Grapple Trucks for pruning companies

Even if you could eliminate raking on pruning jobs I still don't think a designated grapple truck would be the best choice. A high capacity chip box on a cab-over with a knuckle boom behind the cab would be what I would spend the money on. The best of everything in one truck. Pull a dump tailor with the old chip truck on the jobs with big wood.
 
mvtclimber, help me under stand why you think a chip truck with knuckle boom would be better? So you would need to pull a chipper behind the chip truck, so how would you haul the dump trailer of your pulling the chipper?
 
AxeTree said:
mvtclimber, help me under stand why you think a chip truck with knuckle boom would be better? So you would need to pull a chipper behind the chip truck, so how would you haul the dump trailer of your pulling the chipper?
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Read his post again, pay close attention to the last sentence.
 
Last year we purchased a triaxle log truck with debris body. Before that we would load out wood with a machine or give it away if someone was willing to pick it up. Since buying the truck we can load and unload wood until we have enough to go to the mill etc. the truck easily pays for itself just moving a few days a week. This year we will be adding another crew and the plan is to stockpile wood and brush and an operator will stop and clean up with the debris truck. Once you have tools like these the picture becomes clear on how much more $ and production is possible.
 
ROYCE said:
Read his post again, pay close attention to the last sentence.
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Oh I missed that he would bring another truck to a job. thus needing another driver, another truck to maintain, would still like to know why he would go that route, i have had chippers and done it both ways but I have not found a job I wish I had a chipper on since I went the grapple trick route.
 
AxeTree said:
Oh I missed that he would bring another truck to a job. thus needing another driver, another truck to maintain, would still like to know why he would go that route, i have had chippers and done it both ways but I have not found a job I wish I had a chipper on since I went the grapple trick route.
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Good for you!!
 
AxeTree said:
Oh I missed that he would bring another truck to a job. thus needing another driver, another truck to maintain, would still like to know why he would go that route, i have had chippers and done it both ways but I have not found a job I wish I had a chipper on since I went the grapple trick route.
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I was trying to figure out why he needed to bring a tailor to the jobsite
 
I guess it would depend on how much you are able to sell timber in your area. For me chip disposal is free. Brush would cost add much as yeah logs to dispose of. If you prune over 90%of the time the amount of profitable timber you are producing must be low. I would at the same time assume crew size might change on large removal days. Making another driver for a day not such a big deal. Iam imagining you currently run an under cdl truck. I also assumed everyone would realize a removable top on the new chip truck and folding grapple behind the cab. This would allow you to stuff brush in the truck if that was what you wanted for the day. I still think you could do more jobs with the truck I mentioned and make great money until your removal % goes up.
 
mvtclimber said:
I guess it would depend on how much you are able to sell timber in your area. For me chip disposal is free. Brush would cost add much as yeah logs to dispose of. If you prune over 90%of the time the amount of profitable timber you are producing must be low. I would at the same time assume crew size might change on large removal days. Making another driver for a day not such a big deal. Iam imagining you currently run an under cdl truck. I also assumed everyone would realize a removable top on the new chip truck and folding grapple behind the cab. This would allow you to stuff brush in the truck if that was what you wanted for the day. I still think you could do more jobs with the truck I mentioned and make great money until your removal % goes up.
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I think the problem with the chipper trucks with knuckle booms is that you can't remove the lid after you've chipped into it. Very often these come up for sale and the seller says they just don't use them like they thought they would. I think it helps for a short time during an awkward growth period but inevitably purpose built trucks are just nicer.
 
AmericanArborist said:
I think the problem with the chipper trucks with knuckle booms is that you can't remove the lid after you've chipped into it. Very often these come up for sale and the seller says they just don't use them like they thought they would. I think it helps for a short time during an awkward growth period but inevitably purpose built trucks are just nicer.
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I agree, that set-up works best to chip into and then go and dump. (typically it's easy to get rid of chips and you can get rid of them locally to your jobs "most" often) Then come back to the job site, take the top off, load all the wood, and then hook back up to the chipper and head home. The problem becomes with capacity. most often those truck are just single rear axel and can't hold a ton of wood. Really a good design for a small company, or a large company that does small jobs.
 
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