Gerasimek's Tree-mek

Feel free to call or text any time! If it's not a convenient time, I don't answer. :)) Texting is an easy way to converse passively... last night I spent 2 hours on the phone with a guy looking at Nifty Lifts. The fam was already asleep, so why not?
 
What is the wheelbase on your truck, Carl? Are you working by yourself primarily now (i.e. making piles with the crane and coming back with the grapple truck)?

Lumberjack said:
PK40D, PJ100D, SG280.

The grapple saw is heavy at farther reachs... I may get a SG160 for work farther out.

I was lined up to buy a used Treemek from a guy near Pensacola, but his chicken livered, yellow bellied self (CLYB) broke his word and backed out of the deal and sold it to someone else (last I knew). Irony being what it is, that person called me the day after CLYB backed out looking for Alturnamats. It turned out the buyer was told a price $15k higher than what I was told. I lost $13k in profit dealing with CLYB, getting my money ready Friday to buy it Monday. Irony continuing, the guy that was buying CLYB truck backed out of his build at Tiffin. Jason told me about it Monday morning. Tuesday morning Jason picked me up from the local hotel and Tuesday afternoon I was headed home with the truck.


All that to say, this truck is a traditional Treemek build, but the design/layout wasn't built for me. We will be adding a 4th and possibly 5th axle to the truck. It has a 20 or 25T pintle hook, but it's not plumbed for trailer air brakes. My preference on the wheel base is different than what was built.

Tiffin will build my next truck*, but it will be built to my specs, which is far easier when you're building the truck vs after the fact. I'm not a fan of compromising, especially when the alternative costs less than 10% more... a lot of people aren't like that though. The next truck will also likely be considerably larger in terms of capacity, with the hope that I'll have two Treemek's and hopefully a couple employees at that point.

If you get your proposal from Tiffin, I would be happy to look it over and offer suggestions from an engineering/tree guy view point.
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Also how long was the actual take down on the 1st job? It was kind of hard to tell on my phone were you going over power wires are just phone/ street lights?
 
Evan_WI said:
What is the wheelbase on your truck, Carl? Are you working by yourself primarily now (i.e. making piles with the crane and coming back with the grapple truck)?
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Steer to rear drive is 23'1".

Regarding working alone, it just depends on the day and the job. I would like to add a large pintle dump trailer to go behind the Mek for jobs like in this video.

islandedge said:
Also how long was the actual take down on the 1st job? It was kind of hard to tell on my phone were you going over power wires are just phone/ street lights?
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3:14 minutes shown in the video, times 25.

I was going over power lines then under telephone lines.
 
AmericanArborist said:
The thing I haven't heard anyone talk about is what else do these companies do? I would be out of work if I relied only on removing trees within 80' of truck access. To maintain my customers and workflow, we have to also trim trees and remove trees where a truck cannot get to. If you are without many employees these activities fall back on the tree-mek operator.

So... Are owners of these awesome trucks also doing other tree care operations?
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I do 99% removals. I found when I first started using it that I was making far more using the Tree-mek doing removals. I figured I shouldn't be tied to what I believed my business was before and to just go wherever the Tree-mek would take me. Sure, it was difficult giving up some trimming jobs but the numbers don't lie. My business now is fundamentally different than before and is constantly evolving as I learn and implement new changes.
Some think of their businesses as tree 'care' or 'services'. I left that behind and consider my business kind of a new breed. Mechanized tree removal is a new service for homeowners as well as your competitors. If you hold tight to your old business you may have difficulty adjusting. I went from a typical tree service with tons of competition to a highly specialized, super efficient mechanized removal service with very big profit margins.
It's definitely a fun and rewarding experience. Good luck and don't be afraid to change.
 
Love love love what your saying! Don't create business models that trap you into being the same as everyone else!

You have found the opening in your market and are hammering it! That's awesome.

I like how you see things. You were in competition with everyone, now you've created a unique service. Best of luck, hope it stays fun for you.
 
CutHighnLetFly said:
Love love love what your saying! Don't create business models that trap you into being the same as everyone else!

You have found the opening in your market and are hammering it! That's awesome.

I like how you see things. You were in competition with everyone, now you've created a unique service. Best of luck, hope it stays fun for you.
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Thank you. I really appreciate it.
 
Gerasimek said:
I do 99% removals. I found when I first started using it that I was making far more using the Tree-mek doing removals. I figured I shouldn't be tied to what I believed my business was before and to just go wherever the Tree-mek would take me. Sure, it was difficult giving up some trimming jobs but the numbers don't lie. My business now is fundamentally different than before and is constantly evolving as I learn and implement new changes.
Some think of their businesses as tree 'care' or 'services'. I left that behind and consider my business kind of a new breed. Mechanized tree removal is a new service for homeowners as well as your competitors. If you hold tight to your old business you may have difficulty adjusting. I went from a typical tree service with tons of competition to a highly specialized, super efficient mechanized removal service with very big profit margins.
It's definitely a fun and rewarding experience. Good luck and don't be afraid to change.
Click to expand...
Great response! Makes a very compelling argument.
 
Awesome video.

Interesting thoughts and perspective Gerasimek, "I do 99% removals. I found when I first started using it that I was making far more using the Tree-mek doing removals. I figured I shouldn't be tied to what I believed my business was before and to just go wherever the Tree-mek would take me." It's got me thinking....
 
I got my ISA CA 11 years ago, wanting to be a full service tree service. As time has gone on, I pretty much want to do removals with my equipment and that's it. That's where I've invested heavily, that's where I make the most money in the least time with the least effort. Occasionally we will do some trimming while on a bigger job or for a good, existing customer, but with the addition of the Treemek, I've turned trimming jobs away. I will still bid the 30', 12" dbh dead maple in the back yard, although I tell them I may not be the cheapest price.
 
Gerasimek said:
I do 99% removals. I found when I first started using it that I was making far more using the Tree-mek doing removals. I figured I shouldn't be tied to what I believed my business was before and to just go wherever the Tree-mek would take me. Sure, it was difficult giving up some trimming jobs but the numbers don't lie. My business now is fundamentally different than before and is constantly evolving as I learn and implement new changes.
Some think of their businesses as tree 'care' or 'services'. I left that behind and consider my business kind of a new breed. Mechanized tree removal is a new service for homeowners as well as your competitors. If you hold tight to your old business you may have difficulty adjusting. I went from a typical tree service with tons of competition to a highly specialized, super efficient mechanized removal service with very big profit margins.
It's definitely a fun and rewarding experience. Good luck and don't be afraid to change.
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Strong don't always survive, the one who adapt do.
 
Steve Connally said:
Hmmm @Madbeaver tell us more about the unit. What year is the chassis? What kind of price are you looking for?
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Steve,
The truck is a used 2008 MR cabover with $17.5k miles and an 8 speed manual transmission. The truck is in perfect shape and of course the crane, the mecanil and the basket and Las the builtouts are brand new. I have $307k and 5 months of wait in it. I'll take $295k

If you have any questions please call me on 4045502535
Thanks
Bo
 
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