Tree guys who do non tree crane work.

[Treeline]

We have had our 40-ton crane for over 2 years and have stuck to trees only with a few exceptions. We keep the crane busy 2-3 days a week, but obviously, I'd like to have it working 5 days so I am looking to step into the commercial crane rental world: a/c's, trusses, tanks, industrial equipment etc.
Who else is doing this on a regular basis? I'm looking for any pointers or tips someone is willing to share. Is the additional income worth the trouble and additional insurance cost? We have a decent assortment of endless roundslings and shackles, but I know we would need more and probably a spreader or 3 but I don't know where to start with basic rigging required for most jobs. I have one plant local to me that has said they would use us for scheduled maintenance and emergencies mostly lifting electric motors to the roof. I also have contacts at a handful of other companies that would likely be willing to hire us as they have used us for trees several times. I have a trusted employee that is nccco certified so he can run the crane while I keep the tree crew rolling, so it seems like a no brainer.

 

[Rooted.Tree.Solutions]

I’m also interested in hearing comments on this topic!

 

[allmark]

I have done a lot of non tree work lifts. The important part you already stated is you are able to keep the tree portion rolling so it doesn't cut into that. Shackles and slings are the basic necessities. They will handle electric motors, HVAC units, Generators etc. For trusses you would get into truss hooks and spreader bars.

 

[Treeline]

I have done a lot of non tree work lifts. The important part you already stated is you are able to keep the tree portion rolling so it doesn't cut into that. Shackles and slings are the basic necessities. They will handle electric motors, HVAC units, Generators etc. For trusses you would get into truss hooks and spreader bars.

Do you have a basic set up you keep on the crane for this type of work? Right now In addition to our dead eye sling sets for trees, I keep 4) 20’ 13k endless round slings, 4) 16’ 8k endless round slings, 4) 3/4” pin shackles and 4) 1” pin shackles

 

[allmark]

I also have 1" eye and eye slings, double ply. they work well for HVAC etc. also sling protectors to protect slings from sharp edges.

 

[oceans]

We have had our 40-ton crane for over 2 years and have stuck to trees only with a few exceptions. We keep the crane busy 2-3 days a week, but obviously, I'd like to have it working 5 days so I am looking to step into the commercial crane rental world: a/c's, trusses, tanks, industrial equipment etc.
Who else is doing this on a regular basis? I'm looking for any pointers or tips someone is willing to share. Is the additional income worth the trouble and additional insurance cost? We have a decent assortment of endless roundslings and shackles, but I know we would need more and probably a spreader or 3 but I don't know where to start with basic rigging required for most jobs. I have one plant local to me that has said they would use us for scheduled maintenance and emergencies mostly lifting electric motors to the roof. I also have contacts at a handful of other companies that would likely be willing to hire us as they have used us for trees several times. I have a trusted employee that is nccco certified so he can run the crane while I keep the tree crew rolling, so it seems like a no brainer.

The world outside trees is vast, but each thing has its own niche. Just for instamce…a good number of crane companies are “crane and welding”, which greatly widens their scope of services. You may just want to think of lifting services that require little more than owning additional rigging.

Beyond that, you would have to talk to your insurance agent about the additional applications you will cover with your crane. Make sure you’re covered, and also make sure you’re covered by meeting the best practices of those other industries.

I say this kindly…Just be careful what you ask for, You may find you have build up another company all together.

 

[Treeline]

I say this kindly…Just be careful what you ask for, You may find you have build up another company all together.

I completely understand what you are saying here... I have had the thought myself and made peace with the potential consequences. I don't think my feelings would be hurt if we ended up being more "crane company" than a "tree company." Hacks completely dominate our market with ropes, skid steers, and no insurance and they do their best to keep the market run down. I'd be ok if we specialized in crane removals only for trees. We have done a decent amount of subbing to other tree services this year where we provide crane and climber. I really enjoy not having to clean up, haul debris, or grind stumps.

 

[oceans]

I completely understand what you are saying here... I have had the thought myself and made peace with the potential consequences. I don't think my feelings would be hurt if we ended up being more "crane company" than a "tree company." Hacks completely dominate our market with ropes, skid steers, and no insurance and they do their best to keep the market run down. I'd be ok if we specialized in crane removals only for trees. We have done a decent amount of subbing to other tree services this year where we provide crane and climber. I really enjoy not having to clean up, haul debris, or grind stumps.

My brother and I have often talked over the years about the challenges of bringing a huge and expensive bag of tools to people’s property and performing a service. It is sooooo much easier in many ways to be a specialized sub. Totally get that, and I enjoy the days I sub with my spider crane. I just don’t want to rely too much on others for work. Just thinking about @Steve Connally right now and his slow period. I’m sure it will pick back up. Hopefully if you change your business and decide to downsize your quiver of services you can still retrain and keep all the good employees you have.

 

[Fivepoints]

I too have looked at this. We get several calls a month from folks wanting other crane work. So far we have only stuck to trees. We are planning to get nccco certs towards the end of this year. I'm not sure I want to venture into other crane work just because we stay so busy already. On the other hand, I should be able to physically do crane work until retirement. Not so sure about full on tree work. Our market has a bunch of folk with no insurance operating in it. Seems like a new guy pops up every couple of weeks with almost no experience. We also have ended up with a fleet due to my crane addiction. We have two 35 ton groves, a 2892 manitex boom truck, and our new to us gmk3050. Kinda hard not to look at other crane work with all those sitting in our lot.

 

[oceans]

I too have looked at this. We get several calls a month from folks wanting other crane work. So far we have only stuck to trees. We are planning to get nccco certs towards the end of this year. I'm not sure I want to venture into other crane work just because we stay so busy already. On the other hand, I should be able to physically do crane work until retirement. Not so sure about full on tree work. Our market has a bunch of folk with no insurance operating in it. Seems like a new guy pops up every couple of weeks with almost no experience. We also have ended up with a fleet due to my crane addiction. We have two 35 ton groves, a 2892 manitex boom truck, and our new to us gmk3050. Kinda hard not to look at other crane work with all those sitting in our lot.

It’s a symptom of how effective cranes are in large tree removal. At a certain point, the work is so easy that you’re thinking about other things because the work can become a bit routine. It’s probably also a sign of a creative mind…thinking about other fun applications.

 

[Treeline]

I too have looked at this. We get several calls a month from folks wanting other crane work. So far we have only stuck to trees. We are planning to get nccco certs towards the end of this year. I'm not sure I want to venture into other crane work just because we stay so busy already. On the other hand, I should be able to physically do crane work until retirement. Not so sure about full on tree work. Our market has a bunch of folk with no insurance operating in it. Seems like a new guy pops up every couple of weeks with almost no experience. We also have ended up with a fleet due to my crane addiction. We have two 35 ton groves, a 2892 manitex boom truck, and our new to us gmk3050. Kinda hard not to look at other crane work with all those sitting in our lot.

I’m looking at this too. I’m young now but I won’t be young forever. Even without climbing, tree work is a young man’s game. I love tree work but I think crane work is a good exit strategy in 25-30 years as I get older. Training a replacement climber seems insurmountable right now.

 

[Treeline]

My brother and I have often talked over the years about the challenges of bringing a huge and expensive bag of tools to people’s property and performing a service. It is sooooo much easier in many ways to be a specialized sub. Totally get that, and I enjoy the days I sub with my spider crane. I just don’t want to rely too much on others for work. Just thinking about @Steve Connally right now and his slow period. I’m sure it will pick back up. Hopefully if you change your business and decide to downsize your quiver of services you can still retrain and keep all the good employees you have.

I don’t know Steve personally, but I have heard him speak and teach at events and I keep up with him on social media. He is definitely in a super small niche market for crane/tree work. I’m actually thinking getting into crane work will help us avoid slow times. We will still Be capable tree work even if we phase out of every day stuff.

 

[Steve Connally]

I considered industry lifts. Here's what I found. I'm in my 5th year of my own crane work. Over that time I've lifted 1 AC and it was a total shit show. I put it on top of somebodies van and followed them into an awful neighborhood to put it on the roof of their shoot and go convenience store. He then tried to talk my price down. I had a riggers policy for 3 years and just let it go. I get calls for ac and shipping container moves all the time. The issue is they want it tomorrow or the day after. Usually I'm booked out 4-8 weeks depending on the season. It never works out. I also have 8 crane rental companies in the area with 5 or more cranes. They have the market on lockdown. With my schedule and the fact I'm much more expensive than a 33t stick crane, it just isn't worth it for me to even try. I'm way slower than usual but work is trickling in. I'll do a week of half days this week. Very unusual but then the world is a clown show rite now anyway. I have about 10 months of working capital tucked away so if I get in a big bind, I can take 10 months off before I have to sell out or change my name and move.

 

[Steve Connally]

Having said that, if the bottom hadn't fallen out this year, I'd have a second identical truck to mine on order and would be mentoring a new operator. Thats how good it's been until now.

 

[VenasNursery]

Having said that, if the bottom hadn't fallen out this year, I'd have a second identical truck to mine on order and would be mentoring a new operator. Thats how good it's been until now.

Best of luck Sir! This world is definitely a shit show right now! We are booked out until February thankfully but our consultations have slowed down dramatically unfortunately, but we turn down probably 10 jobs a week because we can’t do it tomorrow also

Told a guy yesterday that asked if we could do his job next since he was the neighbor and I had to explain we have a schedule and a quota for our day sorry we are not a fast food restaurant but a fine dining restaurant that requires reservations and he totally understood.

I have met you and I have confidence that it will pick up again for you. You are inspiring ,knowledgeable ,and very experienced!
But I do believe tougher times are ahead but no where near what we’ve been through twice in the last 20 years

Good luck Sir!

 

[Treeline]

I considered industry lifts. Here's what I found. I'm in my 5th year of my own crane work. Over that time I've lifted 1 AC and it was a total shit show. I put it on top of somebodies van and followed them into an awful neighborhood to put it on the roof of their shoot and go convenience store. He then tried to talk my price down. I had a riggers policy for 3 years and just let it go. I get calls for ac and shipping container moves all the time. The issue is they want it tomorrow or the day after. Usually I'm booked out 4-8 weeks depending on the season. It never works out. I also have 8 crane rental companies in the area with 5 or more cranes. They have the market on lockdown. With my schedule and the fact I'm much more expensive than a 33t stick crane, it just isn't worth it for me to even try. I'm way slower than usual but work is trickling in. I'll do a week of half days this week. Very unusual but then the world is a clown show rite now anyway. I have about 10 months of working capital tucked away so if I get in a big bind, I can take 10 months off before I have to sell out or change my name and move.

I understand the shit show customers... the beauty of tree work is we can usually weed those out before they agree to do the job. For me we only have one crane company local and they typically cant come to you at the drop of a hat, whereas I could definitely service crane customers within 2-3 days of request because we are not using the crane every day.

As for the economy and being slow, I get it, this year has been stranger than 2020 or 2021. There seems to be no rhyme or reason for our work cycles. I got dangerously close to running out of work in July which is unheard of for me. and then we got unusually busy at the end of September which is normally when things start slowing down. I had a conversation with a good customer of mine this week who is also my financial advisor and he said they think inflation has finally peaked. It's gonna be a long road back to normalcy or whatever the new normal will be, but they at least think it won't get any worse from this point forward.

 

[oceans]

I understand the shit show customers... the beauty of tree work is we can usually weed those out before they agree to do the job. For me we only have one crane company local and they typically cant come to you at the drop of a hat, whereas I could definitely service crane customers within 2-3 days of request because we are not using the crane every day.

As for the economy and being slow, I get it, this year has been stranger than 2020 or 2021. There seems to be no rhyme or reason for our work cycles. I got dangerously close to running out of work in July which is unheard of for me. and then we got unusually busy at the end of September which is normally when things start slowing down. I had a conversation with a good customer of mine this week who is also my financial advisor and he said they think inflation has finally peaked. It's gonna be a long road back to normalcy or whatever the new normal will be, but they at least think it won't get any worse from this point forward.

Maybe I’m just in the “too small to fail” camp, because I’ve been over 6 months out for the last 5 years and even more so lately, with new client calls continually coming in. Coming from a small town, I used to go grocery shopping at the end of a long day and pick up 5 jobs just bumping into people there. I may have to change my name and avoid the grocery store just to keep doing what I‘m doing. I hope this doesn’t sound like a complaint, because I’m grateful as can be to all the great people I work for. I actually need to keep riding this wave for a while since I just invested in a lot of infrastructure. Hang ten, brothers and sisters!!!

 

[Steve Connally]

Best of luck Sir! This world is definitely a shit show right now! We are booked out until February thankfully but our consultations have slowed down dramatically unfortunately, but we turn down probably 10 jobs a week because we can’t do it tomorrow also

Told a guy yesterday that asked if we could do his job next since he was the neighbor and I had to explain we have a schedule and a quota for our day sorry we are not a fast food restaurant but a fine dining restaurant that requires reservations and he totally understood.

I have met you and I have confidence that it will pick up again for you. You are inspiring ,knowledgeable ,and very experienced!
But I do believe tougher times are ahead but no where near what we’ve been through twice in the last 20 years

Good luck Sir!

Thank you so much. After posting I was able to book a 15 day government job at higher than normal rates. Perfect timing. I appreciate your kind words and agree with you completely

 

[Steve Connally]

I understand the shit show customers... the beauty of tree work is we can usually weed those out before they agree to do the job. For me we only have one crane company local and they typically cant come to you at the drop of a hat, whereas I could definitely service crane customers within 2-3 days of request because we are not using the crane every day.

As for the economy and being slow, I get it, this year has been stranger than 2020 or 2021. There seems to be no rhyme or reason for our work cycles. I got dangerously close to running out of work in July which is unheard of for me. and then we got unusually busy at the end of September which is normally when things start slowing down. I had a conversation with a good customer of mine this week who is also my financial advisor and he said they think inflation has finally peaked. It's gonna be a long road back to normalcy or whatever the new normal will be, but they at least think it won't get any worse from this point forward.

Glad you picked back up. I also believe the MSM narrative has great influence on spending regardless if its accurate or not.

 

[Steve Connally]

Maybe I’m just in the “too small to fail” camp, because I’ve been over 6 months out for the last 5 years and even more so lately, with new client calls continually coming in. Coming from a small town, I used to go grocery shopping at the end of a long day and pick up 5 jobs just bumping into people there. I may have to change my name and avoid the grocery store just to keep doing what I‘m doing. I hope this doesn’t sound like a complaint, because I’m grateful as can be to all the great people I work for. I actually need to keep riding this wave for a while since I just invested in a lot of infrastructure. Hang ten, brothers and sisters!!!

Thats awesome Whip. Glad to hear it! My saving grace is I'm the only game in town with my niche!