pole pruner and/or saw

pyper said:

Our new house has a lot of trees. Many dogwood, oak and hickory. It's amazing how many big trees can fit on a fairly small lot. Anyway, I need more reach for pruning.

I like good tools. I've seen electric pole saws at the big box stores, but I'm thinking that over time I might be better served by a quality hand tool. I saw a Stihl pole tool (saw and pruner heads available) at the local dealer. Is it worth the money, compared to the combo pole saw/pruner at Lowes? Probably a silly question, right? ;-)

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Seems you'd be happiest with real professional equipment, like modular pruner/saw heads and pole sections, available at arborist supply house.

You won't find such at any big-box.

I got my the Echo power head and Weed whacker for starters and then added the pole saw and an extension. Best thing I ever did...well..not quite.

http://www.echo-usa.com/Products/Pro-Attachment-Series

Just had the pruner out after the storm cutting all the gnarly stuff. With one extension, I get to about 10 ft...plus the 4 or 5 feet I give it. Not too bad. thinking on getting one more extension.

Silky Hayate 20'. Expensive but I don't think you'll ever question the quality.

I use a combination of a Ryobi pole-saw attachment for the weed-whacker and a longer manual Fiskars pole saw/pruner. The Fiskars is generally the more useful unless I have to cut something big.

http://www.husqvarna.com/us/forest/products/pole-saws/327p5x/
THIS is what I'm gonna have next.Though it may take awhile unless I get more overtime soon.

Anyone have any idea if any of these are interchangeable between brands? Stilh, husky, others? A pole pruner would be real nice, especially since I already have a power unit. Boy do I like the power hedger.

I don't know about the high-end stuff, but the expand-it/ez-link/trimmerplus attachment interface seems somewhat universal on the usual big-box powerheads.

wannabegreener said:

Anyone have any idea if any of these are interchangeable between brands? Stilh, husky, others? A pole pruner would be real nice, especially since I already have a power unit. Boy do I like the power hedger.

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Most are not.

I have a Stihl Kombi unit (KM90R) with power saw, articulating hedge trimmer, and blower. It's nice to be able to swap heads, and the fact that it's in two parts makes it easy to fit into just about any vehicle. As a pole saw, it's a little heavier than a lot of dedicated models. I haven't tried an extension pole, but I imagine it can get unwieldy.

The blower is great for cleanup on any job you do with the other heads. It actually does as good a job on leaves as my brothers Echo backpack blower (I tested them side-by-side this year).

I went with the Stihl unit because it was just about the same price as the comparable Husqvarna model, and its Stihl 4-Mix motor had already impressed me on a FS130 trimmer.

TreePointer said:

I have a Stihl Kombi unit (KM90R) with power saw, articulating hedge trimmer, and blower. It's nice to be able to swap heads, and the fact that it's in two parts makes it easy to fit into just about any vehicle. As a pole saw, it's a little heavier than a lot of dedicated models. I haven't tried an extension pole, but I imagine it can get unwieldy.

The blower is great for cleanup on any job you do with the other heads. It actually does as good a job on leaves as my brothers Echo backpack blower (I tested them side-by-side this year).

I went with the Stihl unit because it was just about the same as the Husqvarna model in price, and its Stihl 4-Mix motor had already impressed me on the FS130 trimmer.

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You want to see a 4-mix rip/roar? Try the BR600 backpack.

MasterMech said:

You want to see a 4-mix rip/roar? Try the BR600 backpack.

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Hehee! When I read the specs on one of those at the dealer, I imagined myself jetpacking around the neighborhood.

TreePointer said:

I have a Stihl Kombi unit (KM90R) with power saw, articulating hedge trimmer, and blower. It's nice to be able to swap heads, and the fact that it's in two parts makes it easy to fit into just about any vehicle. As a pole saw, it's a little heavier than a lot of dedicated models. I haven't tried an extension pole, but I imagine it can get unwieldy.

The blower is great for cleanup on any job you do with the other heads. It actually does as good a job on leaves as my brothers Echo backpack blower (I tested them side-by-side this year).

I went with the Stihl unit because it was just about the same price as the comparable Husqvarna model, and its Stihl 4-Mix motor had already impressed me on a FS130 trimmer.

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+1 I have the Kombi KM110R with the power pole saw, extender, string trimmer, and hedge trimmer. With the extender it was a bit unwieldy at first but I learned where to hold and balance it. I highly recommend this over trying to get up on a ladder or worse, trying to climb a tree to limb or trim it with a running saw...not that I would know. :red:

I have a Echo backpack blower so didn't need the blower attachement for the Kombi. I too like the ability to swap heads, but more so, only one power unit to maintain as opposed to several discrete, dedicated pieces each w/a motor to maintain.

TreePointer said:

MasterMech said:

You want to see a 4-mix rip/roar? Try the BR600 backpack.

Click to expand...

Hehee! When I read the specs on one of those at the dealer, I imagined myself jetpacking around the neighborhood.

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i use the BR 550 to clean the gutters...more than once i have gotten nervous i was gonna fall off upon pulling the trigger. i think it is all in my head but that thang rips!!

You will not go wrong with a quality set of hand tools for this application. Working on a tree farm for over 20 years my pruning tools of choice were all hand tools (besides chainsaws) It is unbelievable how fast a good blade will cut. An above post mentioned Silky, I have one of their saws, an Ibuki it is incredible. Here is the link http://www.wesspur.com/saws/silky-hand-saws.html A less expensive but still high quality saw are the Fanno saws on this page http://www.wesspur.com/saws/fanno-hand-saws.html

For reaching up high I use fiberglass poles http://www.wesspur.com/pole-tools/pole-saws.html The one labeled "the works" second from the bottom is what I use. It is actually better then the more expensive kit below it as the Fred Marvin pruner is the best.

Add an extra fiberglass pole or 2, a few extra aluminum ends for making custom adapters and tools (I made a chimney brush adapter a few weeks ago), and a few Fanno blades in different sizes and you are all set.

For the really high stuff I use two fiberglass poles with a telescoping aluminum pole mounted on top of that and a light duty Corona pruner.