Grapple Trucks for pruning companies

Tr33Climb3r

Tr33Climb3r

Participating member
Location
Wisconsin
What would be a good grapple truck? We are a big preservation company. We probably do 90% pruning 10% removals. We rarely get big removals. I want to do more pruning and I am looking to get out of chipping brush on site.
 
Out of curiosity, what are the advantages of a grapple over chipping on site? Especially just for pruning. Seems like if 90% of your work is pruning you could get away with a smaller chipper and truck combo and cut some cost there.
 
For removals (what I do mainly) grapple trucks are a huge boost in productivity.

Casey, are you thinking about above or below CDL? The thing about prunings and grapple trucks is it's very bulky/low density loads... capacity is nice.
 
Lumberjack said:
For removals (what I do mainly) grapple trucks are a huge boost in productivity.

Casey, are you thinking about above or below CDL? The thing about prunings and grapple trucks is it's very bulky/low density loads... capacity is nice.
Click to expand...
It would have to be above cdl. What would be a good capacity.

Side note. I need to call dave. Day one our bmg came with loose nuts/connections. Leaking bad.
 
Most loaders have an installed height around 13'2-4".... good capacity depends on how big of a truck you're wanting and what kind of budget. 50-75 yards would be a reasonable ballpark. Some weigh tickets I saw last week for prunings in a ~65 yard body was 9-11klbs. The work and dump was on the same property, my presumption is not much effort was made to really cram/pack the material in since it was a short haul, but I don't know that to be a fact.

I'm going to be running a rear mount grapple truck with a trailer behind it. The trailer will haul a small loader and the 70' Nifty Lift.... basically a one truck rolling tree company.


What is your average job size? When you say 90% of your work is pruning... what is that based on? Profit, number of jobs, man hours, etc?


Did you get the grapple sorted out?
 
90% would be based on number of jobs, the size can vary by we are starting to get half a day to full day jobs

I need to call dave yet. I will next week
 
Do you have a few places to get rid of material for free or cheap? Or even better your own in house way to get rid of it?
 
Is a grapple truck too much? Would one of those self-loading log trailer style set-ups something that might be considered? Might be totally out of the question, but depends on volume generated, distance to the dump site, etc.

BrendonV used one behind his Dodge 3500, I think.
 
I would think the big question that needs to be answered is how do you get rid of the brush once it's in your grapple truck? Having a grapple truck really open up some doors and enables you to get some bigger removal jobs, or be prepared should a storm roll through.
The thing with chipping is there is always a place to dump chips. And it's free. Getting rid of brush will cost you money. Hopefully not more than your saved my adding a grapple truck, or else you in the same boat.
The idea of stock piling it and chipping it later will never happen. Later never comes, you'll just be busy and it will never get done and your brush will keep piling up. Once option, if you have the space is to bid a big pit. Throw the brush in the pit and then wait for a rainy day and then torch the brush.
 
If you stock pile, cost wise just hire a grinder to come in if you can sell mulch or a biomass company if that's an option. Keeping a machine in the fleet to process the stock pile once or twice a year wouldn't make sense.


You certainly don't have to put the material in a pit to burn it, it burns just fine on top of the ground... a lot easier to manage as well.
 
Lumberjack said:
If you stock pile, cost wise just hire a grinder to come in if you can sell mulch or a biomass company if that's an option. Keeping a machine in the fleet to process the stock pile once or twice a year wouldn't make sense.


You certainly don't have to put the material in a pit to burn it, it burns just fine on top of the ground... a lot easier to manage as well.
Click to expand...

A pit gives you the advantage of burring in the wind. It really depends on your location. I'm not talking a 50 foot pit. Just a 8-10 foot pit that slopes up. Kinda like a bowl. You can manage it with your grapple loader!!
 
If anyone ever needs to get rid of stumps a pit like this gets very interesting. The heat generated down in there is so intense it does things you wouldn't get above ground. I have seen hundreds of stumps burned in a few days in a pit heated up initially by a bunch of brush.
 
Prevailing winds could neccesitate a pit for safety reasons, but usually we only burn on top of the ground.


We weren't paid to stay with the fire so we didn't keep it as pushed up as usual but those videos are 27 hours apart. What was left I hauled in my dump trailer with the excavator. ~4 yards of mainly sticks that got outside the fire.

Regarding stumps, here's a clearing and dirt job I did in 2013. This was the biggest stump.

And this is adding a stump from an area they added. Due to time constraints of the fill dirt coming in I killed the fire and hauled what remained from clearing an acre in a single 40 yard container. We did the dirt side of the project as well... Project cost was around $190k.



My problem with pits is you can end up with a layer of ash and unburned wood in the bottom which needs to be removed before you could use the land for any structure. Burying wood is far worse IMO, but it can lead to corrective work in the future like this job in 2014, excising a bury pit and backfilling. There were simk holes 5' deep and some the size of a four wheeler. Ground water and rain can also cause issues with a pit before it's lit, plus you have a large hole in the ground to deal with. If I had to pit burn I would use an above ground burn box if it was my property.


One of the most important things about burn piles is to build them UP.
 
I would recommend a truck around 50 yards, rear mount loader prentice or Rotobec are what I have used on the two trucks I have built. I would go with a medium duty chassis tandem axle and around a 16k front and shoot for a 58k or greater gvwr my grapple truck I built for my self is a freight liner m2 and its gvwr is 58k and I have a 13k tag axle. It's around 55-60 yards and we can fill it full with a mixture of brush and wood and not be over loaded unless it's mostly green wood. Most of the companies with full out debris trucks with 20k front and 44-46k rears with a 75yd box have a smaller pay load due to the weight of the truck empty also the turning radius is horrible on a lot of the heavy spec chassis. Weight is not an issue when doing disaster relief but for day to day tree work over load fines can get very costly. Feel free to
Give me a call and I can explain some other stuff 937-243-6752.
chassis. image.webpimage.webp
 
image.webp image.webp image.webp A good debris grapple is the most important part of any grapple truck. Do not go cheap on a grapple, this is one that I designed and built my self. Also some frame work that I did on the Mack stretch and add tag axle and hitch plate
 

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