Which tracked MEWP to choose

[Ty Korrigan]

36 minutes ago, monkeybusiness said:

I bought a pair of second hand Teupens - they nearly broke me. The UK service agent was beyond dreadful. The machines were fantastic when they worked, but seemingly impossible to fix when they didn’t (which was most of the time unfortunately). 
I would never entertain one out of warranty again. 

 

What are the common faults?

This one is a 2017.

I also viewed a Spider 20:95 at a 'local' dealer on Tuesday.

The model I saw was not for sale but hire stock.

Dealer told me they never sell their used stock within France but ship it East.

New €78k, €10k more than the exact same machine in Van-der-Clog land.

Most everything in France carries a hefty price weighting.

 

Edited April 4 by Ty Korrigan

[Conor Wright]

To be honest I'd have a hard look at the finances of buying new. The simple machines are all old now and most will suffer from some form of fatigue. The newer ones that are for sale have usually been worked hard to pay for themselves (hire fleets, machines constantly onsite and out in the rain, lack of grease etc) and are so full of electrics they just do give trouble.

I looked into a few mewp brands after selling my old hinowa. In the end I decided to just hire in as needed as I don't need one all the time, probably average a week or less a month now.

I nearly bought a platform basket, they seemed to be the least complex machines, the newer hinowas have a terrible reputation with both hire companies I'm now using and I've been stuck up in one of them twice in a week.

If you have the money the leguan machines are well put together and are great on poor ground. Mad money though.

I'm talking irish prices here so don't know if it's relevant to you but the platform basket 18mtr was 64k the 15.75 mtr hinowa was 56k the 19mtr leguan was 105k. All plus vat. I know they're not quite like for like but it's a guide. All summer 23 prices.

[monkeybusiness]

15 minutes ago, Ty Korrigan said:

 

What are the common faults?

This one is a 2017.

I also viewed a Spider 20:95 at a 'local' dealer on Tuesday.

The model I saw was not for sale but hire stock.

Dealer told me they never sell their used stock within France but ship it East.

New €78k, €10k more than the exact same machine in Van-der-Clog land.

Most everything in France carries a hefty price weighting.

 

Wiring and control panels were the issues I had. All the dealer wanted to do was sell me new panels (over £1500 a pop, and there were 2 of them) to ‘try’. And also joysticks at near enough £1k each, but they couldn’t tell which was faulty so needed to sell me 2. And no returning parts supplied for incorrect diagnosis. And always money up front. Absolute scam, the machines are way too complicated, they need to only live inside out of the rain and never be used….

[MattyF]

On 29/07/2022 at 18:34, Joe Newton said:

I get mewp work fairly regularly,  I'm working alongside them as often as I'm working from them.

 

Depends how much pruning work you do really. If your work is mainly removals I find mewps can get in the way.

 

I'd have one in a heartbeat though. The one I mentioned if the best one I've worked with. 

I don’t know if I agree with that statement mate , in my view all tree work is easier except maybe dead wooding out of a mewp especially removals.. I think that’s when a mewp really comes in to its own with the ability to set up big rigging for stems without teetering around on spikes with a 3ft bar , big pulleys and heavy ropes.. raising crowns is easier , reductions take a knack as you kind of have to relearn them as most of us are used to picking a line from inside the crown they can look a bit odd and out of balance until you get used to finding that line again looking in from the outside of the crown and it’s very easy to over prune and leave an unnatural finish…
I think as long as you have a relatively fast mewp moving it for positioning as it’s needed for most trees to get the most and keep things safe I don’t think it is no different to a climber having to re route and certainly isn’t as fatiguing. 

[AHPP]

1 hour ago, Conor Wright said:

To be honest I'd have a hard look at the finances of buying new. The simple machines are all old now and most will suffer from some form of fatigue. The newer ones that are for sale have usually been worked hard to pay for themselves (hire fleets, machines constantly onsite and out in the rain, lack of grease etc) and are so full of electrics they just do give trouble.

I looked into a few mewp brands after selling my old hinowa. In the end I decided to just hire in as needed as I don't need one all the time, probably average a week or less a month now.

I nearly bought a platform basket, they seemed to be the least complex machines, the newer hinowas have a terrible reputation with both hire companies I'm now using and I've been stuck up in one of them twice in a week.

If you have the money the leguan machines are well put together and are great on poor ground. Mad money though.

I'm talking irish prices here so don't know if it's relevant to you but the platform basket 18mtr was 64k the 15.75 mtr hinowa was 56k the 19mtr leguan was 105k. All plus vat. I know they're not quite like for like but it's a guide. All summer 23 prices.

 

Depressing post. I hired a lovely little (fairly old) Hinowa 1470 yesterday. Manual levelling, analogue everything. No quicker to move and setup than a newer machine but I had no strandings, sensor strops or frustrating alarm/no-go moves all day. It just worked. Compared to the last machine I had, a (fairly new) 25m ish CMC. Piece of shit. Had a guy in who works with the brand all the time. Stumped him consistently. Stuck in the air pressing buttons and wearing out the starter motor for twenty minutes at a time etc. He put the cage down on a little coppice stool - twenty minutes gone while we saw it out from underneath to appease a sensor. This is the future; barely-usable, stifling safety bollocks.

 

Hugely disappointed to hear Hinowa are going downhill. They've been my favourite for years. Easy decision making when choosing what to hire.

Edited April 4 by AHPP

[AHPP]

1 hour ago, MattyF said:

I don’t know if I agree with that statement mate , in my view all tree work is easier except maybe dead wooding out of a mewp especially removals.. I think that’s when a mewp really comes in to its own with the ability to set up big rigging for stems without teetering around on spikes with a 3ft bar , big pulleys and heavy ropes.. raising crowns is easier , reductions take a knack as you kind of have to relearn them as most of us are used to picking a line from inside the crown they can look a bit odd and out of balance until you get used to finding that line again looking in from the outside of the crown and it’s very easy to over prune and leave an unnatural finish…
I think as long as you have a relatively fast mewp moving it for positioning as it’s needed for most trees to get the most and keep things safe I don’t think it is no different to a climber having to re route and certainly isn’t as fatiguing. 

 

For we too shit with or too lazy to use throwlines, mewping past a fat stem into a climbable crown is huge. Did exactly that deadwooding and cleaning crossers etc on Tuesday. Up the pickers for anything I say.

[Joe Newton]

2 hours ago, MattyF said:

I don’t know if I agree with that statement mate , in my view all tree work is easier except maybe dead wooding out of a mewp especially removals.. I think that’s when a mewp really comes in to its own with the ability to set up big rigging for stems without teetering around on spikes with a 3ft bar , big pulleys and heavy ropes.. raising crowns is easier , reductions take a knack as you kind of have to relearn them as most of us are used to picking a line from inside the crown they can look a bit odd and out of balance until you get used to finding that line again looking in from the outside of the crown and it’s very easy to over prune and leave an unnatural finish…
I think as long as you have a relatively fast mewp moving it for positioning as it’s needed for most trees to get the most and keep things safe I don’t think it is no different to a climber having to re route and certainly isn’t as fatiguing. 

I get what you're saying. My main point is that on most large removals, drop zones are usually limited at best which means parking a very expensive machine in harms way. Especially in urban scenarios where you're limited as to where you can set up the machine. 

 

Rigging can also be a right pain, having to position the basket close to the peice to make your cuts, and trying to move out the way before the swing back. I know i can move clear faster on spikes.

 

If there's a nice clear drop zone and plenty of options to position the mewp then it's fine, but then i could probably climb and free fall the tree equally as quickly. 

[AHPP]

16 minutes ago, Joe Newton said:

Rigging can also be a right pain, having to position the basket close to the peice to make your cuts, and trying to move out the way before the swing back. I know i can move clear faster on spikes.

 

Yep. Had this yesterday. Told the guy to run it because I wanted it down, away from the basket. He ran it through a fence.

[Joe Newton]

1 hour ago, AHPP said:

 

Yep. Had this yesterday. Told the guy to run it because I wanted it down, away from the basket. He ran it through a fence.

Cheaper than a mewp though!

 

I don't mind dying a few rigs when needed from a basket, but if its a full rig down I'd prefer to climb.

 

If its a big tree that all needs rigging you're generally into crane territory anyway. 

[AHPP]

I feel more naturally disposed to climbing than pickers too but I've always assumed that's because I only use them a few times a year so I'm probably just not that good with them.

 

It comes down to economics as always. I had a guy put a rope in the top of a 3 stemmed conifer from a picker a couple of months ago because it was already on the site. We agreed it was a climbing tree but five minutes' fighting through brash at the top meant I had a lovely safe, easy skin-up climb the next morning. No way would I have hired the machine in just for that though.

 

Forgetting what point I was making...