Question on bar length (East coast!)

[CalG]

Bar heavy is self feeding on the buck! ;-)

 

[WinterDeere]

Bar heavy is self feeding on the buck! ;-)

... but unweildy when felling. My 36" Rollomatic ES bar takes some real effort to hold horizontal, when starting face cuts.

 

[kenmbz]

For the small stuff, no bending at all. I use M18, but gas ones work a bit faster.
I bucked the bottom in this picture and the top which was on the other side of the road in about 20 minutes, probably would have been 10 minutes with the 490, but then I would be bending over the whole time.

 

[John_Mc]

On the topic of having a longer bar for less bending over I know its subjective, and there are many who think its dumb but in my case its a back saver. Having a back and shoulder injury from my time in the service its much easier for me to stand up and limb and buck with a longer bar than it is to be crouched our bent over all day. The added weight of my light bar is not significant and I actually like it to be a bit bar heavy anyway.

What works varies from person to person. I did not mean to imply with my comment that using a longer bar was "dumb". We all adapts to what works for us. My decades-old injuries are really aggravated by reaching out with the longer bars. My wife has gotten sick of fixing me when I'm broken (she spends all day fixing broken people.) If I don't pay attention to use good body mechanics and to avoid reaching out, it's a trip or two to the chiropractor (usually a week or two later, while I spend the mean time trying to convince myself it's not too bad or that it will straighten itself out.)

The worst aggravation is stacking firewood. I can generally stack all day if I stop at about 3 to 3.5 feet high. Unfortunately, I don't have the storage area to limit myself to such low stacks. I'm always surprised that it bothers me so much: After splitting, they are so light weight, but it seems to be the repeated reaching motion: over time it throws the vertebrae in my upper back out.

 

[Jaygyver]

If you can get to the area your cutting with your trackor, like it's been said, get some forks and just pick them up. I either lift it enough on one end to cut or just cut a chunk or two from each end to keep it level (OK. so I can rest between cuts). I did buy a 4-1 bucket at the same time as my forks but used my forks more than my bucket but the clam bucket can lift the rolls onto my trailer easer and can usually lift the the smaller tree's up completely to cut. It does take a bit longer but saves my back so I can work longer. I don't have enough brush for a grapple but I can use the clam bucket as a normal bucket.

I used my old JD 770 to drag the logs to an area that was clear then use my LS 235 to do the heavier stuff.

 

[howardjohn]

I have a 24" bar on my big stihl 044 I think. The bigger the bar the bigger and heavier the saw. Out of my 3 saws 16" bar 18" bar 24" bar and each saw is a little bigger as the bar gets bigger the one with the 24" is the most tiring to use and the one I respect the most. Standing up and using the long bar to reach down is still a lot of stress on your back