Solo Tree care

[Tinwoodman]

Yep

I think I see what you're saying-- but the only real disadvantage to doing solo work is-- no one to yell at when I skin my nuckles or drop a piece of wood on my toe. And I do boost the economy-- I take that money and buy stuff with it. When you buy stuff, you help stimulate the economy. By the way, there is no brush chipper. Why would I want to chip brush when I can leave it on the curb for the sanitation dudes to haul off? As far as sharpening my chain, putting gas and oil in the saw; well, I'm my own boss so-- it's nice to have a little break for a couple minutes while I do that-- gives me a chance to think what I'm going to do next, etc. If you think this is bad, you should see me loading saw-logs into my pickup solo w/o any power equipment. I promise, I do it. Maybe someday I will post a photo showing how. I'd rather take logs to the mill and get paid a little bit for them than hauling them to the dump and paying $26/ton to dump good wood off. This morning I hauled four pine logs to the mill in my 88 Chevy 2500.

 

[basnighttrees]

Tree Machine, you got jokes. hehehe

 

[Old Monkey]

Tree Machine, you got jokes. hehehe

Now, he senses the sarcasm.

 

[Tree Machine]

Jokes, yea sure. Suppose you're working alone and you tell a hilarious joke. Who's there to appreciate it?

What about the natural tendency of clients to approach the small guy because they think he'll be a better deal than the big companys with big overhead? You could get too much work and have to turn some away. How screwed up is that?

Let's say, hypothetically, you just don't feel like working one morning, but you have an employee waiting outside your back door? You're warm, you're cozy, your best girl is being especially affectionate....knock knock knock.

Without the employee banging on the door you may have gotten to your job an hour late. TRAGEDY !

 

[basnighttrees]

Tree Machine, you just keep talking and saying what is on your heart. I am listening to what you are not saying.

 

[Tinwoodman]

This is all pretty much true. And I have had to turn away or severely postpone business. As soon as I can see my way clear to quit my "grind job" I'll be going great guns, I hope. I live in an area where trees are revered, but the chickens are coming home to roost as the 70-foot oaks, pines, and southern-style poplars are uprooting in windstorms and smushing things. I'm working now on removing a 60-70 ft. pine that blew down and fell in somebody's swimming pool (just the top fifteen feet or so went in the pool).

 

[Tree Machine]

If you have an employee and he gets seriously injured, at least you are there to stop work immediately and take him to the hospital and pay his medical bills out of your own pocket. I mean, if it weren't for him, who would get to be liable? This is a male bonding experience not to be missed.

If you're going to work alone, over time, you'll be almost FORCED to develop efficient and innovative means of doing your work. If you go up in a tree, you'll have to make sure you have everything you need before you go up. You're almost REQUIRED to be prepared, self-sufficient, organized and vigilant. That would suck!

At the end of the day you would have to pride your own self on a job well-done because, buddy, there's no one else there to share that with except yourself.

 

[Jim1NZ]

I agree,
But if you do work alone, make sure you have a access line so some one can come and get you, or hopefully not your body out of the tree the next morning. Wouldn't want to have to trouble them for a throw line up.

 

[Tinwoodman]

Yeah. I just say, there's work one can do by oneself. Don't take a job if you can't do it by yourself. As you do business and get more money, you can afford to buy nice helping gadgets. When I worked for a nationally known tree company a few years ago, my foreman never once climbed a tree, and neither did I. He cut from the bucket, I cut from the ground. why climb when you can fly? I don't have a manlift. Yet. Some day.

 

[Redbull]

I'm young enough to say that I'd rather climb than work from a bucket. I enjoy climbing a lot. The money is a bonus. Now ask me again in 20-30 years and I might have a different opinion. I work by myself when I can, but sometimes it's more efficient to hire help. Remember, the faster you get done, the more money you make. Sometimes, it pays to have a good helper.

 

[Tinwoodman]

I mostly like to remove trees that have already fallen over. They're the best kind. Wish I had taken pix of the tree I took out of the swimming pool last week. . . .

 

[Crazy Canuck]

I mostly like to remove trees that have already fallen over. They're the best kind. Wish I had taken pix of the tree I took out of the swimming pool last week. . . .

Thats called cleaning up buddy

 

[Tree Machine]

That's the right answer, Canuck.

 

[Tree Machine]

I know this one guy who works alone. He has this 6-wheeled cart with side posts. It can haul, easily, a thousand pounds. I've seen him swiftly stack limbs as high as his head onto it, cinch it down with a cam strap and pull the thing out like he was a draft horse, spill it in front of the chipper, and return to the back yard for the second half of the crown. Zero damage to the lawn, not a leaf lost on the trip.

Two men, each dragging 4-6 limbs at a time (scraping lawn) would not have been as swift as the one guy working alone, using this cart contraption.

For the logs, he'd nick the log every firewood length for a total of five lengths-worth of log, cut the length off, put it on the cart, repeat for a total of 6 times (three logs bottom, two middle, one on top), all the same length, all lined up nicely. He'd draft that out to his truck at streetside where he had a tarp laid out, pull the cart onto the tarp, pull out his 395XP and make 4 cuts. 30 perfect pieces of firewood (and sawdust) would spill onto the tarp to either side of the cart.

I think two guys could have spent as much time talking about how they were going to do it
as it took this cat to be a third of the way through the job alone. No **** chat, this guy made it look easy.

He should get an employee.

 

[Cotreewhisperer]

I know several guys around here (denver/boulder) that work alone. We only have a few large companies, davey,swingle, otherwise it is bunch of small companies. mostly people that used to work for the big guys. This helps me out, cause I work for a bunch of these "lone" workers and help them get some production done- never shortage of work. I'm not saying I agree with working alone, it just seems sometimes you just dont have a choice. Out here it is hard to find qualified, conscientious people. I was surprised when I moved down here to denver and did some work for a couple small companies here- whoa, alot of unsafe practices out there!!

 

[MasterBlaster]

I know this one guy who works alone. He has this 6-wheeled cart with side posts. It can haul, easily, a thousand pounds. I've seen him swiftly stack limbs as high as his head onto it, cinch it down with a cam strap and pull the thing out like he was a draft horse, spill it in front of the chipper, and return to the back yard for the second half of the crown. Zero damage to the lawn, not a leaf lost on the trip.

Two men, each dragging 4-6 limbs at a time (scraping lawn) would not have been as swift as the one guy working alone, using this cart contraption.

For the logs, he'd nick the log every firewood length for a total of five lengths-worth of log, cut the length off, put it on the cart, repeat for a total of 6 times (three logs bottom, two middle, one on top), all the same length, all lined up nicely. He'd draft that out to his truck at streetside where he had a tarp laid out, pull the cart onto the tarp, pull out his 395XP and make 4 cuts. 30 perfect pieces of firewood (and sawdust) would spill onto the tarp to either side of the cart.

I think two guys could have spent as much time talking about how they were going to do it
as it took this cat to be a third of the way through the job alone. No **** chat, this guy made it look easy.

He should get an employee.

That's pretty awesome, it beats the heck outta a wheelbarrow. Where are the other two wheels?

 

[TREETX]

Never work alone

 

[darkstar]

i used to work alone out west since i lived in a vw van and had to scrounge ... once i was topping a 100 foot plus conifer with about a 30 foot top section leaning the opp. way i wanted it to fall ... since i had no groundie to pull it over and i couldnt climb it as it was really dead and crumbly ...i riged a pully on a tree about 50 feet away then tied the top off and the rope went all the way to the pully then back to me ...in theory i then pulled on the rope through the pully thus pullng the top all the while cutting it ...well even with all the pull i could muster it just wasent enough to send in the opp direction of the lean ... 2 groundies would have eaisly pulled it ... finally im desperate and decide to deepen my back cut just a tad ... well the top popped .. and bascially spiked straight doen with every limb battering me on the way ...i saw stars .... still i got the tree down and got paid ... but im not using that method again ...... it was pretty funny ......dark

 

[Jim1NZ]

i used to work alone out west since i lived in a vw van and had to scrounge ... once i was topping a 100 foot plus conifer with about a 30 foot top section leaning the opp. way i wanted it to fall ... since i had no groundie to pull it over and i couldnt climb it as it was really dead and crumbly ...i riged a pully on a tree about 50 feet away then tied the top off and the rope went all the way to the pully then back to me ...in theory i then pulled on the rope through the pully thus pullng the top all the while cutting it ...well even with all the pull i could muster it just wasent enough to send in the opp direction of the lean ... 2 groundies would have eaisly pulled it ... finally im desperate and decide to deepen my back cut just a tad ... well the top popped .. and bascially spiked straight doen with every limb battering me on the way ...i saw stars .... still i got the tree down and got paid ... but im not using that method again ...... it was pretty funny ......dark

Bugger that.

 

[Tree Machine]

beats the heck outta a wheelbarrow. Where are the other two wheels?

They're set back further, and in-between the two rear outer wheels. The inner wheels are hard rubber, and are set up a couple cm higher than the outer ones, so they 'float'. When the weight is sufficient, the outer, pneumatic wheels squash down, and then the inner wheels meet the ground, distribute the mass, and allow you to pack on pretty much an unlimited amount of weight.

The front wheels are big urethane swivel casters. This unit can spin around in a very tight space.