spiderlift

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Spider "divorce" Lift!!! Be careful, it might be like the "tandem divorce boat", aka:canoe hahahahaha!
 
How quick is it to level up the legs Dave? and is their a knack to it?
 
Lee it is a piece of cake to set up. Swing the legs out(they lock in place).
Push two switch's one is a dead man switch. The other is the auto level valve.
Drop the legs down close to the ground (all four legs come down at the same time in auto). Put your outrigger pads down, go and push the auto level
switch. Only takes about a minute or two to set up.
 
That might work. Or just have the basket turn upside down at about 50ft, and then disable itself. And send out a homing beacon....:D
 
Lee it is a piece of cake to set up. Swing the legs out(they lock in place).
Push two switch's one is a dead man switch. The other is the auto level valve.
Drop the legs down close to the ground (all four legs come down at the same time in auto). Put your outrigger pads down, go and push the auto level
switch. Only takes about a minute or two to set up.



Wow auto level,great invention,I can see myself with a spider type lift,within the next year or so..
 
I just think they're more of a PITA to set up, and they move too slow.

Mine takes 1 minute or less to setup on any terrain that doesn't require cribbing (fairly rare occurrence).

They are slower than a bucket truck, but with the way they articulate and their capabilities with a highly reduced weight and expense to operate make it worth it to me, YMMV and that's ok!

Carl
 
The fastest and highest reach bucket in the world is useless if it cannot get to the job site.
 
I rented a 34' spiderlift to take down a bunch of Italian Cypress trees in a back yard and it worked great for that. Then I used it to clean the mistletoe and trim a Modesto Ash tree also in the same yard and I found it to only slightly easier than climbing the tree. I realize that there is a learning curve with anything and I was definately on the bottom part of that. What I didn't like was that it didn't extend very far from the base, compared to a bucket truck. You could only work a small area of the tree pretty much right above the lift and consequently I was always dropping stuff on the lift, and you had to move it quite a few times. I dented up a few things, but they didn't say anything when I brought it back. With the insurance it came to $220/day. I used it for 3 days, but they only charged me for 2 since it had rained one of the days that I had it. Another thing I didn't like about it was you had to push really hard on the switches or it wouldn't move. I know...nag, nag, nag.
 
What I didn't like was that it didn't extend very far from the base, compared to a bucket truck.

I removed a 4k Locust tree on Tuesday, We pulled the bucket in the neighbors yard and i reached the whole tree while reaching over 2 garages.

The advantage is sneaking into smaller yards, but a bucket truck can still haul wood and chips. Until the prices come down i can't see it.
 
Good point Ken, the bucket truck can haul wood chips and a chipper so the lift is a 2nd trip or 2nd tow vehicle.

These things come in all sizes and ages. We used these on large contracts in Germany where we would be in the same place for a few days or weeks.

I have used spider lifts to go 90ft up. Of course, that is only like 50ft to the side.
 
Here it is guys...........straight out.

This is from spiderlifts ad in this month's TCI magazine.

Train Employee's Faster: Instead of two or three years of training to become a skilled tree climber, a ground man can now learn to use a spiderlift in minutes, and become an expert tree worker in three to four weeks.

That is the the most irresponsible advertising I have seen in a long time.

These lifts are marketed towards unsuspecting and inexperienced buyers promising them and I quote " Instant edge: Allows landscapers to instantly add profitable tree services................"

And further it is my opinion that marketing a lift (to be used in tree work) without at least electrical insulation for the operator is complete insanity.

Most tree guys know not to get something like this near any conductor, but when you are blatently marketing to inexperienced buyers are we sure they know not to??

Mark my words, these will be a blight on our industry and insurance rates in the years to come.

And I dont mean to be insensitive to an accident but here is proof of my point on these lifts.

http://www.arboristsite.com/showthread.php?p=579919#post579919

and the news article....

http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007701250406
 
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