, and the reverse lights, and to check the valve / sensor / buzzer for the low air warning buzzer. hopefully the bill doesnt give me a heart attack. i told them not to spend any excess time on any issue.

I had to do that by myself to mine bill shouldn't kill you. I doubt it gets over 250 for what you mention unless they have to put alternator on! Its minor if everything else brakes,springs,shackles,king pins, trunnions are good should be set.

 

[Rftreeman]

nice truck, I want one like that...

 

[zogger]

it continued to just "click" like there wasnt enough juice to spin the starter.

with the block heater on for an hour, and the other truck + jumper cables on it for 20 minutes, it finally turned over and fired right up.

i bought a 2nd battery for it, brand new, 1000 cold cranking amps and put it in.

i drove it to a shop to have them test and see if something is draining the battery when the truck is off. i also told them to fix the right brake lights, and the reverse lights, and to check the valve / sensor / buzzer for the low air warning buzzer. hopefully the bill doesnt give me a heart attack. i told them not to spend any excess time on any issue.

--ground wires. Dang if I don't see that over and over here with all our large equipment when it doesn't start, and the boneheads here just think a jumper cable is all you'll ever need.. Bad ground wires. Bad grounds, bad ground wires, see it just all the time. They can *look* just spiffy, and you can clean the heck out of the terminals..still no good. I have taken what look like real heavy gauge good looking cables and just started stripping insulation up..and up..and up. Corroded copper up for a mile where ya can't see it.. All those individual strands need to be clean and touching each other for the cable to really work. Sometimes you can get away with really stripping them, soaking in a bucket with baking soda solution, then a heckuva wrap job back (after thorough rinsing off). Most of the time though, if the corrosion is more than a few inches, I just get bulk cable and make my own with wicked hard crimped on ends, leaving nothing exposed to the air at any point.. I also add dual grounds a lot of times, drill a new hole someplace stout or pull a whopper bolt in the frame out someplace, clean it up shiny, then add the new extra ground there. I also go around with every new to us used whatever and take off all the grounds I find and clean the pizzazz out of them and where they attach. I take a wire wheel thingee with the straight in bristles and a cordless drill and clean out the threads as needed.

Unless you have a bonafide short to ground someplace, 90% of the time that's all it is and it costs nothing, just real actual cleaning.

Especially happens up in the great white north where you get salt on everything. Dang, I tell you, I don't miss working on rusty yankee machinery, tell ya whut...plus needing bionic heated fingers, seems crap always busts on ya at below zee-ro...worst we get here in Georgia (not much rust on stuff usually...) is just embedded red clay, turns to rock, but a power washer will get it off OK.