pole saws at work (photos)

[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.