knuckleboom crane truck

[mattfr12]

I purchased one a few months ago with all the options and wanted to see if anyone else out thier is having success with them.
I bought it from timberland trucks in virginia. i built the biggest one i could afford without getting to crazy in the money department i put it on an international 4400 with a dt466 in it. has around 70 feet of reach ran by radio remote control has the winch on it so it can operate like a crane. with a load limiting system. the end of the boom is plumbed with hydralics and the grapple comes on and off. i had them send a fiberglass bucket with it. right off the side of the truck it will lift 16,000 and change at around 50 feet. all im doing now is waiting for the boom to show up from italy its a 3 week trip on cargo ship after thier done building it. i decided to go with it after i looked at how much money i was dumping into renting a crane a year i figured i could probably cut the crane rental in half. the decisioni was fincance a truck for 1500 a month. when sometimes during the summer season crane rental hit 3k per month. around here thiers usually a 4 hour minimum at around 150 per hour so 600 bucks just to get them to show up. trucks supposed to be done in september will post pics as soon as i get it.

 

[tree MDS]

70 foot seems a little short, but an impressive move none the less. I'm sure it will be handy as all hell in general.

 

[Blakesmaster]

Let me know how you like that winch set up. Most guys seem to just be using slings and the boom's hydraulics to make picks and I can't quite figure out why. Keeps us in the loop and throw up some pics when you get it. Congrats!

 

[ForTheArborist]

I purchased one a few months ago with all the options and wanted to see if anyone else out thier is having success with them.
I bought it from timberland trucks in virginia. i built the biggest one i could afford without getting to crazy in the money department i put it on an international 4400 with a dt466 in it. has around 70 feet of reach ran by radio remote control has the winch on it so it can operate like a crane. with a load limiting system. the end of the boom is plumbed with hydralics and the grapple comes on and off. i had them send a fiberglass bucket with it. right off the side of the truck it will lift 16,000 and change at around 50 feet. all im doing now is waiting for the boom to show up from italy its a 3 week trip on cargo ship after thier done building it. i decided to go with it after i looked at how much money i was dumping into renting a crane a year i figured i could probably cut the crane rental in half. the decisioni was fincance a truck for 1500 a month. when sometimes during the summer season crane rental hit 3k per month. around here thiers usually a 4 hour minimum at around 150 per hour so 600 bucks just to get them to show up. trucks supposed to be done in september will post pics as soon as i get it.

Thats a grandslam deal. Nice innovation job.

 

[mattfr12]

70 foot seems a little short, but an impressive move none the less. I'm sure it will be handy as all hell in general.

to me it was perfect if you go larger the dollar signs jump dramaticly because the weight of the crane itself a 100+ foot knuckleboom has to be on a chassis that can support a 20,000 pound crane mostly on the front axle. if it needs more than 70 feet i firgured id just rent. my main goal with this truck was to build pretty much a super sized grapple truck that can also be used to take sections of trunk down when accessable clean up debris and so on.


i was in the market for a grapple truck and the average 20-30 foot range grapple just wasnt to appealing to me im hoping to be able to ALMOST replace using my skid steer and tractor to load larger wood.

 

[mattfr12]

Let me know how you like that winch set up. Most guys seem to just be using slings and the boom's hydraulics to make picks and I can't quite figure out why. Keeps us in the loop and throw up some pics when you get it. Congrats!

ya the winch to me made sense because of the booms not being known for being really fast, and that as everyone knows the closer to the truck you are the more you can lift.

take a ride down and run it some time messaged you a while back when i was looking for a climber to help. thies hot summers are killer i slept in my back yard for an hour when i got home today i cant wait for this truck so i dont have to stand in a yard with 3 ply kevlar chaps on slabing up trunks anymore.

talked to jack at timberland a fed days back and its supposed to be here middle to end of sept.

 

[TreEmergencyB]

you pittsburgh area matt? id like to see that run when it comes in. We own a national 800c on a sterling chassis but the boss has thrown around the idea of a K boom truck

 

[mattfr12]

you pittsburgh area matt? id like to see that run when it comes in. We own a national 800c on a sterling chassis but the boss has thrown around the idea of a K boom truck

ya im 15 min from downtown

 

[Blakesmaster]

ya the winch to me made sense because of the booms not being known for being really fast, and that as everyone knows the closer to the truck you are the more you can lift.

take a ride down and run it some time messaged you a while back when i was looking for a climber to help. thies hot summers are killer i slept in my back yard for an hour when i got home today i cant wait for this truck so i dont have to stand in a yard with 3 ply kevlar chaps on slabing up trunks anymore.

talked to jack at timberland a fed days back and its supposed to be here middle to end of sept.

Thanks for the invite. Let me know when you get it and I might just do that.

 

[beastmaster]

Company I work for regularly has an Altec k boom. It has a 60ft max I think. Granted it can't do what a big crane does, but beleave me, it does a lot of what a big crane can't. It'll get into some pretty tight places a big crane can't. They have cargo nets that you can fill full of wood and just dump, no lifting into the truck. We have placed both the chipper and stumpgrinder in some crazy spots with it. We pick up the bobcat all the time with it. It'll pick up some decent pieces if the boom isn't fully extended. I don't know how many times Iv'e been put up a tree with it. You'll find a 101 uses for it in everyday tree work. This company also does boulder landscaping with it.
I asked once why he couldn't use a bucket on it and was told because the hydraulics are all exposed. An other advantage is insurance, theirs isn't classified as a crane, but as a boom lift. big difference in insurance prices. They never use the winch either, don't know why.
Good luck with your new k boom. Beastmaster.

 

[mattfr12]

Company I work for regularly has an Altec k boom. It has a 60ft max I think. Granted it can't do what a big crane does, but beleave me, it does a lot of what a big crane can't. It'll get into some pretty tight places a big crane can't. They have cargo nets that you can fill full of wood and just dump, no lifting into the truck. We have placed both the chipper and stumpgrinder in some crazy spots with it. We pick up the bobcat all the time with it. It'll pick up some decent pieces if the boom isn't fully extended. I don't know how many times Iv'e been put up a tree with it. You'll find a 101 uses for it in everyday tree work. This company also does boulder landscaping with it.
I asked once why he couldn't use a bucket on it and was told because the hydraulics are all exposed. An other advantage is insurance, theirs isn't classified as a crane, but as a boom lift. big difference in insurance prices. They never use the winch either, don't know why.
Good luck with your new k boom. Beastmaster.

ya im pretty excited about saving my back. i been picking up logs for to many years decided that i didnt wanna get old to quick. next on the list is a whole tree chipper one of the larger morbarks or a woodsman have been my top to choices so far. i been working my bandit 250 like a dog for years now but i gotta say it takes it and keeps on tickin. we put 20-30 foot spars in the thing all day long. the suspense has been killing me. i gotta use a crane next week and cant wait till im not on the clock and just use my own.

 

[mattfr12]

Pictures of the crane before mounting.
View attachment 203848

 

[tree MDS]

ya im pretty excited about saving my back. i been picking up logs for to many years decided that i didnt wanna get old to quick. next on the list is a whole tree chipper one of the larger morbarks or a woodsman have been my top to choices so far. i been working my bandit 250 like a dog for years now but i gotta say it takes it and keeps on tickin. we put 20-30 foot spars in the thing all day long. the suspense has been killing me. i gotta use a crane next week and cant wait till im not on the clock and just use my own.

I'm actually pretty stoked for you myself. Seems like you could tie into the crane and do big drop hitches to the tree (if crane was too short), and then crane them out. I'm liking it.

 

[mattfr12]

I'm actually pretty stoked for you myself. Seems like you could tie into the crane and do big drop hitches to the tree (if crane was too short), and then crane them out. I'm liking it.

.

thanks man. ya ive done stuff like that before because i wasnt sure if the load was gonna be to big on a crane.

i put a 2ton block up thier and once it was caught in the block hooked the crane to it and used a porta wrap to keep it from swinging on the crane to much. that way you can watch the LMI system to see if your gonna max out.

 

[mattfr12]

I'm actually pretty stoked for you myself. Seems like you could tie into the crane and do big drop hitches to the tree (if crane was too short), and then crane them out. I'm liking it.

I would have definetly built a longer boom but the cost just gets outrageous. it will be more cost effective for me to just get a 30-35ton crane in a year or two. for what this kboom cost on a used chassis you can get a new 30-35 ton from the guiraffe bros not sure if i spelled thier name correctly. you can get a nice 30-35 ton truck for 70-80k then you can get 150 foot up and have some compacity.

if you wanna get out over 100 foot it would be hard to do it with less than say a 270 280k and that would be pushing it. enless you want your compacity to be 200 pounds or something stupid. my lowest compacity i think is 1500 pounds and thats flat out horizontal off the dirt. at a 50 degree or some where in that point all the way out im at 5-6 thousand pounds.

 

[tree MDS]

You got any pics of this thing yet matt?

 

[mattfr12]

Just got home with it almost 2:30 am will be posting pics tomorrow cause ill finally be able to really play with it

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[mattfr12]

Here's one pic I got with my phone ill get on with the boom out for you guys today.

 

[mattfr12]

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[mattfr12]

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