Great Southern Equipment (GSE) rolled into Live Oak, Fla., with a Sennebogen 718E on Jan. 21 for a two-day demo event. Despite a couple of chilly days in North Florida, the sun was out and the machine worked flawlessly. Prospects from all over the GSE footprint came out to see the machine at work.
In addition to GSE staff members, Sennebogen's Ryan Zenor, regional sales manager, and Rob Frost, product specialist, traveled to the event to provide complete product information and professional demonstration.
The Sennebogen 718E and the larger 738E are both tree care industry-specific machines. Frost, who also served as demo operator, stated that these machines are crucial to tree management for maintaining roadway right of ways, pipelines and some residential-related work, but mostly DOT projects.
"When I'm sent out for a demo, my responsibilities include complete training on machine safety, techniques of removing trees — including what the machine can and cannot do —and keeping the machine safe and mechanically sound for maximum up time," Frost said.
Anyone buying one of these machines actually gets two days of Frost's time scheduled through Sennebogen. After putting the machine on the job site, Frost identifies what the job site entails and the work environment in conjunction with other machines on the site. He also provides customized training based on the customer's work-at-hand.
"There's a lot of moving pieces and working parts on this machine," Frost stated. "It's not like an excavator where you can hop in and learn quickly. This machine takes some time for orientation on ways the machine works and effective operation. The two days that I spend with a customer are usually a jam-packed 16 to 20 hours of free training, which puts them ahead of the game right from the start by knowing all of the tricks of the trade directly from a Sennebogen specialist. Sennebogen also puts their resources to work for the dealer technicians through extensive training of them as well."
The Sennebogen 718E is pretty much ready to go right after delivery. When dropped off, the machine gets handrails and catwalks installed, the dealer goes over the service points and all other aspects of the machines, and after that it's virtually ready right out of the box.
The Sennebogen 718E booms out to 45 ft., and to 75 ft. for the 738E. Both models come standard with front and top cages for flying debris and standard light packages. All have a standard Tier 4 final engine.
The demo in Live Oak, Fla., required only 15 minutes of work for the machine to cut down a sizable tree to the main trunk, and in another five minutes all that was left was a stump. All with only one operator. Other means of tree removal could have required a bucket truck, a crane and maybe four workers taking an hour or two for this one tree. The time, machine and personnel savings with the Sennebogen machine is quite remarkable.
Frost concluded his demonstration by telling attendees: "If I would have pulled a chipper, or brought in a tracked chipper to this site, I would have been able to feed the limbs directly to the hopper of the chipper and done the entire job by myself." CEG
Sennebogen’s Ryan Zenor goes over some easy electrical system overrides in the event of a power issue in the woods.
(L-R): Fellow Sennebogen dealer Tractor & Equipment Company’s Tanner Rhea with Ladd Tharpe of Florida Right of Way Corporation, Marianna, Fla.; Ryan Zenor of Sennebogen; and David Williams, GSE-Tallahassee, Fla., do a comprehensive walk-around of the demo machine.
As easy as one, two, three. A Sennebogen 718E takes down a tree during a recent Great Southern Equipment demonstration in Live Oak, Fla.
As easy as one, two, three. A Sennebogen 718E takes down a tree during a recent Great Southern Equipment demonstration in Live Oak, Fla.
As easy as one, two, three. A Sennebogen 718E takes down a tree during a recent Great Southern Equipment demonstration in Live Oak, Fla.
Rob Frost, Sennebogen national tree care industry product specialist and demo operator, puts the Sennebogen 718E machine through a rigorous test.
The cab extension/tilt becomes a crucial feature for this machine for visibility when cutting up high in a tree or stacking limbs.
GSE’s David Rush measures the final stump left after tree removal with the measurement being a rather substantial 36 in. to 42 in.
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