Telescoping Pole Saw

bonner1040

bonner1040

Nick from Ohio
Joined
Nov 25, 2011
Messages
5,853
Location
Indianapolis / Cleveland
I am going to buy a new pole saw for my side jobs and am thinking of picking up a telescoping one. My thinking is that I wont use it everyday so it should last a bit longer and having one pole is easier to carry around than 2 or three. Considering:

https://www.treestuff.com/store/catalog.asp?category_id=44&item=71

http://www.sherrilltree.com/Professional-Gear/Hollow-Fiberglass/Telescoping-Pole-1400

Leaning towards the first because it is smaller and cheaper.

Anyone use the telescoping poles? Do they last? Really heavy? Nice, crappy?
 
Sorry, I shoulda said more. I just think they're flimsy and overpriced. My polesaw is the standard 6 foot yellow Jamison, which I make longer with the 2 four foot sections of my Big Shot. That gives me 14 feet of solid polesaw.

10 feet is usually enough, though.
 
I bought one of these and store my poles and heads in it Nick. Keeps everything all tidy. BS head does not fit well in it though. But the pruner head and saw head fit fine in the pouches. 6 footers are what I have. And MB is right, I rarely need more than 10 foot.
bag213-500.gif

http://www.wesspur.com/pole-tools/poles.html
 
I have an ARS that I bought at a convention about 9 years ago. The plastic latches broke within 6 months and the replacement blades are $75 each. I keep it at home to use on my personal trees, the Jameson fiberglass connecting poles with the stack of $17 polesaw blades are kept on my work truck.
 
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  • #9
CurSedVoyce said:
I bought one of these and store my poles and heads in it Nick. Keeps everything all tidy. BS head does not fit well in it though. But the pruner head and saw head fit fine in the pouches. 6 footers are what I have. And MB is right, I rarely need more than 10 foot.

http://www.wesspur.com/pole-tools/poles.html
Click to expand...

That bag is an option...+ I could put the air cannon in there.

Skwerl said:
I have an ARS that I bought at a convention about 9 years ago. The plastic latches broke within 6 months and the replacement blades are $75 each. I keep it at home to use on my personal trees, the Jameson fiberglass connecting poles with the stack of $17 polesaw blades are kept on my work truck.
Click to expand...

I dont plan to go with one of the real expensive jobs... The Marvin telescoping pole form the first link seems like a good deal. $53 w/ the female quick connect. It will take standard polesaw/pruner heads and is a touch cheaper than two 6' pole albeit a touch shorter as well.

My main reason for thinking telescopic is that I hate climbing with a 10' pole but often enough a 6'er just isn't enough.

I might just stick with two 6 foot poles. Any preference between Marvin, or Jameson?
 
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  • #10
Most of what I would use it for is removal - trimming tips and such of long branches to clear houses and so forth; as well as larger climbing/prune jobs. If I went with a fiberglass job I could use it at work too.

I just hate switching between a one stick and a two stick, and I dont like handling the 2 stick when I only need the 1 (in tree). Its a hassle to send down the other stick and then have it sent back up.

Am I being a prima-donna?
 
Buy an 8 foot pole. But I can't help you with using it on removals, I always managed to find faster and easier ways to clear obstacles other than wittling off tips with a pole saw.

I also used loop runners quite a bit to hang stuff in the tree where it was convenient but I didn't have to keep it on my saddle.
 
My goal is to NEVER use my polesaw, but I have it for when I need it.

Am I the only one who thinks like this? I have more thoughts on this subject...
 
Never really care to have the pole saw with me up there or the pruner for that matter. It's just a PITA and more stuff I have to deal with aloft. It is a necessity however in what we do. I am lucky I have a groundie that can just send me up what I need when I need it and I can lower back when I don't. I will often drop the pole saw/pruner back down to him when I am going to move to a new location or tie in in the tree and/or won't need it for a while.
I had a telescoping in the past Nick and the one thing I did not like about it was trying to get the mechanism unstuck up in the tree. Sometimes the guy on the ground does not know his own strength and can tighten it enough to give you grief aloft. The other consideration is that if you break one piece (like if it gets smashed), the whole unit is broke. If you break one pole of two that snap together, you can replace one.
 
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  • #14
For removals I see your guys points, but for pruning/deadwooding large trees, I feel like a polesaw is basically a must.

The tree I did today, a huge tri leader oak, would have taken another day to do the same pruning without pole saws.
 
Mistletoe is like that as well. There are often compromised limbs in the tops that make it sketchy to get little sprigs off the tips or further out limbs. It's a must have.
 
I just climb out there and get it done.

I think too much emphasis is placed on getting every single dead limb out.
 
I agree I've seen climbers use pole saws as crutches and never develop good climbing skills because of it. There are certain species/situations where a pole saw is crucial but if you can go without it, make the effort.

jp:D
 
+1, jp.

When I started climbing I was given a 12' Ash Polesaw and we did almost every tree with it. It was a third arm. In a 100' American elm, it was crucial to have. When I moved from the midwest, I sorta just stopped using it. I haven't even used one in years now. I've been eyeing the Silky Zubat Polesaw for a while, just to have on hand for those rare occasions when you need one.
 
MasterBlaster said:
I just climb out there and get it done.

I think too much emphasis is placed on getting every single dead limb out.
Click to expand...

Agreed! I never use a pole saw in a tree. If it's big enough to need to be sawn, I can almost always climb out there and make a proper (clean) cut with a hand saw. However, that being said, I do like a pivot head pole pruner to reach those small (out-of-reach) tips to make clean, properly aligned cuts for crown thinning/reduction. Again, if it's too big to be cut with the pivot pruner then I can usually climb out to it with a hand saw. To maintain tree heath during any pruning, I've always felt the quality of the cut to be very important ... never had much luck making acceptable pruning cuts with a saw on a pole.
:)
 
I bought one of these a couple of years ago, Nick, and haven't regretted it at all....http://www.baileysonline.com/itemdetail.asp?item=FM+PKG9B&catID=. All you have to do to switch between saw or pruner is switch base pole. I have added a 4-footer from my BigShot to make it 16' when I need to reach out a bit. I used the pole saw just last week to raise some limbs up over a roof. With my groundie pulling down on them a bit, I had no problem reaching them. I even set a line on a couple of bigger ones (5" diameter) so when I cut them off with the pole saw, he could lower them to the roof without the limb just crashing down on it.
 
I do that all the time too. But every tree is different so sometimes ill use the pole saw to weasel my line into an otherwise difficult spot to throw. I don't have the best throw in the world to be honest. I'm getting better with time.
 
The silky ones suck, especially the Zubat. The holes wallow out and cut your fingers. Cheap latches too. Harlan has some other monster silky, that thing is heavy as hell. I think I'd like to get the extendable Jameson with the female head.

When I quit my first job and stopped using pole pruners, I became a better climber. Sometimes you just gotta though!
 
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