Estimating required MEWP size

[NickinMids]

Looking at MEWPS today at APF and was surprised when told height and reach. When you look at a tree how do you accurately judge the height

[kentjames]

To accurately work it out recently when deciding on the machine required i put in the throw line with a big shot and hoisted up a site tape (100m) and worked it out from that. Measured the diagonal to the area that the mewp would need to be, then the distance to the tree and the approximate height (shrubs were in the way too) then compared this to the charts readily available on the net for each machine.

 

The answer basically dictated a need for Tom's Omme machine of cannon access on here - who i must call next week! :-)

[monkeybusiness]

Always get a bigger mewp than you think you need, and remember that outreach is more important than anything else for tree work. Having too small a mewp for a particular job is always bad news and can be dangerous as you can't always position the machine properly to do the job safely. 20m tree = 25m mewp IMO.

[Gray git]

Well you normally end up going 1 of two ways on estimating what you need.

Either you go big and don't need all that the machine can give or you go smaller and end up wishing you'd gon the former when you can't reach it all and still end up climbing it.

Normally comes down to £, access and what's available locally.

[woody paul]

To measure height of tree I have took silky pole saw put it against tree for reference then multipled it up to top.

But always go bigger saves moving to many times.

[Cannon Access]

It's often hard to get an accurate measurement, I use a laser which works out height and reach for me (it has a built in angle measurer and does the trigonometry internally!), but it is useless in bright light and hard to use on trees with thin dead branches.

 

Using a pole or something of known length along side is a good method, most of the time it just comes down to judgement, but as said above- always aim for a bigger machine than the height of the tree. This means you have spare outreach which means less manoeuvring on the ground, less setting up time, and most importantly there is less chance of dropping branches on the machine. The difference in cost is not usually massive, and if it saves an hour on site it could mean you and your lads get away earlier saving a bit of cash too.

 

One of my regular customers swears by my new articulated Omme, although dearer than the straight telescopic version- he can set up much further away and sometimes get several trees from one spot.

[Marc Lewis]

Veryt true gray git and monkeybusiness.

 

There are some good apps you can get on your phone for measuring tree heights.

[woody paul]

Were you can use a wheeled MEWP will speed up job as well no need to set up in the right place as you can move when up.

[NickinMids]

Thanks for all the good advice above. After reading the recent debate on climbing versus MEWP its made me think about it again. We have a job on next week which I think may partly benefit from a MEWP...maybe a couple of days within a week long job.

Which are the best Hirers to try in the West Midlands...probably need a tracked one..15mts high 15 mts reach..?

[kev7937]

I get the hire co to send a surveyor round and advise which machine is best.