Get a decent chipper and a bucket. Both will make you money to allow you to upgrade to something bigger and newer.
When you start buying big toys the payments going out to the bank every month will make your mortgage payments seem rather small.
That is what I had to start. Not the best machine out there but a huge improvement over a chuck and duck or nothing at all. At the right price I would not hesitate to buy on . It will make you lots of money to upgrade to a nicer machine in the future.
Buy brand new if you want perfect. Anything used will have something wrong right now or very soon. Call Altec or FEVA. New is nice if you can foot the bill. Used can end up costing about the same in the long run. Pay now or pay later.
Sweet truck.
When I talked to FEVA about a cabover they were definitely steering me far far away from one. I can't understand why we don't use a lot more cab over trucks, they rock. There are so many nice models available overseas that would do great for this type of work.
I understand if you work around utilities but sounds like a big over reach. I would be very interested in hearing of any more information on this from anyone in the know.