Has anyone rented a small towable man lift?

B737

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I have a few limbs that i need cleaned up, some precariously hanging over the shed and fence. Nothing massive, I think all the stuff will be less than 7" in diameter, most of it just small branches / limbs. At my local equipment rental place they rent these little tow-able man lifts, relatively inexpensive $300/day. My thought was to tow it around the woods with the BX and have at it. Has anyone used one of these before? I don't want to end up in the hospital, I have plenty of time on my hands to go slow. Normally, I'd pay my tree service to knock it out, but right now is not the time (for me) to be giving them thousands.

open to experiences and input

 

North Idaho Wolfman

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Yea they work fine, just set them solidly where you want to lift it.
 
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bird dogger

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My neighbor and I have rented them a couple of times. I need one again this summer sometime. We pulled it around with my compact tractor and it worked great. Like NIW says, make sure the ground is solid where you set up, especially under the outriggers.

One note: the first one we rented had the pump driven by batteries. It was slow.....especially by the end of the day. the next one we rented was small gas engine powered and made quite a difference. We didn't have to worry about the batteries needing recharging and the cycle time for the outriggers was much faster. Might make a difference if you have multiple setups. We trimmed trees (storm damage) around the perimeter of our windbreaks so had alot of moves to make during the day.

I believe the gas powered one also had auto sensors that wouldn't allow the boom to operate if the setup didn't allow the lift frame to be leveled properly. So if you have uneven ground where its to be used that's also a consideration. That feature confused us for a while in one area. Be safe!

david
 

BigG

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I can not say anything about the man lift. But I would like to caution you about cutting the limbs over the shed and the fence. Watching some of the videos on you tube of the tree guys using a rope to control the dropping of the limb as they cut it loose it appears to be no big deal. Two things to be careful with, one is the limbs are MUCH heavier then they look. The second thing is the rope that you buy at the local box store is nowhere strong enough to hold very much weight. The tree companies use an extremely strong rope compared to the same sized rope that you get from the box store.

Box store 1/2 inch rope tests to 300 pounds. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbil...ypropylene-Diamond-Braid-Rope-72465/206094275

vs 1/2 inch 7000 pound test rope.

Just a caution no criticism meant. Personal experience as a teenager resulted in my severe injury.
 

mikester

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Shop around at several suppliers. I recently rented a 65 foot Articulated diesel 4WD unit for $500 weekend rate. They dropped it off Friday afternoon and picked up Monday morning. You can stand in the basket and drive around and do your task rather than fart around with a truck each time you need to change position. Tree work can be tricky because your planned access route from the ground doesn’t always work when you are up in the air.

I wouldn’t even consider a tow behind at $300/day When you can get self powered units for around the same cost.
 
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dalola

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I rented one of those several years ago to assist in staining my exterior house siding. (not a fan of ladders...) Once it was leveled up, it worked quite well. However, as Bird Dogger mentioned, they can be fickle to get level. The unit I rented was electric, and was also locked out if it was not *perfectly* level. I understand the safety aspect of that, but it was really touchy. maybe just a touchy unit, dunno, but it was a pain to get operational. Once set, it was super handy & felt very safe, and easy to operate. My gable peaks are about 35' up, so made staining a breeze.

I would also agree, if you can get a self-powered unit delivered & picked up for a little more $$, I would go that route for sure. For me, at the time I rented, the self-powered units were WAY more expensive, and delivery/pick-up was not included. Definitely shop around, maybe you can score a deal.
 
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Cowboy Dave

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Make sure you have a fall protection harness and lanyard that attatches to bucket or lift platform. It should be supplied by rental company. If not rent one with the lift. This is the most important safety device you can have when doing aerial work. A limb can hit the bucket and bounce you out like a catapult.
 
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B737

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I recently rented a 65 foot Articulated diesel 4WD unit for $500 weekend rate. They dropped it off Friday afternoon and picked up Monday morning. You can stand in the basket and drive around and do your task rather than fart around with a truck each time you need to change position.

I wouldn’t even consider a tow behind at $300/day When you can get self powered units for around the same cost.
This is kind of what i was worrying about.... This place has underwhelmed me before with a stump grinder that was more akin to a bicycle and handle bars. From then on, I rented a 4x4 hydraulic Vermeer from another place further away, and gladly paid twice the price to do so lol

With a bucket rating of 400 pounds I think any ropes would need to be wrapped to the tree, lowered carefully from someone on the ground, and not handled by me in the bucket. I want to go slow with little pieces.

I think they give you a safety harness that goes around your legs and torso, I may have to buy new/better ropes.

Thanks for all the tips guys, I'll feel a little better prepared going in.
 

mikester

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This is kind of what i was worrying about.... This place has underwhelmed me before with a stump grinder that was more akin to a bicycle and handle bars. From then on, I rented a 4x4 hydraulic Vermeer from another place further away, and gladly paid twice the price to do so lol

With a bucket rating of 400 pounds I think any ropes would need to be wrapped to the tree, lowered carefully from someone on the ground, and not handled by me in the bucket. I want to go slow with little pieces.

I think they give you a safety harness that goes around your legs and torso, I may have to buy new/better ropes.

Thanks for all the tips guys, I'll feel a little better prepared going in.
My recommendation would be to make more cuts/smaller pieces and let them drop vs using rope and sling. If you NEED the rope and sling due to buildings/powerlines it might be worth hiring the young arborist guy and let him be the monkey. It will cost more but is way less risky to your health.

7 inch limbs are heavy, even in small pieces.
 
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Tornado

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Ive always rented a straight boom to take down limbs and trees around my property. Its about $400 to rent it for the weekend (The 60 foot lift) - get 8 hours of run time. That is delivered and picked up at my property. The only downside is that it is a very heavy piece of equipment and leaves ruts in the yard.
 

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B737

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unfortunately in my neck of the woods those things are nearly a grand to rent, and for a few more hundred bucks i could pay my tree guys a half day. That does look a lot faster than the tow ones for sure though.

For those that are battery powered, how long do they stay charged? do you plug them in, or do they have a engine onboard to charge?
 

Tornado

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unfortunately in my neck of the woods those things are nearly a grand to rent, and for a few more hundred bucks i could pay my tree guys a half day. That does look a lot faster than the tow ones for sure though.

For those that are battery powered, how long do they stay charged? do you plug them in, or do they have a engine onboard to charge?
The one I rent, which looks just like the picture, they are powered by a diesel engine. The picture makes them look kinda small, but the unit is actually quite large and very heavy. That boom goes out 60 feet, so the base has to have a ton of weight to not tip over. I love using it to take down big tree's and limbs. When I have rented it I put a full 2 days work on it and you can do some real damage fast with a chainsaw, a pole saw, and this rental. I keep both saws in the operating station with me, along with gas and bar oil. You can crank, shut down, and drive the whole unit from up in the basket. I take water and even lunch up with me and may not come down for hours. The last time I rented it was just a few months ago. Was just over $400. Like $403 or $405 total is what it come to, and that included delivery and pick up of the unit from my property. It takes an actual semi and large flat bed trailer to haul it. If you rent it on friday, you get to keep it the full weekend at the daily rate. You can put 8 hours on the hour meter - for each additional hour over that you pay so much per extra hour. I forget the amount, but its not super high. I have never went over the 8 hours. Once you get up in an area you can kill the engine and do all ur cuts, and it isnt eating up your time. Then crank it back up just to move to a new area. So, 8 hours of run time will actually last me a full weekend usually.

EDIT: I just wanted to also add the benefit to thest straight lift over the scisor lift style that the OP linked, is that with the straight boom you can easily position the unit in a safe location if youre cutting really big stuff. You can have it sitting out 30 feet away from the tree youre cutting on, without any risk of putting something down on top of the unit. The scissor lift doesn't give you the same kind of clearance. The straight boom I can also extend it all they way over my house and cut trees on the back side for example, so it can get you into some places that are hard to access just from the extension length of that boom. They call it the 60 footer but I think it actually reaches aout 65 feet fully extended and with the basket fully extended. The basket tilts/pivots and can go up and down as well as the boom itself so there are lots of maneuverability options.
 
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NHSleddog

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I saw a guy take down 6 giant pines the other day with one of these. He said it is a game changer. He went from a 6 man crew + crane rentals to a 3 man crew and no more rentals. It wasn't this exact brand, but the same general design.

He was literally loading the chipper and rack trailer directly from the crane.

 
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bird dogger

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For those that are battery powered, how long do they stay charged? do you plug them in, or do they have a engine onboard to charge?
The electric ones we rented worked fine but did slow down after a while. Again, we had a lot of moves and up and down time throughout the day. Like Tornado mentioned, we rent late on a Friday for a Saturday use and get charged for one day or the weekend rate depending on the hour meter. But we learned to keep it plugged in (no onboard generator) during dinner breaks or any other down time. At the end of the day it was definitely in need of a good overnight charging. But it worked surprisingly well over a large area for a long day. The gas powered one was just worry free and faster operating.

Not mentioned yet: If you have to work over buildings or other obstacles, keep in mind that you may need a longer reach than the machine's stated capacity. If your cuts are up high over that building/obstacle and you can't set up close to it you might find by the time you reach the right height......the limb needing cutting is still too far out in front of you. Also, if you're cutting at the maximum height that means the outriggers are pretty much directly under you so you have to be careful not to drop those limbs on them! You don't want to damage them and pay for repairs. something to be aware of and thinking about while doing your cutting. A pole saw really earns its keep up in the bucket and it'll give you quite the workout using it. You just really have to work smart and work safe while up in the air. You don't want your saws pinched in a limb way up high!! o_O
 
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