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Late day/night. All I got for y’all is some random pics from today. Too tired to explain. Was a good job, right in my comfort zone. We left the big (petrified, baseball bat hard) trunk shaved up tastefully, and drilled and installed a new clothesline fir the old guy. Regular dude, used to work for the power company climbing poles, then buckets when they arrived. Few houses up the road from me.
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Man, that's a crusty looking one. How long til the ash tree gravy train ends in your area?
 
Something underneath the tractor cracked and starting spitting hydro fluid. Sent for a rollback to tow it away. Hopefully will get back tuesday.
Mini skid kept overheating
Someone lost a top handle saw at the dump.
Woodchuck chipper radiator fan blade broke, making it unusable. Fixed today.
Vermeer stump grinder belt went. Need to order more.
One of the jobs was underbid by my foreman where a couple of these things broke.
Worst all all, the tranny on my f350 flatbed truck went out. Lost reverse. I limped it the hour drive home to the mechanic! Was glad to not have to tow it.

I should say it was over the course of 2 days. Thankfully, we did get all 5 jobs done. I'm grateful for that! It was around 7000 in sales, which is probably close to what I'm looking at in repairs as that tranny will probably be pretty spendy.

Having said all that, there are a lot of great days where we do very well. No one was hurt. And company morale is generally very good. We have a great team and they are on a nice gravy job today to lick their wounds! Lots to be thankful for. Sometimes it's nice to commiserate on these things with fellow treemen like yourselves.

That scag blower looks nice!!

Yep, that is a frustrating couple of days mechanically.

Lost climbing saw is a preventable one, would have been fairly raged at that.

It is bloody hard work keeping all the equipment in good order.

Small thing on that note, recently replaced tail lights on the chip truck, auto sparkie cut the rear worklight & threw in some extra gremlins for good measure. Then one tail light & side lights on tool truck stopped working, got them fixed yesterday (new auto sparkie), while going to pick up truck, was following my Landcruiser ute in the Ranger when noted one tail light was now out on the Cruiser, alternating with the reverse light being stuck on…. and that Landcruiser just had the headlights repaired.

Electrics!! Nearly as frustrating as vines.
 
Electrics!! Nearly as frustrating as vines.
my bucket truck gauge cluster goes stupid when you turn the headlights on, blinkers, hit bumps, or use the brakes
also, sometimes you turn the key but the starter wont turn, no power, must jiggle gas pedal left and right a little and she goes, WTF
nothing will ever be as frustrating as vines, especially when its 10 different types, thorns, poison ivy, gotta be really careful sending tops, may get yourself a lowering line out of the deal
 
What does your front grapple winch set up look like? It's a hydro winch mounted on top?

I had something like this in mind for the rear on the PTO https://www.northeastimplement.com/farmi-winches

Yes. It is a 12k hydraulic winch, much like what you might see mounted on a rollback wrecker. It is mounted on top of the backing plate for quick attachment to any skid steer. It's just about perfect for reeling in big wood and loading it into the grapple. I've even loaded 5' diameter logs into it, even though the grapple itself only holds a four footer. Then I can gently lower the log down into the truck with the winch, too.

I load the winch with 100' lengths of 3/8ths Amsteel. Although the steel cable is much more reliable, it's a lot harder to handle than the pliable Amsteel rope. We can roll out enough rope length, and then fling the steel hook a great distance to whatever log is being pulled in. That would never work with a wire rope (cable).

Unfortunately, I couldn't get Bobcat to sell me any of their "smart controllers" that I could hook up to my bobcat's proprietary electric controls for multiple hydraulic functions on one attachment, so we just connect a momentary contact switch and a 12volt hydraulic valve to select between grapple or winch functions. In case of a wiring problem, it defaults to the grapple function. Unfortunately, I didn't manage it to do both functions at once, which is probably just as well. With a little bit of simple wiring, the grapple/winch will attach to any machine with a skid steer attachment plate.
It is currently attached to my tractor, on account of the Bobcat having lost the engine.

I suppose I could have just installed a 12k electric winch, but my first need for it's use was cleaning all the trees out of a large drainage ditch for a billboard for about 900 feet. There were a LOT of trees, and all the cut material had to come 30'-50' up a 1:1 slope. I figured that an electric winch didn't have a 100% duty cycle like I needed, so I went hydraulic at a considerable increase in investment. It's been a great investment, and there isn't anything like it on the market, either. Somebody, somewhere might make one, but I haven't seen it.
 
What does your front grapple winch set up look like? It's a hydro winch mounted on top?

I had something like this in mind for the rear on the PTO https://www.northeastimplement.com/farmi-winches

Yes. It is a 12k hydraulic winch, much like what you might see mounted on a rollback wrecker. It is mounted on top of the backing plate for quick attachment to any skid steer. It is currently attached to my tractor, on account of the Bobcat having lost the engine.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get Bobcat to sell me any of their "smart controllers" that I could hook up to my bobcat's proprietary electric controls for multiple hydraulic functions on one attachment, so we just connect a momentary contact switch and a 12volt hydraulic valve to select between grapple or winch functions. Unfortunately, I didn't manage it to do both functions at once, which is probably just as well. With a little bit of simple wiring, the grapple/winch will attach to any machine.

I suppose I could have just installed a 12k electric winch, but my first need for it's use was cleaning all the trees out of a drainage ditch for a billboard for about 900 feet. There were a LOT of tree, and all the cut material had to come up a 40'-50' slope. I figured that an electric winch didn't have a 100% duty cycle like I needed, so I went hydraulic at a considerable increase in investment. It's been a great investment, and there isn't anything like it on the market, either. Somebody, somewhere might make one, but I haven't seen it.
 
Yes. It is a 12k hydraulic winch, much like what you might see mounted on a rollback wrecker. It is mounted on top of the backing plate for quick attachment to any skid steer. It is currently attached to my tractor, on account of the Bobcat having lost the engine.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get Bobcat to sell me any of their "smart controllers" that I could hook up to my bobcat's proprietary electric controls for multiple hydraulic functions on one attachment, so we just connect a momentary contact switch and a 12volt hydraulic valve to select between grapple or winch functions. Unfortunately, I didn't manage it to do both functions at once, which is probably just as well. With a little bit of simple wiring, the grapple/winch will attach to any machine.

I suppose I could have just installed a 12k electric winch, but my first need for it's use was cleaning all the trees out of a drainage ditch for a billboard for about 900 feet. There were a LOT of tree, and all the cut material had to come up a 40'-50' slope. I figured that an electric winch didn't have a 100% duty cycle like I needed, so I went hydraulic at a considerable increase in investment. It's been a great investment, and there isn't anything like it on the market, either. Somebody, somewhere might make one, but I haven't seen it.
Do you have a picture of that? I've never seen anything like it.
 
after having the tractor for that large oak im looking at mini skids, we want the ctx100 but nobody local has it in stock, so im looking used, found this boxer 526 for 9 grand, needs some work but its a start, debating weather or not I want to even go look at it, if I get it then I will get a BMG for it in the future
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we go look (and probably buy) tuesday, other than the controls being silly they seem like a decent machine, having the wide tracks but being able to suck them in to fit in a gate will be nice
 
Not a bad deal, especially if it comes with that grapple for under 10 grand. You might like that bucket grapple. Makes picking up the smaller debris much easier.
it does come with the grapple, supposedly the lady bought it at 1500hrs, and left the key on (id assume over winter or something) and racked up another 1500, used like 6 times she says
I doubt that 100%, but we will see, hopefully its tight, and operates as it should, I think that grapple will be good to handle smaller logs to load into my trailer, but not for grabbing mill logs by the end to fit through a gate, but we will see, not sure it will do super well lifting heavier stuff anyways but better than doing it by hand
 
just ordered a set of iso tunes, ive already lost half my hearing it feels like, so time for me to have that ear pro going when splitting wood, or mowing the lawn, I may have worn my protos on the mower a few times, sunglasses, ear pro, and music is sweet lol
$70 isnt too bad if they are as good as everyone says they are
foam plugs, and the silicone ones, dont think they are noise cancelling but they are rated earplugs (27Db) so thats a win

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Flying out one of my guys to Michigan to pick this 07 f750 up tomorrow as a second bucket truck.
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It's an elevator boom. You guys and your tracked lifts seriously tempt me though! For now I'll have a 75' bucket truck. A lot of reasons why I chose this instead but it's primarily cost.
 
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Oh and pruned and cabled a few locusts today. Nice easy day compared to the removals we've been doing all week.

If I lived in a more populated area I would focus exclusively on tree preservation instead of removals. At least I would have to deeply consider that. The pruning days end up being more profitable and much less strain on equipment.
 
So it has a bucket grapple, brush grapple, and forks? That is a great deal for 9 grand. Hope it serves you well.
My bad, just the "Brush grapple", these grapple bucket names confuse me sometimes

This grapple and forks for 9k, just ordered a bmg at vermeer, should arrive in 2 weeks time, just got the machine ready for tomorrow's job, small oak with a 6-800ft brush drag to a burn pile, leave the log, the skidsteer will be nice to have for this one, no chipping at all
 

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