nothing but climb?

[mpatch]

For those of you that actually do tree work full time. Do you climb everthing, ie. don't have a bucket? I do and it seems that so many people (customers) look at me like I'm high when I tell them that i can do this or that w/o a lift. There are a few outfits around here that don't climb at all. From my experience that leads to problems ie, dropping trees that shouldn't be, trying to get a truck into places that no truck should be or at best calling me to do it for them which I think is bad for business. You hire X company and Y company shows up to do the "technical" work.

 

[Thillmaine]

nothign but climb

I agree entirely. There are so many hacks out there with bucket trucks, just doing take downs and ????ty pruning jobs. Climbing is the envirmentally friendly way to do it, and that is the selling point to customers. A firm near me uses this and it seems they do all the yupee aka big $$ work. Procaliming that it wont damage the root zone, people who climb are usually trained better then bucket truck operators etc.. Personally I dont think I will ever buy a bucket truck if I own my own business. Lots of overhead and it has to be working all the time.

 

[squisher]

I was just wondering how others with no bucket would deal with a situation like this. I get alot of customers that have western white birch in their yard that suprise suprise after all the other trees have been removed to make a nice yard the birch starts to decline and the tops die and rot and become a real hazard. I get asked lots to remove the dead tops but they want to save the tree. Often there is nothing else to climb or rig to so the only option is to try to climb (spurless) into one of these and get up to where the top is dead and usually rotten. A couple of these I've had to refer to a company with a bucket. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

 

[mpatch]

Climb w/o spikes. Birch are normally pretty easy spikeless climbs. What I have done it the past is get as high as you can and have the ground guy rope up the Power Pruner and go at it cutting small pieces as not to break the lower limbs.

 

[squisher]

That would work if you have multiple stems which you usually do on birch but what if you just can't let the pieces fly (gardens, houses, garages). I'm not trying to be a a-- but just trying to get ideas because I see this quite a bit. I like the power polesaw idea will keep it in mind.

 

[mpatch]

I guess it depends how large the trees are. I deal with a ton on dead Birch around here. How much is dead? Size of the tops that are dead? Say the top has 15 feet of dead rope it down until it gets hung up then while you are tied in cut the pieces and throw them wherever you wish. I do this often with dead, and stuff that you cant climb high enough in. Flower beds wait until fall/winter if the customer is that picky.

 

[rmihalek]

If you can't drop the branches, you can either try to cut them much smaller so you can drop them (not always possible) or tie it off and lower it down.

 

[OTG BOSTON]

I worked for a company that did not own any bucket trucks or cranes. We climbed everything. For certain jobs cranes were subbed out and we had access to a bucket if we needed.

The funny part is the companies we subbed with needed us more than we needed them!!

 

[ddhlakebound]

My partner and I do not own a bucket truck. Climbing crew only. It is very nice in that our overhead is easily manageable while we are fairly new and starting up. It has limited us several times in the jobs we can accept, but we refer those to a friendly competitor, and he sends climbing only jobs our way. It works out, and you can get started without alot of capital.

Generally its a matter of scale. If you have got the work to keep the high dollar equipment busy, you are losing money by not having it.

If you don't have the work to keep it moving, its costing you instead of paying you.

 

[lync]

I guess I have the luxury of working for a company that has a bucket and 5 climbers who are all excellent at what they due. There are certain trees, that could be, but shouldn't be climbed, because they are hazardous, if thats the case the bucket is the best option. Then again there are places that the bucket can't go, therefore the need for climbers. Trees over 60 foot, prune the bottom by bucket, place the climber in the tree and let him do the top.
The clients need to be informed and maybe they won't look at you funny!
Climb Safe
Corey

 

[elmnut]

My company uses a rear mount Aerial Lift of Conn. 62' working height, and a 60' Aerial Lift of Conn. mid-mount. Both have limitations. Some days the rear mount is nothing more than a tool carrier. The big thing is having a person on the job that can decide when and how to utilize the equipment. Aerial lifts are useless for most pruning jobs, the boom usually breaks more limbs than need to be pruned. But when it is a take down nothing comes close to a short wheel base rear mount and a pile of Alturna-mats.

 

[rebelman]

I tell them that there are two distinct and seperate arms of tree care, utility and residential, and that in general utilities use buckets, but in most residential pruning buckets are useless and/or over rated.

 

[squisher]

I like the idea of climbing everything but is it realistic that all trees can be worked like this or are you always going to have to be passing up on some jobs when the tree is just to dangerous to climb. I have to pass on the odd pruning job if it's to dangerous because I'm still learning spurless so I'll only take the straightforward ones. I'm not willing to put myself or a customers assets(and my insurance) at risk getting in over my head so I'll pass them on to one of my competitors who seems to be practicing proper tree care and they will usually do it with a bucket. In my area alot of the jobs seem to have good access for a bucket. Do you out there think it is worthwhile to have one if say more than half your work could be done with a bucket or is it just going to be an expensive drain on a business. Also what about soil compaction of say your average forestry/utility type bucket set-up.

 

[trevmcrev]

For the few % of jobs that we want a bucket for we just hire one and price it into the job. Cant you do that? No need to pass up on the work.

Yes many customers ask "how will you get up there, will you use a tower thing?"

I tell them 95% of the work we do being in tight backyards etc without access means we only hire one when doing 10+ trees in a park or for a school etc. As Professional Arborists we can climb most trees quicker and do a better job than a tower anyhow.

 

[squisher]

I'm the new guy in town and very small. The only bucket I could hire is from the same company that I turn the work to if I don't think it can be climbed safely. I don't think I would be building a good reputation or doing right by the customer if I just threw some extra money on and then had another tree company show up to do the work. I have not found anyone who will just rent me a bucket for anything reasonable enough that would still make the job worthwhile. Most of the time I can make it work but I have had to pass on two jobs this season which I don't like doing. These being a couple different birches as mentioned earlier that IMO I couldn't climb safely. Not to say that someone with more experience and tricks in their bag might have been able to do it.

What I was saying is here where I am the majority of jobs that I've had could have been accessed with a bucket so do you think in that setting that it would make more sense to have one or are the things just to dam expensive and to damaging to root zones. Also from what I've seen of the other big companys in town they only climb if they absolutely have to.

 

[John464]

I do just about the opposite most of the time. I take my spiderlift to every job to get everything on the ground. We have a few certified arborists on staff, but with the spiderlift we can run circles around climbing technique most of the time. I still send them up trees(only because I have only one aerial lift) when we are working numerous trees in one yard. All my competition bidding on those tight spot jobs telling the customer "the only way to do this job is with a climber". Until I show them how we operate a bit different than the rest, and safer too. This will usually place more confidence in safety, giving us the go ahead to start the job. I am getting another bucket truck shortly, for front yard work and greater chip capacity, and this will even more diminish the need to climb. Climbing is sometimes unecessary when you have the right equipment. Climbing also wears out your body. I know of many of the climbers whom have worked for me in the past that have had both hips replaced(footlocker), knees blown out, shoulder dislocations, arthritis, etc. Climb for 30 yrs straight 5 days a week and you will start to believe that technology is the better route if applicable to the situation.

You care about a trees health, but what about your health?

 

[mpatch]

At my old job we had a Eagle Trax 45 (45 foot lift on tracks that was only 36" wide which saved a lot of time exspecially on line clearance. That little thing could get into some pretty tight spaces.

 

[Koa Man]

Both have their place. Some things can be done way faster and better with a bucket, like tip pruning wide canopy trees. Also on palms, we can avoid spiking them if they are lift accessible. A narrow access lift can get to a surprising number of places.

 

[mpatch]

Both have their place. Some things can be done way faster and better with a bucket, like tip pruning wide canopy trees. Also on palms, we can avoid spiking them if they are lift accessible. A narrow access lift can get to a surprising number of places.

Dumb question why no outrigger pad on the stone?

 

[Koa Man]

We were putting a pad under it at first, but then tried it without it and it didn't hurt the stone or slide, so we stopped taking the time to put a pad on stone.