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Watched a 30-year-old maple come down in 20 minutes flat
Back in '98 we'd spend half a day with hand saws and ropes taking down a tree that size, but last week a crew with a tracked spider lift and a hydraulic shear had it on the ground before lunch... Has anyone else noticed the equipment just getting way faster over the last decade?
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keithbennett15d ago
Oh man, it's not just tree work. I swear everything in the trades has gone full speed mode the last 10 years. I noticed it with concrete pumps and those little mini excavators that can squeeze through a garden gate. It's like we traded all the slow, careful work for instant results. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I don't have to hand-dig a stump anymore, but sometimes I miss watching a crew take their time and do it right without rushing.
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stella_baker15d ago
But isn't that more about nostalgia than actually getting the job done right? I get missing the old ways, but I've seen way more screw ups from tired crews taking their sweet time than from guys using modern gear to get in and out clean. Those mini excavators and concrete pumps let us do precision work that would've taken days by hand, and with way less back injuries too. Maybe I'm just not old enough to be sentimental about it, but I'd rather go home at a decent hour with my body intact than watch a crew take all day on something a machine could do in 20 minutes.
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Honestly, that "instant results" bit you said, @keithbennett, is spot on. I watched a crew drop a 60-foot oak with one of those hydraulic shears and it felt like cheating, like using a microwave to cook a steak. I'm just glad I wasn't holding the rope when they started it, because I probably would have tripped over my own feet and made the whole thing take an extra hour.
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