Trucks Upcoming Auctions

About Trucks For Tree Care & Landscaping Professionals

Many types of light-duty and medium-duty trucks are used in the landscaping and tree care industries. Most are based on cab and chassis trucks that are upfitted with a truck body for a specific purpose, such as hauling wood chips, water, or a stump grinder. Others help arborists or tree trimmers work safely at height on the highest branches. Still others can pick up fallen tree limbs or roll-off containers of organic waste to haul away. Read on for an overview of truck categories on TreeTrader.com.

Chipper Trucks

Chipper trucks, or chip trucks, have a semi-enclosed dump body with an opening to the upper rear. This chipper box is designed to catch wood chips and mulch from a separate wood chipper, transport them, and then dump them elsewhere. Like other trucks for landscape technicians and tree care businesses, it’s common for chip trucks to have storage areas for items such as ladders, pruners, ropes, chains, and other tools and materials.

Forestry Bucket Trucks

A forestry bucket truck is equipped with a bucket lift or aerial work platform and outriggers that can be extended for stability. Unlike a typical bucket truck, however, it has a cage or protective structure above the cab for protection from falling branches and tree limbs and often a chipper box for hauling away wood chips.

---

Ford F-650 Dump Truck

Landscape Trucks

Landscape trucks have bodies made for hauling equipment like flatbed trucks or bulk materials like dump trucks. Flatbed-style landscape trucks and stake trucks often have a ramp gate called a dovetail or beavertail to load and unload mowers, stump grinders, and other machines on wheels. 

Landscapers and arborists often use dump-style landscape trucks to deliver mulch, topsoil, fertilizer, or gravel and to haul away downed trees, fallen or trimmed branches, and more. Crew cab trucks allow ground crews to travel to the jobsite in one vehicle.

Roll-Off Garbage Trucks & Hooklift Trucks

Roll-off garbage trucks have hydraulic tipping flatbeds for loading and unloading roll-off containers of waste and debris. Some models use a winch and cable system to load containers onto the bed. Hooklift trucks have an arm that reaches out, hooks the container under a bar or handle, and pulls it onto the bed.

Grapple Trucks

Grapple trucks use a knuckle boom crane to pick up organic debris, bags of landscape rocks, tree limbs, trunk sections, pallets of paving stones, and other large, heavy objects. Trucks with booms may have a dump body, a roll-off container, or a flatbed, so there is some overlap among these categories.

Service, Utility & Mechanic Trucks

Landscaping operations, municipalities, construction firms, and many others use service trucks, utility trucks, and mechanic’s trucks to repair and maintain mowers, chippers, dozers, and other machinery in the field. These trucks carry tools, parts, consumables, and equipment in their specialized storage compartments, drawers, and racks that are useful for organizing and transporting ladders, chainsaws, blowers, trimmers, and other tools.

Some models are equipped with a crane, chipper, winch, aerial platform, vise, air compressor, hose reel, ladder rack, trailer hitch, tow hook, and more, and many possess extendable outriggers for greater stability on the job.

Tank Trucks

Tank trucks haul many types of liquids in their tanks, which can be made of stainless steel, aluminum, or high-density plastic with or without fiberglass reinforcement. Pump and vacuum systems provide for loading or spraying, depending on the application.

Asphalt distributor tank trucks and hot oil tank trucks (hot oilers) bring temperature-controlled materials to the jobsite, such as for paved asphalt walking paths and trails in a landscaping design or for repairs when mature tree roots disrupt nearby pavement.

Chemical and acid tank trucks are designed to transport corrosive and combustible liquids. They are also suitable for hauling water, weed killer, fertilizer, pesticides, and fungicides for tree care and landscaping maintenance. Their tanks can be made of FRP (fiberglass-reinforced plastic) or stainless steel, possibly with a rubber or plastic inner liner.

Gasoline and fuel tank trucks deliver gasoline and/or diesel fuel to filling stations, farms, and other destinations. Some have compartmentalized tanks to hold different kinds of fuel, so they can support both diesel and gasoline-powered equipment and vehicles at a remote landscaping or arboreal work site.

Propane tank trucks haul liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in a pressurized, temperature-controlled tank.

Septic tank trucks use a suction hose and vacuum system to pump wastewater and sludge from underground septic tanks, sewer pump stations, and portable toilets into their tanks for transport to a treatment facility.

Sewer-cleaning tank trucks clear the leaves, debris, and other blockages clogging storm sewer lines. Jetters create a high-pressure stream of water to blast away clogs. Rodders use a cable and rodding head or cutter to break through blockages and flush them out. Some sewer-cleaning tank trucks also have a vacuum pump to remove the sewer's contents and prevent future clogs.

Vacuum tank trucks and industrial tank trucks remove and collect spills, debris, waste, grease, sewage, and hazardous materials. Hydro vac models use high-pressure water to excavate soil (called “hydro-excavation”) without damaging underground utility pipes, conduits, and cables. The high-pressure spray hose can also break up clogs and debris.

Water tank trucks irrigate plants, shrubs, and trees, preventing tree damage from drought and helping newly planted trees take root in their new environs. They are also used for dust suppression during a landscaping project's grading and contouring phase and to help soil compaction.

Find The Right Tree Care Or Landscaping Truck For Sale

You can find a wide range of new and used trucks for sale on TreeTrader.com and in Tree & Landscape Equipment Trader magazine. The website lists thousands of trucks for sale from manufacturers such as Chevrolet, Ford, Freightliner, International, Isuzu, Kenworth, Peterbilt, and Ram.