trail clearing technique and tools

[Hay Dude]

At the farm we have the big gas Stihl with max extensions.

It is a beast if using any length of time… perfect for those once a year very high trims my battery saw can’t reach.

I could never justify buying one since I have access if needed… that sucker just wears me out and I feel it the next day.

We have one guy ride in the high capacity bucket and one guy drive tractor as a mobile platform.
Yeah I know all the safety weenies can tell me , “it’s dangerous”. Save it.
It works fine.

 

[ultrarunner]

I used my bucket on the 110 as a platform to used my Bosch Hammer on a rocky outcropping to widen the trail...

It was slow going and would not have been possible without some kind of platform to work from.

 

[ArlyA]

The BR800 C-E MAGNUM version has the side mounted starter rope so you can start it, while wearing it. Many reviewers say that option was the cat's meow to have. Our Stihl dealership has no idea when they'll show up!

I did pick this machine up yesterday and should be putting it to work over the weekend. It's lighter in weight than I expected .

 

[cqaigy2]

We have one guy ride in the high capacity bucket and one guy drive tractor as a mobile platform.
Yeah I know all the safety weenies can tell me , “it’s dangerous”. Save it.
It works fine.

I'm curios, are you clearing up pretty high, or is it something like 'sitting and swinging' the saw?

And since you seemed to be worried about safety, just put a lock on the FEL, so it can't dump the person if it blows a hose or something.

 

[houska]

We've done a fair amount of walking/x-c ski trail development on our managed forest and surrounding Crown Land (=public land) in Ontario. A couple of comments:

1. Like OP (and some others in this thread), a pole saw is more valuable than a chainsaw for walking trail clearing. A gas-powered, professional multi-attachment tool like the Stihl would be nice, but we've had good success with the Kobalt 80V (=Greenworks 80V) line, the attachment-capable trimmer with a TrimmerPlus pole saw and brush cutter head in particular. We previously tried this on a 40V setup and it was not powerful enough, but the Kobalt/Greenworks 80V is. (Power is not driven necessarily by voltage, but higher-voltage cordless gear is typically engineered for more power. Exception: Makita and Milwaukee M18 Fuel, at least for chainsaws)

2. Where the Kobalt/Greenworks lags Stihl (or similar) the most significantly is not power, but durability/duty cycle. We've burned up a pole saw and trimmer by using the pole saw too much over a short period, heating up and melting some of the plastic in the mechanism joining up the attachment.

3. Don't neglect manual tools. There's typically 2 of us, one with the polesaw/cutter, and the other with a pair of 2X geared manual loppers or machete. We switch every 30 mins or so; you'd think the motorized would be less tiring, but the weight + level principle actually make it the more tiring job.

4. We've found the standard rotary brush cutter blades too flimsy and rock-intolerant. A Renegade Blade 56-tooth or similar rotary blade works better. Yes it gets dull (esp if you hit rocks) and can't be sharpened, but it fails less spectacularly than one of those triangle blades.

5. Around here, a trail is best built in the spring, when you can see terrain and also where there are drainage issues. But once established, it's best maintained in the summer, when you see what leafy growth needs trimming.

 

[ArlyA]

This is a review of the two Makita XCU06Z 18V 10" saws I got for, and been been using at a weld shop clearing job I've been at for the past month. We actually used them to clear a camp site on Sunday but no photos were taken while there. I still used a pole-saw bit but for ground cuts of smaller trees and branches, it works great.

Its about 95% same as a regular saw, so its quite easy for me to use and even has a kick-back stop which I have actuated. Of course it is much, much lighter and smaller and shines at one handed cuts. Oil tank has a sight glass (really plastic) and cap like most saws do and its volume lasts quite long. Chain tension again, like many saws do via flat screwdriver through the cover with a normal saw wrench Makita supplied. Uses standard size 3/8 chains which are readily available and inexpensive.

I got some 9amp hour batteries for it because the saw senses when the battery is being quickly discharged and hot or the saw drive motor. The larger batteries did help but the drive motors heat is more commonly the shut down mode anyway.

I do wish its drive motor was more powerful and not prone to heat shut down... Nonetheless I love these little saws. I'll give them 4 stars but I would have given it 5, if it didn't tend to get hot and shut down. For de-limbing fell trees or working in a brush pile, it just rocks! (please note, I have power at this site and two chargers)

Any questions???

View attachment 757693View attachment 757694
View attachment 757696

Here is what the mini saws did today and really shine at. This building had trees all along it and right against the tin. (most already removed)

 

[ArlyA]

We've done a fair amount of walking/x-c ski trail development on our managed forest and surrounding Crown Land (=public land) in Ontario. A couple of comments:

1. Like OP (and some others in this thread), a pole saw is more valuable than a chainsaw for walking trail clearing. A gas-powered, professional multi-attachment tool like the Stihl would be nice, but we've had good success with the Kobalt 80V (=Greenworks 80V) line, the attachment-capable trimmer with a TrimmerPlus pole saw and brush cutter head in particular. We previously tried this on a 40V setup and it was not powerful enough, but the Kobalt/Greenworks 80V is. (Power is not driven necessarily by voltage, but higher-voltage cordless gear is typically engineered for more power. Exception: Makita and Milwaukee M18 Fuel, at least for chainsaws)

2. Where the Kobalt/Greenworks lags Stihl (or similar) the most significantly is not power, but durability/duty cycle. We've burned up a pole saw and trimmer by using the pole saw too much over a short period, heating up and melting some of the plastic in the mechanism joining up the attachment.

3. Don't neglect manual tools. There's typically 2 of us, one with the polesaw/cutter, and the other with a pair of 2X geared manual loppers or machete. We switch every 30 mins or so; you'd think the motorized would be less tiring, but the weight + level principle actually make it the more tiring job.

4. We've found the standard rotary brush cutter blades too flimsy and rock-intolerant. A Renegade Blade 56-tooth or similar rotary blade works better. Yes it gets dull (esp if you hit rocks) and can't be sharpened, but it fails less spectacularly than one of those triangle blades.

5. Around here, a trail is best built in the spring, when you can see terrain and also where there are drainage issues. But once established, it's best maintained in the summer, when you see what leafy growth needs trimming.

What do these Kobalt 80V or Greenworks 80V units weight?? How many hours run time do you get? We also run considerably larger string that what this machines come with and it takes power to spin.

 

[ArlyA]

A whole used Kombi setup in Seymour Indiana for sale on Facebook for $350. Looks lightly used compared to ours!!

 

[Hay Dude]

I'm curios, are you clearing up pretty high, or is it something like 'sitting and swinging' the saw?

And since you seemed to be worried about safety, just put a lock on the FEL, so it can't dump the person if it blows a hose or something.

Fairly high. Probably up 10’ in bucket and Stihl Kombi saw reaches another 8-10’

 

[kenmbz]

Here is what the mini saws did today and really shine at. This building had trees all along it and right against the tin. (most already removed)View attachment 758679

Why not use a brushcutter with a renegade or sawtooth blade? How long did it take to do this stretch with the mini saw?

 

[ArlyA]

Why not use a brushcutter with a renegade or sawtooth blade? How long did it take to do this stretch with the mini saw?

.
Some steel saw would sure be hard on the buildings tin!?!? It didn't take very long to do this section.

 

[ArlyA]

To reiterate why we discontinued the use of steel cutting blades. What you see below is the cutting diameter or our Stihl setup. Is this double the size of steel blades cutting? These .155 strings do not care if they strike rocks and we run the head right against the ground. No sparks are made. They will take out tree shoots and the string only costs pennies and I can change 4 out in less than 60 seconds. And why did we quit steel blades?

 

[houska]

What do these Kobalt 80V or Greenworks 80V units weight?? How many hours run time do you get? We also run considerably larger string that what this machines come with and it takes power to spin.

My subjective recollection is that they're very slightly heavier than Stihl gas units - the greater weight of the battery offset by somewhat more plastic vs metal (which is longevity/duty cycle related of course). I see from online reviews the Kobalt, with original trimmer head on, is 13 lbs including 2.5 Ah (200 Wh) battery. The Stihl is 10 lbs, plus call it 1 lb when close to full of gas. That feels plausible. That extra 2 lbs is on the end near your waist, where it's held mainly by your carrying strap; it would be a lot more annoying if it were on the business end.

I've seen promises of 40-50 mins nonstop run time for the trimmer for a 2.5 Ah battery, with normal 0.08 line I assume.

Your use of 0.155 line is new to me and I've stored it for reference. How thick twigs can the 0.155 handle?

It feels like we're dealing with different vegetation types. I can see trimmer-with-thick-string working very well where you have thick grasses with small bushes, blackberries, brambles, etc. Too much for 0.08 string but thicker string presumably lets you clear it with slow and steady sideways motion. For us, we don't have solid vegetation groundcover. What we have are hawthorne bushes and sumacs in clearings, and baby oaks and maples -- woody stuff with stems up to pinky size -- forming a forest understory. I have my doubts any string will work well on that, and we're not doing steady side-to-side clearing where width of path cleared would be crucial. We're walking along hitting specific stems for the most part. Hence the steel (Renegade) blade works fine. But I'll see if I can get my hands on some thicker line and give it a whirl! Always happy to try new stuff.

With our usage pattern in mind (sporadic not nonstop use), for a half-day, I take 2-3x 2.5 Ah batteries. I may only use one if all I do is brush-cut stems here and there, but I may need all 3 if I'm doing a lot of polesawing, pushing the capabilities of the polesaw setup with 4" thick stuff. There are larger (4 Ah??) batteries but they're heavy and I prefer swapping out. There are also 2.0 Ah ones, but they don't last as long, in fact delivering less than 80% operating time (=2.0/2.5) before the power gets low.

If your gas setup works for you, I think the battery setup still lags a bit in comparison, unless you have a compelling reason to switch. We want the quiet, and not to futz around with 2 stroke engines and spilt gas on clothes, etc. With those extra factors, I think it's good enough, but not quite equally good yet. Which means it may well be in 3-5 years!

 

[Hay Dude]

We have 2 huge clearing jobs contracted for late summer/fall. Its a big mess but it’s good paying work. Too much for string line. These will be mostly saw blade jobs.
There are some large patches of ornamental stilt grass where we can use string we are contracted to clear next week and string goes to town on that junk.

 

[kenmbz]

I use .095 and it gets shredded by the autumn olive and the berry vines.
So a blade is required.

 

[2manyrocks]

I use a Forester brush cutter blade with chainsaw type teeth to cut briars, heavy vines, small saplings. Handlebars for control and face protection needed. No bystanders or pets allowed near it.

 

[tom3]

Local tool rental place has a couple brush cutter mowers that look to be brutes. Hydraulic drive, cut up to 2" thick stuff. Rent a day for about $100. Haven't used them but I'd sure grab one for a day if I ever clear out my woods. Hard to beat a good rental outfit.

 

[ArlyA]

Who here has used 155 string? Stihl was suppose to come out with another head to use 170 but the pandemic put the brakes on that. We have used every string mentioned (plus steel blades) but will be switching to 170, when that head is available.

 

[ArlyA]

Your use of 0.155 line is new to me and I've stored it for reference. How thick twigs can the 0.155 handle?

Of course it depends on the species. Here we are northern hardwoods so its maples (5 varieties!) birch, pines and oaks in general. For the softer types will will take out pencil size but if it doesn't cut them off, it still ruins there lives.

 

[Hay Dude]

Guys watch the steel blades around rocks. I hit a rock 2 years ago and a small piece of shrapnel lodged into my neck.
Surgeon removed it