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Boom Lift reach
I need to rent a boom lift to reach the top of our chimney to repair some woodpecker damage. The house is very tall and I'm not sure if I need a 45-foot or 60-foot boom lift. Does anyone know how these are measured? If a 45-foot lift was fully raised will the actual platform be 45 feet above ground? Or does it raise to 40 feet and allow a normal sized operator to work at the 45 foot height? The house is three stories with 9-foot ceilings on all levels, a 12/12 roof on top of that and a chimney that extends a few feet above the roof peak and I need to work at the very top of the chimney.
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Boom Lift reach
Ken: Before you address the reach you might want to assess the access issue.
I have looked at booms/man-lifters to fix my chimney too. I have been stalled by the fact that most units will not traverse uneven ground to get to the job.
The self propelled units I have found have basically two solid axles with virtually no flexibility between the axles.
The lifters that you can tow like a trailer have very low approach angles (I.E. long rear overhangs) and long tongues that limit where you can position them.
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Boom Lift reach
For my two cents worth, we use them all the time for tree trimming and felling. They are considerably less weight than a similar sized boom truck and in our case, soil compaction is a HUGE issue.
The biggest one our rental house has is a 110' reach, but that is a vertical measurement, and the control system automatically lowers the telescopic boom as you start to rotate down off the vertical.
We walk them into some pretty tricky spots without any problems, we do however often have a bit of a time doing it. We often have to maneuver the boom to make it clear, or to act as a counter balance.
Best of luck.
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Boom Lift reach
We used a Genie 4x4 45 foot boom lift once before to install a satellite dish and it worked fine. Access isn't really a problem in the area. With the 45 footer we were able to work a few feet below the gable peak to install the dish but now I'm kicking myself for not seeing how high it would go last time it was here.
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Boom Lift reach
Kwschumm,
When you figure out what works for you, please let me know. I believe your house is nearly identical to mine.
I have a three story house, with 9 foot ceilings on all floors. Including the basement, I have just over 4000 square feet of living space.
The house is about 36 x 36 feet square, and my 40ft extension ladder will not reach high enough for me to climb up to clean the attic windows. I have three dormers in the attic, with three windows in each dormer.
The house was built in 1908, and moved to its current location in 1970.
When I do rent a boom truck to do some shingle and window repair, but I believe I'll rent the bigger unit, as the extra ballast in the butt will provide me with a bit more comfort when I've got my head in the clouds. hehehe.
Joel
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Boom Lift reach
Ken, if the rental company is not able to tell you quickly ask for the model and manf or the boom and look up the specs on their web page. You should be able to find it.
The crane manf. company I worked for counted the boom length as the total length of the boom itself. That was not the working height. It did not take into account the amount lost to the angle nor did that take into account the gain of the height of the boom where it was mounted to the crane.
I congratulate you on being comfortable in one of those. I had to test operate some of them about 75 feet high and was not at ease at all. Units built for the US Air Force to wash planes and such. kt
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Boom Lift reach
I have a 40' telescoping manlift (straight "shooting boom" style). It's 2wd self-propelled. I have really no problems driving it around except through 8" deep sticky mud and steep ramps. It has its limitations as far reach from the side as was mentioned earlier about overhangs, etc. I don't recommend it, but we have extended the boom and placed an additional ladder inside the bucket for extra reach. You need to find a lift that has what is called up- and-over reach sometimes called knuckle booms or articulated booms. I gave $2500 for mine and put another $2K into it. Talk about handy! Maaaan I use it for nearly all my lifting duties (it is rated for 500lb. but I've lifted 1700 no problem), and the kids love going up in it! The dog got about 10 feet up and freaked out, so we don't do dat 'nymore!
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Boom Lift reach
Around here most boom lifts seem to be supplied by United Rentals and they usually rent out Genies. The Genie web site says their S-45 boom lift has a "working height" of 51 feet which should do the job. I'll talk to them before renting to be sure.
EW, I've been looking for a cheap boom lift for quite some time but any that will do this sort of job and still run seem to cost $15k or more. At that price I'll rent. Heck, it would probably make more sense to rent anyway. It's around $800/week but I only need one every couple of years and wouldn't have to maintain it. Parts can't be cheap. But it would be nice to have one around the house for those times when ladders just won't do the job. I had a 40+ foot ladder but sold it, it was just to cumbersome for one guy to handle. The 36 footer I have now is manageable but it won't reach the high gutters. I'm ashamed to say that once I stuck the base of the 36 foot ladder in the loader and lifted it up another 8-10 feet to clear a clogged gutter (yes, there was plenty of ballast). I wouldn't recommend that either and won't do it again but it did work.
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Boom Lift reach
I once rented about a 45' Genie tow behind for painting one of my wooden chimneys. I am not comfortable at heights so I got a thrill every time I moved the control when I was up high. A small movement threw me a couple of feet and shook the manlift for a while. Also the unit had to "click" into level using the outriggers after each move and this took me up to one hour. Of course the rental company would not give me anything back for this even though they told me I might have some trouble getting it to settle in to the "level". I have a larger chimney that needs painting and I fear this will require a 60' boom lift.
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Boom Lift reach
The Genie I used last time was a 4x4 self-propelled S-45 and it was pretty stable at about 40' up. I don't recall feeling unsafe or shaky at any time.
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