Your oldest piece...ever

treevet

treevet

Branched out member
Location
Cincinnati, Ohio
What is your oldest piece (mobile, with wheels) you used as an arborist? "Damn, they don't make em like that anymore...thick steel, uncomplicated, dependable and very functional. Built to last". Ever heard that said.

This is/was my '51 Ford F4 Wrecker, slightly modified to get more reach on the boom to load 4k plus logs right into a flat bed dump or just drive a fatty stump to wherever I its destination was (:-)

Moved back to Cinci in 1980 from NJ and had to get something to load logs. Had sold my small crane when I moved and scouring the Truck Trader found this junkyard jem. Went to look at it and asked if it was working in full. Dirty looking guy said wait here. Next min. hear a motor roar, and tires spinning and dirt flying she comes sliding around a tower of junk, pulls up right next to me and slams on the brakes coming to a stop right next to me.

I said "sold". Direct drive winch that would stand the truck straight up in the air if the log was too heavy...never balked on ANYTHING. I loved that truck for 28 years when I bought a Dingo, already had a crane and had no room for it so I sold it as it never saw any action anymore.

Really miss it. You could back up to a huge pile of logs and loop the cable around them and hook the cable back to itself so it got the pile nice and high. You could hook up to a leader and pick up the butt and drive it wherever. Made tons of bucks with it as its flat head 8cyl always started first try with the button start. Dually rear so easy on the lawn.

Not the oldest piece I ever had tho. Had a trailer 1931 Bean sprayer with dually rear axle that had a hay wagon set up in front I cut off and put a pintel front on I used for 15 years I'll post up sometime when my scanner is fixed.
 

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The first chipper that I bought was a '62 Asplundh 'Whisper' Chipper. It was built on a long, tandem axle with a side-dump box up front. I bought that from NSP in '80. I think that was the oldest, at the time, piece of equipment that I ever bought.

No pics at hand. I have no clue where the photos are.
 
My first truck was almost identical to THIS. The dump box was a huge labor saver but we still had to load it by hand, dice and pack. The load looked liked a big bale of hay when we dumped it. The truck had a 5 speed with the 2 speed rear end. I felt like a big shot truck driver, banging through the gears. It didn't have heat so you better hope for a sunny day for winter driving.
 
[ QUOTE ]
The first chipper that I bought was a '62 Asplundh 'Whisper' Chipper. It was built on a long, tandem axle with a side-dump box up front. I bought that from NSP in '80. I think that was the oldest, at the time, piece of equipment that I ever bought.

No pics at hand. I have no clue where the photos are.

[/ QUOTE ]

Don't I remember something about a school bus chip truck?
 
My first major piece of equipment as a Fitchburg Chipper of undetermined age, but from somewhere in the late '50's or 60's. Bought it and an aluminum cap that fit a pickup truck and turned it into a chip box for $1500.00. It worked.
 
Oldest truck we had I think was a late 80's Ford crane truck. The truck was a death trap to drive really, always had things going wrong with it. But man, the crane on that thing would pick up anything. Only used it to pick up wood, it wasn't a big crane, but man, it picked up just about whatever we attached to it. Amazing what it would pick up sometimes. We loaded some huge azz oak stumps that a bulldozer dug up, things easily weighed 8k to 10k apiece.
 
TreeVet...yup...I need to dig out the build pics from that one!

It wasn't that old. but...here's what it looked like.

Originally I bought an F600 from the Minneapolis Park Board. It was a flatbed with stake sides...dump of course. I built the chip box. Then, I bought the bus, whacked it and had the chip box transferred onto the bus chassis. On the curb side I cut out the wall and built a draw bridge type door that would hinge down. My ATV would drive up into the bus. Then I got the cube van from a buddy so the ATV went in there.

it was funky...but cheap and practical.
 

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No, I found a hyd pump kit that was driven by the engine. It had brackets that mounted up just like an AC compressor. When it was time to dump I flipped a rocker switch and engaged the clutch.
 
This is going to be a project that I will be undertaking soon! My dad's, grandpa's F-100 that he bought new to use on the farm. Have big ideas for this truck.
 

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This is going to be a project that I will be undertaking soon! My dad's, grandpa's F-100 that he bought new to use on the farm. Have big ideas for this truck.

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Looks EXACTLY like my f4 wrecker and has to be a '51 (poss a 52) f1. That thing has massive potential. Way cool.

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When people used to ask about that "old truck" I used to tell them I am 2 years older than the truck and hope to be nearly as tough as it (Ford tough lol).
 
[ QUOTE ]
My first major piece of equipment as a Fitchburg Chipper of undetermined age, but from somewhere in the late '50's or 60's. Bought it and an aluminum cap that fit a pickup truck and turned it into a chip box for $1500.00. It worked.

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My first chipper was a '50 something Fitchburg too. 4 banger. Man wish my scanner worked. PITA to change the knives as each one had to be adjusted with 2 screws on the non sharp back of the knife to match the bed knife.

Nice thing about it was it had a handle you could open a chute diversion flange in the side and it would just pump chips into the side of the road or whatever was on the side of the chipper. Nice for doing town and county tree work in rural areas and when chip box was full.
 
[ QUOTE ]
My first major piece of equipment as a Fitchburg Chipper of undetermined age, but from somewhere in the late '50's or 60's. Bought it and an aluminum cap that fit a pickup truck and turned it into a chip box for $1500.00. It worked.

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My first chipper too. Bought it fo$50. It had a continental engine with an updraft carb. Sold it for $300. 2 years later. Prolly best investment and return I ever had
 
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