Turning down work.

ncland said:
I appreciate all the input. I have a small set up and in really enjoying that. Organizing big jobs like this sometimes pay off but I'll likely pass on it. When I scale up for bigger projects I find myself doing less of what I like and more time playing circus director. How many other folks are running lifts or buckets?
Click to expand...
Never owned a bucket truck or lift. We will rent a lift at times, if needed, but it is extremely rare. In business since 2002.
 
Reach said:
You do own a knuckleboom crane though, which largely negates the need for a lift…
Click to expand...
Sort of. If I had a basket, it would more so do this...but it is 55,000 pounds so lawns don't like it lol.

When Ash trees started dying in our area we knew we had to make a change. It was a lift or crane. Most guys in our area went with lift (most already had bucket trucks) . We went crane, and I dont regret it.
 
climbhightree said:
Just me to cents on that :)
Click to expand...
When we’ve done that, it’s w the understanding client will hand the crane op a check before they leave. It takes a certain level of trust and history between arborist and crane op.
ncland said:
I have a small set up and in really enjoying that. Organizing big jobs like this sometimes pay off but I'll likely pass on it.
Click to expand...

Good idea. Even in an established medium sized co, the bigger the job the smaller the $per labor hour in the end. Prunes and small removals way more profitable.
 
climbhightree said:
Sort of. If I had a basket, it would more so do this...but it is 55,000 pounds so lawns don't like it lol.

When Ash trees started dying in our area we knew we had to make a change. It was a lift or crane. Most guys in our area went with lift (most already had bucket trucks) . We went crane, and I dont regret it.
Click to expand...

You got the saw grapple attachment for it as well?

Seen some people operating those cranes on IG, pretty cool stuff. And of course, the Merlo seems to be making noise in terms of the latest and greatest equipment available. Seen some people using that as well
 
Stumpsprouts said:
When we’ve done that, it’s w the understanding client will hand the crane op a check before they leave. It takes a certain level of trust and history between arborist and crane op.


Good idea. Even in an established medium sized co, the bigger the job the smaller the $per labor hour in the end. Prunes and small removals way more profitable.
Click to expand...
Oh so make it really awkward for the crane op to hand a large bill to the homeowner ;) teasing. And with the client to know they wont lose their shit (trust/history).

I sub for Bartlett, and they have me paid by the customer. They wanted me to bill the customer directly and I refused. I am not adding the customers names to my books (especially since I run my own tree company). We had a few homeowners go months without paying, and then we are calling bartlett to get paid...they are on the hook not the homeowner. Quite honestly it ticks me off I have to call them...they should be staying on top of it not me. a few times they paid us directly, other times they got the customer to pay up.
 
climbhightree said:
Oh so make it really awkward for the crane op to hand a large bill to the homeowner ;) teasing. And with the client to know they wont lose their shit (trust/history).

I sub for Bartlett, and they have me paid by the customer. They wanted me to bill the customer directly and I refused. I am not adding the customers names to my books (especially since I run my own tree company). We had a few homeowners go months without paying, and then we are calling bartlett to get paid...they are on the hook not the homeowner. Quite honestly it ticks me off I have to call them...they should be staying on top of it not me. a few times they paid us directly, other times they got the customer to pay up.
Click to expand...
That’s annoying! We would never ask the customer to pay the crane service directly, and our crane service probably wouldn’t stand for it. Besides, if we don’t bill for the crane, we can’t mark up the crane charge!
 
climbingmonkey24 said:
Not to derail the thread but I was checking out this crane the other day, some pretty impressive specs. Up to 151ft boom I think it was...

NBT60XL-potential-cover_v3cropped.jpg


NBT 60 XL
Click to expand...
There’s a company local with a few of those, problem is it’s too heavy to travel with its counterweights on. The NBT55 is the biggest nearly-legal crane in that lineup.

We work with an NBT45 a lot. Very nice crane, except that it’s a mile long on the road so it won’t fit in any small spaces.
 
climbingmonkey24 said:
You got the saw grapple attachment for it as well?

Seen some people operating those cranes on IG, pretty cool stuff. And of course, the Merlo seems to be making noise in terms of the latest and greatest equipment available. Seen some people using that as well
Click to expand...
You can find his crane on YouTube, if I recall. I’ve seen it on the road, it looks sharp, some day I’m going to take the time out to go watch it in action.
 
Reach said:
That’s annoying! We would never ask the customer to pay the crane service directly, and our crane service probably wouldn’t stand for it. Besides, if we don’t bill for the crane, we can’t mark up the crane charge!
Click to expand...
It actually has something to do with corporate policy...or so they tell me. I think it also may effect the salesman's commision if they pay me through the job (in my opinion). It happens for Steve too.
 
The knuckle boom has its limitations though compared to say something like the regular stick right?

The thought of investing in a crane has crossed my mind once or twice...
 
Last edited:
climbingmonkey24 said:
The knuckle boom has its limitations though compared to say something like the regular stick right?

The thought of investing in a crane has crossed my mind once or twice...

I could use it to pick up brush from the backyard from a pruning job and carry it to the street to the chipper. ;)
Click to expand...

It is apples and pears really. They dont correlate that well. A good job for a stick crane may not be a good job for a grapple saw, and vise versa. A stick crane (40ton) will crush me in lifting capacity, so for huge trees they may be better. Though you need the room to set that crane up and lay big pieces down, and the bigger crew/machines to process it. In a tighter area and small crew is where the grapple saw shines. Put it this way, for the past 3 or so years it has just been my wife and I...and we can do really big removals with just ourselves with no rigging and 80-90% never leave the ground
 
climbhightree said:
It is apples and pears really. They dont correlate that well. A good job for a stick crane may not be a good job for a grapple saw, and vise versa. A stick crane (40ton) will crush me in lifting capacity, so for huge trees they may be better. Though you need the room to set that crane up and lay big pieces down, and the bigger crew/machines to process it. In a tighter area and small crew is where the grapple saw shines. Put it this way, for the past 3 or so years it has just been my wife and I...and we can do really big removals with just ourselves with no rigging and 80-90% never leave the ground
Click to expand...

Yea, that’s what I thought. I mean, sure there may be advantages to taking bigger pieces if you have the processing power for the material, but if you can just as easily take smaller pieces but still get the job done efficiently and safely with less man power why not I suppose
 
climbingmonkey24 said:
The knuckle boom has its limitations though compared to say something like the regular stick right?

The thought of investing in a crane has crossed my mind once or twice...

I could use it to pick up brush from the backyard from a pruning job and carry it to the street to the chipper. Look like a real asshole to the entire neighborhood
Click to expand...
As a example, this is a large job we did. Now it took us basically all week to do, mostly due to break downs. These trees may have been better stick crane trees, but we still could do it.

 
Reach said:
Do what you do best and enjoy most. Find your niche and stick to it, and you’ll do great. We are a small company, but not that small. We specialize in large trees and limited access trees, essentially the ones nobody else wants to touch, and I enjoy playing circus director myself, I probably only run a saw once a month and get off the ground twice a year, and plan to keep it that way.

There are a fair number on here running lifts or buckets, some who only run lift/bucket, and there are just as many or more who only ever climb. It all comes down to what you want to do and how you want to do it. A lift/bucket can be a game changer, as it’s safer and much faster for some projects, but there are other projects that can only be completed by a climber.
Click to expand...
Well said Sir!
 
Dan Cobb said:
Appliance repair is better work when the heat index is well into triple digits. I'm liable to do most any kind of work if the money is right. Sometimes easy jobs gross $100/hr when things go well. In general though, I like doing quality work at a reasonable price so people don't get gouged for marginal work.
Click to expand...
Hi Dan, I repaired major appliances for 22 years, 16 of them self-employed. My work ethic was as you describe and my pricing was low enough that I never really made an adequate living. As I was mostly self-taught, the onslaught of digital controls increasingly forced me to walk away from jobs (interestingly, the topic of this thread).

So I went back to school (at my own expense), starting with algebra thru calculus, and then electronics, and ended up working for a data-storage-device company debugging product test runs. While I never mastered any aspects of electronics, I discovered that I had an innate ability to correct errors in the test-procedure documents.

So back to school I went; this time for technical writing. Luckily, the company's director recognized my writing contributions and arranged to pay for all my schooling. At the end of my "career," I was a content developer who built and managed the company's employee websites, published newsletters, and so on. Now retired, I look back with satisfaction, knowing that at the very least I followed my instincts; made use of every opportunity available; remained honest with others and true to myself; and taught myself something new every day.

When reading about @Stumpsprouts hand injury, I wanted to say that changing course midstream is not always a bad idea. Sometimes I think about all of the experiences and satisfaction that I would have missed had I stayed on at any one of the jobs I had when I was younger. Best of luck, @Stumpsprouts, no matter what direction you follow!
 
Vicente said:
I'll turn down jobs if I don't like the client or feel like they're going to be a hassle to work with, if I don't feel I can do the job with nearly no risk to myself or anything else a 1% chance of failure is to high imo.
I've also turned work down if I just don't have the equipment to give the person a good deal, I had I guy who wanted a bunch of dead manzanita cleared up down a hill I couldn't get my chipper close at all and there was not good way to pull it up with a truck so I referred him to a company with a masticator. The client was like "you're talking yourself out of a job" I told him there's no way I can accomplish it at a reasonable rate so I'd rather send you to someone who can.
Click to expand...
I've seen many high priced (hundreds to a few thousand dollars) parrot perches/gyms made from manzanita. I looked on line and saw ridiculous prices (imho) for manzanita. If you had a good supply and it sells well, you might make be able to make a comfortable living selling manzanita branches.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

New threads New posts

Back
Top Bottom