Towable boom lift

[ruffdog]

......also, get a harness to wear. I wear one when I'm in a work basket, work platform, carryall, etc.

 

[texas42]

I own a Nifty Lift TM34T. Honda power and telescoping boom. Very nice unit and fairly stable at max. height and/or reach. Does not have auto level but lets you know if not setup properly. Use it to trim trees, paint, change yard light bulbs and other misc stuff.
Tow it around my property with my compact tractor.

 

[riptides]

I had to laugh at hanging xMas lights. My house sits under some big maples. My neighbors house is clear. The one year he spies me maneuvering around stuff he asks if I can come over and help. I responded with do you have any obstacles? He says "no..?" questioning the response... I say good "then I can smash into your house more easily."

He has a wifi pole on the very top of his house. Out of reach for me.

For trimming, yes small bites, but also a clear drop path under and around the unit. It goes pretty fast once you get into a comfort zone.

 

[plastikosmd]

Had one


It was more useful than no lift but setup got old

Moved onto a self driven one. 100x more useful for me.

 

[dstig1]

I have used both towable and self-propelled ones, and hands down the SP ones are far easier to use. Biljax makes a great SP one that has outriggers that lift and level the machine and it isn't terribly heavy. Certainly not 10k - more like half that. I also used an SP one that was simply a crap ton of weight to keep it planted (no outriggers). Positioning the towable lift is a royal PITA. The one with outriggers was the easiest to use as it could make up for some decent out of level ground (there are limits, of course). The one with all the weight was less forgiving of even small slopes.

One other thing to be aware of is that there are different levels of features on these. Some lifts have more actions than others which makes them easier to use and allows you to reach more stuff with one setup which saves time. The ability to pivot and extend the platform separately from the main boom is a big help.

 

[bdhsfz6]

This isn't what you're looking for, but it's a compromise for my needs:

Aerial Work Platforms: Elevate Your Tasks

Work fast and easy with Genie aerial work platforms. Master your elevated construction and maintenance tasks effortlessly with our aerial platform lineup.

www.genielift.com

It's strictly up & down with no articulation. It loads in the bed of a pickup and I use it both indoors & out, around the property. When not in use, I store it under my deck and use it as an elevator.

Two or three times per year, I rent a Unilift 538 from a local rental yard.

https://champmfg.com/products/unilift-538/

I considered buying the Unilift, but storing it is an issue. It's too big to keep in the barn and the weather takes it's toll on the machine when stored outside.

I use the straight up & down Genie far more than an articulating model, and find it's cheaper & more convenient to rent one when needed.

Of course, this all depends on what you need to do and how often you need to do it.

 

[gstrom99]

I've rented them twice, and will need one again this year. Second story house painting, sealing the small leak cause (loose screws/nails) on my pole barn, tree trimming, etc... I love 'em. 500 pound capacity, which includes occupant and equipment. They're a little "bouncy", but you get used to that. The rentals come with the safety harness. Roof repair requires you to bend down and reach through the cage - that's the only sketchy part for me. I've been looking at buying one or a "bucket truck" but haven't found one I can consider affordable for the amount I need one. Rental place is 45 mins away and I get it for 24 hours, which works for me.

 

[ruffdog]

Here are ones that go on a 3pt or ssqa:

Tractor Scissor Lift Attachment - Skid-Lift

 

[plowhog]

Here are ones that go on a 3pt

Quite interesting, but I would need horizontal reach.

I found a 4wd "self drive" 50ft lift that I could trailer. Instead of a large amount of weight for stability, it uses outriggers like the towable version. So total weight is 6,000 or so. I could trailer that.

Of course that model is more expensive than I wanted to spend. Even used. Seems like everything I look at gets to this same result.

SD50 4x4 Self Drive Work Platform

Explore Niftylift’s tow-behind SD50 - 49ft 6in platform height, 28ft 7in outreach self-drive work platform. Find out more today.

www.niftylift.com

 

[caver]

Last fall I rented a Haulotte 45 (wasn't used much) and then a 35 which barely reached what I was doing on my cabin build. The annoying thing about the Haulotte was you had to press two buttons and pretty much can't combine functions. My experience has been with mostly Genie lifts in an industrial environment. We had a Genie 105 drivable boom lift. That's 105 for 105' height. With those and their scissor lifts you can usually combine functions like swing while raising boom etc. You have a foot dead-man for safety. It makes for much quicker work.

My property has quite a bit of 11% slope so the outrigger towable was a must. I did find on my very off-level terrain that if you put the outriggers almost down manually then switch to auto it would level ok. Full auto level often would have the low side and high side fighting each other until you ran out of cylinder travel. Hard to explain but it worked all the time except in one location.