Thread: Which brand of chainsaw??

you dont want more than a 6" back and 4" is plenty deep enough 2m long

no body tried the shindaiwa saws? have 2 of the 757s 5.5 hp , and run bars from 20- 36inch on them . and only replaced spark plugs .in nearly 10 years , very pleased with them . on fuel if its unleaded and mixed in clean sealed container out of the sun never a problem ! left in the saw ,not so good unless using saw all the time . have a 90cc husky new and is a great saw,starts well too , wich my mates 95s never did . also an echo 50cc a gem . and several homelites 410 getting a little old but quiet, smooth and nice to use . unlike the new models wich are junk .cheers bob

Originally Posted by Lignin

I need to replace my old Stihl 034 av, which is ,like its owner, due for the pension.It has done yeoman service, but I need a newie.
Which brands are best, and for what reasons??
I cut a bit of iron bark, white mahogony and stringy bark for posts and rails, and cut my firewood.
I did have a Husquvarna, but was not very happy with it.Too much plastic!!
All comments appreciated.
Thanks

hi i would recomend shindaiwa 757 i use one every day cutting iron bark box and all of the above!

All of the local councils and emergency services down my neck of the woods use stihl....... probably something in that.

i gotta stihl magnum 660 just cant go past it stihl all the way

The other question is: what is your local dealer like? I used Stihls for years, but got so fed up with the local dealers being so slack. They were all pretty clueless, and just didn't seem to know the product. You need backup, especially if you're using these things for a living. I switched to Huskys and haven't looked back.

Im the other way around. I own nine stihl products for only one reason, service and backup. John and Jane at Dunsborough Chainsaws know Im a proffesional sawyer and treat me with that respect. If one of my saws is in their shop, it means I was using it, its now not running and I need it back pronto and they do their best to make that happen. I have said it before, go to your local tree lopping business owners and see what saws they put in their boys hands because its not about the saw, its the service to keep it in your hands, not the dealers mechanics hands. And buy the real deal, not a shanghai saw. You are investing in reliability. I own a 880, 2 660s, a 441, an 042, an 034 and 2 170s for that reason, so if its orange and white its alright

I'll stick my hand up for the shindaiwas too. I've got a 757 with a 24" bar and a 488 with an 18" and they're both bulletproof. Start first time, every time with a drop, run faultlessly and don't chew the juice excessively. The 757 took a good 10 tanks of fuel to run in properly and start to develop best power, but I've not had to touch either of them in 3 years of ownership and a LOT of cutting. The only thing I'd like to do is get rid of the US-compliant spark arrestors, since I reckon they're costing about 10% in power, but otherwise, I'm well-pleased.

About half the price of an equivalently-sized stihl at the time and a 2 year warranty made them hard to pass up.

Originally Posted by Exador

I'll stick my hand up for the shindaiwas too.
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The only thing I'd like to do is get rid of the US-compliant spark arrestors, since I reckon they're costing about 10% in power, but otherwise, I'm well-pleased.

If the spark arrestor is doing that then I reckon it will probably benefit from opening up the muffler as well. A guy on the arborist site clearly demonstrated that a muffler mod can make a saw run cooler (using a temperature sensor) and develop more power (His cross cutting times dropped significantly). This has to be done with some care as this will also cause the saws to run leaner so the carby needs to be richened up to protect the saw. I've change the muffler opening on my 880 so that it can be adjusted from the standard 14 mm opening to 19 mm (currently running at 18 mm which is an increase of 60% over the 14). This seems to be doing the business but have not done any timed cuts yet

Thanks for that, Bob. In all likelihood I'll not bother, since they've got plenty of power for what I ask of them, but you can never have too much power, after all...

I too run a bunch of Stihl - from 020 climbing saws, 260's to 460 and 441 magnum. I haven had too much go wrong, apart from an old 036, which was always a mongrel to start - despite 3 rebuilds. I find that the stihl are generally well built and reliable. The MAIN thing is that you can always get parts easily and in a hurry. This often outweighs any minor advantages other brands have, if the saws are being used heavily and you cant afford to have them idle while you hunt down the Husky / Shindaiwa parts.

Speaking of which, both the Husky 359XP and the little Shindaiwa 488 were absolutely great saws. The shindaiwa suffers from looking like a cheap bunnings saw, but was the easiest starting, most reliable small saw I've had. The Husky was comparable to say the 036 in power.

Husky also run a narrower kerf chain, which is a pain if you have multiple saw types and you like to buy chain by the roll, as you cant mix 3/8 for the Stihl, and 3/8 for the husky. Having said that, the high revs and narrow chain on Huskys mean you can really fly through the wood.

Stihl have the advantage of massive market penetration, deservedly built over the years so it is understandable that people are hesitant to jump ship to a different brand, especially when you have a lot of existing equipment.

While not a professional feller, nor even a "Bushman" - just moved to Tassie 2 years ago from Venice Beach/Malibu - I have been breaking down logs for musical instrument timber for a fair few years now.

Having used:

088
066
031
395XP
575XP

to crosscut, spilt, 1/4 and rip figured hardwood for milling on swing mills and bandsaw mills, I have to say my preference lies with the Swedish gear.

They feel better in the hand, rev higher, run a narrower gauge chain and tend to be more polite. I know some die-hard Stihl fans and understand their reasoning, but my next saw will most likely be a 576.

Two cents entered...
- Riggsy

Originally Posted by highfieldtonewerks

While not a professional feller, nor even a "Bushman" - just moved to Tassie 2 years ago from Venice Beach/Malibu - I have been breaking down logs for musical instrument timber for a fair few years now.

Having used:
088, 066, 031, 395XP, 575XP

to crosscut, spilt, 1/4 and rip figured hardwood for milling on swing mills and bandsaw mills, I have to say my preference lies with the Swedish gear.

They feel better in the hand, rev higher, run a narrower gauge chain . . . .

Sorry but your higher revs claim simply doesn't agree with the specs for the bigger saws.

The 395 (3% more ccs) and the 660 are almost identical in power (7.1 and 7.0 HP) both developed at 9500 rpm. they will both go to 13,000 rpm or more but so what - unless you are cutting balsa you won't be milling at these revs. In the case of the big Husky 3120, it's governed to <10000 rpm while the equivalent or 880 stihl its 12000 rpm. Unless you are modding hardware it sounds like you got this high rev thing the wrong way around. If you are modding then both saws can be made to reach equivalent rpms. Huskies have other redeeming features but it's definitely not in the max revs stakes.

Running a narrower gauge chain is no big deal, the difference between the chains is marginal can be obtained almost immediately on a stihl using 3/8 LP chain, or next time the bar is changed - just buy a narrower gauge bar/chain and sprocket.

As for feeling better in the hand, I find the husky design on their smaller saws a bit too cramped eg the starting handles are too close to the body of the saw and every time I start one I skin my knuckles. I believe it just takes some getting used to

All that aside I still like using the husky's they are really gutsy saws and like any swede, you can flog the pants off them and they stand up smiling!

I stand corrected on the revs and appreciate the chain info.

I too bust a knuckle a few times a week on the 575, agreed there.

Husky still gets the vote for me personally, but I appreciate the education re: my being ill-informed. Always good to know that there are people on the forum that we can all turn to when we have a question or are mistaken in our thinking.

Beers on me,
Riggsy