Tree-mek in action

[Gerasimek]

Do you know how many mek trucks are in Ohio now and what areas?

There's a PK40 tree-mek in Cleveland. That's the only one I know of in Ohio. I know him pretty well. He only lives 1.5 hours from me.

 

[treeguy1979]

just wondering, how do you feel about the unit Altec is producing now?

 

[gtrees]

There's a PK40 tree-mek in Cleveland. That's the only one I know of in Ohio. I know him pretty well. He only lives 1.5 hours from me.

Here's a picture of that turnpike job we completed last night

 

[Gerasimek]

just wondering, how do you feel about the unit Altec is producing now?

I'll give you my honest opinion. I used a Mecanil sg220 on my little kboom for a year before building the tree-mek. It was very limited to small trees and you had to be able to get very close. It was better than nothing but nowhere near ideal. It was more of a novelty. Of use it on what I could reach but often I had to finish the tree by bringing in a bucket truck to finish the high stuff.
The main differences that I see between the tree-mek and the Altec unit:
1. Reach. Tree-mek has much more. You can do taller trees and trees from further away so you're often parking in 1 spot and reaching several trees and you don't have to park so close to the tree.

2. Tree-mek has a jib which enables reaching over things and makes getting pieces to the ground much faster. The Altec can reach only in a straight line and if the only place to set things down is near the truck, you have to retract the boom all the way to do so and that takes time. The tree-mek can cut and jib down the piece in a fraction of the time. I know this because I used a Mecanil on my kboom with no jib. Not great.

3. Lifting capacity. Tree-mek obviously has way more.

4. Hauling capacity. Tree-mek can haul 3 times as much weight. Sure, the Altec unit can dump, but it's not dumping very much. You'll have to take 3 loads compared to 1 on the tree-mek.

5. The Mecanil grapplesaw is better in my opinion. If the Gierkink was better, I'd have one. Mecanil offers 3 sizes. All of which are bigger than the one Gierkink.

6. You can build a tree-mek on any chassis you like so you can buy a used truck with plenty of life left in it without the expense and emissions junk of a new truck. No tree-mek that I know of has been built on a new chassis. It's an unnecessary expense that no sensible person is likely to incur.

7. Palfleet has great tech support and traveling support on their cranes. You should talk to someone that owns an Effer to see if they have good support. I never owned an Effer.

8. For having so much reach and capacity, the tree-mek is very small at 26'5". So, in comparison, you can't say the Tree-mek is too big.

In closing I'd have to say if you live somewhere where the trees are short, you can drive right up to all of them, you don't have to reach over anything, you don't mind paying for a brand new truck chassis, and you don't need to haul much then the Altec would be ok. It is nice.
Like tree-mek operators say: I hope my competitors buy an Altec instead of a tree-mek."
I hope this helps you.

 

[Gerasimek]

Here's a picture of that turnpike job we completed last night

That's awesome Graham! 2 tree-meks banged that out pretty fast.

 

[gtrees]

Yeah man. Super excited for this season. Weather held up too

 

[treebilly]

Gonna have to meet up a bit later that I hoped Glenn. It's looking like mid April till we get relief from this clearing season. Two to three more weeks and we will be just putting stuff on the ground to make sure everything is down before migration. Then a couple of weeks of clean up.

 

[knuckleboomtrader]

6. You can build a tree-mek on any chassis you like so you can buy a used truck with plenty of life left in it without the expense and emissions junk of a new truck. No tree-mek that I know of has been built on a new chassis. It's an unnecessary expense that no sensible person is likely to incur.

It can be easier to get financing on a new truck. Buying a used truck can obviously be risky and actually cost more in the long run compared to buying new... that being said, there are some very good deals on quality used trucks.

 

[Jason Bex]

I'll give you my honest opinion. I used a Mecanil sg220 on my little kboom for a year before building the tree-mek. It was very limited to small trees and you had to be able to get very close. It was better than nothing but nowhere near ideal. It was more of a novelty. Of use it on what I could reach but often I had to finish the tree by bringing in a bucket truck to finish the high stuff.
The main differences that I see between the tree-mek and the Altec unit:
1. Reach. Tree-mek has much more. You can do taller trees and trees from further away so you're often parking in 1 spot and reaching several trees and you don't have to park so close to the tree.

2. Tree-mek has a jib which enables reaching over things and makes getting pieces to the ground much faster. The Altec can reach only in a straight line and if the only place to set things down is near the truck, you have to retract the boom all the way to do so and that takes time. The tree-mek can cut and jib down the piece in a fraction of the time. I know this because I used a Mecanil on my kboom with no jib. Not great.

3. Lifting capacity. Tree-mek obviously has way more.

4. Hauling capacity. Tree-mek can haul 3 times as much weight. Sure, the Altec unit can dump, but it's not dumping very much. You'll have to take 3 loads compared to 1 on the tree-mek.

5. The Mecanil grapplesaw is better in my opinion. If the Gierkink was better, I'd have one. Mecanil offers 3 sizes. All of which are bigger than the one Gierkink.

6. You can build a tree-mek on any chassis you like so you can buy a used truck with plenty of life left in it without the expense and emissions junk of a new truck. No tree-mek that I know of has been built on a new chassis. It's an unnecessary expense that no sensible person is likely to incur.

7. Palfleet has great tech support and traveling support on their cranes. You should talk to someone that owns an Effer to see if they have good support. I never owned an Effer.

8. For having so much reach and capacity, the tree-mek is very small at 26'5". So, in comparison, you can't say the Tree-mek is too big.

In closing I'd have to say if you live somewhere where the trees are short, you can drive right up to all of them, you don't have to reach over anything, you don't mind paying for a brand new truck chassis, and you don't need to haul much then the Altec would be ok. It is nice.
Like tree-mek operators say: I hope my competitors buy an Altec instead of a tree-mek."
I hope this helps you.

 

[Jason Bex]

Great info in all your posts. Most of my questions have been answered and I am definitely sold on the TreeMek. My problem is up front overhead. I am building my own version here in Iowa using a Fassi F300SE.24. Not quite the reach I want ultimately but will get me on my way with a 68 foot vertical reach for easy access trees. My question for you is the Jib dilemma.....Since the crane I am using has only the one pivot point, how should the Jib be built? I respect your experience and knowledge on the subject. Thank you in advance for any suggestions and help. I have no doubt a TreeMek or a very close version will be in my future after I can get some things paid for and not need the bank anymore.