Reviews

This works great but is a lot of work. I am a 5'3" lady and not to good at aiming but once you get it on the limb and in the right position, you can get down to business. Did what I needed to do...

The high rope saw can be difficult to use. It doesn't always stay cutting edge down so you have to throw the saw back up to change which side is down(Only one side of the blade cuts). It binds frequently and sometimes gets stuck. Make sure you read the directons and udercut the branch or the bark will tear. It is difficult to use by yourself if the branch is more than 3 inches in diamater. It bent and had to be thrown our after using it on about 15 branches.

We bought this saw to cut off a large dead branch over our yard. First of all, it was HARD to toss the weight over the high branch. It took a lot of attempts. There's got to be a better way to get it up there - like attaching the end of the string to a remote control toy helicopter? Why not? :) But maybe it's just us. Once the saw was in place, the rest was relatively easy - just pull it back and forth. A piece of advice - once you get it going - don't stop to catch a breath or readjust untill the branch is cut off completely. We stopped, and the saw immediately got stuck. And it's really hard to get it moving again. Overall, we got the job done just fine. Maybe the next time we have to use the saw it will be easier.

Like most everyone else I have found it to work great once you get it on the branch and have a buddy working the other end of the rope at 45 degrees. Cuts much faster then I thought it would, nice clean cut. I wish they used a better quality of rope mine is fraying already. If the rope was better than I would give it 5 stars..

This worked pretty well. I would also encourage buying the 48" blade as opposed to the shorter one; the additional teeth come in handy. Beanbag is poorly attached; throw away the clip and use a caribiner or a heavy key ring. Have another rope handy if the blade binds (it did twice for me). Unhook the beanbag from the blade rope and hook it to another rope and use that to lasso the branch further away from the tree. You can then manhandle the branch from the lasso rope if the blade binds.

Reviews

The product looked great on-line and, using the comments by other reviewers, I had no problem at all with assembly. Unfortunately, the thing did not work. After navigating the very frustrating resolution process with McCulloch and its designated warranty company (a separate entity), I finally took it to the local authorized repair tech. He found that the motor was missing key parts, which could only be obtained directly from the foreign manufacturer, not through McCulloch. After three months waiting for the promised part, I reluctantly contacted Amazon, and they gratiously agreed to refund the entire cost, including free return shipping. While disappointed with the product and McCulloch support, I'm once again pleased with Amazon's great customer service. Bottom line, while the product seems otherwise to be a good design (hence my 2-star rating), I guess it was just my bad luck to get a "lemon."

The reviews for this product seem to be divided into two categories; About two-thirds of the reviewers say the chipper works great, the other third say it jams constantly, doesn't have enough power, etc. After buying one of these, reading the instruction manual, and using it for a while, I think I may know what's causing some of the problems. Page 4 of the instruction manual has a table that's supposed to tell you what size extension cord to use. The table is confusing, but the bottom line is you have to use either a 14 gauge extension cord that's 25 feet or shorter, or a 12 gauge extension cord that's 50 feet or shorter (the smaller the gauge, the bigger the wires in the cord; a 12 gauge cord can carry more current than a 14 gauge cord.) This is important, because the chipper draws 14 amps, which is about all the current you can get out of a 120 volt outlet. If you use too small an extension cord, the motor will be way down on power and the chipper's going to jam. If you use too small an extension cord for too long, the motor's eventually going to burn out. If you're buying a new extension cord, it should have the wire gauge on the package. It should say, for example "12 Gauge" or "12 AWG" (I believe AWG stands for American Wire Gauge.) If you're using an existing extension cord, if you look closely at the cord the gauge should be stamped into the plastic exterior in small letters. It will say something like 12/3 AWG. The first number is the wire gauge. Don't go by the appearance of your extension cord, there are companies that make big, industrial-looking orange extension cords that actually have small copper wires inside. If you're chipping stuff that's more than 50 feet from an electrical outlet, don't plug in another extension cord, move the stuff to the chipper. I hope this is helpful, and happy chipping.

This chipper performs reasonably well once you learn what to do and what not to do. Thin branches with leaves should be inserted from the top. Thicker brnaches from the side. Do not turn off the device until you are confident all material you inserted has been expelled or you may not be able to start it again. Regadless, expect to need to release jams even with the best handling.

Since you only assemble an item once (and assembly is not that hard) why someone rates an item low because they had a little trouble with assembly is beyond me. Aren't most of us interested in performance? I am and I was not disappointed. I understood thanks to the other reveiwers not to expect this to handle limbs over 1" in diameter and the shoot opening on the machine helps keep you honest since the oval opening is only wide enough for 1" branches. Yes you need to hang on so the limb does not feed in to fast, but it does a wonderful job. The breaker tripped one time out of several hours of chipping and that was when I first started before I got the hang of how fast to feed the stock. I use a cardboard box that fits under the exit shoot and between the legs to catch the chips and shredded materials,which I then just dump on the compost pile. Limbs larger than 1 inch have to be dealt with differently. I cut mine up into 3-4 ft lengths (usually with my Black & Decker LP1000 Alligator Lopper 4.5 amp Electric Chain Saw) and put them out for the waste management to pick up. They then mulch them for all citizens. If you have mainly large limbs this is not the machine for you, but if your needs are primarily small branches and leaves and you train yourself to use it properly you will not be disappointed. This is a great machine at a great price that does a great job.

Took it out and put it together and it didn't work. Found that the safety switch had become disconnected during shipping. Put it back together and it works fine.

Reviews

I bought this product because I have several high over hanging limbs that I wasn't able to get to with a pole saw and after reading other reviews, I thought that this product could accomplish my tasks. The end result was that I was able to successfully cut down the branches, but it wasn't as easy as I had anticipated. I was able to throw the bag over the branches easily enough, but it often got hung up or needed quite a bit of manipulation to get it down from the branches. I also had difficulties getting the saw on the cutting side (one side's blade design) which resulted in two breaks of the nylon rope. I should mention that I tried to do all of this without any assistance from a helper. After tying the broken rope together, I threw the rope saw over the limb and enlisted some help. The saw worked much better with two people pulling at a wider angle. While it is not easy at first and it provided me with quite a few challenges and frustration, it did do the job that I purchased it for. I would recommend this product to someone else, but I would explain that it needs to be used with two people and there is a specific technique that needs to be utilized for success. I would also highly recommend wearing gloves and using some type of a handle on each end. I found that two sturdy sticks worked well.

While this will never substitute for a pole chainsaw, or even a professional manual pole saw, it is fairly straightforward and easy to use. The "trick" I have found is to go slow and steady. You can't really rush the cutting by pulling hard; keep your hands moving and don't try to pull the branch down, let the saw do the work. It's relatively easy, if you are not keeping an eye on things to (1) have the chain invert so that the cutting edge is away from the branch and (2) to have a branch fall on you. The manufacturer has put a metal "tab" on the blade that shows you which side is cutting, so that helps with the first issue. The second is common sense. Also remember that it might be best to make two cuts, one about a foot from the trunk and the second as close to the trunk as possible. This way you reduce the likelihood of tearing bark off the trunk. It's a good saw albeit with limited, specific uses.

Interesting concept. This is pretty much what it seems like - a rope with a saw blade in the middle and a beanbag on the end. I have a dead branch high up in a spruce tree in my backyard, and I thought I could save a few bucks over hiring a tree guy. I was never able to get it over the branch, so I can't say how it cuts. My problem was the branch was too high (around 30') and there were a lot of lower branches in the way, so it kept getting tangled. So if you have a lower branch and a clear shot at it, you might have better luck.

Used it to remove dead pine branches 2" in diameter. Branches were 15-20' above ground. This was safer than climbing a ladder and took several tries to get my throw aimed correctly. Was able to cut half way through each branch before the saw jammed. Nevertheless, I was able to pull the branch and break it off with a 20' pruning tool. Because it jammed, I could not give it a better rating.

Definitely recommend this product - it's a much safer than using a ladder to trim branches.