The ability to reach elevated work areas safely is essential for any tree pruning or tree surgery project, especially if you work particularly tall trees or street trees in built-up urban areas. However, the traditional tree climbing equipment many professional arborists still use requires significant training to use safely and can leave you fatigued by the time you reach the branches you intend to prune.

Hiring an aerial lift from a reputable equipment hire company can make tree pruning projects much easier and faster. Whether you want to hire an aerial lift to prune some trees in your yard or need several lifts to perform commercial tree pruning work, you are sure to find an aerial lift that fits your needs.

However, to get the most from your hired aerial lift, choosing the right lift for the needs of your project is essential. Discover some of the most useful aerial lifts for tree pruning projects, along with their respective advantages and drawbacks.

Scissor Lifts

If you need an aerial lift that combines exceptional stability with a spacious elevated working area, a scissor lift may be ideal for your needs. These distinctive lifts are powered by diesel or electric engines and use a series of motorized, folding supports to raise and lower their working platforms.

Larger models can provide up lots of vertical lift and have working platforms large enough to accommodate several workers and their tools.

Most scissor lifts can be useful on smooth surfaces and for pruning street trees and other trees in urbanized areas.

If you need to work on unpaved terrain, choose a rough terrain scissor lift. These lifts have powerful engines, shock absorbers, and chunky off-road tires and are more useful for professional forestry or agricultural pruning projects.

However, scissor lifts are only capable of providing vertical lift, and their working platforms cannot move horizontally to avoid obstacles or navigate thick foliage. Consequently, scissor lifts are generally more useful for pruning straighter-growing trees that lack wide crowns of branches, such as poplars and aspens.

Boom Lifts

Boom lifts are sometimes known as cherry pickers and are probably the most common aerial lift. They are especially popular in the professional tree pruning and arborist industries. Two main types of boom lift are available.

Telescoping Boom Lifts

These lifts feature a working platform attached to a straight boom that can extend to great heights, allowing you to reach the highest tree branches safely. While their straight booms can only provide vertical lift, many telescoping boom lifts have rotating bases, giving them superior horizontal range of motion compared to a scissor lift.

Articulated Boom Lifts

An articulated boom lift has a jointed boom that can move the working platform horizontally much more easily than a telescoping lift. Probably the most useful type of aerial lift for tree pruning projects, articulated boom lifts are ideal for navigating around large branches or reaching the top or underside of a large, bulbous crown of foliage.

Like scissor lifts, boom lifts are available in both electric and diesel-powered models. Many boom lifts designed for use on rough terrain are also available, including specialized lifts fitted with tracks that can be particularly useful on waterlogged ground.

Personnel Lifts

Personnel lifts resemble smaller versions of a standard telescoping boom lift. However, they are not motorized, and smaller models can be pushed around by a single person. While they cannot provide the vertical reach of a motorized lift and cannot be used on rough terrain, they can be very useful for pruning smaller trees in tree nurseries, fruit orchards, and other specialized settings.

Make sure to choose the right type of aerial lift for whatever tree pruning project you have planned. If you need any more information on aerial lift types and their capabilities, contact the experts at Ever-Joy Rent All.