certainly capable. The question is wheth- er the operator is capable of processing everything the machine demands. Savadyga described the mental work- load in terms that sounded more like air traffic control than arboriculture. Traffic management, hydraulic pres- sures, crew positioning, hose routing, boom geometry, load dynamics, wood species, seasonal conditions — every variable must be monitored simultane- ously, with each cut introducing a new set of calculations. The crane may be doing the lifting, but the operator is constantly managing risk, efficiency, and outcomes in real time. Anderson described the transition from smaller cranes to larger machines in much the same way. The physical controls and movements are familiar enough; in fact, their Palfinger moves nearly as fast as the smaller PK40 it replaced despite being dramatically larger. The challenge is not learning how to move the crane. The challenge is learning how to think with it. As capacity, reach, and complexity in- crease, so does the consequence of ev- ery decision. The operator’s judgment becomes the limiting factor long before the machine’s capability does. What changes is the margin for error, and the consequence of misreading a load. “Side loading a machine on these is nev- er good,” Anderson said. “Being able to know how a tree is going to react, where your cut point is going to be — it all takes years and years of experience.” The manufacturers, he added, were re- luctant to sell their largest machines to operators with fewer than five years of experience — not because the controls were harder, but because the machine could execute bad decisions faster and at greater force than a smaller one. Anderson’s working rule of thumb: never run at more than 60 to 70 per- cent of chart capacity.
Different access methods can complement one another on challenging removals.
said. “We are meticulous with the way that we operate the crane. We put it in the right position. We set it up correct- ly. We don’t ask it to do more than it’s designed to do.” The result was seven years of use and zero workers’ compensation claims. The machine, Pipitone said, was worth every dollar. THE OPERATOR’S MINDSET What all three job sites made clear — in- dependently and without coordination — is that operating a knuckle-boom crane in tree care is far more of a cognitive skill than a mechanical one. The machine is
livery of one of the largest Palfinger knuckle-boom cranes in the country at the time, the PK 200002 LSH , Ander- son and his son Bryan were working through the operational calculus that comes with stepping up significantly in machine size. Their job site had room, but the challenge was to know precise- ly and confidently what to do with it. “A knuckle-boom crane will do the job of four bucket trucks,” Anderson said plainly. This sounds a little like a sales pitch until you watch a two-person crew take down a sizable tree in an eight-hour day, stage the brush, and leave the cleanup for later. “It works for some people. It doesn’t work for others. It just depends on where you’re at.” A quick shift of the map to the south- east brings us to a lakeside property in New Milford, Pennsylvania, where Joe Pipitone of Top Notch Tree was doing what he had been doing for seven years: running a tight three-person operation with an Altec 175 knuckle-boom . This equated to time well spent processing trees efficiently and with almost no major mechanical failures across the entire ownership period. “We’ve had almost no major issues as far as breakdowns or failures,” Pipitone
During spring sap flow, bark can slip beneath grapple jaws, forcing operators to reduce pick size and rethink load control.
“We’re not overloading the crane, we’re
36 | Summer 2026 ArborTIMES ™
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