Hydraulic Chain Saw and Auger (two items)

catsco · May 6, 2004

I'd like to have a hydraulic chain saw to attach to a boom or my 9" bucket small backhoe, but the price is astounding!

Any idea why a hydraulic motor ($100 to $125 range for this size) and a complete 16" gas chainsaw ($175 for a cheap one) become a $1800 hydraulic chainsaw when combined and the gas motor thrown away?

The absolute cheapest I could find was a Fairmont 16" for $1,200+ after negotiating.

Not that I'm lazy regarding chainsaw use, but operating a little one like this from the tractor seat would eliminate nightmares of my carcass falling out of trees from heights that would merely cripple, but not kill. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I leave the killing heights to youngsters.

The same logic seems to apply to post-hole diggers to clamp on bucket; $250 for a 300 ft.lb. hydraulic motor plus $100 auger, miscellaneous bolts, etc. for $20 equals $2,000 post-hole digger!

Possibly the difference is the thinking that the units available are for commercial use, not farm/home occasional use.

Comments will be appreciated.

Mark H.

uhmgawa · May 6, 2004

( Any idea why a hydraulic motor ($100 to $125 range for this size) and a complete 16" gas chainsaw ($175 for a cheap one) become a $1800 hydraulic chainsaw when combined and the gas motor thrown away?)

Unsure. Maybe sales volume, maybe product liability.

If you are up for the project it should be quite doable. You can likely
dispense with the clutch as the hydraulic motor can be stopped.
Concerning mounting the works to whatever bucket you plan to
use, I'd recommend a resilient mounting which will allow the saw
to deflect in a 360-degree path normal to its axis (basically the
path would be a section of a sphere). Otherwise it will be too
easy to lunch the bar with the torque of the tractor hydraulics.

A really slick implementation would allow you to pivot the saw
+/-180-degrees to make a perpendicular cut which is the one
degree of freedom in which the bucket can't articulate. This
movement could be either hydraulic (likely overkill) or
electric-mechanical driven. For the latter I'd start with a
cast-off automotive electric door mechanism.

A wise safety [what's that?] feature would be to cut (or bypass)
flow to the motor if the saw was deflected on the resilient mounting
beyond acceptable limits. Rationale being you'd want to stop the
chain movement before distortion of the chain bar occurs. Otherwise
the risk of a runaway airborne chain exists.

( The same logic seems to apply to post-hole diggers to clamp on bucket; $250 for a 300 ft.lb. hydraulic motor plus $100 auger, miscellaneous bolts, etc. for $20 equals $2,000 post-hole digger!)

Yes it is possible to drive a PTO PHD with a hydraulic motor. But you'll
need a fairly low speed motor with sufficient torque to acceptably drive
the auger. Note also you are probably going to need about 10-15GPM
of hydraulic flow through the motor to get the speed/torque required.
Speed being proportional to the displacement and torque proportional
to the pressure seen by the motor.

5030 · May 6, 2004

Mr. Gawa:

Reminds me of the tie rod end. Cost to the initial manufacturer is about 25 cents each. Consumer cost at the Ford dealership is $50.00.

Last time I delivered steel there, they had a metal bin full of tie rod ends for 350 Ford Pickups. They were waiting for shipment. The receiver told me that if I wanted, I could have a few. Probably should have, but I declined. What would I do with 5 or 6. Possibly sell them on e-bay?? I'll leave the manufacturer nameless. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

RedRocker · May 6, 2004

A Stihl HT 75 pole saw will cover the high stuff for about $550.
I was quoted $1550 on a hydraulic auger.

catsco · May 7, 2004

RedRocker-

Thanks for the info. regarding Stihl saw. I have plenty of infernal combustion engines saws. I'm looking for a hydraulic to operate from my long tractor boom on the front.

Power-Trac does make an auger for $700 (not including the bit); I'm just too frugal (or cheap) to spend that much for my use.

Mark H.