stahl/arbortech

[rugger01]

Well as the end of the month draws near another deadline is missed by a company who obviously does not care about their customers. I emailed Dave to ask for a date to set up the shipping logistics and he emailed me back after having to send multiple emails to his boss Jeff saying that they were HOPEFUL for the 5th of next month. I am HOPEFUL to have any customers left after they get done screwing me over. It's fine though because no tree guys are busy in the summer. I know the winter is always the best season to do tree work up here in MA.

 

[Menchhofer]

The quality is okay. Some things I've noticed about the box:

• The box seems to have more flex than my southco boxes. It will flex and touch the Lpack a little bit.
• The boxes for the lights are not fully sealed. The boxes have already filled with dust seeping in from the chip box.
• Same with the ladder box. Lots of dust blows in.
  
• The front bottom corners of the chip box leak water down the sides of the truck since they aren't fully sealed. Doesnt seem like a big deal except water dripping from a load of chips is colored and stains the side of the boxes.
• If the chipper chute is angled too high it will throw random chips hard enough to break the 3 marker lights in the middle. This should have had a guard in place or use the small LED dot type lights.
• Toolboxes are ok. The handles and hinges are much better construction than my last arbotech.
• I am nervous about the smooth side construction long term. We throw logs in the back often. The smooth sides are made possible by using vertical supports in the box. I'd hate for the logs to damage these like they did on my last arbortech box.

Long story short, Southco was 8 weeks out on a build and was around 8k more. I needed one like yesterday so I bought one from Arbortech. Looking back I would have rather waited for what I wanted.

We also purchased two Arbortech boxes and have same concerns. Thinking of screwing wood deck boards to angle iron on inside of bed to help protect from log dents. Should work. Also did not like chipper exhaust vents (understand they are standard now). Dust and dirt collected on outside of box. Closed those suckers up including the holes on the roof. Like the ladder box on rt hand side but the new tailgate lock is a pain. Should have kept it simple like the old ones.

Dave Komanec (sp) was our salesman and he was very helpful throughout the building process. Yes we did have scheduling delay but they are VERY busy. Overall we are satisfied but do have some concerns. Southco was not even interested in building a truck for us.

 

[Merle Nelson]

Southco's reason for not being interested?

 

[Menchhofer]

Southco's reason for not being interested?

We wanted truck built to our specs and Southco in so many words said they were not interested in building a chipper truck with mini platform. So we went to Arbortech who did everything we wanted.

 

[Merle Nelson]

Ohh. Thanks for the insight.

 

[rugger01]

And finally yesterday I took delivery of my truck. I haven't put it to the test yet but at least it's finally here. The body looks good. Here are a few pics. I'll post more as I break it in.