Rabid K9
ArboristSite Guru
Do your slaves ever die from over polishing?
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Do your slaves ever die from over polishing?
Hahaha. That truck hadn't been washed in a year or two. I hardly ever wash stuff anymore, there's usually something that needs grease is my biggest thing.
I really like that KB you have. I can imagine how handy something like that would be day to day.
atleast you wash your stuff instead of rolling a new coat of orange Sherwin Williams over it every time it gets dirty
or did Dave use Behr premium?
Wait a minute, you do mean Mad Max, right? Just making sure we’re talking about the same guy! Lol.
Rabid K9
ArboristSite Guru
I wish my gear stayed that clean. Try a bi-annual wash, but lasts about two weeks, if lucky.
My guys are good at many things, but washing & cleaning out the vehicles isn't one of them.
Those tracked lifts must have some grease points?
Crane, chipper, skidsteer, 4WD truck can 'walk' underneath are quick & easy to grease, but the old V8 war machine is terrifyingly dark underneath, looks like it wants to eat your hand & every trip with the grease gun involves getting squirted with unidentifiable smeg out the air tanks.
One thing loading that big block with your log truck grapple, reckon would have been more comfortable with some lifting slings on that big horse? Nice & steady control, no chance of it dropping & banging up the nice truck. Definitely not as fast as the grapple, but good for big stuff.
Had a hose go high on the knuckle boom one day when the boom was two thirds extended, moderate wind blowing back toward me. What a hydraulic shower that was. Covered most of the truck, crane spent the night up in the air waiting for the hydraulics guy. The check valves are pretty impressive in that scenario though.
Here's a heavy bastard testing the hoses, getting some red lights on the crane, somewhere north of your 10,000lbs.
Our thorough technical assessment was "F##k that will be heavy."
I was wishing I had a couple slings on that one, believe me. I just don't know of any safe way to attach them to the claw. I would’ve had to lift the weight higher with slings too, and as it was barely made it over the side. At the end of the day it’s just a log truck, not a crane. If it wasn’t something for somebody else I would’ve just cut the ****ing thing in half. Lol. I hadn’t seen anything but a Facebook screenshot of the log prior to heading out for it. Our technical assessment upon arrival was about exactly the same as yours posted above lol.
The lifts really aren’t that bad to maintain at all once you get it down. They have a lot of greaseless bushings, which is no doubt a lifesaver there! Oil change (every 100 hrs) is a piece of cake too, just under a gallon jug of oil and lawnmower looking filter. Fuel filter is easy too once you learn the trick of just unbolting it from the block rather than fight with it in place.
The elevator part of the bucket (well, all of it really) is probably my most hated task. Lots of climbing around while a guy operates the elevator function from the other side, etc. Just not something I look forward to. Forget trying it in cold temps as the grease does not like pushing through those big tubes (learned the hard way to do it late in the season and call it good till spring lol).
The lifts really aren’t that bad to maintain at all once you get it down. They have a lot of greaseless bushings, which is no doubt a lifesaver there! Oil change (every 100 hrs) is a piece of cake too, just under a gallon jug of oil and lawnmower looking filter. Fuel filter is easy too once you learn the trick of just unbolting it from the block rather than fight with it in place.
The elevator part of the bucket (well, all of it really) is probably my most hated task. Lots of climbing around while a guy operates the elevator function from the other side, etc. Just not something I look forward to. Forget trying it in cold temps as the grease does not like pushing through those big tubes (learned the hard way to do it late in the season and call it good till spring lol).
Hope you guys all had a nice holiday weekend. Winter seems so far away now with everything hopping so well in the Spring. My crew took out about 30 ash trees at a cemetery today. Mostly dumped them back into the woods.
I'm doing less and less of those dozen plus ash tree jobs now. Not so many left.
I'm doing less and less of those dozen plus ash tree jobs now. Not so many left.
Helmstein
ArboristSite Operative
Had a great memorial day. Saw a parade and then chilled on the boat with some friends.
First memorial day off in about 8 years. We'll worth it.
Attachments
and you are he worst
"Yeah, we can miss it. No need to top the spar further!"
... that feeling when the guys tell me what happened and then having to go talk to the customer...
... that feeling when the guys tell me what happened and then having to go talk to the customer...
Haplo
ArboristSite Operative
I know what you mean!
Eh, just a little oopsie, nothing a tube of grey caulk can’t fix?
How do you keep the sawdust out your sox?
Ouch/oopsie! That looks like a nice fence! What happened?
Helmstein
ArboristSite Operative
God Damn that's unfortunate. A ground protection mat might have prevented that. One of the reasons I like keeping things small. When somethings goes wrong it's usually me that did it. I work primarily with my brother. I tell people my brother makes the small mistakes but I make the big ones.
Dumb mistake.
If I was the kind of boss who yells at people, that would have been the time. We did have a conversation about how much risk is acceptable and that his threshold for risk has been too high as of late. This is his third incident of 2023. He is the guy, though, that I consistently give the most difficult tasks.
Thankfully the customer was cool about it. Not filing an insurance claim on this one but I have hired someone to fix it.
All in all though we did have a very good day and grossed close to 6k on the 3 jobs, which should easily pay for the repair.... I'm more concerned about damage to the reputation. In the last year these incidents have been less rare than I would hope.
1 minor work comp claim
1 major comp claim. Worker fell off a deck and broke both arms.
Totalled bucket truck
Liability claim from clipping a roof
Yikes. No wonder tree insurance is so expensive.
Don't mean to be a debbie downer. It's all part of running a business. I'm looking into doing the ctsp training to hopefully curb some of this.
Helmstein, sometimes It is nice to consider what it would be like without employees! If you can stay small and have a good system, more power to you!
If I was the kind of boss who yells at people, that would have been the time. We did have a conversation about how much risk is acceptable and that his threshold for risk has been too high as of late. This is his third incident of 2023. He is the guy, though, that I consistently give the most difficult tasks.
Thankfully the customer was cool about it. Not filing an insurance claim on this one but I have hired someone to fix it.
All in all though we did have a very good day and grossed close to 6k on the 3 jobs, which should easily pay for the repair.... I'm more concerned about damage to the reputation. In the last year these incidents have been less rare than I would hope.
1 minor work comp claim
1 major comp claim. Worker fell off a deck and broke both arms.
Totalled bucket truck
Liability claim from clipping a roof
Yikes. No wonder tree insurance is so expensive.
Don't mean to be a debbie downer. It's all part of running a business. I'm looking into doing the ctsp training to hopefully curb some of this.
Helmstein, sometimes It is nice to consider what it would be like without employees! If you can stay small and have a good system, more power to you!
Rabid K9
ArboristSite Guru
That’s a big one - reputation.
It’s a fine line between glory & pain in the tree game. Occasionally I’ll get a moment on a job to watch physics in action & think “Geez, six inches out & we’d have really demolished that house!!”
Once was contract climbing, with one of their guys on the rigging line, who struggled to tie a granny knot & certainly the multi point rigging system was causing his brain to short circuit. Complex spreading tree over fragile aluminium roof sheeting, pruning back big limbs, last block, way out on a awkward limb, as it went, thought to myself “glad that’s done”.
Anyway, watched in horror as about 300kg of wood sailed straight down & cut a neat hole through the roof, into the toilet & out through the wall into the carport. Also vaporised the stink pipe on the way past. Thankfully, the throne wasn’t occupied at the time….
Looked down to see the ground guy with a confused expression, holding onto the wrong end of the rope. Even better was the tenant of the house was an ex-forester & watched the entire thing.
Oh man, that's awful! Especially with the onlookers.
Rabid K9
ArboristSite Guru
Was literally ‘shite’, particularly as had worked through the entire complex job, with the useless ground man working against me the entire time & it all went to plan.
Trying to explain reading the swing & ‘letting it run’ to a grown man who can’t even thread the portawrap to as a lost cause.
Forester guy was cool about it, he was glowing in praise of the work above with what was going on at the ground end. Wasn’t even my job, but I patched the roof & wall for him, fortunately it was a relatively rustic dwelling.
Was a pivotal moment for me though. Started coming to their jobs with my own guys & increasingly own equipment after that.
I can see not wanting to climb using a groundie that you haven't trained personally. You have quite the operation now.
What does an Aussie arborist do on a nice Saturday?
My younger ones are "helping" me make French toast.
Rabid K9
ArboristSite Guru
** Can I start by asking what exactly is that in those jars to the left? Remains of the guy who broke the concrete slab? A piece of dinosaur?
Usually a catch up day, Saturday.
Had the roof plumber around to look at some of my own repairs, picked up some cash, cut some firewood for home & sale, mowed the lawns, tried not to get cranky at the kids, passive aggressived my neighbours for getting someone else to cut some of my trees that overhung their fence, they did a terrible jobs & likely charged more, still have to go & clean up the poor pruning cuts & blend it in so doesn't look like a bad haircut.
Tried all day to get down for a surf, have a new wetsuit still to get in water with, short daylight hours now, snuck home at 1600 to grab my board, kids caught me, had to take the whole family to the beach & by that time had missed the daylight....
So all in all, the usual unproductive productive Saturday.
My right hand man has picked up a government conservation job a few hours away, much to my dismay. Will be a pay drop for him & likely a slower pace, but in a region he would like to potentially buy land. He's at an age (late 20's) where restlessness is normal & his friends are always chopping & changing jobs, so not unexpected despite us being a mean team. So certainly will be a business adjustment in the short - medium term, but am hoping we'll work together in the future.
Conversely has thrown forward some long terms plans for myself & family. Hoping to move the business, or at least most of the equipment 5000kms across the country & over ocean to set up in Tasmania. Have a good friend over there whom has a tree business running part time in conjunction with his full time job. Aiming to combine forces & achieve some good things. He's done pretty well setting us a business while only hitting it part time, my arrival & equipment has the potential to supercharge things a bit, hopefully.
Can be a xenophobic island population down there, so am hoping can get my foot in the door teaming up with a 'local' & really run with it.
So with all that preamble, going to be a very busy & likely stressful 12 month period coming up.
But if can pull it off, will be well worthwhile to take the family home to this....
(couple of photos from our trip over there this summer)
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