Back in August we blogged about the Corona Arborist Pole Pruner. Brett Nasmith from Asplundh had shown us his modified Jameson/Corona system but at the time Jameson poles were hard to come by (even the Corona head is relatively rare - but you can buy them from Treetools). Jameson is now available in New Zealand and included in the first shipment was the Jameson pruner head.
It has the same double action pulley system as the Corona but the bladeand cut are smaller - only 32 mm. This may present a problem to some arborists who like the generous cut on the Corona (45 mm). The pulley attached tothe pole on the Jameson has closed plates, reducing the chance of the rope slipping off the sheave as sometimes happens with the Corona. To stop this problemmost arborists replace the lower Corona pulley with one from a ship chandler.Both units have drop forged heads but the Corona is more-or-less a one piece design reducing potential problems associated with heavy usage. In contrast,the Jameson hook is riveted the caste alloy ferrule attachment and this is not ideal. From experience Treetools have found that rivets don't generallystand up well to repeated use but the Jameson ones may be more robust than most.
The return spring on the Jameson is much beefier than those on the Corona. Spring replacement on the Corona pruner head is the most common problem. Arboristseither break the small metal spring attachment at the top of the blade or the hooks on the spring themselves snap off rendering the spring useless. IfI recall correctly Brett beefed up the springs on his conversion.
The Jameson pruner head attaches directly to the aluminum ferrule on the Jameson pole - you will need to invest in the custom adapter if you want to usethe Corona pruner head. Of course, you can buy the Corona with its own fiberglass (hollow) poles but some arborists prefer the JE Series foam filled optionfrom Jameson.
