A cherry picker is a crane, not a manlift.

Burn-It said:

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A cherry picker is a crane, not a manlift.

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Incorrect.

A cherry picker is a man lift. I have been in the heavy construction industry for close to 30 years now and it has alway been a personnel lift. Comes from the personnel lifts that were used to pick fruit from trees (like cherry trees).

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-m&sca_esv=a6c513174f2847c2&sca_upv=1&sxsrf=ADLYWIJ88rhhJoO1JonPmomCQQDPN-qzWQ:1724722561957&q=What+is+the+cherry+picker%3F&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiJkJCdhJSIAxUC78kDHbgwPR0Qzmd6BAhYEAY&biw=134&bih=265&dpr=2.86

Smaller cranes, usually 30 ton and below, are often called pickers. We called them that all of the time - "grab the 20 ton picker and set up to lift that pipe in the rack".

But a picker is t a cherry picker.

When I was a field engineer at Chicago Bridge & Iron back in the early '90's, we'd call telescoping boom cranes running on 4 tires, Cherry Pickers. Maybe that's not correct, but we called JLG's "manlifts". There were a bunch of times we'd "pick" a man basket from the "cherry picker". It's been a few decades since I was in industrial construction & my crews at CB&I may have had their own terminology, not arguing. Regardless, a telescoping mobile crane on 4 wheels is what I looking at renting.

A friend of mine wants to use a pnuematic sawzaw to cut the piles a few feet above the mudline, then build a floating deck. I may go that route. He seems very eager to help.

Go that route, all kinds of vids on that process, and it's quite cool. I even recommended it somewhere on page one. Video the process no matter which way you go, then post it here. Wish more would do that on this forum, as there are some cool things being done by OB posters.

Could be different terminology for sure.

I just know that if you say "grab a cherry picker", you are getting a manlift. But honestly I can't say I've heard the term cherry picker on a jobsite in a good while now, it seems to be about semi-retired.

Manlifts are usually JLG or jig lifts these days. A term that I've heard for mobile cranes/pickers more and more lately that aren't swing cabs is "neck breaker", which was a new one for me when I first heard it 10 or so years ago.

I'm in the lakehouse building business and have done a lot of pier and boathouse construction over the years. If I were you, I'd leave the old pilings in place as long as they'll be under the pier and not a hazard to people jumping off it. You can drive new pilings in beside them. Take your pilings and sharpen the ends by doing four tapered cuts starting at least 18" from the bottom down to a point. Then you'll need a pressure washer with an extra long wand, a pile driver, and some muscle. Get the piling in place and have one guy on the pressure washer wand applying a constant stream straight into the mud below the point of the piling. Have two other guys driving the piling in concert.

Much more work than an excavator on a barge, but much much cheaper and how we did it for years before the excavator on a barge became commonplace.

Also make sure those pilings are really in as bad of shape as you think they are. It's not uncommon to build a new boathouse on old pilings whenever there are construction restrictions. Often they'll rot above water and be in good condition below water. You can sandwich the pilings with high quality treated lumber (true dimensional 2"x8" .60 treated lumber .ex) by using big galvanized carriage bolts and then attach new pilings on top doing the same. You might have to replace some, but not all of the pilings. I've seen million dollar boathouses built on mostly old pilings because the previous boathouse was grandfathered in.

Who the hell needs an excavator or whatever you want to call a cherry picker. My rigger Craig & my RAM 2500 took care of pile removal. We started with my jeep, sheared off a wench mount, then moved to the truck. No issue running these piles out after that.

I pulled some out of the water along my shoreline this morning using a Bobcat E48 with a thumb. Just pulled straight up and they came right out. You could do it with a chain for the ones you can't reach. A day of excavator rental is very reasonable for the amount of work you can get done.