ideas for a long boom pole saw

[Ken45101]

Can be done as a 2-man operation with a man-basket mounted to forks on the FEL. With my son in the basket using a chainsaw we readily cut branches up to about 15' high. Easy to maneuver.

That only works where you have two skilled people AND it's on reasonably level ground. I'm not raising the loader up to full height on most of the hilly ground we have here.

I'm not getting up in the air with my wife operating the tractor and I know she won't operate a chain saw up in the air!

 

[lloyd430]

I used an electric chain saw for the same thing. I made a cradle to hold the pole to the outside of the bucket. The cradle pivots so you can't push down too hard, as you mentioned about the 3' movement in the curl. I have a small 1800 watt generator that I put on the 3pt hitch, ran an extension cord off the generator to a strip outlet at my seat, then ran the extension card to the pole saw up the side the FEL. The only problem I had was I ran out of limbs to trim!! Under cut first, then cut from the top-Heads up! I wouldn't put another pole on, FEL plus the pole saw should get close to 20'.

 

[bigtiller]

That only works where you have two skilled people AND it's on reasonably level ground. I'm not raising the loader up to full height on most of the hilly ground we have here.

I'm not getting up in the air with my wife operating the tractor and I know she won't operate a chain saw up in the air!

:laughing: We did that once,,,,, we won't do it again!

 

[ETpilot]

I made a flat platform that I bolted to my forks on my FEL bucket. I would raise and level the bucket at the desired height then climb a ladder to get on the platform. With my Stihl polesaw I had a good reach for my needs. I just needed to go up 6-8 feet. I did not feel unsafe but still managed to work with one foot in the bucket and the other on the platform. Having a safety rail would have been better but this was a one time project which got done. While up there I figured a way in which I might be able to control the FEL from the bucket but did not pursue as this was a one time deal.

Using a long pole to accomplish this task, you may find that it will be a bit flexible. I made a 20 foot boom pole to use with my FEL bucket for lifting 44 foot wide wooden trusses up on my 12 foot high shop wall. It too was flexible. To make it rigit I welded some thin rebar which paralleled the pole about 3 inches above it. No flex in this pipe. I used this boom pole,also, to raise a welded truss that I made to support hangar doors. It worked great. I have not used it since then. It is coming out of the barn now as I am building a gambrel shed. I need to lift more trusses. Hope it works as well as before.

 

[jenkinsph]

I see we are now on page 3 with no good or workable solutions for a 40' extension of a chain saw. Doubt there will be one either, that is why I suggested hiring a tree cutter. Usually cost me about $75-100 bucks to have two trees dropped from the top down that are too close or leaning towards a house. This would be trees 6 to 12" diameter.