@Merle Nelson, What vehicles/equipment do you see yourself bringing to your "average" job site, and what do you think you'll be bringing to your not so normal jobs?
How exactly are you set up now and what do you see changing? How many guys do you run in your crew, now and plan in the future...
You'll be fine, you don't need to be moving with hydraulics but they do need to run with the truck in neutral. You can in and out with the jib to grab the hook while stopped. You will usually load loaded bodies in neutral and let the truck roll under the body until you lift the back off the...
Have you looked into roll off trailers? A good friend of mine who runs a scrap business just bought one and I was pretty impressed with it. You could have a dedicated chip truck and chipper and use the dump trailer for your swing vehicle and change bodies as needed. With a F550 you won't have...
Hook lifts are cool but I don't think they are worth the added weight and expense for tree care operations. Now construction or scrap businesses hell yeah. My brother has a hook lift on an F550 he keeps trying to get me to buy off of him. There are rare occasions where it'd be nice to have...
In my opinion the flashey part that catches your eye should be your business name and logo, not a bright bold color. I like the look, but you want people to remember your buisness name not just be the the guy with the cool bright colored fenders. It'll be hard to look at the truck and only see...
Here in WI special mobile use plates, which mobile cranes and even my chip trucks qualify for is just a license plate. Nothing else really changes. Hopefully its similar in VA. Best part of it all is the plates are only 10% of the price of the standard fee schedule!
I've found this to be true about my local DMV and even my local state troopers as well, either not knowing or not understanding the law. The Vin should never change.
You won't have to advertise, but you know you'll have tons of people asking for quotes when you are out in it. Be able to give them one with a nice extra cushion in it.
@Steve Connally I feel you should try to find a sub that you can use that can provide a big chipper and chip truck. I feel like you my find it much more profitable for yourself and easier to keep your self busy.
I've had a few times where I got something in my eye and scratched the hell out of it so I switched to goggles. Can't remember the make but I love the protection goggles provide. They hold in a lot of heat in the summer. I've only had a few very rare fogging issues. If I remember later I'll...
Evo is right! Except that if you get pulled over it'll just cost you money. If you or your guy gets in a wreck (even if its not your fault) you could lose everything!
Have you run that thing across a scale? Front end looks like it would be severely overloaded with the rear axle that far back. You might want to consider adding a tag axle
I love little cab overs but the ones I've had were severely under powered for their stated capacity. You'll have to look at the Hp rating as I don't know what the 4.9's make. The six sped should make it way better than the older ones with 4 speeds.