For Georgia's Downey Trees, Inc., a recent job involved two big challenges: access and safety. A customer contracted Downey to remove a dead tree from a fenced area. The 6-ft.-wide walkway to the tree limited access and ruled out using a bucket truck. The job was further complicated by the presence of open communication lines stretching more than 10 ft. above the walking path.
Rusty Lee, Downey's vice president of tree care operations, decided that using a lift from Teupen USA was the smartest and safest solution. "For this job, we did have the option of sending up climbers," Lee said. "We could have harnessed them using a V or M rig. But that kind of rig is difficult because you need to attach ropes to two trees that are the same height. It's a cumbersome and slow-moving process that normally takes a whole day to perform. And with so many factors at work here, it wasn't the safest way to take down a dead tree."
Instead, Lee opted to use the TC69A from Teupen's Canopy Series of compact lifts. "This unit was ideal because it was narrow enough to navigate the 6-ft. walkway," he explained. "We were able to easily move the lift into the yard. We set up quickly and finished the job safely in just a couple of hours. It meant I didn't need to send up climbers, and I was able to move on to the next job that afternoon."
Lee added that the option of using his Teupen Canopy lift gives him a competitive advantage when bidding on jobs. "Bids are largely based on the time required to take down a tree; and if you can do it in half a day rather than a full day, you can pass on the savings to customers," he said. "But there are other benefits that are even more important. There's less wear and tear on my crew. If you can avoid having climbers swinging between multiple trees on a V rig, and can instead use a lift with precise controls that give you access in both horizontal and vertical directions, it's just a safer choice, period."
Lift & Access is part of the Catalyst Communications Network publication family.
