Five things worth settling before you commit to a machine — the insulation rating, the paperwork, how it reaches your site, the height you actually need, and who is allowed to operate it.
Pick a machineBrowse our wide range of insulated EWPs and cherry pickers we hire out. Click one to see what it does.GMJ LL22.350 23.5 mRedmond Gary TF17M 19 mSherrin 18 m 18 mTerex Hi-Ranger LT40 13.8 mVersalift SST-37 12.8 mGMJ TT16Altec AT30-C
The rating is the whole reason an insulated machine costs what it does, and it is the first thing to settle. Ratings in Australia commonly run from 33 kV up to 132 kV, and the figure you need is set by what you are working near, not by what sounds safest.
Two numbers matter and they are not the same. The boom carries one rating and the basket liner carries another, often lower. A machine advertised at 33 kV may have a 22 kV liner. Ask for both, and ask to see them on the compliance plate rather than in a brochure.
Insulation is engineered into the machine: the booms are fibreglass — filament-wound or GRP depending on the model — and the basket is fully enclosed insulated fibreglass with a flame-retardant liner. It is the fibreglass that stops the machine becoming the path to ground.
Our fleet is insulated and rated for work with and around live power lines. The GMJ LL22.350 carries 66 kV / 33 kV / LV. Every rating is on the plate of the machine that comes to you, and we confirm the exact figures off that plate before you commit.
On a commercial site the machine is only half of what you are hiring. A principal contractor will want the documents before anyone leaves the ground, and chasing them after delivery is how a first morning gets lost.
Four things should exist before the truck leaves the yard: the compliance plate fixed to the machine carrying its rating, a current electrical test certificate, a current load test certificate, and the service logbook showing the maintenance actually happened rather than being asserted.
Ours arrive in the cab, in date. Every machine gets a full covers-off safety inspection every three months, an electrical test every six months confirming it is safe to be working with and around live power lines, and a load test every twelve months covering the boom, the basket and the legs.
This is the question that separates hire arrangements, and it is worth asking before you compare day rates. Most insulated platforms are delivered on a float. That means booking the float, booking a crane at both ends, and in some cases a transport permit, each one a dependency that can cost you a morning even when the machine arrives on the right day.
Ours drive themselves. Every tower we hire is a truck. It drives to your site under its own power and sets up on its own legs. There is no float to hire, no crane to lift it off and nothing to send back at the end. If the job moves to a second site, it drives there.
We are about ninety minutes from the edge of Melbourne, so a machine, a mechanic or a replacement can reach you the same day rather than the next one. Delivery is quoted with the hire rather than appearing on the invoice afterwards.
Working height is the figure everyone writes down and the least useful one on its own. Platform height is where the floor of the basket sits; working height adds roughly two metres for a person standing in it. Specifications should say which they mean.
Outreach decides more jobs than height does. A machine rated to eighteen metres straight up will reach considerably less horizontally at that height, and most work is not directly above the truck. If the job sits across a fence line or a garden bed, outreach is the number that settles it.
The third figure is the set-up footprint, which is how much ground the legs need before the boom will move at all. On a tight block that decides the machine regardless of how well the height matches.
In Victoria a high risk work licence is required for boom-type elevated work platforms with a boom length of eleven metres or more. Every insulated machine we hire is over that, so the operator needs the ticket. If you would rather not carry that, wet hire puts one of our experienced operators in the seat instead.
An insulated machine is not permission. It is what makes work on or near an energised asset possible, but the approval comes from the asset owner and the requirements come from Energy Safe Victoria. Hire the rated machine and get the approval separately. Neither substitutes for the other.
This is the question that decides the shape of the whole arrangement, and it turns on how long the job runs rather than how hard it is.
Dry hire is the machine on its own, with your licensed operator in the seat. It suits ongoing programme work, and our standard dry hire runs a minimum of three months. Over a longer term we can plan maintenance around your work instead of interrupting it, which is part of why the term exists.
Wet hire is the truck plus one of our experienced operators. No contract is needed. That is the route for a one-off, an urgent job, or a site where you would rather not carry the high risk work licence yourself. If your job is shorter than three months, wet hire is the answer rather than a shorter dry hire.
Truck-mounted insulated platforms in Australia run from roughly twelve metres upward. The very large machines exist but they are specialist units, and for most line, tree and utility work the useful band sits well below the top of the range.
Our fleet runs 12.8 m to 23.5 m. The Versalift SST-37 at 12.8 m and the Terex Hi-Ranger LT40 at 13.8 m handle single-storey work, street trees and most residential access without needing much room to set up. The Redmond Gary TF17M at 19 m and the Sherrin 18 sit in the middle, where most ongoing tree and line work lands. The GMJ LL22.350 at 23.5 m is for the work nothing else reaches.
If your job genuinely needs more than that, say so early and we will tell you straight rather than send a machine that cannot finish it.
It depends on what you are working near, and the asset owner sets the requirement. Australian insulated platforms commonly run 33 kV to 132 kV. Ask for the boom rating and the basket liner rating separately – they are often different figures.
The boom is the structure carrying you; the liner is the insulating shell of the basket itself. They are rated independently and the liner is frequently the lower of the two. A machine sold as 33 kV may have a 22 kV liner, so ask for both.
Every six months on every machine in our fleet. That test confirms the truck is still safe to be working with and around live power lines. It sits on top of a full covers-off inspection every three months and a load test every twelve months.
The boom, the basket and the legs.
The compliance plate is on the machine. The electrical test certificate, the load test certificate and the service logbook are in the cab, in date, on arrival.
It is what makes the work possible, but it is not permission. Approval comes from the asset owner and the requirements come from Energy Safe Victoria.
Yes. A high risk work licence is required for boom-type elevated work platforms of eleven metres or more, and every insulated machine we hire is over that. Wet hire puts one of our operators in the seat if you would rather not carry it.
Platform height is where the basket floor sits; working height adds about two metres for a person standing in it. Then check outreach, which is how far the boom goes horizontally at that height, and the set-up footprint the legs need.
Dry hire is the machine on its own with your own licensed operator. Wet hire is the truck plus one of our experienced operators, with no contract needed. Short and one-off jobs suit wet hire; ongoing work suits dry hire.
Yes. The booms are fibreglass, filament-wound or GRP depending on the model, and the basket is fully enclosed insulated fibreglass with a flame-retardant liner. The fibreglass is what stops the machine becoming a path to ground.
Ours run from 12.8 m to 23.5 m across seven machines. Larger specialist units exist in the market, but most line, tree and utility work sits inside that band.
There is no float. Every tower we hire is a truck that drives to your site under its own power and sets up on its own legs, so there is no float to hire, no crane at either end and no transport permit. Delivery is quoted with the hire rather than added afterwards.
We start on the phone, because decades of running these machines means a lot of faults get identified in a call – a leg that will not set is usually a leg sensor. If it needs hands on it, our mechanic is available the same day. If the truck will not move at all, a replacement comes out and yours comes back to the workshop.
No. We never charge you to run a truck down and back when it is our machine and our maintenance. Damage caused on the job is different and costs apply, but you still get a replacement and you keep working.
It comes away and another one goes out. Your compliance dates are our scheduling problem rather than your downtime.
Yes, and it is standard rather than a favour. If your machine has to come away for any reason at all – breakdown, repair, scheduled service or recertification – you are handed another tower and you keep working. It might not be the identical model while yours is away, but there is always a machine ready to go.
Two diesel mechanics, a full-time auto electrician with more than thirty years’ experience, hydraulics specialists five minutes down the road, structural crack-testers and our engineer.
The people who run and maintain these machines. Dylan, Charles and Luke are arborists on the tools daily. Not a hire desk.
About a week’s notice is comfortable. We are roughly ninety minutes from the edge of Melbourne, and it has been faster when a job needed it – one Melbourne job rang on a Friday and was working with the machine on the Monday morning.
Standard dry hire is a minimum of three months. For a one-off or an urgent job, wet hire puts the truck and an experienced operator on your site instead, with no contract needed.
Dozens of our clients hire year after year, many four and five years running, and a couple have been hiring for more than ten years.
Early cancellation is worked out as a percentage based on the weeks left. We would rather talk about it than have you stuck with a machine you no longer need.
Small fixes – a hose, a scuff, a minor knock – are worked out directly between us, which is cheaper and faster than a claim. Large-scale damage to the boom, basket or truck is an insurance job and the paperwork sits at your end; we give you whatever you need from us to get it moving. Either way you get a replacement and keep working.
A full covers-off safety inspection every three months checking pins, bushes, hoses, legs, tyres and wheel bearings. An electrical test every six months. A load test every twelve months on the boom, basket and legs. A new tower is certified at the factory to last ten years, then goes through full recertification every five.
Yes, through wet hire – the truck plus an experienced operator. That is the route for short, urgent or one-off work where a three-month dry hire does not suit.
Insulated towers 12.8 m to 23.5 m, statewide. Call 0487 934 048 or 1800 GO TREES.
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