Trees, Trees, and More Trees

[John Griffin]

Having a bunch of play wont help. It's to the point it's making it a handful to drive. The rear end will be 6 inches off to one side going down the road

 

[crane operator]

Does it have a bunch of road time on it? I always thought the megatrak needed a lot of maintence and didn't hold up very well on the ones I've been around. They sure ride nice though.

Its full time rear steer in road travel mode also? Rear steers opposite of the front two?

If its getting difficult to drive you're going to have to get after it, did you have to get the bushings from Grove or can you get them aftermarket?

 

[John Griffin]

Does it have a bunch of road time on it? I always thought the megatrak needed a lot of maintence and didn't hold up very well on the ones I've been around. They sure ride nice though.

Its full time rear steer in road travel mode also? Rear steers opposite of the front two?

If its getting difficult to drive you're going to have to get after it, did you have to get the bushings from Grove or can you get them aftermarket?

Yes it's always been a crane moved from site to site constantly. We rarely have it in one place more than 2 or 3 days. Its rides awesome.

The front and middle axle steer when in road mode. Really makes it where rear steer isn't needed mostly. Rears can be crab, countersteer, or independent in offroad mode.

It's getting to where you have to stay on top of the steering wheel constantly. I got all factory parts from grove. I really didnt think about trying to find aftermarket as iij wanted stuff that fit well.

 

[crane operator]

I went one time from a tms 300 for a daily to a gmk 4080, and what a change that was. From straight walking beam to mega trak just blew me away. Very eye opening considering they were very close to the same weight. I distinctly remember giggling a little when I went down a regular route with a bump that sent you bucking with the tms300, and how the 4080 handled it.

I was really just curious on how many overall km's were on the machine. My liebherr doesn't have a lot of miles, but the rubber bushings are showing their age. I just saw a 2006 or so 110 ton sell, but it had over 330,000km's on it, which I thought was a lot of travel time. I'm probably staring at totally rebushing mine some winter.

 

[John Griffin]

I went one time from a tms 300 for a daily to a gmk 4080, and what a change that was. From straight walking beam to mega trak just blew me away. Very eye opening considering they were very close to the same weight. I distinctly remember giggling a little when I went down a regular route with a bump that sent you bucking with the tms300, and how the 4080 handled it.

I was really just curious on how many overall km's were on the machine. My liebherr doesn't have a lot of miles, but the rubber bushings are showing their age. I just saw a 2006 or so 110 ton sell, but it had over 330,000km's on it, which I thought was a lot of travel time. I'm probably staring at totally rebushing mine some winter.

We still use our tms300 and every time I get in it I feel like it tries to beat me to death after spending time in the gmk. Its absolutely amazing how well they ride. My bucket truck rides rougher even with a load in it.

I would have to look as I really don't remember what its odometer is sitting at.

 

[John Griffin]

Had to reach over a house from one side to the other to take down a pine tree that was dropping limbs on the house. Built in 1887 iirc.

 

[crane operator]

Been roading it around with all the weights on? or you strip some off? I see you're hauling a stack of lumber along with you on a flatbed. My 70 ton with no removable counterweight to haul, we started with a short gooseneck as a support truck, and then went to just a f450 with a rigging box and wood.

Leaving the jib at the shop too I see. Every time I pull the jib off my liebherr, it needs jib on a job the following week. Or I have a job that I might not reach on main, then I'm out back with another crane, hanging it back on the side.

 

[John Griffin]

Been roading it around with all the weights on? or you strip some off? I see you're hauling a stack of lumber along with you on a flatbed. My 70 ton with no removable counterweight to haul, we started with a short gooseneck as a support truck, and then went to just a f450 with a rigging box and wood.

Leaving the jib at the shop too I see. Every time I pull the jib off my liebherr, it needs jib on a job the following week. Or I have a job that I might not reach on main, then I'm out back with another crane, hanging it back on the side.

We take of 8800 lbs normally. We only load them when doing long distance stuff. We have been hauling them on our 20k trailer. We are going to start moving them on a flatbed international 4700 that we have been working on. It's an under cdl truck so itll make it easier to get it around. Also a lot more maneuverable for getting into tight spots. The crane can actually out maneuver the truck and trailer.

We have yet to need to put the jib on our gmk. With tree work, it just has not been needed. We keep our gmk and the good tms300 in town at a lot so it easy for us to take the jib over there to hang it. The jib lives at my place outside of town just to not clog up our city lot.

 

[crane operator]

All the main on your GMK eliminates the need for jib. I find I go fewer places all the time, that I would have room to put jib on.

 

[John Griffin]

All the main on your GMK eliminates the need for jib. I find I go fewer places all the time, that I would have room to put jib on.

Yeah that's another issue we encounter with the jib. Often we don't have room to swing it anyway. That's one reason I bought this gmk is the long main boom.

 

[John Griffin]

We took down this dead oak tree touching a house. It was a very tight spot.

 

[John Griffin]

We took down a large sweat gum that was dropping limbs onto the homeowners cars.

 

[John Griffin]

The log weighed 6400 lbs. We were good for 11,200 due to the winch limit but the crane itself was good for 17,000 at that radius with all the boom out.

 

[colson04]

I also own a fabrication and machine shop. We have 2 3 axis cnc mills, 1 4 axis cnc mill, a cnc lathe, the plasma table, manual mill and lathe, mig and tig welders, tubing bender, jig table, etc.

What brand CNC plasma table do you have? What size table? What are you using for plasma cutter? Max thickness of material? Any recommendations for someone that has been serious thought into purchasing one for a side business?

 

[mowingman]

Amazing to see what you can do with a crane. I have a friend who has been in the tree removal/trimming business for 30 years. He is an old geezer like me. He will not use a crane or any kind of lift for tree work. Always has one or two climbers on his crew. Oh, and he only has one arm too. You should see him start and run a chainsaw. He does everything the old time way.They take down trees hanging over houses with ropes. I like your method better.

 

[John Griffin]

What brand CNC plasma table do you have? What size table? What are you using for plasma cutter? Max thickness of material? Any recommendations for someone that has been serious thought into purchasing one for a side business?

I have a dyna torch table. 4x8 is the listed size but it's really about 110 inches long. Not much is left over cutting from a 4x10 sheet. I have a thermal dynamics a80. It'll cut 1 inch plate.

I'd save your money or do something else. Between the cost of the table itself, consumables, electricity costs, a serious air compressor, and the cost of materials it's really not very profitable just to cut stuff. Throw labor in there too. Plus you have to have room for it, plus room to store material, and a way to load it. It makes a metal dust mess in the whole shop. Places like send cut send have really pushed the market down. We make ok money with it on making and selling some of our own products but that has another set of headaches. We also use it for some of the industrial kinda repairs we do at times.

 

[John Griffin]

Amazing to see what you can do with a crane. I have a friend who has been in the tree removal/trimming business for 30 years. He is an old geezer like me. He will not use a crane or any kind of lift for tree work. Always has one or two climbers on his crew. Oh, and he only has one arm too. You should see him start and run a chainsaw. He does everything the old time way.They take down trees hanging over houses with ropes. I like your method better.

Talk about doing stuff the hard way. I'm certainly skilled at running ropes and climbing but I dont know why you would want to limit yourself to just that. I can and do still climb when needed. Labor is expensive vs the production that a lift can bring in a decent operator's hands. My bucket truck basically allowed me to gain enough revenue to buy my first crane years ago. Also a lot of pruning work doing tip weight reduction properly is very hard to do climbing. One of the climbers that works with us is good enough to compete on a national level and it's still difficult for him.

 

[skyking1]

It's a fine thing to use ropes and do it old school, but then you have to hand job 10 tons of tree out of the back yard, when you just fly it out for easy disassembly.

 

[mowingman]

My friend's crew took these big trees down by climbing and using ropes. We dug out the stumps and loaded them, so he could haul them off. did quite a few that were bigger, but forgot to take photos.

 

[John Griffin]

My friend's crew took these big trees down by climbing and using ropes. We dug out the stumps and loaded them, so he could haul them off. did quite a few that were bigger, but forgot to take photos.

We took this big one down all on rope. I'm in the orange shirt. I'm 6'2" to give an idea of how big the tree is. It had gotten hit by lightning, twice.