I like to think in terms of opportunity costs. If you've got a crane and the skills to use it your opportunity costs should generally be higher than a similar crew without a crane. Your bids should reflect those costs. I can have my climber cut and stack firewood, but I'll have to charge the...
Suppose you found another really good crew leader, purchased the extra equipment, and then calls completely dropped off in November. You could then compile an email list of some favored clients, explain your situation, and offer them exceptional winter rates that will keep your crews and clients...
Maybe hive off one or two of your guys to start a farm team to knock out simpler jobs with small trucks, combining crews when appropriate. The farm team's chipper and dump truck will also be your back up.
For us the limiting factor is usually just the width of the chipper. We can pull it up hills and driveways too steep or narrow for the trucks; we move it into backyards and through the woods. We minimize turf damage by reducing the trips back and forth. That SK1550 with the BMG can pull out big...
If your highest value is crane removal work, maybe build a good relationship with someone in your area whose highest value is non-crane removals/pruning. Refer clients to one another. Before you do refer it out, quote a high price on the job reflecting what it would cost you if you were to do it...
What are the most productive chippers in the 5,000 lb weight class?
At least half of properties we work on allow us to move our chipper right up to the work and leave the wood chips on site. For this we've been pushing around a Woodsman 730x (4,450 lbs) with an SK 1550. The mini then pull out...
I see why you took the job. That's beautiful spot to spend the day in the tree. That water started calling to you around mid-day. By that hour you probably picked more pine cones than anyone who will ever read this thread, establishing yourself as a national expert on the craft.
An inverted pinata might be fun for the kids: set the pinata on the ground but hoist the kid with the stick on a rig-n-wrench and swing her around like a flying spinning ninja. Everything is more interesting at great heights, and it's not necessarily a whole lot more dangerous.
A simple...
I wonder if this method could be used to lay utilities under trees and their structural roots.
I love this forum and the willingness of specialists to weigh in with their insights.
Variable break strength is a nice feature.
Heavy breakaway: You're spiking up a large tree that may give way at its base and fall forward, and your climb line tie-in-points are below you or far away on other trees.
Light breakaway: Your climb line T.I.P is well positioned above you, but you...
I use breakaways in fairly ordinary situations. Whenever my climb line tie-in-point is well positioned to serve as the primary life-support I'll readily deploy a breakaway on my flipline. So often the weakest link in the rigging system, or the biggest unknown, is the tree/branch I'm rigging off...
For what it's worth my recent experiences with TS have been fairly positive. Among plenty of on-time shipments, TS recently missplaced a box of chipper knives I had sent in to be sharpened. I wasn't happy that it was delayed and had to buy a costly new set of knives, but Eric got the new knives...
Could a shallow groove be cut, or ground out, across the the driveway for the cable lay in, later covering it back over with whatever is used to patch a crack in concrete?