What is your gear worth?

[pdqdl]

I did a tree removal last Friday, but I had to leave early to pick up my wife. It had all gone according to schedule, I was on the ground at noon. I told the guys to clean up the mess, where to deliver the chips & logs, and I told them to check the site carefully, leave nothing behind. I was quite emphatic about checking for any lost equipment before they left. It never even occurred to me that they would skip the big yellow climbing equipment bag.

So...later that day I see that they grabbed my climbing gear (from where I had pointed to be sure to recover), but left the bag with extra goodies on the job site (down in the low-rent section of town). That bag and abandoned equipment totaled to a bit less than $700! Raging back to the job-site, I was fortunate to recover my bag with the lesser part of my tree climbing goodies still intact on the front porch of the house scheduled for demolition.

My point here is not to whine about negligence & tools left behind, but what the actual value of all your equipment is. I have taken the time to add up the replacement cost (exclusive of tax & shipping) of all the equipment I carry onto the job. Not counting bull ropes, heavy rigging equipment, chainsaws, or anything that a climber wouldn't be expected to climb a tree with, my hardware & two bags added up to $1993.00.

I am kind of appalled to see how much it all adds up to. Except for my Geckos, I don't really have any "premium" equipment. Just an old Buckingham belt, a few ascenders, loop runners, carabiners, a rescue-8, 4 wedges, and a couple of hand saws. How much value do you have in your climbing kit, and do you have an inventory to show the insurance company when it all disappears?

 

[acer-kid]

My biggest fear in life... Is that I die, and my wife sells my gear for what I told her it cost. That should just about sum it up.

 

[pdqdl]

I buy gear that way all the time. Not generally from widows, I think; mostly ex-wife's & GF's

 

[scheffa]

Would have to be around the 2k mark, plus rigging gear, saws etc

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

I got pissed when the hired hand pretty much didn't care about loosing a tarp and $60 of ratchet straps over 2 days. I replaced with money off his pay. He pays a bit more attention now.

 

[Pelorus]

I'd be unwilling to part with some of my gear for any reasonable $$$ amount.
These are the things with intrinsic worth to me, to hopefully one day show the grandkids, yet unborn.

 

[crotchclimber]

I don't have an exact figure, but I bet my climbing gear bag's contents are worth around $3,000. Nice saddle, many carabiners, Usaver, pulleys, ascenders, Rig, lanyards, hand saws, Felcos. Some days my spurs are in there too. Ropes are in a different bag but rope isn't cheap either. One of my coworkers lost his gear bag out of the chipper chute on the highway years ago. We don't put gear in there anymore!

 

[BC WetCoast]

I got pissed when the hired hand pretty much didn't care about loosing a tarp and $60 of ratchet straps over 2 days. I replaced with money off his pay. He pays a bit more attention now.

You need to be careful doing that (ie check your local laws), it's illegal here to withhold pay for broken or lost equipment (cost of doing business). Fire someone for doing it and it will cost you legally defined severance pay (minimum 2 weeks.).

 

[crotchclimber]

You need to be careful doing that (ie check your local laws), it's illegal here to withhold pay for broken or lost equipment (cost of doing business). Fire someone for doing it and it will cost you legally defined severance pay (minimum 2 weeks.).

It's legal here in Colorado to make a "deduction for the amount of money or the value of property that the employee failed to properly pay or return to the employer in the case where a terminated employee was entrusted during his or her employment with the collection, disbursement, or handling of such money or property." It's not legal to deduct property damage from wages though.

 

[pdqdl]

I got a call from the US Dept of Labor once...it seems that an ex-employee (he quit rather than pay for a lost machine) complained to them. They told me that I couldn't deduct for "lost" machinery. I told them I was going to do it anyway. The US attorney repeated the rules to me 3 times; three times I told him I was going to take the money from the last check.

I don't guess that lawyer was used to talking to employers like me. He was kind of stunned when I wouldn't cave in to the fearsome power of a Dept of Labor attorney.

I never heard from the Dept of Labor again. I think a couple hundred dollars wasn't worth their time, and maybe the judge would take my side anyway.

 

[BC WetCoast]

Don't count on the judge. From different things I've read, judges tend to favour the employee.

 

[pdqdl]

I wasn't counting on that at all. I was counting on him being a glory-seeking Federal attorney that justified his high salary with his track record of fines levied against rampant abuse by employers. I believe that history has proven me correct on that assumption.

I figured that a $150 claim by a single employee taken by the employer against a $600 replacement-value mower wasn't going to generate much in the way of fines or glory for him, and wouldn't be worth his time. I was counting on him being more interested in his own interests than defending the interests of my irate ex-employee. Those guys like to get a hold of employers that are rampantly cheating all their employees in a fraudulent way...then they get good press. This dinky claim was just a distraction added to his work load.