Pole saws

[SwampDonkey]

Your experience may vary from mine. But, I don't recommend pruning white or Norway spruce, limb diameter is large and take a long time to heal. Fir limbs are small and heal up fast. We found a lot of rot in pruned white spruce. And I prune just fir with healthy bark with pitch bubbles and 12" plus whorl internodes. Any fir with short leaders is avoided, they tend to be old, bark dried up (no bubbles) and a lot of rot in the trunk.

[thecfarm]

beenthere,it's good to record for the future to see.
I've done a lot here and I am just starting to record for the future.

[YellowHammer]

I think the true metric of a pole saw is how much it gets used, not how much it can cut.  I have a top of the line Stihl poler saw and never use it although it will cut large limbs forever on a tank of gas.  It just sits there, and I never use it.  

On the other hand I've owned my little bitty Dewalt pole saw for only a few months and I've cut more limbs with it than my gas powered Stihl, simply because of ease of use and it's always ready.  I can whack a few offending limbs and lean it back up against the wall and walk off.    

[SawyerTed]

I have a Husqvarna gas pole saw.  It is an effective tool but I absolutely hate using it. I’m not sure if it’s the saw or that I hate pruning trees or both.    

I don’t hate it enough to replace it with a battery power one, yet.

[thecfarm]

My stepson, in his 40's. bought a Sthil kombi? Motor that fits a bunch of stuff.
He put the tree limber on and used it for hours. And I mean hours!!!
He felt it for weeks!!!!
Those things use muscles that don't normally get used. Battery or gas one.

[SwampDonkey]

As mother would put it, 'I found muscles I didn't know I had'.

[SawyerTed]

That’s because the “new ones” hurt!

[realzed]

My stepson, in his 40's. bought a Sthil kombi? Motor that fits a bunch of stuff.
He put the tree limber on and used it for hours. And I mean hours!!!
He felt it for weeks!!!!
Those things use muscles that don't normally get used. Battery or gas one.

This Spring I bought a Stihl Kombi KM56 unit and a bunch of accessories including the pruning or pole saw attachment for it.
It cuts branches off like mad to my pleasant surprise and it's quite manageable for me at 74 years young except when I add on the extra extension and then it becomes fairly unwieldy - but we're talking close to 13-14' up..
I've found what makes the hardest part to deal with is mainly just reaching out past your waist level and trying to cut with it only supported by outstretched arms - that will kill any enthusiasm pretty quickly - but it will chew through a 6" dia. branch or stem easily!
Once you get the blade up on a limb it supports itself pretty well and the weight actually assists with the cutting action as well..
Love mine and the articulating pruning attachment is great as well - but again adding the extension it make it a bear after a while!
Watched a group of young yard care guys do a neighbour's tall cedar hedge using a couple of battery versions a month back - and my impression was that a gas type would have done the job a lot faster from what I observed - both with using the articulating hedger attachment, as well as the pole saw for bigger branches!

[Tom King]

This area is close to an acre.  It was the only place here that I had to put the rollbar down on the mower.  I decided to fix it so I didn't have to fool with the rollbar, and just leave it up all the time.

I forgot to take real before and after pictures.  These two pictures are soon after starting dragging, and about halfway through.

I put the Stihl polesaw in the back of the truck, but started with the 18V Ryobi without the middle extension.  A little over an hour later, I was finished dropping limbs, and the Stihl never came out of the truck.  I did have to change batteries once, and sharpened the little chain when I walked back to the truck to swap batteries.

Dragging them took longer than dropping them.  Fortunately, I had somewhere to put them just a hundred yards away.  I pushed them rather than make more trips.  It still took a number of trips, but fewer than if I'd loaded them into anything.


 

 

[Wlmedley]

Tried out the Ryobi today.I got the tree limbs and multi alum bushes I was wanting to cut finished about the time the battery was getting low.I could handle it pretty good without the middle extension.With the extension it was all I wanted.Can see how pole could get bent pretty easily.Hard to hold when it breaks through limb.Wouldn’t want one any heavier.Was to tired to drag off brush.Think I’ll hook up brush hog tomorrow and just grind it up with it being I need to cut road off anyway.

[thecfarm]

The bush hog will make it disappear.
As I posted I cut out the big stuff and bush hog the rest.
I am cutting limbs that are 3 inches across.
Maybe when I get it all done,    I can keep up on it, and won't be no more big limbs.