First order of business

Fivepoints, I'm not sure of all the benefits of a hook lift. Some are, not getting out of the cab to hook up if you don't want to, not having cables to wear out - creating jaggers as they do and routinely ventilating your hands, faster cycle time.... Also a big hyd cylinder with a hook attached to it can be used in a lot of other creative ways if you're game - lifting, pulling, etc.
 
It’s a great feeling when you purchase your first piece of equipment whether it’s a dump trailer or something bigger.

Completely changes the game because now for the most part you don’t have to rely on anyone else to do your jobs. No worrying about scheduling with subs, or paying them unless you get into stuff that’s out of your capacity.

Who else remembers that at the beginning? Makes a world of difference.
 
If getting rid of material is the tricky thing in your area I'd be wondering how to monetize the waste stream... mulch making, milling, firewood...
 
If you're in a rural/forested area, buy a mini skid and sell the home owners on letting you drag brush into the woods and slash it down. Drag wood out into the woods. Most of the time if I just have a couple of logs to truck out that will be inconvenient/dumb to bring in a log loader for, I will convince the homeowner to let me discard them somewhere if there are woods nearby. Very often they don't care and worst case give them 100 off and they're good. Occasionally that doesn't work at all tho.... Otherwise, the log truck comes in. I have chip trucks and chippers and mini. Got a great connect with a logger who owns multiple log trucks and he charges me $100/hr to truck wood for me. Plus he has all the connections of where to put everything. Saves me a fortune not having to buy or maintain one.

I think that is a huge step up from just doing "no clean up" work for a fraction of the cost of any other sort of upgrade. If I could go back I would have bought a mini before any other machinery. Presumably you have something capable of towing 3k pounds? Or you might even be able to put it right in your bed. I'v put mine in the back of a single rear wheel f350.... Definitely shouldn't, but it can be done!

Grapple truck would be good, but very expensive first move. Also, need parking. Might mean paying. Add that to your payment, plus very expensive maintenance, repair, insurance, registration. In MA to get a triaxle self loader on the road is like $10k per year in registration and insurance if it's a half decent ($60-$120k) machine. If you can weasel your way into an "agricultural exemption" it's nowhere near that. Have to report firewood sales as schedule F for more than $1k in a year and hope no one follows you around to check up on you.....

If you had a free dump site a mile away then there's no question go for the grapple truck. If you have to drive 30 minutes one way to pay to dump, forget about it... Do what your local community/economy will profit you most for doing.
 
Also, do you have a good relationship with a diesel mechanic? If you can't get your expensive truck fixed when it breaks quickly, that can upset the legitimacy of your business because you'll have to bail on people. You're still going to have to make your payment while potentially getting nailed by your diesel mechanic.

Also, little guys get sidelined by diesel mechanics. Happened to me for a long time. You're one little truck, though expensive and important to you, is like a baby's toy to guys that have contracts with huge companies with lots of trucks. They aren't going to rush to your aid. They might say they'll get to it soon, but hold you up for weeks, charge you 4k for something, and then you discover they did a shit job and cause other things to go wrong and the saga continues. All of a sudden your $20k cushion takes a downward spike...

Idk, it happened to me.

Eventually met a young guy with a mobile diesel service and that has helped me out a lot. It's something you have to think about if you're going to get into that size machine.

So, if you have a good diesel guy, he's going to save you mucho dinero senor!
 
What do you have so far to work with? Do you have a truck? Then you have that small chipper you put on your bike trailer right?
I always thought a small great set up would be a dump trailer with a platform on the front. Get a tracked chipper that can mount sideways. Then get a f-650 type truck that also has a platform in front of the chip box. This could hold your loader of choice. You have basically two places to chip into or have wood space in the dump trailer and then chip into the truck. The tracked chipper can go anywhere if needed or stay placed on the platform of the dump trailer.
The toughest thing would be finding a compact tracked chipper that could still do a decent sized piece.
 
Tr33Climb3r said:
What do you have so far to work with? Do you have a truck? Then you have that small chipper you put on your bike trailer right?
I always thought a small great set up would be a dump trailer with a platform on the front. Get a tracked chipper that can mount sideways. Then get a f-650 type truck that also has a platform in front of the chip box. This could hold your loader of choice. You have basically two places to chip into or have wood space in the dump trailer and then chip into the truck. The tracked chipper can go anywhere if needed or stay placed on the platform of the dump trailer.
The toughest thing would be finding a compact tracked chipper that could still do a decent sized piece.
Click to expand...
Found this US based small compact tracked chipper.
 
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