Buying a Used Cherry Picker.

[DrWazzock]

Sensible or not?
I’ve quite a few jobs where I could use a cherry picker such as chimneys and roof sheets but it would need to go about 30 ft up and reach 3m in from the roof edge. Plenty advertised at about 6000 hours with a LOLER around the £10k mark. I could hire but looks like £400 a week and it could soon rhyme up with weather delays, snags and not being able to devote a continuous run of time to the work.
Anybody got any experience? Thanks.

 

[carbonfibre farmer]

@Dave W

 

[grainboy]

Auction next week, it’s very tidy,

 

[Dave W]

@Dave W

Not had a lot to do with them. They aren’t the sort of thing that wear out though so I wouldn’t be going mad looking for a young low houred thing.
Keep an eye out with the plant auction companies. They often do fleet clearances from hire companies. Machines usually get sold off because they’ve reached a certain age rather than have issues or high hours.
Watts auctions at Barnsley usually have a good selection in. Colin and John really know there stuff and will be happy to advise anything to avoid

 

[David.]

Would you be keeping up the 6mthly Loler testing?
I know anything is better than a ladder and you will have done your best; but isn't one of these without a current test just as "illegal" if there was an incident, as a man basket on a loader?

 

[Still Farming]

Man basket 14 meter telehandler or Genie look better to those " spider" type small machines.

 

[Derky]

We run 2 and 2 scissors. After years of mounting bills running genies we now run a pair of JLG. They are generally very good. Problem with all pickers is the sensors pack up with age. If its sparadic use i would be hiring. That said to the genie our scissor lift has been very good to date. They are all sub 8 years old though.

 

[pembsarable]

Had electricians in years ago that used a nifty lift. Can't recommend as it swayed and wobbled all over the place. The biggest issue with it was getting it into buildings - required 3 of us to push it if it couldn't be reversed in with say Landrover etc.

As I farm on my own, a man basket is out of the question so bought 4 years ago a 10 year old Genie Z34/22 from Easy2Reach. Its been great. Ex hire company so had been looked after. Apart from usual servicing items, only had one simple switch fail - parts bought online, commonly available. It weighs about 6 ton and will send you 30 foot straight up or has about 20 foot reach. Ideal for my gutters / grain store cleaning, access for grain drier.

 

[Rookie]

We bought a genie z45 a few years ago. Only 2 wheel drive but been good for going round fields taking low branches off etc as it only needs one man. Probably better if it was 4wd but does travel pretty well considering it weighs around 6ton. Also safer for maintenance jobs. Been pretty reliable but we have to have it lola tested every 6 months.

 

[goldeneagle]

Had a hire of a 16m manitou which was two wheel drive, great machine cost 350 a week. Local auction had a 12m version sell for 1700 and it looked in ok condition.

Think they are supposed to be stripped down and welds checked, pins checked/replaced etc every so many years so if I was buying one and you can get cheap enough would factor in doing that then have some confidence in it.

when we built shed had 3 z45 genies in at one point and there was one broken down every other day.

Having had the manitou which was electric it is so much more peaceful not having an engine running all the time as you make small adjustments to your working position.

 

[DrWazzock]

Thanks for the feedback. When outreach is quoted, is that at a certain height? I would have thought outreach would reduce, the higher you went? Do these machines have some kind of warning or lock out if you are getting too close to toppling them or will they go to any position allowed by the geometry of the boom with the SWL in the basket? What happens if the engine won’t start and you are at 45 m?
Up to now I’ve used a basket on a teiehandler (well till 2018). Now there are less of us about that’s not so easy or probably even legal and my teiehandler just won’t reach high enough. Price of long reach teiehandler seems megabucks compared to cherry picker and less convenient, plus boom is straight so not so easy to reach over or up a roof.

 

[David.]

Worst practical aspect is inadvertently overloading up in the air and locking everything out, I rotated a Genie whilst washing the drier shed roof underside, causing the basket cage to slide down the underside of a rafter slightly, tripping the overload sensor.
Everything stopped, and I ended up having to phone a friend from 25ft up.

 

[copse]

Thanks for the feedback. When outreach is quoted, is that at a certain height? I would have thought outreach would reduce, the higher you went? Do these machines have some kind of warning or lock out if you are getting too close to toppling them or will they go to any position allowed by the geometry of the boom with the SWL in the basket? What happens if the engine won’t start and you are at 45 m?
Up to now I’ve used a basket on a teiehandler (well till 2018). Now there are less of us about that’s not so easy or probably even legal and my teiehandler just won’t reach high enough. Price of long reach teiehandler seems megabucks compared to cherry picker and less convenient, plus boom is straight so not so easy to reach over or up a roof.

I had one on hire and had it right up as high as it would go and turned it off as was working on a roof. Half hour later and went to fire it up and the starter motor shat it’s self was stuck up there until the hire company could find another one to get me down.

 

[Hilly]

Im scared of heights , i could hardly watch bloody awful things but million times better than ladders .

 

[David.]

I had one on hire and had it right up as high as it would go and turned it off as was working on a roof. Half hour later and went to fire it up and the starter motor shat it’s self was stuck up there until the hire company could find another one to get me down.

You are about fooked when they stop midair.

Im scared of heights , i could hardly watch bloody awful things but million times better than ladders . View attachment 1146361

The bit that makes me pucker is the point where it feels like when you swing over top dead centre, like pic above.

 

[copse]

You are about fooked when they stop midair.

The bit that makes me pucker is the point where it feels like when you swing over top dead centre, like pic above.

Will never stop the engine again unless on the floor!

 

[spanners and hammers]

they all have emergency desent devices , just need a ground man with you when working with them

 

[David.]

Or phone a friend.

 

[spark plug]

Cant help with buying a machine, but I’ve spent 0000’s of hours on many machines, my advice would be to get one a bit bigger than you need. It’s always much easier to reach to something than park directly under it and stretch to it.

My preferred machine would always be JLG firstly because of reliability but also the tend to have a greater range of movement, so you can get into awkward places.

 

[Blue.]

I’ve a 2001 15m terex ta50 I’m going to sell,ex mod and low hrs circa 1100 off the top of my head.

Also have a scissor lift but found a cherry picker far handier mainly because of outreach.