whadja do today?

[treevet]

We really don’t have many ash trees. Mostly in the southern part. There are some around that are five foot diameter and 100’ tall

Hey Gorman...first of all what is your first name? I have known it many times and forgot it. Lucky I can still remember my own at my age. Second did you ever get that Akimbo dialed in as much as you wanted before it crapped out on you? Could you bale out on it from the top? Did you ever run it DDRT? What was your rope and what were the top and bottom numbers you settled on? I just cannot get it where I want it. Thanks

 

[gorman]

Hey Gorman...first of all what is your first name? I have known it many times and forgot it. Lucky I can still remember my own at my age. Second did you ever get that Akimbo dialed in as much as you wanted before it crapped out on you? Could you bale out on it from the top? Did you ever run it DDRT? What was your rope and what were the top and bottom numbers you settled on? I just cannot get it where I want it. Thanks

My first name’s John. I started on blue moon and it didn’t work well. I then switched to xstatic on the lowest or second to lowest friction setting and it worked perfectly for about a year. The was all strictly single line work. After it wore out I hung it up.

 

[treevet]

My first name’s John. I started on blue moon and it didn’t work well. I then switched to xstatic on the lowest or second to lowest friction setting and it worked perfectly for about a year. The was all strictly single line work. After it wore out I hung it up.

What did it do in wearing out? Bollard/s eroded from friction?

 

[gorman]

What did it do in wearing out? Bollard/s eroded from friction?

Just eroded from friction. Exactly.
It just got to the point where there wasn’t a setting that worked on the device. Either there’s was too much friction or not enough so it crept. I threw it the “I’ll get to it later” pile.

 

[tree MDS]

I think Dave asked for bucket pics and was wondering what gets it out these days. Job like this where you need the speed and a lot of rotating to drop zone. I’ll never get rid of this thing. I had the lift tucked up in the front right corner of house too. We whacked out a little clear the Norway maple limbs deal after this. Back for a little chipping of the maple and a few logs with the big truck tomorrow. Not a bad week.

 

[tree MDS]

Lol.. you can see it’s stack on this one some. Haha. You asked!

 

[mike515]

I had an interesting afternoon. Long story short....I was following one of our bucket trucks back at the end of the day. I saw a little smoke and wondered what was up but I didn't think much about it. I assumed it may be from the engine and we're already planning on pulling the engine on that truck and rebuilding/replacing it. He backed it into its spot. I got out of my pick-up and saw the front passenger wheel on fire around the caliper. I just put new brakes on that truck last summer but I guess it seized up.

I had a fresh liter bottle of water in my hand so I ran over and put the fire out. As we were talking afterward, we started seeing smoke and the fire started again. I ran for the hose but it was way too short. He jumped it the truck and drove it to the hose. It took a few minutes but we got it sprayed down and cooled off enough to leave it where it is sitting until tomorrow.

If I'm being honest...it was pretty scary. Thinking about all of the different ways that the situation could have went so much worse. If that would have happened around no water source (we are in a rural area) the tire would have possibly caught fire and the entire truck would have burned. What if it happened after we parked it, the tire caught fire and then the trucks around it also caught fire?

Here's the kicker.....every truck we have has fire extinguishers. I didn't even think about them. I immediately looked for water. This is an area that our company needs to focus on retraining. I think I want the training plus an extra fire extinguisher on every truck. I know it's pretty unlikely but today was really unlikely and it still almost happened.

 

[Oldmaple]

Years ago when I worked for a local employer that had a bucket truck that had an exhaust stack that went up through the deck just behind the cab. Always had to keep the sawdust and debris cleaned out from that area. A couple of years after I left it caught fire as they were driving down the road. Toasted the truck, nobody got hurt. Maybe the fire got into the hydraulic lines which were in that area? I guess they stopped cleaning out the debris.

 

[Jester3775]

Wow, scary. I did something very similar in regards to the fire extinguisher. I had recently rebuilt the motor in my old 1975 Chevy pickup. Had a friend with me who was running some computer thing that was hooked up to sensors he had stuffed in the exhaust. I was driving and he was getting readings to help us adjust the carb. Noticed smoke behind us and we pulled over. Popped the hood and you guessed it, fire ! I immediately ran for the ditch to get some snow, my smarter friend yells out: Do you have a fire extinguisher ?! I stopped, thought for a split second and started running back to the truck yelling: Yes ! I give him credit that day for saving my truck. By the way it turns out the fire started from a gas line not being hose clamped tightly enough at the carb. Since that time I have made a habit of re-tightening all hoses, gas, coolant etc. when replacing with new and vehicle has been ran a few times. Seems like the hoses take a "set" after heating and cooling and need to be snugged up.

 

[gorman]

An associate had his big vermeer grinder catch on fire when a battery lead chaffed and grounded to the frame. He emptied one fire extinguisher on it and it just laughed at him. Luckily he had two trucks on the job so he grabbed the extinguisher from the other truck and it was slightly larger and that put it out. Lucky guy.

 

[Jester3775]

An associate had his big vermeer grinder catch on fire when a battery lead chaffed and grounded to the frame. He emptied one fire extinguisher on it and it just laughed at him. Luckily he had two trucks on the job so he grabbed the extinguisher from the other truck and it was slightly larger and that put it out. Lucky guy.

Years later, after my 75 Chevy story that experience saved a friend of mine's Vermeer M-485 that we used for trenching for Oak wilt. We were back in the woods and his chaffed battery cable also started a fire. I immediately, without thinking ran all the way out to my dump truck, grabbed extinguisher and ran all the way back, where I then threw him the extinguisher as I collapsed from the crazy adrenaline induced marathon !
It worked and he saved his machine that by the way he had no insurance on...

 

[gorman]

Years later, after my 75 Chevy story that experience saved a friend of mine's Vermeer M-485 that we used for trenching for Oak wilt. We were back in the woods and his chaffed battery cable also started a fire. I immediately, without thinking ran all the way out to my dump truck, grabbed extinguisher and ran all the way back, where I then threw him the extinguisher as I collapsed from the crazy adrenaline induced marathon !
It worked and he saved his machine that by the way he had no insurance on...

Lol. Another Vermeer.

 

[tree MDS]

Lol. Another Vermeer.

I like to bust on Vermeer too. They do have a few things that have caught my eye here and there though. They have a chipper in the 20” class (forgot the model) that looks pretty mean. And those mini’s are interesting. I remember looking at one at a dealer many, many years ago thinking it looked pretty serious and well made. Their track grinders in the 50 - 60hp range like my stump guy uses are a gold standard as far as I’m concerned. Other than that, none of their stuff ever really jumped out at me.

 

[tree MDS]

Soo... anybody’s customers been driving anybody insane lately?
I swear, these bigger jobs (even the smaller one day jobs), the people are always relatively normal and cool, but towards the end, it’s like they all turn pita. I’ve always had the theory that it’s because they know it’s time to write the check soon. They’ve had their fun and now it’s time. No more popping out of the bushes, no driveway car games. Just time to write the check. Lol.

 

[mikewhite85]

Soo... anybody’s customers been driving anybody insane lately?
I swear, these bigger jobs (even the smaller one day jobs), the people are always relatively normal and cool, but towards the end, it’s like they all turn pita. I’ve always had the theory that it’s because they know it’s time to write the check soon. They’ve had their fun and now it’s time. No more popping out of the bushes, no driveway car games. Just time to write the check. Lol.

haha yup! I love it when they leave to run an errand when you're cleaning up.

 

[mike515]

We don't usually have a hard time getting paid. We normally invoice people later so we aren't picking up checks the same day but I'm fine with them paying right away if they want to.

We have one guy who owes us about $500 from last fall. I've billed him a few times. He will probably never pay us at this point. I could just let it go but I also feel like I should put a lien on the property just to make a point. Like....sure, you can not pay me but you also will never sell this place until I'm paid.

We have another long-term customer who sucks about paying. He is super political and always talking about how fiscally conservative he is but he never seems to have a plan to pay us for work. He's probably owed us nearly $4k for about 3 months. He left me a message a while back telling me about how he refinanced his property to pay us and we would get a check as soon as the bank could handle it.

But no....I don't dwell on it very much as long as we have money coming in from other places.

 

[tree MDS]

All bills due and payable upon firing up of the blower.

 

[tree MDS]

haha yup! I love it when they leave to run an errand when you're cleaning up.

Or they’ve been in your face the whole job, but suddenly when it’s time to pay they can’t hear you knocking on every door. “Oh, I’m sorry, I was in the basement doing some canning”. Lol

 

[treevet]

Every job is paid on completion (except hoa's and I bout had it with them). If the only thing they have neg to say about us is "those fkrs wanted to get paid when done for the work they did, do you believe that?" pretty sure we will be in biz for another 51 years.

 

[mike515]

We have a lot of people who have been customers for years. I've got to know them pretty well. Some of them don't even ask for a bid. They just call and ask to be put on the "list" and don't bother even getting other bids. If they're at work when the job gets done and can't be there to pay right away.....I'm not too worried about it. Like I said...I was planning on invoicing them anyway so our software stays updated. They aren't skipping town. I will possibly see them at the grocery store or gas station next week. But I don't live in NYC either. It would be different if I lived in a more urban area.