Garbage truck

[Levi]

I am wondering if anyone has ever thought of using or used a trash truck for tree work? I am thinking that one of those trucks could probably smash up quite a few branches... what do ya'll think?

 

[treesmith]

I personally don't think it would have the compaction you'd think, simply because brush and wood will only compress so much.

 

[Altissimus]

.... thinking it might not cross over well, specialized rigs and quite heavy. May weigh and cost less to haul a chipper w / box truck... though on the subject I have seen one local use the roll off container truck w / winch to pull some stumps out at his house

 

[flushcut]

I wouldn't think it would work better than a chipper.

 

[woodworkingboy]

There was one at a job once to haul brush, somebody got the idea. My recollection is that it seemed to work ok if what you put into the compacter chute was cut up pretty finely. I later heard that there was some kind of problem unloading it, they had to resort to doing something unusual as far as the usual dumping from garbage trucks goes. It might have been a large excavator with a grapple that was needed to pull out the brush, or something along those lines. I think the guys at the dump got a little pissed off with the time that was involved in unloading.

 

[MasterBlaster]

I'm pretty sure unloading it would be a problem... plus, it's just too heavy.

 

[HolmenTree]

They actually work OK for brush. Years ago before I got into the arb biz the town hired me to fell and cut up a boulevard of DED elms. They brought their oldest compactor garbage truck with crew, front end loader with clam bucket and a tracked back hoe along with a fleet of tandem gravel trucks.
As fast as I could cut with the 066-20" they were stuffing that brush into the garbage truck and the loader was loading the tandems with the blocks while the hoe was ripping out the stumps.

We had over 30 mature trees totally removed with the ground nicely leveled within 8 hours.
Mind you the garbage crew were professionals but it went pretty good for them, seemed to take a lot of compaction cycles though.
But they could haul a lot of brush, came back from the landfill dump pretty quick too. I still see a town crew running around town with that old truck cleaning up prunings and wood.
But for a full time commercial use I can't see it being profitable, maybe 20-30 years ago when fuel was cheap and the DOT wasn't so strict with their safety inspections someone could make it fly.

 

[Levi]

hmmm... thanks for the replies. There is a bio-mass power plant close to me, maybe they would want the giant brick of tree.

 

[Oldmilltreecare]

I am wondering if anyone has ever thought of using or used a trash truck for tree work? I am thinking that one of those trucks could probably smash up quite a few branches... what do ya'll think?

I saw a couple of companies here in England using them and it was good because everything could be thrown in, dirt etc. The bin lifting gear on the back had been modified to lift in heavy logs etc but I can imagine the logs could take up a lot of space inside if they were lying in the wrong direction.

no idea how the running costs compare to a chipper and chip truck. Also, there is no outlet here for a 20ton lump of compressed wood but we all sell our wood chips to power stations.

 

[SouthSoundTree]

You will presumably need a CDL. I think garbage trucks are crazy heavy.

I can only imagine that it won't compare to a flatbed dump truck with a chip box or forestry box and chipper, or a local grapple truck.

 

[Marc-Antoine]

I think garbage trucks are crazy heavy.

I saw 26 tons, 59000 pounds for the big Volvo.
The small one is only 18 tons.

 

[SouthSoundTree]

26001 pounds requires a Commercial Driver's License. About $5k and a month of school if you can't get trained in-house somewhere, like I believe Asplundh does.

 

[woodworkingboy]

I think the more respectful term is "Truck of Recology". I wondered if anyone ever hot rodded one? I couldn't find anything, but there are some cool vintage ones around.

 

[rangerdanger]

$5k? Mine cost me $80, mainly to take the written test and driving test. Doesn't require a month of school unless you're totally green at driving trucks. You can take the class A CDL test in a 6 speed truck with air brakes and a trailer over 10k gvrw and be qualified to run just about any truck and single trailer combo.


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[MasterBlaster]

Yea, something ain't right about that price. Is Washington state greedy?

 

[SouthSoundTree]

If you want to go to school for it. Something has been changing in the regs I thought, but could be wrong. At SPs, they had to have a trainer sign off on me that he, as a CDL driver observed me do all the right stuff and could test for it. The longest configuration I drove through Seattle I-5 was 63' between the bucket truck with equipment trailer with a skidder. I'm glad to be done with that.

 

[Tucker943]

I just get in and go........

 

[802climber]

If you are looking to re-purpose a garbage truck for tree work you should really look into getting a roll-off truck. Lots more potential there.

Yes the DOT compliance is a nightmare and there are plenty of ways to get screwed even if you are between 10,001-26,000# GVWR/GCWR. (Under CDL but still commercial)

And so many more ways if you are over 26,000#......... You're basically guilty until proven innocent.