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[Helmstein]

Large meadow white pine that was supposed to be removed turned into just deadwooding. H.O. had a solar array installed and trenched close to one side of the tree. This resulted in 40%of the tree dieing.

It was a blessing in disguise because the tree was underbid. The amount of large non chipable trunk wood in this tree is crazy.

H.O. saves the day without even knowing it.

I hope everyone is back at it and had a great Thanksgiving. We all have so much to be thankful for.

 

[ZinTrees]

last few days ive been working on a big 25 tree removal, everything went great yesterday, today we had a blow fuse on the dump trailer, it ran low and wouldnt charge, left my groundie mid dump needing to borrow a skidsteer at the dumpsite to unload it, had a dead battery on the boxer when we got back from dumping chips, and snapped the throttle cable in the bucket truck on the way to the job this morning
used some dynaglide to tie a screwdriver to the throttle lever on the engine, hand throttle got us to the job and back home, on the hunt for a new cable now, gonna call around in the morning and see if I can get one tomorrow

 

[Helmstein]

last few days ive been working on a big 25 tree removal, everything went great yesterday, today we had a blow fuse on the dump trailer, it ran low and wouldnt charge, left my groundie mid dump needing to borrow a skidsteer at the dumpsite to unload it, had a dead battery on the boxer when we got back from dumping chips, and snapped the throttle cable in the bucket truck on the way to the job this morning
used some dynaglide to tie a screwdriver to the throttle lever on the engine, hand throttle got us to the job and back home, on the hunt for a new cable now, gonna call around in the morning and see if I can get one tomorrow

Sounds like your spinning your wheels. This is the time of year where everything starts breaking. That's how you know it was a good year! Hang in there.

 

[ZinTrees]

Sounds like your spinning your wheels. This is the time of year where everything starts breaking. That's how you know it was a good year! Hang in there.

if it coulda gone wrong today it did
atleast the disk didnt come out of my chipper

got 2 trees left to drop and one big oak to prune on this job, and got another free chip dump site at an offroad park so thats nice
in the last 2 weeks:
stuck skidsteer
both tracks fell off skidsteer
ripped curl cylinder in 2 on skidsteer
dead battery on skidsteer
clogged chipper
wrapped wire in chipper
throttle cable snapped
trailer battery died
bent bar on 194t
sounds like the boxer is my big issue lol, gonna get a ctx 160 or a sk1550 in a few months

 

[mikewhite85]

Rain day today. Working on getting my guys set up for health insurance in January. We set up 401k's earlier this year. Was not a difficult process but health insurance is a whole different kind of beast.

I'm thinking I'll pay 50% of the premiums. They are based on age.

My admin assistant is 23 and hers is only 300 or so a month. My 45 year old bucket operator and his 47 year old wife are about 1200 per month. yikes. I'm only paying half but we have 6 employees and spouses. Not all of the employees are going to opt for it but I think it's a good step for great morale.

My pricing structure is not competitive to begin with but I have great workers with better than average qualifications. I may need to make some additional pricing adjustments. I does make me wince a bit when I know my prices are often 50% more than the local "tree guy" competitors.

Do any of you guys have experience or recommendations with this kind of stuff? I'm always looking for advice and seeing what has worked well for others.

 

[psmith0803]

While not in the tree business full time at my day job our manufacturing plant pays less towards dependents. This helps control cost and encourages those dependents who can to get insurance thru their jobs. Something to think about.

 

[ZinTrees]

fixed the throttle cable in big orange and adjusted the clutch on my chipper, it was at 95ft-LB, spec is 107-141
did notice a lot of squealing, either belts or clutch yesterday, belts are tight, maybe not tight enough tho, but we will see tomorrow if it was the belts or clutch
im hoping belts because those are cheaper

 

[ZinTrees]

finished up the big 25 tree job today, there was one massive codom oak that they wanted pruned, they ended up changing it up for a removal instead, it is between 2 houses, 6ft DBH, 3 stems all have included bark, rot in the middle, cabled (one of the 2 cables is snapped), and its directly over (touching) a deck
it is next saturdays crane job, was going to use my GRCS to rig it out but decided the crane is the right choice, I may end up rigging out the logs if I need to depending on reach, it will be stretched out a good ways
the little path going down the side of the house is the only access besides the crane, and its down around 4ft below the rest of the lawn, so tracking logs out is going to be tricky

 

[mikewhite85]

Finally got my chipper back from my fabricator friend. What a beast! I was concerned about weight but I put it on a scale today and it's about 8,000 lbs.

I'm in it about 24k. I'm pretty happy with that. It's going to be nice going from 12" sub 100hp chippers to an 18" 200hp. Will still pull the smaller ones around with my smaller dump truck.

 

[treebilly]

@mikewhite85
The boss pays 50% of our health insurance where I work. Your rates sound about like ours. Also matches 3% for our retirement. Both are great morale boosters. Health insurance kinda sucks paying for it but when you need it, damn is it nice. Vision is covered in ours. I just went for the first time since grade school. Cost me $105 for the exam and my new bifocals (safety glasses even) after insurance. I’ve got a wife and 3 kids so I hit my deductible pretty early in the year. We have dental as well but I can’t remember if the company pays for any of that.
Anyhow, what you’re doing is what helps make your company a great place to work. It helps retain good employees and attract new ones. Hourly wage is only a part of my pay. I can make more working for someone else but I sure don’t want to pay for private insurance and it’s a lot harder to set up retirement by oneself

 

[mikewhite85]

@mikewhite85
The boss pays 50% of our health insurance where I work. Your rates sound about like ours. Also matches 3% for our retirement. Both are great morale boosters. Health insurance kinda sucks paying for it but when you need it, damn is it nice. Vision is covered in ours. I just went for the first time since grade school. Cost me $105 for the exam and my new bifocals (safety glasses even) after insurance. I’ve got a wife and 3 kids so I hit my deductible pretty early in the year. We have dental as well but I can’t remember if the company pays for any of that.
Anyhow, what you’re doing is what helps make your company a great place to work. It helps retain good employees and attract new ones. Hourly wage is only a part of my pay. I can make more working for someone else but I sure don’t want to pay for private insurance and it’s a lot harder to set up retirement by oneself

Thanks for your perspective. The dental and vision package was surprisingly cheap so I think I'm going to opt for that too.

The extra money going out each pay day is going to take a little getting used to, especially starting in the slow season. It is very generous of your company to pay for your kids insurance as well... I've mentioned here before that one of my employees has a dozen kids. Not sure if I could afford that!

 

[treebilly]

I think ours is set up as single, married, and family plans. One kid or a dozen I believe cost the same

 

[bck]

Large meadow white pine that was supposed to be removed turned into just deadwooding. H.O. had a solar array installed and trenched close to one side of the tree. This resulted in 40%of the tree dieing.

It was a blessing in disguise because the tree was underbid. The amount of large non chipable trunk wood in this tree is crazy.

H.O. saves the day without even knowing it.

I hope everyone is back at it and had a great Thanksgiving. We all have so much to be thankful for.

Nice lift .

 

[tree MDS]

Was on my way to having a decent week when I came down with Covid Thursday at the end of the day. I guess I was feeling it all day Thursday, but by the end of the day I thought I had hypothermia or something. I was like “damn, I hate the cold weather, but something’s wrong here”. Some serious chills and body aches through the night. I felt 75% better by Friday morning. It kinda just turned into a regular old cold basically. Still enough to be a pita. I’m so bored!!

 

[mikewhite85]

Was on my way to having a decent week when I came down with Covid Thursday at the end of the day. I guess I was feeling it all day Thursday, but by the end of the day I thought I had hypothermia or something. I was like “damn, I hate the cold weather, but something’s wrong here”. Some serious chills and body aches through the night. I felt 75% better by Friday morning. It kinda just turned into a regular old cold basically. Still enough to be a pita. I’m so bored!!

Quarantining now?

 

[tree MDS]

Large meadow white pine that was supposed to be removed turned into just deadwooding. H.O. had a solar array installed and trenched close to one side of the tree. This resulted in 40%of the tree dieing.

It was a blessing in disguise because the tree was underbid. The amount of large non chipable trunk wood in this tree is crazy.

H.O. saves the day without even knowing it.

I hope everyone is back at it and had a great Thanksgiving. We all have so much to be thankful for.

I notice you use an outside scabbard. Just curious what keeps it from getting unhooked by a limb or something and falling off?

 

[dbl612]

Was on my way to having a decent week when I came down with Covid Thursday at the end of the day. I guess I was feeling it all day Thursday, but by the end of the day I thought I had hypothermia or something. I was like “damn, I hate the cold weather, but something’s wrong here”. Some serious chills and body aches through the night. I felt 75% better by Friday morning. It kinda just turned into a regular old cold basically. Still enough to be a pita. I’m so bored!!

how do you know it was covid?

 

[tree MDS]

how do you know it was covid?

I did home home rapid test deal the next morning. Soon as the liquid started saturating the test strip lines started appearing. Two solid lines definitely looks positive according to the test.

 

[ZinTrees]

I notice you use an outside scabbard. Just curious what keeps it from getting unhooked by a limb or something and falling off?

not sure what scabbard he uses, but every outside one ive seen including mine have spring teeth deals that snap around the rail or lip of the basket/bucket
the saw doesnt get snagged much surprisingly, although unless im pruning I am cutting a path into the center of the tree anyways so I dont tear my sena off, have twigs poking controls, tearing up my boom, damaging hoses, etc
I bought an outside mount because I run a big saw out of the bucket quite a bit and for almost $300 I wasnt buying 2
2 styles shown, outside bucket mount, and basked mount for a spider

 

[Helmstein]

I notice you use an outside scabbard. Just curious what keeps it from getting unhooked by a limb or something and falling off?

I like to run two scabbards. Its fallen off a few times but only when I don't pay attention when a tooth gets cought while taking the saw out of the scabbard.

Zin basically answered the question.

I'm so ready for the season to be over. Parking the equipment December 15th for the winter. Anyone else burned out?