best chainsaw?

[slowzuki]

Thought about trying some chainsaw milling with the 090? I'm looking to try a bit of it but really need a bigger saw than my MS260.

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Slamfire:

Don't do much cutting at all anymore. Just use the 028 around the farm. The 075 and 090 are sitting dry and greased, under the bench, waiting for my estate sale. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif )</font>

 

[5030]

slowsuzki:

The 90G is a really heavy, bulky saw. Takes 2 guys to deal with it. Not as heavy or cumbersome as an old David Bradley, but close.

 

[snowbound]

I have no clue. My wife is the forester. Back when she was in the Forest Service in Oregon and Washington State she had a lot of use for chainsaws. It's definitely old information but here's a chainsaw story she told me just last night. One of the experienced Oregon timber crews (from a hippy-style organization called "Hoedads") she knew bid on a timber contract near Juneau and they bid high enough to get all new saws for it. When they got the contract, they went to their favorite dealer in Eugene and bought all new Stihls. Which tells you what they thought were good saws. Apparently this was a new type of saw at that time (probably about 30 years ago) and it had a magnesium alloy housing. So when they went up to Juneau it was unusually cold and all the saw housings cracked. They ended up throwing the casings on a big pile and burning them which made a light that could be seen for many miles. She doesn't know what they replaced the saws with, but apparently there werent any Stihl dealers in the area of the contracted stand so it wasn't more Stihls.

 

[slowzuki]

5030, yes, I've read about them in www.forestryforum.com they seem to like the 90 gear model for use in chain saw mills.

Definately a monster saw.
Ken

 

[slowzuki]

Snowbound, I think you'd find they tensioned the chain in a warm climate then brought them to a cold climate. On any saw this will either break or bend the crank, or break or damage the housing.

The manufacturers all warn of this. The length of the chain changes with temperature.

 

[5030]

Powerstroke and other posters:

When I had my tree trimming business many years ago, we had a bucket truck for top operations. At that time we use the Stihl 009 or McCullough mini macs.

I would always require the bucket operator to "tether" the saw to the bucket itself. That way, if the operator lost his grip on the saw, it didn't fall to the ground. We used a rope tether about 10 feet long. One end tied to the stirrup of the saw and the other end tied to the bucket rail.

You never wanted a saw coming out of a tree and hitting the ground men anyway.

 

[snowbound]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Snowbound, I think you'd find they tensioned the chain in a warm climate then brought them to a cold climate.)</font>

Maybe that is what happened. After all they didn't expect Juneau to be that cold.

But they were also experienced professional forestry workers so maybe it's not just as simple as that. According to my wife it was a fancy new allow for Stihl that year that didn't behave as expected.

 

[snowbound]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( According to my wife it was a fancy new allow for Stihl that year that didn't behave as expected. )</font>

That is supposed to say fancy new "alloy".

 

[northnightboy]

Just to give you a quick run down...I work for the Forest Service as a wildland firefighter I have my unlimited Class C cutting certification. Which lets me cut all complexitity and sizes of trees. Just to give you an idea of my scope of pratice.
I've had the chance to use the two major brands of chainsaws Huskies and Stihls quite extensively. I would have to say that if you are looking for a good reliable chainsaw that can stand up to some good abuse and keep on running I would say a Stihl would have to be your choice. Really in the end the life of your saw will be dictated by how well you maintain it. Huskies tend to take alot more maintance to keep running and still tend to break down. Stihl takes a lot more abuse but takes less time to maintain. I would recommend a Stihl farmboss for what you are doing. look at the 036-039 models they will give you the power you want for hardwoods and can power up a larger bar for the larger populars on your acreage.
I use larger versions of the Stihls and have run 5 year old saws for 16 hours straight for 14 days with minimum maintaince and no break downs. This is above average use of a chainsaw. An during this use they take quite a bit of punishment sucking in dirt, soot, ash, and burning embers. This is probably why the firefighting Hotshot crews use Stihl esclusively. Hope this helps...

 

[BrettW]

Northnight,
I just got a used MS 290 off ebay, Any comments on this saw?
Hope is it a good Stihl saw, thanks, bw