Spider lifts… I know

Treeline

Treeline

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Location
Albany
I know, not another thread on spider lifts!
I am in the market for something taller than my 60’ bucket truck. I want something for employees to run, since hiring a climber seems to be a thing of the past. I’m looking into spider lifts since we do a lot of crane removals. I’d love a nifty but 70’ isn’t gonna get us to the top of our GA Pines. That leaves me with spiders. If I were to buy a used unit, how many hours are too many on these machines? I’ve ran buckets with 10k+ Hours that were fine, but I know spiders are another animal. I’ve seen several used units with around 1k hours for sale, but I’m terrified with all the news of breakdowns and boom failures. I also don’t really want to shell out 170k for a new 90’ lift.
 
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Treeline said:
I know, not another thread on spider lifts!
I am in the market for something taller than my 60’ bucket truck. I want something for employee to run since hiring a climber seems to be a thing of the past. I’m looking into spider lifts since we do a lot of crane removals. I’d love a nifty but 70’ isn’t gonna get us to the top of our GA Pines. That leaves me with spiders. If I were to buy a used unit, how many hours are too many on these machines. I’ve ran buckets with 10k+ Hours that were fine, but I know spiders are another animal. I’ve seen several used units with around 1k hours but I’m terrified with all the news of breakdowns and boom failures, but I also don’t really want to shell out 170k for a new 90’ lift.
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If your going used hire a third party to inspect it it’s worth whatever they charge to save you a lot of $ and headaches down the road. ill keep an eye out for any good ones for you. I’m not ready to sell mine yet.
 
Hours is a hard question, largely it comes down to how well the machine was maintained. One thousand hours is nothing to worry about at all, 3k is getting up there a bit, but may not be a bad thing if you’ll care for it and if it won’t be run hard every single day. How much will you use it? If the answer is 1000 hours a year, buying new or near is a good idea. If it’s only going to be 100 hours a year, higher hours on the machine isn’t as much of a concern.
 
Reach said:
Hours is a hard question, largely it comes down to how well the machine was maintained. One thousand hours is nothing to worry about at all, 3k is getting up there a bit, but may not be a bad thing if you’ll care for it and if it won’t be run hard every single day. How much will you use it? If the answer is 1000 hours a year, buying new or near is a good idea. If it’s only going to be 100 hours a year, higher hours on the machine isn’t as much of a concern.
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We will definitely care for it and run it properly every day… but did the previous owner do the same? That’s the scary part. We’d probably put close to 1k a year on it. I’m pretty comfortable and knowledgeable with used equipment, but like I said these lifts are sort of out of my ballpark and unheard of in my area.
 
Treeline said:
We will definitely care for it and run it properly every day… but did the previous owner do the same? That’s the scary part. We’d probably put close to 1k a year on it. I’m pretty comfortable and knowledgeable with used equipment, but like I said these lifts are sort of out of my ballpark and unheard of in my area.
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It’s hard to be completely sure about the care the former owner gave the lift, but take a close look and you can usually tell. Is it beat up or dirty? Or does it look neat and clean? That’s usually a good indicator of maintenance. They’re really no different than any other machine, just a little more delicate to operate.

If you’re going to run it that much, buy something new or newer, or you will need to buy another one quite soon.
 
So a CMC 83 hd has a life span I was told of 10k hrs and then are supposed to be dismantled
So I would think at 5k hrs should be worth at 50% of a new machine (well taken care of)
Don’t know if it’s 100% accurate
So I agree if I was to purchase a second hand machine pay for the inspection by a well known company
Worth every penny
A spider lift can be damaged or flipped with under 1 hr
 
Where are you, GA or NY?
A 70’ would be fine in Albany and most places around the northeast.
 
Jonny said:
Where are you, GA or NY?
A 70’ would be fine in Albany and most places around the northeast.
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Albany, GA! A 70 would do fine for us most of the time if we were doing old fashioned negative rigging or cut and drop, but we use a crane for 80% of our removals so we need to get to the tops of our pines. Most of our pines are 80-90 feet with the occasional 100 footer. I have cut one that was 120’
 
Treeline said:
Albany, GA! A 70 would do fine for us most of the time if we were doing old fashioned negative rigging or cut and drop, but we use a crane for 80% of our removals so we need to get to the tops of our pines. Most of our pines are 80-90 feet with the occasional 100 footer. I have cut one that was 120’
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We use our reach way more than height that’s one of the reasons we went with a 83 vs 72
 
Treeline said:
Is an articulating boom a must? Or will a straight boom work just as well?
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Are all your trees straight as an arrow with perfectly horizontal limbs? Or do you occasionally have to reach over or under something?

Straight booms are great for working along buildings and in open areas, but I’ve never liked them for trees.
 
OasisTree said:
Dinolift. Not sure if there are many used ones though
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I’ve looked long and hard at dinolift 92rxt. I feel it is the perfect lift for my area as we don’t typically have any major access constraints. But I can’t find anyone who has one. I’m concerned about what kind of issues and support that will come with the brand.
 
Reach said:
Are all your trees straight as an arrow with perfectly horizontal limbs? Or do you occasionally have to reach over or under something?

Straight booms are great for working along buildings and in open areas, but I’ve never liked them for trees.
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Our pines, yes. Live oaks, not so much. I see what you mean. As far as over and around limbs. We will most likely be keeping our over center bucket truck that would be able to handle our live oaks
 
Treeline said:
I’ve looked long and hard at dinolift 92rxt. I feel it is the perfect lift for my area as we don’t typically have any major access constraints. But I can’t find anyone who has one. I’m concerned about what kind of issues and support that will come with the brand.
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We have a nifty, and I feel that if you don't have access issues the wheeled machines are far superior in positioning stability and ground speed. Plus we never pad out to our work, and tracking up yards has not been an issue.
 
OasisTree said:
We have a nifty, and I feel that if you don't have access issues the wheeled machines are far superior in positioning stability and ground speed. Plus we never pad out to our work, and tracking up yards has not been an issue.
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Honestly a nifty is what I want, plenty of happy customers and extremely simple machine, I love the turf tires and everything about it. I have demoed one, I just wish they had a taller option. It might come down to us getting a nifty and continuing to climb with our crane when needed.
 
Treeline said:
Honestly a nifty is what I want, plenty of happy customers and extremely simple machine, I love the turf tires and everything about it. I have demoed one, I just wish they had a taller option. It might come down to us getting a nifty and continuing to climb with our crane when needed.
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That's what we do. But even if you have to set chokers off of ropes, it's still nice to be back in the bucket to make your cuts.
 
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