Background
Located in Reeds Spring, MO, Hansen’s Tree Service offers the surrounding area tree care, urban forestry consulting, and land clearing services, in addition to providing wholesale landscaping materials and supplies. Started in the 1980s by his father-in-law, Mike Walker manages all the Branson area locations, which uses a Rotochopper horizontal grinder to turn their wood waste into organic colored mulch.
Challenge
A few years after the purchase of their first Rotochopper grinder, a wheeled B-66, in 2017, Hansen’s Tree Service was looking to upgrade their equipment to meet the needs of their business. With their business growing exponentially and the opportunities to expand their custom grinding service increasing, Hansen’s needed a grinder that would provide additional capacity and transport options.
Solution
Hansen’s purchased their second Rotochopper grinder in 2020—a B-66 L-Series grinder on tracks—along with a Gen II Dolly. Their new grinder came with RotoLink®, Rotochopper’s remote monitoring system, giving Hansen’s the ability to streamline their operation with easy, real-time troubleshooting and grinding data collected during production.
Results
With the help of their new, larger horizontal grinder, Hansen’s was not only able to catch up on the wood waste they had accumulated in their yards, but they have also been able to increase their overall production rates.
As they had hoped, their B-66L has also allowed them to expand the custom grinding portion of their business. With the productivity of their tree care services at an all-time high, Hansen’s now has more time to take on custom jobs. The size and capabilities of the B-66L has allowed them to grind larger, more challenging feedstocks, and the tracks provide additional mobility and site maneuverability options for the crew.
As a business with many facets, Mike notes both he and his crew love Rotochopper’s horizontal grinder screen change system. Between grinding pallets, clearing land, and grinding wood waste into mulch, the easy-to-use system allows Hansen’s crew to quickly swap screens between jobs.
While Rotochopper’s factory-direct business model was new to Mike, he is now fully on board.
“With the experience and expertise of the Rotochopper team, receiving parts and service to get back up and running is an issue handled with the utmost speed and care”, shared Mike.
He also appreciates the ability he has now to monitor idle time and operating controls using RotoLink®. This has allowed Hansen’s to minimize downtime and provide additional insight into their productivity.
More than satisfied with their purchase of the B-66L, Hansen’s Tree Service continues to grow and thrive, taking on larger, out-of-state jobs with Rotochopper at their side.