pole saws at work (photos)

[ArlyA]

I hope this shows people just how much utility you can get out of a pole saw. If only one saw can go out with us, it will be one of those. :thumbsup:

 

[Jstpssng]

I hope this shows people just how much utility you can get out of a pole saw. If only one saw can go out with us, it will be one of those. :thumbsup:

A few years ago I was going to my sister's house to do some cleanup work, so bought a pole saw attachment to go on my father's Stihl Kombi power head. What a handy tool! Only a tiny chain and 12 " bar, yet I was cutting oak limbs as big as my leg. My only concern was if I pinched the bar when it was 6 feet over my head, so I ensured that it didn't happen. The downside is that it was a borrowed power head, so now I have the saw with no way to use it here. I did use it when I went down and pruned apple trees though, and it carved 4 hours into one.


Just out of curiousity, what trails are you cutting? it seems like you spend a lot of time doing it.

Yes^^, I just burned what I had cut in a weeks time. I had about 50 grapple piles to run to the burn pile so I burned one night into the next morning. I don't know how I did it before I had a grapple!

You were younger then. Now you've paid your dues, and letting Mr Hydraulics assist you. :thumbsup:

 

[ArlyA]

A few years ago I was going to my sister's house to do some cleanup work, so bought a pole saw attachment to go on my father's Stihl Kombi power head. What a handy tool! Only a tiny chain and 12 " bar, yet I was cutting oak limbs as big as my leg. My only concern was if I pinched the bar when it was 6 feet over my head, so I ensured that it didn't happen. The downside is that it was a borrowed power head, so now I have the saw with no way to use it here. I did use it when I went down and pruned apple trees though, and it carved 4 hours into one.

Just out of curiousity, what trails are you cutting? it seems like you spend a lot of time doing it.:

Pole-saw bars of course on occasion do get pinched, but we've got them out every time. I will saw pole-saw operating is much harder on chains and bars. We do ski trails, bike trails and hiking trails.

 

[AWSubie]

Pole saws are really great when you go into a new area where there’s low spreading trees like Mesquite or cedar and you want to limb them up without having to crawl in between the branches to get to the trunk (especially if there’s prickly pear growing around the base).

 

[ArlyA]

Pole saws are really great when you go into a new area where there痴 low spreading trees like Mesquite or cedar and you want to limb them up without having to crawl in between the branches to get to the trunk (especially if there痴 prickly pear growing around the base).

We used them to get into brush as you state all the time. They rock at that. Here is another photo I found.

 

[ruffdog]

You were younger then. Now you've paid your dues, and letting Mr Hydraulics assist you. :thumbsup:

On the neighbor's side of the fence, my White Pine limbs are impeding his equipment so we are talking about doing some trimming there too. We will more than likely use his telehandler with one of his baskets to travel right down the fence line. We just have to trim them to clear his quad axle dump trucks.

 

[Al 2]

I also use my pole saw to take out trees that are in a very dangerous (to me ) circumstance. ie not sure how or where they will fall , steep or rugged terrain where I don't have an easy or good escape route. Just make a regular notch and make the back cut from a safe distance with the pole saw.

 

[ArlyA]

I stopped by our locale Echo shop yesterday for service and while there, checked out there telescoping style saw. No way would I carry that beast around for even a few hours. Our non-telescoping style weights 1/2 as much and is shorter.

 

[dodge man]

I looked up the specs of my pole saw or one close to it, it’s a little over 15 pounds, this is for a Stihl extendable gas powered type. It looks like extended it’s about 12 feet long. For reference my MS 261 chainsaw weighs 2 or 3 pounds less. If I use the pole saw for an hour I am wore out, but that is usually all I need it for. The advantage of it is the reach and good power. I’ve also learned a shoulder strap will allow about half the weight to be carried by your body.

 

[ArlyA]

Our working on trails today. This the set with us. Have the extender along but rarely install it.

 

[mapper]

I recently purchased a two piece stihl pole saw, it's about 9 feet overall which gives about a safe 10 ft reach. I have arthritis in my right shoulder so my manual pole saw had become a bit problematic for me. It's light enough that I haven't had any problem with getting seriously fatigued using it.
As noted by previous posts, it doesn't take very long to generate hours of cleanup, don't have a grapple but a set of clamp on forks works for hauling and stacking the results.

 

[Jstpssng]

Our working on trails today. This the set with us. Have the extender along but rarely install it.

Is the guy in the right hand pic on the job to drag brush; protect you from wolves, Yeti, and other nefarious woods creatures; or is he there strictly in a supervisory capacity?

 

[ArlyA]

Here is our tools going into the field.

 

[TimberXX]

I second the Stihl kombi. I run my pole saw with the steel extension, and the km131 power head. It rocks. I only use mine twice per year, but it puts a smile on my face every time.

I also use mine for dangerous cuts, as someone already recommended.

the key is the harness for extended work. who uses a harness.

 

[i7win7]

Well, this is a tractor forum
Found New Job for Root Grapple | OrangeTractorTalks - Everything Kubota

 

[ArlyA]

We thought about getting the Stihl kombi system but haven't came up with the $$$ to try out a whole new system. They do look nice and seem to have more HP but gee wiz, those power heads sure do weight more than Echo's. Let me add, pole saw operation doesn't take much HP but running .155 string does. Stihl was suppose to come out with a .180 attachment but have not yet. Bigger string is better!

I second the Stihl kombi. I run my pole saw with the steel extension, and the km131 power head. It rocks. I only use mine twice per year, but it puts a smile on my face every time.
I also use mine for dangerous cuts, as someone already recommended.
the key is the harness for extended work. who uses a harness.

 

[ArlyA]

Is the guy in the right hand pic on the job to drag brush; protect you from wolves, Yeti, and other nefarious woods creatures; or is he there strictly in a supervisory capacity?

The mutts are out with us doing trail work all the time. :thumbsup: We commonly have crews with us and in this photo, we are heating lunch for them.

 

[ArlyA]

Pole saws at work over the weekend. We did cut about 12 loads of slash as seen here.

 

[Trails2004]

We would do the bulk of our trail tree limbing in the winter, when we could work off our sleds. Most of the winter backcountry snowmobile trails are summer non motorized in the Rocky Mountain West.

In your neck of the woods, winter trail maintenance would be near suicidal given the amount of traffic.

Looks great !

 

[Diggin It]

I have a dream .... err ... plan.


I have a branch hanging over a telephone wire. Not normally much of a problem unless it gets wet and windy while the leaves are on. It's roughly 20-25 above ground and probably no more than 3-4" diameter. But it's Red Oak, so not easy to use a push/pull pole saw. Tree crews want $500 minimum and I'm not sure I want their big boom truck on the yard.

Some pictures somewhere here gave me the idea to be able to mount a pole saw on the FEL using some sort of tripod arrangement with rigid conduit and cables. I have a Remington electric pole saw that could be rigged to the tripod, but that one has the power head at the distant end which might cause more sway and sag than I want. I also have a Trimmer Plus pole saw attachment that works on a Ryobi electric power head. Combined with the accessory extension boom, that gives me about 10' reach. With the FEL able to raise to 6' or so, I may only need a 10' length of conduit. I already have a switch box made up on an extension cord to be able to turn the saw on and off as needed.

I can rig up a way to get the telephone wire off the pole and on the ground where it won't be at risk of the branch or saw falling on it.

Problem there is maneuvering. There'd be no side to side movement without moving the tractor.

So, what about rigging it to the backhoe bucket? That would give me better position control and at low RPM, movement should be pretty smooth.