Hey everybody, I hope this thread isn't dead. But here's my train of thought. First of all I've been working in residential for about 6 years now and started out by doing jobs way up north where nobody would go and my clients didn't mind me and my guys shoving the branches in the forest out of sight and cut the trunks into firewood. This was very money limiting as I couldn't do any nice urban contracts that demand a quick/complete clean-up. Anyway, it was mostly a side-job at first. Next I got a 'Vermeer bc700xl chipper' and was able to chip the branches into the woods instead, much less work for justifiably better price. Filling my box with chip on a 1500 was unreasonable because basically needed to empty it every 2-3 maple trees. Anway, all this time I'd been shopping for the truck I wanted, without getting into the heavywheights and last year I finally found my '4x4 LBZ duramax 3500 crew cab Long box' (kinda wish it were single cab). Now the truck is equiped with a decorated plywood/2x4 box that goes about 4 ft above the top of the box edges, goes to say it's a pretty tall box. Now the Silverado's manual says the 3500 can hold 8000lbs in the box, and one eastern white pine tree (fully loaded box) has all my leafs leaning on the load stoppers. I don't have duallies but that's easily arranged.
I'd love to have a big fancy metal box with the dumper mechanism underneath, but I've been shopping for those boxes and with the extracost of the mechanism, it's unreasonable cost considering the extra weight of the whole thing and and my capacity. (balloons, but don't want to rely on them)
So I've been thinking of those dumper inserts, they apparently are rated for 6000lbs...
The Plus side is if I discard my current box and mount it on something to the frame, I get some space on the side of the frame for 2-3 tool boxes without having them in the tilt weight, and more space for my backseat.
The down side to the dumper insert is it's not at all as quantity effective and even if I bring the walls 2ft above the top of the cab, I'm afraid it won't lift that much chip.
My logic: 1. A nice percentage of my jobs are still in the north and my clients generally don't mind I chip any excess in the woods. 2. My urban jobs are rarely above 2 trees per job; as long as it's not a giant white spruce, we're good.... but it's always a pine tree.. 3. If it's too heavy to lift, I could empty a bit with the shovels. The beginning isn't the hard part. 4. considering i just found a nice guy willing to sell me a dumper 2015 dumperdogg with mechanism and everything for 3'500 CAD, get some extra metals self fabricated tool-boxes bolted to frame I think i could make my truck more effective betterlooking for 5000$ (If my time/beer isn't counted, don't tell my wife)
View attachment 1032554
there's my Box int the image, not my excavator. I wish.
View attachment 1032555
Another angle.
I don't think that I really have a question to ask. I just have ADHD and am about to spend a cheekload of money on something used...
I guess: do any of you know how much chip weighs per cubic foot? oak and pine. leafs no leafs. has anybody wasted their time registering multiple weighings (?).
thanks.
Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)
