truck for small tree business

I bought an F-350 7.3 turbo diesel last June and tow my 200 xp; loaded with chips or logs. It's a '97 with the saddle bag toolbox or I-pack as some call it. I don't miss moving gear around or throwing it in the back or into the other truck. Toolboxes can't be beat! If I were doing it again tomorrow, I would buy a cab over isuzu or Ford or Gmc. The turning radius is awesome and they will haul as much if not more and get toolboxes.
 
thanks surfarmer1
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how many of you have a CDL?

in hawaii a CDL is required for trucks over 26,000 GVW.
 
I have a CDL Class A doubles/triples, air brakes, tankers, Haz Mat. Bigger trucks are good but on the main land you need apportioned plates to go from state to state and new englands not that big so it gets to be a pain, so I'm looking for an under cdl truck for now. just sold my international 4900 s with hiab log loader.( already miss it)
 
What does your chipper weigh? how big of a box do you plan on running? Figure those two weights out, then add at least 500lbs for gear, I would do 1000 considering you'll have 2-3 people riding along plus gear.

and yes, of course an f150 is too smal to make a chip truck out of. They are grocery getters not work trucks.
 
Nice to see the search narrowed down to something between an F-150 and a Ford Louisville. If you want even more options, you could consider a range between the trunk of a VW Beetle and one of those Earth Movers. Something should work.
 

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I think you will find that the truck is too small and holds too little weight for most work needed. I would pop for an old asphlundh truck with a man cab if you have 3 people. Those trucks are all set up from the get go and are made for this kind of work. You will put more into customizing that truck than you should. It will not be as good as a normal tree truck.
 
We love our GMC with the man cab. Actually we love the setup but the engine on our truck has given us some serious grief over the years. Is a Cat 3116 which I thought was a good way to go because of how common they are so they would be easy to work on and get parts for. Just because they are common doesn't mean that they are good engines.

The place I used to work always ran 3 man crews and their chip trucks were Chevy 3500 stake beds with plywood sides and top. We were always embarrassed driving around in those things and it really sucked to take the tools off at every job and at the end of ever day. If you are thinking about hiring a crew and paying them to constantly load and unload gear do that math as well. 2 employees getting 15 mins in the morning to load, 15 mins at night to unload and then 5 to 10 min to load and unload on jobs. Not to mention that it looks very unprofessional having your all of your gear spread out in front of your customers house when you are not using 3/4 of it.
 
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Raven, is that allmark in Albany?....I'm looking for another truck too...

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Close to Albany, Schodack. It's a nice truck. If you want his number, let me know
 
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We love our GMC with the man cab. Actually we love the setup but the engine on our truck has given us some serious grief over the years. Is a Cat 3116 which I thought was a good way to go because of how common they are so they would be easy to work on and get parts for. Just because they are common doesn't mean that they are good engines.

The place I used to work always ran 3 man crews and their chip trucks were Chevy 3500 stake beds with plywood sides and top. We were always embarrassed driving around in those things and it really sucked to take the tools off at every job and at the end of ever day. If you are thinking about hiring a crew and paying them to constantly load and unload gear do that math as well. 2 employees getting 15 mins in the morning to load, 15 mins at night to unload and then 5 to 10 min to load and unload on jobs. Not to mention that it looks very unprofessional having your all of your gear spread out in front of your customers house when you are not using 3/4 of it.

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thats kinda why i wanna get a bigger better truck. our company needs something that looks a bit more professional and has more capacity, since we upgraded from a bandit 65xp to a vermeer bc1000xl. seems we have been working alot faster with a bigger chipper. alot of time was lost in the clean up and chipping.
 
When you purchase, don't wait to long to install tool boxes bra. The waste of manhours ALONE associated with mushin' all your gear in and out for every job then schleppin' everything to a lock box or garage at the end of the day is incalculable. $$$$ omg
A truck of that size is ok if it's an automatic. A three person crew isn't going to be jumpin up and down about having to ride it if it's a stick. They'll hate it. I'd try to get my hands on boxes specific to tree work like a thru box/ locker...that actually locks. And make sure they're locked every night bra. Your insurance company is going to make your life suck enough in the event of a theft claim. Don't make it worse by not locking everything. I'm excited for you man! Have fun.
 
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im pretty set on either a ford F-350 or F-450

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We own multiple F350 Super Duty and FX4, and 450/550 dumps. We dont use them for chipping into though. We love Ford small and medium trucks, great work horses!
 
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