High-volume productivity: heavy-duty grapple trucks lighten workload, life profits
Published in: Arbor Age
Date: 6/1/2004
By: Yorde, Adele
AFTER A HURRICANE, ICE STORM, FLOOD OR OTHER DISASTER, fallen trees and vegetative debris can become a waste-handling nightmare if not dealt with quickly and efficiently. In an industry where time is money, resource recovery company owners like Bill Gaston and Tipton “Tip” Rowland waste neither.
Pioneers in storm debris management and wood resource recovery, Gaston and Rowland often mobilize crews and equipment on an hour’s notice.
“Having a large fleet of state-of-the-art equipment assures a quick, complete response,” said Gaston, owner of Wood Resource Recovery (WRR), Gainesville, Fla. “This work requires a constant investment in equipment–aerial bucket trucks, tub grinders, loaders, and, above all, grapple trucks. We have six knucklebooms and two more on the radar screen. Technology is driving everything; this is the next generation of technology. Some would say these units are too expensive (approx. $150,000 apiece), but we can’t afford not to have them.”
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Enhanced Capacity in Disaster Recovery
Gaston went on to explain how important these high-volume units are, especially in storm recovery work. “With just one grapple truck, a single operator can load multiple trucks at the end of the day. Add pup trailers and you double capacity. Plus, I can depreciate new trucks over five years and run them for 10 or more years without any trouble, so asset management becomes a tool just like the truck itself.”
WRR started growing its knuckleboom fleet once it started doing emergency contract work. WRR would move into a community after a storm and set up a caravan of knuckleboom trucks on a piece of property to which all tree and yard debris would be hauled. WRR soon discovered cost effective ways to dispose of huge quantities of organic material–grinding it up and converting it into a variety of manufactured items, including landscape products, compost blankets, biomass fuel, charcoal products, colored mulch, and topsoil.
Rowland, owner/president of T.F.R. Enterprises, Inc., Austin, Texas, adds new pieces of equipment to his massive fleet every three to four months. He’s ordered 15 custom-built grapple trucks in the past three years alone. The units, from V & H, Inc., Marshfield, Wis., each come equipped with a loader, large brush grapple, 52-yard dumping box and steerable lift axle. “On one job, after an ice storm in North Carolina, our fleet loaded, hauled and disposed of 225,000 cubic yards of debris and hazardous trees that covered 575 miles of city streets.”
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Today, T.F.R. handles nearly $20 million per year in disaster cleanup, which accounts for only about 10 percent of its equipment usage time. With personnel and equipment operating in four states, plus committed relationships with several subcontractors, T.F.R. can dispatch recovery teams nearly anywhere in the United States. When not chasing storms, its fleet is used for contract hauling, land clearing and vegetative maintenance contracts. This day-to-day use of grapple trucks is proving profitable.
Reduced Labor Costs in “Regular” Tree Work
“Years ago, tree service companies were using log trucks to move materials, but they quickly realized they needed a closed-in box to haul brush, limbs, stumps, etc.,” noted Rodney Niemuth, V & H sales representative. “Then, customers said it would be great to be able to dump those loads, so we needed to move the loader from the back end of the truck to behind the cab. While the majority of tree service companies still do a lot of chipping, many are beginning to see the potential for increased revenues with these self-loading, high-volume dump trucks.”
Clearing land in Florida for a residential community, Eric Gentry, T.F.R. director of operations, said “The ‘old fashioned way’ would take five guys with four pieces of equipment a full day to clear one 1/4-acre lot. The excavator would have to sit there and wait to load each smaller dump truck three times (18-20 cubic yard capacity). Now, a loader and ground man start in the morning, clear and pile debris in one corner, then leave to start work on a second lot while we bring in one new, self-loading 52-cubic yard grapple truck. Three loads later, the entire lot is cleared and the truck moves on to finish up work on lot number two.”
Jason Sengel, owner of Robinson Tree Service (RTS), Memphis, Tenn., finds grapple trucks most useful in regular tree work. “We do a large volume of tree work, and these large-capacity boxes hold quite a bit of debris. When it comes to production, you can’t beat the grapple truck.” RTS currently has a fleet of six. Sengel had the last truck modified, putting the loader on the rear to allow for greater mobility in narrow streets and yards. “Not only does it afford greater access to more locations, now we can hook a trailer to the truck and be able to fill both the pup trailer and box with one loader. These self-loaders are capable of lifting several thousand pounds. We found it more productive to use the grapple to load bigger pieces directly into the box. The loader easily does the job of six men, with minimal noise and safety issues.”
Adele Yorde is a freelance writer/communications consultant based in Marshfield, Wis.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Adams Business Media