Brien:
My search of poled electric pruners did not locate the Pellenc Treelion
so I am glad that you have now brought it
to my attention. The Pellenc website
www.pellence.com/gct/en/Secateur-Arboricole-Treelion.aspx indicates three
lengths of pole models. It appears that pole models cannot be used without the
pole. But combining the effects of the novel forked pole and the shifted
weight more to the handle end should reduce the moment of inertia, or torque,
and make its use less noticeable to arm and shoulder muscles, compared to a
comparable length Infaco F3010.
I have not yet used my Infaco F3010 for more than about 6 hours without
recharging, but after 6 hours it shows
3/4 full charge remaining. I don't know how accurate the charge indicator is,
but there has been no sign of slowed or
weakened cutting. Recharging has always been less than two hours to full charge.
I don't feel I need to cut larger limbs than the Infaco can cut. I
prefer to use a saw on them. The Pellenc lithium-ion might reduce the need for
sawing; I don't find weight information on the Pellenc battery backpack.
The frequent snow storms here have kept me clearing snow more than
working in the orchard, and snow depth and the cold, windy weather argue that
other activities (indoors) are a more productive-efficient use of my available
time.
David
On Feb 16, 2014, at 10:53 PM, Brien Davis <br...@hopeorchards.com> wrote:
> Hi Dave,
> I've been looking at electric pruners online for several months now. I found
> the F3010 and the Pellnec Treelion. Did you compare different manufactures
> of these tools? Does the battery on yours last the day? Any other advise?
>
> Thanks, Brien
>
> Brien Davis
> Hope Orchards
> 434 Camden Road
> Hope, Maine 04847
> (207) 763-2824
> hopeorchards.com
>
>
>
>
> On Feb 11, 2014, at 1:40 PM, David Kollas wrote:
>
>>
>> Mark:
>>
>> The electronic pruner I have is the Electrocoup F3010, made in France
>> by Infaco. The pole option that I chose is non-telescopic, about 4 feet
>> long. The importer, Infaco, USA, in Livermore, California, has a pretty
>> good website:
>> http://www.infaco-usa.com
>>
>> For cold-weather conditions, I expect to get more pruning done with
>> this tool than with pneumatic or hand tools.
>> It has taken some time to learn how best to use it for my conditions.
>> Suitable clothing, and the order of layering the
>> clothing are a factor. A couple of minor design changes would improve the
>> tool, but I see no better choices currently
>> available. I would suggest a more prominent button to control the opening
>> and closing, for pole use, and an
>> alternative to the trigger on the secateur unit, one that could be
>> conveniently used with mittens. Using the "free" hand
>> to operate the button switch, as I have done, interferes somewhat with
>> efficient use of that hand for other activities.
>> Assuming that wireless technology is impractical, perhaps for safety reasons
>> where multiple workers might be in close
>> proximity, I wonder if triggering might be possible with a mouth-operated
>> switch, leaving both hands for other tasks.
>> I don't yet see any particular advantage to the current placement of the
>> button switch on the pole slider. I like it near the bottom end of the pole.
>>
>> David
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Feb 11, 2014, at 9:25 AM, hangermayer <hangerma...@isp.com> wrote:
>>
>>> David,
>>>
>>> Could you tell me the model/manufacturer of your pole pruner. It may
>>> help me to follow some of the finer points of your explanation if I
>>> could see a picture of the pruner. Thank you for posting your
>>> detailed analysis. It sounds like you are reasonably happy with the
>>> result in the end. To do it over, would you purchase this pole pruner
>>> again, or look for something different?
>>>
>>> Mark
>>>
>>> On 2/10/14, David Kollas <kol...@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> The cold and snowy conditions in Connecticut this winter have made me
>>>> look
>>>> for better ways to do my necessary
>>>> orchard pruning. I will go into some detail here with my experience,
>>>> because I have not seen reports from others with electric pole pruners.
>>>> Pneumatic pruners, run off a small gasoline-fueled air compressor, did
>>>> an
>>>> acceptable job when there was no
>>>> snow on the ground, and temperatures were mostly above freezing. I move the
>>>> compressor rig around in a garden
>>>> cart. Last year I moved it on a plastic sledding toy, while I wore
>>>> snowshoes. This winter, before snow became a
>>>> nuisance, ice-formation in the triggering mechanism was wasting a lot of my
>>>> time, so I looked into electric pruners.
>>>> My trees' fruiting zone is between about 6 and 8 feet above ground, so a
>>>> significant amount of the work is just
>>>> a bit of a stretch for hand-held electric pruners, and I am not immune to
>>>> the effects of this repetitious weight-lifting.
>>>> A pole pruner, I thought would make the job easier. Also, it would not
>>>> involve an air-hose that tangles in the dropped prunings. And it would not
>>>> require my patient persistence with starting a stubborn engine on cold
>>>> mornings.
>>>> I found a pole pruner, bought it, and went eagerly back to the orchard
>>>> on a
>>>> cold day. I could not keep my hands
>>>> warm in gloves, so I wore thick mittens. With the pole in place, the blade
>>>> is opened and closed by pressing a small button on an attachment that can
>>>> slide up and down the pole. The gun-like trigger on the pruning unit itself
>>>> is not used when the pruning unit is attached at the end of the pole.
>>>> Locating the button when wearing thick leather mittens was unreliable, so I
>>>> fabricated a button extension, which, when glued onto the small, provided
>>>> button, was easy to
>>>> find through the thick mitten. Back in the orchard, the new pole pruner
>>>> was
>>>> now everything I had expected. But after several hours, I was noticing pain
>>>> in my left arm and shoulder. When I thought about it, that made sense; the
>>>> left arm was carrying most of the weight, while the right arm was mostly
>>>> only steering.
>>>> The next day I gave my sore left shoulder a rest. I could have just
>>>> switched to supporting the pole's weight with
>>>> my right arm, and steering with the left. But that might leave me with two
>>>> complaining arms on the following day. The
>>>> pruner is not terribly heavy...2.8 pounds, and the pole, mostly of carbon
>>>> fibers, adds only 2 pounds to the combined weight. The apparent heaviness
>>>> of
>>>> the pruner is a result of a principle of physics. That principle is called
>>>> the Moment of Inertia. (Brief you- tube explanation here:
>>>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyU25DdONjo The effective weight of the
>>>> pruner increases as the SQUARE of the distance between the handle-end of
>>>> the
>>>> pole, and the pruner at the far end. My pole puts the pruner 4 feet from
>>>> the
>>>> handle end. If my supporting hand is at 3 feet from the end, a 2.2 pound
>>>> pruner would feel like 19.8 pounds when the pole is horizontal (less as the
>>>> angle approaches vertical.)
>>>> I figure I could reach most of my pruning cuts with a pole shorter than
>>>> the
>>>> four feet this one is. Four feet is the
>>>> shortest length offered by the manufacturer. To shorten my pole requires
>>>> removing parts at one end or the other, then replacing them after a section
>>>> of the carbon fibre pole is cut out. I could find no company rep who could
>>>> describe how either end section could be removed. They appeared to be
>>>> either glued, or extremely tight-fitting.
>>>> Instead, I removed the pole from the pruning unit, and removed the on-off
>>>> button and its attached slider from the pole,
>>>> tied to it a string loop, and hung it around my neck so that it could be
>>>> operated with a mitten-covered left hand, as I
>>>> used the pruner, w/o pole, in my right hand. As it turned out, a day's use
>>>> of the under three pound pruner, held overhead, directly with my right
>>>> hand,
>>>> while operating the switch with the left hand, was more weight-lifting than
>>>> I wanted to repeat. I should note that I would not have needed to operate
>>>> the switch, if it had been warm enough to wear gloves, rather than mittens.
>>>> Mittens do not allow use of a single finger through the trigger guard.
>>>> Today, after some trial and failure, I found a way to remove the top end
>>>> pieces from the pole, sawed off 15 inches
>>>> of pole, and replaced the end pieces. The slider switch was also returned
>>>> to the pole. I have now tested the adjusted
>>>> tool and found it to be significantly more friendly.
>>>> There is one more observation that I think explains why my shoulders
>>>> complain after some hours of pruning.
>>>> The batteries and most of the other electronics associated with the pruner
>>>> are carried in a backpack whose weight
>>>> is a bit under 7 pounds. The pack has two straps that run over the
>>>> shoulders, and a wide "velcroed" belt run around
>>>> the belly. If the pack is worn outside a sleeved coat, raising of the arms
>>>> tries to lift the pack, but meets resistance
>>>> from the belt wrapped around the coat. It is as though the pack is held
>>>> down
>>>> by friction and folds in the coat. My
>>>> conclusion is that the battery pack should be strapped on loosely over the
>>>> shoulders, and tightly around the waist
>>>> BEFORE getting into any un-stretchy clothing that will be lifted when
>>>> reaching overhead. Finally, an extended arm,with
>>>> a hand-held 2 pound pruner will feel like 12.5 pounds, assuming a 2.5 foot
>>>> arm.
>>>>
>>>> David Kollas
>>>> Kollas Orchard, CT
>>>>
>>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> apple-crop mailing list
>>> apple-crop@virtualorchard.net
>>> http://virtualorchard.net/mailman/listinfo/apple-crop
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> apple-crop mailing list
>> apple-crop@virtualorchard.net
>> http://virtualorchard.net/mailman/listinfo/apple-crop
>
> _______________________________________________
> apple-crop mailing list
> apple-crop@virtualorchard.net
> http://virtualorchard.net/mailman/listinfo/apple-crop
_______________________________________________
apple-crop mailing list
apple-crop@virtualorchard.net
http://virtualorchard.net/mailman/listinfo/apple-crop
