Lumberjack
Banned
Preface: I was checking with some different companies about getting a crane for a tree i was bidding.
I was talking to the owner of one company, he met me out at the job site and we started looking around. He said no riding the ball, but you could ride in a basket, more on that later.
Anyways he said that he reccommended at 30 ton crane to lift the wood (could park next to the tree basically) and a 18 ton to ride in the basket to do set the slings and such. The 30 tonner ran $110 an hour (reasonable), but he would charge me for travel and setup time (understandable). He said that I could figure 30 minute drive to get there, 1.5!! hours to setup, and the same figures to break it down and return home. Thats 440 bucks before he lifts his first piece!! I declined on the basket saying I could climb it since I couldnt ride the ball.
Then he said that I should figure in 8 hours!! of crane time plus the 4 hours for getting there and leaving. I counted 8-10 picks that I would need to have done, I was thinking more along the lines of 2 hours, maybe 3.
So I figured he was outta his mind already, but he invited me to watch him today do some "nasty" trees. I got there about 2 this afternoon . He doesnt climb at all, rather he rides the basket on the 18 ton crane. He was using his 85 ton crane to pick the wood. When I got there he was hanging in the basket next to a 26-28" DBH oak.
His first pick that I saw was removing one of the tops. He set the choker and made a notch and and eventually a backcut. All the while all his groundies where telling me how much they disliked doing trees because "You can never tell what they are going to do"
. When the piece broke loose he ducked down in his basket like a pansy as the piece pivoted and laid out flat, I will give it to him that he balanced it very well, however his intent was to leave it standing up. So the 85 swings around and lowers the piece down in the drop zone, and the man is lowered to the ground. The piece weighed 2000 pounds.
I took a survey of the other small trees in the area, every one of them will have to be cut (small trees, but dogwoods) because they have been busted up pretty well. Then I looked at their saws. First thing I noticed was they where all stihl, so I thought hey he might be ok yet. But closer inspection revealed that the smallest was a 170 and the biggest was a 290, all pulling bars that where too big for an outfit like this to be using.
The last piece was the trunk and a couple limbs. I gently recommened running the straps so that the piece would lift straight up, but he ignored me and did it his way. When the piece popped loose (they had 15k pounds of preload, the peice weighted 13k) it spun and hit the wire on the boom that he said he was trying to save. Also, how many here have seen an 85 ton boom flex like a fishing pole and lift the back outriggers?
Needless to say they need to stick with simply running cranes, I am going to try and get pics and vids tomorrow on their last tree.
I was talking to the owner of one company, he met me out at the job site and we started looking around. He said no riding the ball, but you could ride in a basket, more on that later.
Anyways he said that he reccommended at 30 ton crane to lift the wood (could park next to the tree basically) and a 18 ton to ride in the basket to do set the slings and such. The 30 tonner ran $110 an hour (reasonable), but he would charge me for travel and setup time (understandable). He said that I could figure 30 minute drive to get there, 1.5!! hours to setup, and the same figures to break it down and return home. Thats 440 bucks before he lifts his first piece!! I declined on the basket saying I could climb it since I couldnt ride the ball.
Then he said that I should figure in 8 hours!! of crane time plus the 4 hours for getting there and leaving. I counted 8-10 picks that I would need to have done, I was thinking more along the lines of 2 hours, maybe 3.
So I figured he was outta his mind already, but he invited me to watch him today do some "nasty" trees. I got there about 2 this afternoon . He doesnt climb at all, rather he rides the basket on the 18 ton crane. He was using his 85 ton crane to pick the wood. When I got there he was hanging in the basket next to a 26-28" DBH oak.
His first pick that I saw was removing one of the tops. He set the choker and made a notch and and eventually a backcut. All the while all his groundies where telling me how much they disliked doing trees because "You can never tell what they are going to do"
. When the piece broke loose he ducked down in his basket like a pansy as the piece pivoted and laid out flat, I will give it to him that he balanced it very well, however his intent was to leave it standing up. So the 85 swings around and lowers the piece down in the drop zone, and the man is lowered to the ground. The piece weighed 2000 pounds.I took a survey of the other small trees in the area, every one of them will have to be cut (small trees, but dogwoods) because they have been busted up pretty well. Then I looked at their saws. First thing I noticed was they where all stihl, so I thought hey he might be ok yet. But closer inspection revealed that the smallest was a 170 and the biggest was a 290, all pulling bars that where too big for an outfit like this to be using.
The last piece was the trunk and a couple limbs. I gently recommened running the straps so that the piece would lift straight up, but he ignored me and did it his way. When the piece popped loose (they had 15k pounds of preload, the peice weighted 13k) it spun and hit the wire on the boom that he said he was trying to save. Also, how many here have seen an 85 ton boom flex like a fishing pole and lift the back outriggers?
Needless to say they need to stick with simply running cranes, I am going to try and get pics and vids tomorrow on their last tree.
