Looking to buy my first knuckle boom crane with a grapplesaw.

Steve Connally said:
I'm closer to 110' vertical and 94' horizontal I went for a 50 for capacity and better for a 280 saw. I went with the truck set up because backing a conventional cab into tight spaces is the best way to maneuver. Truck is about 36' and I didn't want to loose any boom due to the truck body. I have a 54k curb weight. My pusher is to keep me federal bridge law compliant. I never use during set up since its on air bags as well as the suspension. I lift the pusher and drop the chassis air. I took deliver on March of this year. I haven't cracked a driveway that wasn't already cracked. I had a stabilizer crack a sidewalk though. Crappy masonry. If everything is poured to code I shouldn't have any issues anywhere. If in doubt i'll toss mats and bridge edges. Probably the 60 range would have been best for me. I have the height for everything I do. I've only encountered one tree I couldn't safely get the top but as my market has free log pick up from several companies I wish I had a little larger capacity at a farther radius. I usually come out fine on conifers but the Oaks have been weighing off the chart this year. Wet spring and summer. You'll find that's the benefit of the biggest load chart you can finance. I went for broke and went up as high as I could. Not really much I'd change with what I did. Couple very minor tweaks here and there. Now if money was no object Id have bought a new cab and chassis, stepped up in the 60's on the boom range and gotten the 160 and 280 saw. It's an amazing truck. You have many wins but there is also give and take. Understand your log picks at a far radius may not be what you are used to with a 30t stick. Good thing is a smaller truck, the ability to short jack and you can get closer.
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I didn’t know if anybody has used the PM knuckleboom out there. I didn’t know anything about them until I was filled in about them. Seem quite impressive.
 
I have a 37 m ton effer with a jib like the rest of the treemeks and love it. Skip the little altec unit that don't have a jib, It's going to run short on large trees. Not to mention the gmt saw drifts down after u make a cut. U can't have that when working in critical area's around wires or close to roofsResized_20180504_203736_7520.webp
 
All of us that build and sell this type equipment are great resources for you to reach out to. See who is close to you and call. Service on these cranes are big deal don't let that aspect fall between the cracks. Keep in mind the lead time for the crane and the time it takes to build these rigs. We are here to offer help and answer any questions you may have. The only dumb question is the one you don't ask!
 
Westminster Hydraulics said:
All of us that build and sell this type equipment are great resources for you to reach out to. See who is close to you and call. Service on these cranes are big deal don't let that aspect fall between the cracks. Keep in mind the lead time for the crane and the time it takes to build these rigs. We are here to offer help and answer any questions you may have. The only dumb question is the one you don't ask!
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Rick is dead on with this point! It took me 1 month to get a seal kit for a cylinder on my fly jib extension! It obviously had to come out of Italy.
 
Effer definitely has to up their game for parts. If I were to break an extension I'd probably go out of business till it showed up
 
islandedge said:
Rick what did it take to put yoo's truck back on the road?
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Rick came in because the boom sections where jerking when retracting and lubricating the sections weren't correcting the issue. What we found was a lot and I mean a lot of saw dust and twigs packed in and around the back wear pads in everyone of the main boom sections. So each section was removed and washed and re-lubricated. We also found a cracked boom section and to be very honest I felt the crack was partially caused by an oversight by one of my techs during an annual inspection the year before. I replaced the boom section and the time it took to replace that section at my expense.

When this movement started with the grapple saws, I said that the saw dust was going to cause problems with these knuckle booms. Everyone that owns one of these rigs needs to wash out the boom sections throughout the year. Everyone should invest in a pressure washer. Stretch out the boom section and do your best to wash that crap out.

If your boom sections are to the point of being jerky you may have to pony up and have the sections removed to be cleaned properly.
 
Not surprised to hear of that sort of problem caused by saw dust on grease eating, sliding boom parts. Stick booms are the market leader in my parts, and greasing them like the book says to do isn't done on the trucks owned by the ones that know better.
 
islandedge said:
I have a 37 m ton effer with a jib like the rest of the treemeks and love it. Skip the little altec unit that don't have a jib, It's going to run short on large trees. Not to mention the gmt saw drifts down after u make a cut. U can't have that when working in critical area's around wires or close to roofsView attachment 54016
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I would like to respond to the saw drifting down on the gierkink. This was my impression also until I talked to and. Watched an operator using one. He showed me how to operate it so the saw doesn’t drift down after the cut so that is not an issue once the piece is cut. There are other differences between the Mecanil and gierkink. Research the 2 and visit someone who has been using. Each so you can decide which fits your application better. It’s worth the extra time to research both the saw truck and crane to get what suits you best.
 
Westminster Hydraulics said:
Rick came in because the boom sections where jerking when retracting and lubricating the sections weren't correcting the issue. What we found was a lot and I mean a lot of saw dust and twigs packed in and around the back wear pads in everyone of the main boom sections. So each section was removed and washed and re-lubricated. We also found a cracked boom section and to be very honest I felt the crack was partially caused by an oversight by one of my techs during an annual inspection the year before. I replaced the boom section and the time it took to replace that section at my expense.

When this movement started with the grapple saws, I said that the saw dust was going to cause problems with these knuckle booms. Everyone that owns one of these rigs needs to wash out the boom sections throughout the year. Everyone should invest in a pressure washer. Stretch out the boom section and do your best to wash that crap out.

If your boom sections are to the point of being jerky you may have to pony up and have the sections removed to be cleaned properly.
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Can you humor me and tell us what the price tag for removing the boom sections and cleaning the sawdust out comes out to? Ballpark-wise.
 
allmark said:
I would like to respond to the saw drifting down on the gierkink. This was my impression also until I talked to and. Watched an operator using one. He showed me how to operate it so the saw doesn’t drift down after the cut so that is not an issue once the piece is cut. There are other differences between the Mecanil and gierkink. Research the 2 and visit someone who has been using. Each so you can decide which fits your application better. It’s worth the extra time to research both the saw truck and crane to get what suits you best.
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I stand corrected Mark, my buddy watched one in action as well the other week with you all and mentioned this to me the other day. I guess that feature must have been added since i last inquired about them..? Carl @Lumberjack you've used both the mecanil and gmt, can u help us out?
 
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In this particular situation like when I'm over the primary wires i can actually apply the tilt function up before i even make the cut for extra clearance. Without being able to do what i just mentioned even if the gmt/mecanil don't drift, just from the momentum after the cut it will have the tendency to bounce down after the cut.. Zoom in on the pic to see how close the primary was on this particular cut.20180823_175259.webp
 
tjr said:
I didn’t know if anybody has used the PM knuckleboom out there. I didn’t know anything about them until I was filled in about them. Seem quite impressive.
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The one to keep in mind is all of these different brands of knucklebooms (Palfinger, Copma, PM, Effer, Hiab, etc.) can in theory be modified to use the grapple saw. As a few others pointed out earlier is service is an big deal. If you can't take care of it mostly yourself then make sure you can have an shop near by. Also if your going with an used truck, make sure to really look hard for an good one. I have talked to a few people that went used and the truck was down so much they couldn't utilize the crane.

Key things to keep in mind: Budget, desired reach & capacity, payload or no payload. Also when people talk load charts make sure to remember to deduct the weight of your attachment from the load chart so you have an realistic idea what you can do with it.
 
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