I bought one of these from Amazon the other day to deal with limbs blocking me from cutting down 2 trees. The limbs are too high for a pole saw. I practice cut a super hard and dry oak limb by myself and it stuck a lot due to the small radius of the cut the farther into the limb the chain got.

I think with 2 people cutting the radius of the chain will be reduced and I'll have less sticking. Anyone have any tips to offer in using one of these?

Great, you not happy dropping branches on your head from a short distance? 😁 There were a few times I probably could have used that instead of my extension ladder and chainsaw.

 

Two people standing on either side of, and away from the drop zone would be a very good idea. I have one of these and found the hardest part is getting the rope over the right limb at the right spot for the cut. I used it on some smaller stuff, but then had a devil of a time getting it unstuck on one and now it is in a box somewhere in the barn, don't know where.

 

ditto - last resort and a must to have as wide of two point pull as possible and a bottle of scotch.

 

I had the bright idea one day of putting a 10ft extension on my electric pole saw. That got pretty sketchy. Not doing that again.

 

Sketchy you say? Note the duct tape locking the trigger. Had my 10 year old daughter plugging in & unplugging the extension cord when I’d holler. Not OSHA approved.
I now own a proper pole saw.

Randy, how high up was the limb you had to cut?

 

I tried it (twice) with miserable results.

I had a very large oak with a hanging "widow-maker" broken limb. I bought one of those saws, and the chain got hopelessly stuck in the limb. I bought another, and the same thing happened.

Then I got frustrated and cut the whole tree down with my chainsaw. Cal

 

If I can't reach a dead branch safely with my 30' ladder I use a rope chain. As mentioned, two people on the ropes is the best to reduce the cutting angle. The only problem I've run into is if the branch twists toward the end of the cut is can twist a cutting link.

I use mine often enough and on high branches that I purchased a cheap cross bow. I hooked a 12# fishing line to the bolt and it makes it easy to pull the rope chain in place.

Have fun and great exercise.

 

You might want to try something like this: Amazon.com : tree climbing spikes
or
rent one of these:

 

You might want to try something like this: Amazon.com : tree climbing spikes
or
rent one of these:
View attachment 2543411

Way cheaper than an emergency room visit.

 

Steve,
I bought the same exact kit as you! I am waiting for our snow to melt before I attempt using this. I have a dead sugar maple tree that needs to come down in pieces... it might be too much for this but it was certainly worth a shot. The extra ropes will hopefully afford me some extra height. I do not expect this to be an easy endeavor. I am also going to buy additional hardware (the S-hooks that came with the kit do not look very beefy).

 

I have a cordless Dewalt pole saw that works really well. I have found two struggles with it. First, the tree always looks smaller than you think, until you stand next to it (or on the ladder).
Second, the safety chain Dewalt uses has big anti kick back humps and doesn’t cut for crap on the nose of the bar. It has a short little bar and if you are trying to cut a limb wider than the bar there is absolutely no plunge cut. I debated filing the humps off, but some kick back at the end of those pole extensions would be rude.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Rope saw works great with 2 people, spread apart as far as practical. The more that radius tightens, the more difficulty will be encountered.

 

I ran it today. Big limb about 20ft up. I started cutting it and then remembered I needed to undercut it. The wife talked me out of it and (of course) it hinged down and stuck the chain trying to finish it. I ended up drilling a hole in the limb and running a rod thru it and 2 chain links then pulling it down with my tractor.

 

I ran it today. Big limb about 20ft up. I started cutting it and then remembered I needed to undercut it. The wife talked me out of it and (of course) it hinged down and stuck the chain trying to finish it. I ended up drilling a hole in the limb and running a rod thru it and 2 chain links then pulling it down with my tractor.

Well you had a great helper anyways! You would've never caught my wife doing that! Glad you got it down and "learned" how to use the rope saw.

 

I bought one of these from Amazon the other day to deal with limbs blocking me from cutting down 2 trees. The limbs are too high for a pole saw. I practice cut a super hard and dry oak limb by myself and it stuck a lot due to the small radius of the cut the farther into the limb the chain got.

I think with 2 people cutting the radius of the chain will be reduced and I'll have less sticking. Anyone have any tips to offer in using one of these?

I bought one last spring to take down a dead limb hanging over where I park the car. The limb was too high to reach with the pole saw. These manual chain saws work much better on green wood than on dry wood. Mine got stuck half way through the cut, but I was able to get a rope over the limb with a throw bag and a little tug brought the limb and chain down.

 

Stay out of that drop zone:

 

I think the lesson of that vid is wear a hard hat and don't buy one with holes in it. Mine is an old blue construction hardhat with no holes. I pull down any loose limbs with a pole saw or rope when felling trees if i can get at them.

Well you had a great helper anyways! You would've never caught my wife doing that! Glad you got it down and "learned" how to use the rope saw.

Wish I could say I learned it. I'd say--more practice is necessary.

I have one. Even with 2 people your arms get tired fast.

We started cutting it together and it wasn't going great. I took the saw and cut thru 3/4 of the limb by myself as I felt it was easier to regulate the cut pressure needed. When I had cut a ways I let her take the other end and we finished it. My arms didn't get tired and neither of us was sore the next day. I do literally lift people for a living though--hospital physical therapy.

We had cut for a bit before I started the vid. I only started it when we heard the first crack which told me the limb was about to fall. I wish I had undercut the heck out of the limb. Hopefully that will help the next one to fall straight down rather than hinge and cause the saw to get stuck.

 

I bought one of these from Amazon the other day to deal with limbs blocking me from cutting down 2 trees. The limbs are too high for a pole saw. I practice cut a super hard and dry oak limb by myself and it stuck a lot due to the small radius of the cut the farther into the limb the chain got.

I think with 2 people cutting the radius of the chain will be reduced and I'll have less sticking. Anyone have any tips to offer in using one of these?

I have one. Even with 2 people your arms get tired fast.

 

I had a strange thing happen to one of my big Siberian elms. The limb just twisted over and laid down at a point about 28' up. The outer part of the limb separated from the inner part.

I started out with the chain on a rope but, yes, it jammed a few inches in and now I had a second problem.

I ended up buying a DocaPole , from Home Depot and I successfully dropped the limb. The blade is really sharp and relatively easy to control. I love this thing and have purchased a couple accessories to go with it; a hook and a rake for cleaning debris out of a troublesome roof valley. It extends to 30' and gives me about a 35' reach. The cutoff stub now has old fashioned swing attached (the wife's idea) and the DocaPole was instrumental installing squirrel proof hanging feeders and the wind chime in the second picture.

Roger

 

Thanks for sharing. I'm gonna keep trying the high limb and see if I can get better at it but this is definitely a consideration.

 

High limb saw round 2. 20ft up, 25ft long, 7" diameter. I undercut the limb heavily from both sides lifting UP on the rope on the bottom stroke and letting it stay limp on the down(pulling back). Got the wife and we finished the cut in a few minutes. The limb cracked and split and then we continued and it cut thru and laid on the cut end. I lifted the end on the ground and it fell.

Cut it up with my 2150 Poulan, palletized the debris and dumped it on a burning brushpile I started this morning. Now I can fell the blackjack oak standing behind it that has been a pinch point for my driveway around my wellhouse.

Thoughts: Gentle starts on the rope saw are necessary and when you get stuck you can make tiny back/forth motions to cut thru whatever is causing it to hang. I sprayed oil on the chain when I had it hanging over the limb. Wish I could easily oil it during the cut. It is also critical to keep the chain inline with the angle of the cut.

This thing has a learning curve. I highly suggest cutting a few limbs where you can reach them when(not if) it gets stuck. I suspect many of these are stuck way up in trees rusting away.

Does anyone know what type of tree this is? It felt fairly soft to cut.

 

Interesting string.

I've also gone down this road.

1st try was a corded electric (Remington) w/12ft pole. I've used this a lot, but for very high branches, I clamped it to several pieces of a roof rake handle, very "springy", and needed my wife's help to get it up on branch, maybe 25+ ft up. We would get it in position and then while I held it, she would plug in the saw, and ready to unplug quickly as needed. This is sketchy. We've only done this a couple times.

2ed try was after seeing the extendable saw some pros using (similar to the one linked to above), I bought a saw set from an arborist supply company that has 6 (alum) sections that connect together and reaches 35 ft. It cuts well but with long lengths is too heavy for me, I get my son to do the cut. If I had seen the one linked above, I probably would have bought that instead.

I've never tried that chain saw chain on a rope. And have no desire to try it.

I'd really like to find something elec that reaches 30'ish ft. Over that I'll let nature trim the tree.

 

@DL-North I also have a corded 10ft electric pole saw and a 16ft manual one and have had safety issues with both as limbs came down and I was too close to them.

This lets you get well away from the limb. If you need to be farther away you just add more rope. The cutting is about 1/5 the effort of a manual pole saw as you aren't lifting and sawing with it. The rope can come down at your sides like skiing rather than having your arms reaching overhead.

When I started the cut I quickly went thru 4" of the limb by myself with little effort before getting the wife. It took both of us longer to finish the rest than it did for me to undercut and go deeply into the limb. It's already earned its cost as I wouldn't have taken down either of thise limbs with my pole saws and certainly not as safely.

 

I will just stick to a lift when needed. No worries about limbs falling on you if your above them.

 

If you can figure out how to get a limb on your head from 30ft off to the side of it you'd best stay off a lift with a chainsaw in your hand. Better yet just farm out any tree work.