New part-time arborist. Learned to climb to help the neighbors, and now the referrals won't stop.

[Paul Ojanen]

Hello, I've been lurking for about two years. I trained at ACRT in '21 to prepare to do my first top-down removal. I did mostly free work for fun until I unexpectedly quit my day job in the summer of '22. Then God opened the floodgates of referrals. Kept the mortgage and paid a few months of bills. Even though I've got a great day job now, my Saturdays are full of part-time tree work...and the fellowship that comes with hiring others to help.

My half-dead body couldn't do this more than one or two days a week. I love working outdoors though. I have no heavy equipment but thinking about buying a used F450 to increase my towing and payload capacities. My Ram 1500 and enclosed trailer can't keep up, so I reached out to a friend who pulls a two-axle enclosed trailer to help with hauling. I now leave all the heavy lifting to young men eager for extra work. But my friend's trailer will be too busy hauling his lawnmowers in the summertime.

I have unlimited dumping privileges with a family who unloads everything for me. So I'm not so sure I need a dump trailer.

I made huge snowpiles of chainsaw chips just with two limbs of oak last month, trying to make man-portable oak, so my biggest need is to be able to move larger pieces of wood. Dingos and loaders aren't cheap.

My body is having trouble with frequent climbs. I improved over two years, but still not as efficient as I'd like to be. I have the gear and training to practice SRT. SRT is one improvement I should make for my initial climbs. I'm planning to put together a Rollgliss 550 ascender so I can do multiple climbs in trees where limb walking is difficult: https://www.************/forum/threads/reliable-diy-power-ascender.37281/

 

[sean donato]

The rollgliss is a bit out of its roll for this use. We use it as a recovery device at work. It's an effective recovery devise, but it's very slow to use. Even in free fall with a 250lb guy and gear it's very slow going to lower someone to the ground. I would think there are better options for assisted climbing devices, and would do a bit more research before settling on the rollgliss.
Make sure when you get your bigger truck, and presumably trailer your following all pertinent state and federal laws. I'd contact your insurance company as well, as they typically want a medical card on file as well. If your planning on going over a 10k lb trailer you will also need your class A cdl and have to combination weight your truck. All this adds up in cost, real quick. I'd think staying under that threshold would be better since your doing weekend work right now.

 

[cookies]

2500-3500 diesel will pull a dump trailer with mini or bobcat in it just fine....I'd rent all the equipment including the truck and price it in so you can get the feel of moving it all around, the extra costs to you and your quotes plus it will really test if spending this type of money to do weekend odd jobs is he direction you want to go. You might find the overly eager clients start getting thinner as your prices start reflecting the cost of equipment but your body and job efficiency will be happier. Even a medium tractor with grapple is a huge leap forward, the dump trailer is a necessity as it will mean 5 minute unload times and no longer need outside help to unload plus you never know where you may need to take a dump

 

[Paul Ojanen]

The rollgliss is a bit out of its roll for this use. We use it as a recovery device at work. It's an effective recovery devise, but it's very slow to use. Even in free fall with a 250lb guy and gear it's very slow going to lower someone to the ground. I would think there are better options for assisted climbing devices, and would do a bit more research before settling on the rollgliss.
Make sure when you get your bigger truck, and presumably trailer your following all pertinent state and federal laws. I'd contact your insurance company as well, as they typically want a medical card on file as well. If your planning on going over a 10k lb trailer you will also need your class A cdl and have to combination weight your truck. All this adds up in cost, real quick. I'd think staying under that threshold would be better since your doing weekend work right now.

Thank you for confirming what I've heard about commerical vehicle issues.

My plan is to start with a 10k open trailer of some sort and see how that goes. Commercial auto insurance, LLC, tree work insurance are big on my todo list.

My first giant trunk belongs to my next-door neighbor. So I will get a chance to try out milling slabs at my own pace at home without needing to arrange a large haul. 5' diameter oak.

My weblink about the Rollgliss didn't come through, but others have turned them into affordable, power-drill powered, mid-line attachable, ascent devices. They can ascend faster than the recovery descent speed, especially by removing the brake. I plan to use the ascender only in powering the climb. It will be installed below my climbing hitch, so the modified Rollgliss won't be used for life support. My harness will be attached to my climbing line normally and secondarily to the ascender. During ascent, the Rollgliss will hold my weight and tend my hitch. My present use case is to make multiple ascents into three large oak canopies in an apartment complex to remove dead limbs which only require a hand saw.

 

[sean donato]

Thank you for confirming what I've heard about commerical vehicle issues.

My plan is to start with a 10k open trailer of some sort and see how that goes. Commercial auto insurance, LLC, tree work insurance are big on my todo list.

My first giant trunk belongs to my next-door neighbor. So I will get a chance to try out milling slabs at my own pace at home without needing to arrange a large haul. 5' diameter oak.

My weblink about the Rollgliss didn't come through, but others have turned them into affordable, power-drill powered, mid-line attachable, ascent devices. They can ascend faster than the recovery descent speed, especially by removing the brake. I plan to use the ascender only in powering the climb. It will be installed below my climbing hitch, so the modified Rollgliss won't be used for life support. My harness will be attached to my climbing line normally and secondarily to the ascender. During ascent, the Rollgliss will hold my weight and tend my hitch. My present use case is to make multiple ascents into three large oak canopies in an apartment complex to remove dead limbs which only require a hand saw.

we couldn't do any conversions here like that. And we normally have enough tools and heavy stuff ti drag around, so the drill would be out of the question. Everything has to be life rated that anchors us, and anything we use for lifting had to be over head rated. Bit different then tree work, but same climbing and rigging principals. Be safe brother.

 

[Coltron]

Hello, I've been lurking for about two years. I trained at ACRT in '21 to prepare to do my first top-down removal. I did mostly free work for fun until I unexpectedly quit my day job in the summer of '22. Then God opened the floodgates of referrals. Kept the mortgage and paid a few months of bills. Even though I've got a great day job now, my Saturdays are full of part-time tree work...and the fellowship that comes with hiring others to help.

My half-dead body couldn't do this more than one or two days a week. I love working outdoors though. I have no heavy equipment but thinking about buying a used F450 to increase my towing and payload capacities. My Ram 1500 and enclosed trailer can't keep up, so I reached out to a friend who pulls a two-axle enclosed trailer to help with hauling. I now leave all the heavy lifting to young men eager for extra work. But my friend's trailer will be too busy hauling his lawnmowers in the summertime.

I have unlimited dumping privileges with a family who unloads everything for me. So I'm not so sure I need a dump trailer.

I made huge snowpiles of chainsaw chips just with two limbs of oak last month, trying to make man-portable oak, so my biggest need is to be able to move larger pieces of wood. Dingos and loaders aren't cheap.

My body is having trouble with frequent climbs. I improved over two years, but still not as efficient as I'd like to be. I have the gear and training to practice SRT. SRT is one improvement I should make for my initial climbs. I'm planning to put together a Rollgliss 550 ascender so I can do multiple climbs in trees where limb walking is difficult: https://www.************/forum/threads/reliable-diy-power-ascender.37281/

 

[mikewhite85]

Not familiar with that device but it looks complicated and expensive.

Get a petzl zig zag with chicane and a decent foot ascender. Cheaper and very easy to use.

Sounds like you are doing mostly removals. You can also get gaffs with a foot ascender attached. I have one on my edelrid talons and it works great.

 

[Paul Ojanen]

I bought a 2008 F-450 (16K GVWR, 8'x12' flatbed) and a 10K drop deck trailer (20-year-old Workforce precursor to this Air-tow https://airtow.com/models/rt12-10/). My gear and tools fit in the extended cab. I felt I did well at the gov't auctions for a total of $12K. I needed a second auto anyways. My sedan got totaled and netted $12K, so this worked out real well, since I don't have any spare capital. I can now haul more than I care from solo jobs. I never need to make two trips for solo jobs. My assistant either shows up on his own to load the heavies for me and be my groundie, or he will go by my home and use my 4x4 Ram 1500 (optionally towing my enclosed trailer or a rented wood chipper or stump grinder) to assist my F-450 towing the drop deck trailer.

I've cleared the flatbed and made stake walls from wood scavenged from home construction leftovers: pressure treated 2x4s and painted 2x12 LVL.

I'm now thinking of affordable ways to unload woodchips if I ever blow it onto the flatbed, like a home-made, winch-assisted side dump. But maybe I should just rent a dump trailer for the F-450 when the Ram 1500 is towing a wood chipper. That still leaves plenty of space and payload for firewood on the F-450 flatbed. Right now, my calculations don't justify renting a wood chipper and dump trailer for just removing one medium-large tree. It's cheaper (time and money) to run two loads of brush/branches plus a third load of trunk wood. I'm probably not charging enough nor hiring enough assistants. But for mostly solo work, multiple hauls seem to make sense. Driving is a nice break, though it "feels" wasteful. But I can drive and dump after dark, so its a good use of that time of day.

I save my stump grinding for when I have multiple past customers lined up. Last weekend, on Friday and Saturday, I ground all the stumps I've left since January. Made good use of a big rental grinder.