benedmonds

But how did you get it on the truck..?

So do you think it saved a considerable amount of time, or just made the job easier?

I am not knocking you, as I am seriously considering a machine and honestly interested... did the loader really help much there? Surely the chipper was just off shot so no real drag and a man could have dragged that branch in the chipper by the time the operator had climbed in the cab..? Or am I missing something?

This has been the conclusion I generally come to after considering the options....

I tried the kanga as that is the smallest loader and it was too small but also too big.. It was just compomised in every way... If that makes sense. . I guess if it had not trashed the ground the compromise might have been acceptable. .

I don't see that. The ones I have seen would not fit in most gardens, are not great for feeding chippers, and are very expensive.. If you need a yard machine then yes they will also fill that role but if you have a proper tractor you don't need that..

There is deffo no right answer.. But there are lot's of different solutions, some I may not have even thought about... What you really need is one of everything but that is not economically viable.... I am in the position that I now run 3 teams, so something that might only get used on 1 in 5 jobs would be used 3 times a week... But staff IME are generally not nearly as careful as an owner operator, so "little" issues like messing up a lawn with a skid steer or knocking over a wall with a loader are considerably more likely to happen and all the potential savings can be lost and headaches fixing problems created..

I am looking at an efficient/cost effective way to help the guys get arising's, mostly the big logs onto the trucks. Most of our work is domestic and the big stuff with big space we have a loader tractor and grain trailer. This also deals with yard duties.... We also have a hiab that attaches to the tractor, but.. the tractor diver is a director and doesn't have time to get on site much... It is normal for us to have at least 2 trucks on a takedown, so towing chipper and something else doable.. Option 1. Tail lift. and arb trolley.. This is what we have been doing, but we have removed the tail lift from one of our 3.5 tonners as the truck was easily overloaded.. We still have one on the 6.5 tonner so that can go to the big takedowns.. Option 2. Mini skid steer loader.. We tried the Kanga, it was still pretty big and made a mess... I did not see much use. a bigger machine might be better but it would be too big.. Option 3. Power barrow/micro arb truck. Drive it onto the trailer and tip the logs.. you are limited to what it will carry, but pretty cheap solution. Power barrows have some pretty poor reviews online.. Option 4. Big truck with hiab and grab. Expensive, no help to trees in back garden.. If mounted on more then a 7.5 tonner even more driver licencing issues and not legally going to carry much.. Option 5. 2.5 ton digger with grab. This could be towed on a trailer, could it load the trucks? How much can they lift? Feed the chipper.. and have numerous other uses.. no help in small gardens.. Option 6. Articulated loader. Expensive, benefits limited as to big most of the time and we have a tractor that can do much of the other stuff that it would be useful for.. Option 7. Hook loader. could drop the body on the floor and make it easy to load? Can you tip with a hook loader? different bodies could be useful. one for chip. one for logs.. Any other ideas...? Comments.. Currently thinking option 3 as cheapish... but think 5 might be a good long term solution..

I had a power line company offer to "prune" a tree for free after I had contacted them as part of a job.. I arranged it and we were onsite during the works, they were right butchers, and so we spent some time making it look nice and we did the clear up.. I invoiced the client.

I spent a summer in Bimini in the Bahamas tagging sharks with them, 20 years ago.. Apparently they will normally last the life of the shark and they are still doing it. http://www.biminisharklab.com/Shark Research

It's tricky, the council TO's rarely care about the ongoing costs. I have an appeal in at the moment where a client can't sell his house as the garden is basically a tree... He has been living there 40 years with this tree, a nice enough tree but totally unsuitable for a small garden. It is unfair that to sell his house he would have to massively reduce the cost of his property. He is paying a HUGE cost for the perceived benefit of the many..

My ear piece goes in at 7am and stays in till dinner..

I noticed my EE booster did not work at speeds around 2mg.

I have an EE signal booster. Without it I can't get a signal in the house. I don't know how it works but you need to have reasonable broadband as it did not work when broadband was running at 2mg. Now with fibre at 60mg It is fine.. My solution when it wasn't working was to leave my phone hanging outside the front door were I could get a signal and wear my Bluetooth earpiece while in the house... Not an elegant solution but it meant I missed less calls...

The kanga is lower only 1.2m so just high enough to get the logs onto the back but not really high enough to tip them off. If I could get one for £3,000 I think I would as on certain sites they would be very useful. But you do need a road way across lawns.. What we need is a mini hovercraft.. or even better a drone..

We demoed a kanga today, on the sort of domestic job that make up a lot of our work. Clearing a back garden felling some smallish trees largest 15m tall. probably a 3.5 tonner load of logs and a 7.5 tonner of chip.. So a fair amount to shift. The tracks are 800 wide but the grab is 900. The passage way was 890.. We get it in the small garden and handball the grab in, and didn't take me long to realise it was going to make a massive mess.. I am sure they have their uses but for the domestic stuff that makes up 90% of my work, I can't see it being much help. On bigger sites maybe but then a bigger machine would be better.. http://www.kangaloader.co.uk/shop/i-3-3-kanga-tk216---kid---2-series--tracked-mini-loader---16hp-honda-petrol/

I know there have been a few threads in the past but nothing for a while. I am talking really mini. The walk behinds, kanga, skidster, boxter, etc.. Are they any good for domestic tree work.. The avant etc are too big to get into most domestic gardens and we have a proper tractor we use if access is good, these smaller walk behinds look like they could be helpful but who uses one and are they worth the hefty price tag..

We were insured with them for years, one year I checked the small print in our renewal and it mentioned we were not covered to work at height.. No one at NFU had thought to highlight this to us..

I saw you...

Katie ran a course for us. Worth doing. Much better then the non specific red cross ones.. we had space for a few more so invited other local arb firms. Helped keep costs down. .

We are considering no replacing ours, the guys love them but they are just not up to the abuse they get. I have a feeling they are being used when really a 200t would be more suitable... I am sure an owner operator who looks after and moves to a bigger saw when they need to would get many happy years use but when not loved they don't seem to last long.

Different thread..

I have had this and some staff find it difficult to understand that it costs more than just their days wages. If you take additional time of unpaid then it should theoretically effect your holiday entitlement... and it is a pain in the planning.. I try to be fair and accommodating and will let guys work a day in liew on Saturdays if they need extra days off. We also stipulate in the contract that we can choose when a certain number of the days off are as we want a shutdown over Christmas..

Me too.. again it makes me think some of us old timers are keeping the rates down.. I am at the cheaper half, where I have always tried to compete on doing a better more efficient job.

Following on from the thread on rates, I thought we could try a poll. Many (including myself) are not comfortable putting actual figures on a public forum and I find even in private most don't share their rates and the few that do may not be representative.. A poll should allow us to anonymously post rates and see where we fit in the scheme of things... My hope is that some will realise the error of their ways and increase their rates...Allowing us all to earn more for less work.. I know there will be regional differences but to try to minimise that can anyone from the SE and London just not take part..you can have your own poll I also know people have different kit and therefore different rates but if you adjust your quote for a team consisting of climber, second climber and groundie with a 3.5 ton truck and 6 inch chipper. An average 8 hour day, standard domestic or commercial works... To make it comparable include VAT if VAT registered