Best startup ( ..$$) truck/trailer/chipper combo for weekend warriors ?

T

treeajnin

Do you perform your own work on the weekends? maybe ur a pickup truck and dump trailer? maybe your a beat up old chipper and a dump truck? maybe you rent a chipper and haul a dump trailer. or maybe you have a big dump truck and you just slash the brush up small and stuff it.

anyways Im interested in buying some sort of combo that will allow me to get as much of a wide range of tree work done without breaking the bank.....thinking not going over 8-10 grand in debt for this. already have chainsaws and gear. I obviously would love to have a dump truck and chipper but for my price range im afraid of not being able to buy anything that wont break down on a daily basis.

any input ? thanks
 
What type of work will you be doing? I ask, because that will greatly influence the choice of equipment, or more importantly what equipment you will NEED to have. If your doing a ton of removals, then having a truck and chipper is pretty important. I would say, buy a good truck for 10K and then rent a chipper. Can you rent a decent chipper where you live?
If you are going to be performing lots of pruning jobs, with an occasional cable thrown in here and there. Then you can easily get buy with just throwing the brush in the back go the truck, slashing as you need to.
I know you already know this, but having a combo of a truck and chipper is GREAT for every and almost any job. The small easy pruning job becomes that much easier with the use of a chipper.
On your budget I would recommend buying a good truck and renting the chipper. I bought a 2000 Mitsubishi cab over with 88,000 miles for 12K. Has a nice set of tool boxes behind the cab. I then went and built a wooden box for the back, which only cost me like 500 bucks. I will try and post a picture.
I just rent a chipper as I need. I can get a pretty good 12" chipper for 24 hrs of use for pretty cheap around me. I will eventually buy a chipper, when work really picks up. Also, if your just doing this on the side, then you might be able to be a bit picky, and just sell work for the equipment you have.
 
I started sidework using my chevy s10 and a 5x10 landscape trailer with 4'high plywood sides on it where i stacked brush from every job whether it be a simple pruning or a full removal. a little over a year ago i bought an f550 dump truck that i built a chip box onto. I stack brush in it when its a small job and when I have a larger job I borrow the vermeer bc1000 from an old boss of mine. I am planning on getting a chipper very soon as well. Id say go with a solid truck, the size will depend on the volume of work and material you will be dealing with. You can always rent a chipper or stack brush, but a bomb chipper means nothing if you cant get it to the job.

-Steven
 
One ton dump and a chuck n duck. Equal value for each. Hold out for units that have been taken care of, not beat to death. Be willing to travel to get them if they are not close.
 
ROI ROI ROI

Presumably there are 52 Saturdays available. If you eliminate 50% of your work:life balance and work 26 saturdays for $1000/day, without payroll OH you'll pull in $26k. If you can pull these numbers working by yourself - yay. Likleyhood? Marginal.

$26,000
- $7800 (30% OH - fuel license for 2nd truck, chipper maint, ete, etc)
----------------------
$18,200
- $10,400 (your salary)
------------------------
$7800
- $3000 (30% annual depreciation on capital assets)
-------------------------
$4800
- $800 (annual interest - your going into debt for this?!?!?)
-------------------------
$4000
- $1400 ($10k capital expense, less $3k resale, divided by 5 years functional ownership)
------------------------
$2600
- $2000 (capital re-investment fund for next $10k 'wreck' investment)
----------------------
$600 ROI ?!?!?


Very rough numbers numbers in 3min, but a good start to your business plan and finacial analysis - which ought to be done regardless of enterprise size. You likley have a pickup to commute with - a simple dump trailer is probably the most functional for ROI and supplemental income.

One of my mentors once told me "when you buy a monster, it demands to be fed".
 
Mangoes, you forgot to pay your taxes :p. Unkle Sam will not do with out his cut. The monster quote is absolutely correct. The monster is either the equipment you buy or th business you build. And believe me, if you do good work for a reasonable price (or even a little high) you will build a monster that 52 Saturdays will not feed. Try 52 saturday, 26 sundays and three afternoons a week. Be careful of what you wish for.

Before you buy something to haul brush make sure you have somewhere to dispose of it (remember the dump may not be open when you are working). I know a guy that has a mountain of brush cause he hauled it, but didnt think of where to dump it (he is cheap). He now has a chipper.
 
I started on weekends. Used a $2500 1990 f350 4x4. Worked a job for 9 years and last the two dabbled then dove into tree work. Living the dream for the last 8 years. Being a good mechanic/ trouble shooter will be as important as your actual work skills when you start buying used equipment. I see it and know why people do it in areas, but buying new equipment is not allowable in my market currently, as I'm competing with mostly landscapers who have no idea except how much money they can get and retired corrections officers, state troopers and line men doing the work for fun as far as I can tell. That said, there is no shortage of work and I am evolving everyday. We are actively changing the market.

Get A daily driver single rear wheel one ton. Our 2001 f-350 4x4 7.3l has made more money then anything else we have. Holds all our gear and can haul our ramrod in the bed and/or tow our 12k chip boxed trailer (w/removable top) or our bandit 90 or our new 1890. We have 35" toyo mts that let us crawl all around nicely, their load ratings are over 4k. Dual rear wheel trucks are too wide for us. Buddy's f450 dually can not leave the road with out concerns. We have used our one ton several times to unstuck our 30k bucket truck. The dump trailer wound be great to start with if you have near by dump spots and your truck has reg bed. The chipper is way more productive if you have a dump body. We used a load handler and wooden box over the stock bed for a few years. Our used bandit 90 w/65hp cost $8k, what a nice dump trailer new will all set up like ours. Our dump trailer weighs just about 3k allowing 9k of payload. Our one ton diesel 4x4 reg cab weighs 7k-8k. With allowable of 10k you can carry 2k or only 4yards of chips at 500lb/yd versus 18yards in the dump trailer. Some days we do not make 4yards of chips or don't have to haul them... Some days we haul 50 yards. We are within 20 min dump spots at the worst. All depends on your niche variables.

I'm for the ford superduty's. The parts are all over and getting cheaper. Every procedure to troubleshoot or fix something is on the net. Aftermarket rules! We have about 420 rear wheel hp with the injectors, turbo and tuning right now. I can maintain 55+mph hauling hills with full loads pushing 30lb of boost and 1000f egts. Stock trans is garbage, ate three before we upgraded to a BTS transmission, that is arguably the best and last one you buy. We just got a deal on an 06 f350 crew cab to start modifying. Currently putting a custom dump body on, o-ringed cylinder heads w/studs, and some other fun stuff.
 
I have read this thread a few times now. All of this is good info and good questions, I love the internet. In my market grapple trucks are cheap to subcontract and the 1099 is a 100% write off at the end of the year another Awesome 1099 is a labor service: they do all the payroll expenses, taxes, and WC for a small profit you can even run your guys through them and you set how much you want to spend!!!!! Back to topic, a 20' flat bed trailer load of brush/logs with standards and sides with a chain under it, for pull off by a front end loader, it is a cheap investment and worth the charge for the pull off at the mulch yard. A couple of my large competitors have moved to trailering brush this way behind rear mount bucket trucks on small jobs and prune outs. They clean the trailers with their grapple trucks at their shops or just go directly to the mulch yard and get a pull off. It is really profitable as maintenance on a flatbed trailer amounts to grease, tires, and lights for the most part. The loading time and redneck look are the only drawbacks, but for small jobs who gives a crap. Hell, i am about to sell my chipper as we have been dragging the above described trailer to small jobs for three weeks. We are doing about 2/3s of the work but my operating cost has fallen dramatically with the absence of another machine to maintain and fuel.
 
Not much to break on a big flat bed! I have seen some pretty quick clean ups with a 20' flatbed, especially involving white pine.

We are kinda rural here and we regularly get to spray chips back into nature and have the home owner let Craig's list fight over the fire wood. Win win. Though, now that we have a sweet yard, thinking about a prentice loader and log truck boxed in, leave the 1890 in the yard to feed when we unload. We have no mulch kings around here.
 
In my town there are 7 large mulch processing centers. The local governments also pick up some small debris at no charge. We pay around $1 a yard to dump chips, grapple trucks and trailers, most places pull offs are free. Yes I know....we're spoiled.
 
Find yourself an older F450 with a 10' dump bed and just slash into it for a little while. Should cost you about $3000 or so unless you need a 4x4 and diesel then you'll be spending more. Slash in it for a while, provided you dump fees are low, until you build some business. Then pick up a Bandit 65 or 90 when you get an chance at a good one for $5000 or $6000. Try not to go into debit if you can. Make sure you can actually make some money at it.
 
California Tree Equipment said:
Find yourself an older F450 with a 10' dump bed and just slash into it for a little while. Should cost you about $3000 or so unless you need a 4x4 and diesel then you'll be spending more. Slash in it for a while, provided you dump fees are low, until you build some business. Then pick up a Bandit 65 or 90 when you get an chance at a good one for $5000 or $6000. Try not to go into debit if you can. Make sure you can actually make some money at it.
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thanks for all this info guys, wow i didnt realize all the posts this thread got.

Ive been trying to spot some older f450 / f350's...unfortunatly im not mechanically inclinced what sort of stuff should I look for and look to avoid? Maybe a certain year or engine etc.? also Gas or Diesel??
 
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