Need advice on a larger chainsaw for an older guy.

[Frankenkubota]

I am a few years older than you and have been clearing an acre of dense woods this past summer with maple, oak, and pine.
I have 20" Husqvarna so I have been doing similar work with similar equipment.
This isn't what you asked for but this may fix part your problem if you haven't used one before.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HY96EW8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

View attachment 720815

I can do it while on the bar, it is fast and accurate.
I keep a small vise mounted on a table to clamp the bar and it takes maybe 5 minutes.
I make about 4 strokes per tooth and it is as good or better than new.
I saw a noticeable difference in how much I could do in a day,

Others can help you pick out a chain saw but I would recommend getting this to help with fatique.
Hope this helps.

i've got one for each of my saws

 

[Skeans1]

DISCLAIMER: I'm perhaps just above novice level. I'm 63 (only been cutting wood for the last 10 years- I can feel that it's more work now, but I still feel capable with what I do/have).

EVERYTHING is a compromise.

I won't try to assess what others do/have done, nor will I try to tell anyone on what they should get or what they should do*, but I WILL explain my perspective as a homeowner who faces a lot of varied wood-cutting situations (none, though pertaining to saw-mill type work).

* These should be, however, universal "shoulds":
1. Proper protective gear (ALWAYS, EVERY TIME when intending on firing up a saw!);
2. Bars and chains in sound condition (no hard kinks in chains, no bent bars [or bad nose gears], no mushroomed bar tracks [ought to be filing as necessary]);
3. A Sthil chain sharpener as has been mentioned several times in this thread;
4. Proper escape routes;
5. Wedges and hammer/sledge (essential for felling, and good to have when you get your bar stuck [I'm a LOT better and NOT doing this now]).

My chainsaw work is almost all about cutting for firewood (for personal use): currently averaging about 5 cords for a heating season- I need to cut, on average, 5 cords of firewood a year, but I don't get around to doing so every year in which case I might have to do about 10 cords. Felling is infrequent, though from time to time I have that need. Trees are primarily Big Leaf Maple and Alder: then Hemlock; have some Fir but I won't touch it. I tend to allow Mother Nature to do my felling: felling is a very dangerous operation- I've been up in clumps of Maple felling multiple trunks- it's got all the feel of driving a big fuel truck on a road with heavy traffic and a bunch of motorists tossing cigarette butts out their windows... I've read a bit and watched a bit.

My wood can be wet or dry. Those saying that one shouldn't require much use of dogs isn't cutting dried/hard Maple! But, yes, in general, a saw should pull itself into the wood (chain digging in and doing what it's supposed to do).

For me, wood can be standing or down. BOTH situations are likely in places in which there's a lot of brush and tree debris (you should see the mess of a huge, 5 1/2' dia, Cottonwood made that recently crashed down on my property!). This is where you ensure that you make your working environment safe by clearing around the area, concentrating on ensuring that you can move your feet around w/o getting tangled up. When a tree is down, and especially twisty ones with a lot of branches, such as my Maples, limbing work is really a LOT of work- big saws are not your friend here as you amble though such; but, too small a saw and you're going to be spending a lot more time- longer cutting times means more time for something to go wrong, not to mention flat out taking longer. There's a fine balance here. And the type/condition of the wood can dictate what saw is optimal: I like to use my Sthil 192 for limbing smaller and softer wood like Alder.

More equipment means more stuff to keep maintained, more parts to stock (or not- discovering that you're dead in the water because you thought you had THAT part for that saw, but you didn't). I have only TWO saws. I've already noted that I have a Sthil 192. And now on to my main, "compromise" saw...

Given my above notes on what I cut, the saw that I came up with is a Husky 562xp, woods ported. I run an 18" bar and chain: I'm not tall, so bending over is a bit less problematic- longer bars allow you to bend over less. I've got a 24" bar but that is only used in rare occasions (I know I'll have to use it on that huge Cottonwood that recently came down). I've read of folks running as big as a 34"/36" bar on one of these, but I dunno about that. 18" bar handles 90+% of everything I do. If I only had one saw this is the only one I'd need.

As to how to know if a chain is sharp or not... Look at the wood chips it's throwing, or not! If you ain't tossing chips then cutters are dull and or the rakers are too tall (keeping the cutters from getting into the wood and biting). And look at the cuts. Imbalanced side-to-side sharpening results in scalloped cuts, and scalloping will bind the bar and chain in wood, especially with larger diameter stuff. The Sthil sharpener does very well in sharpening cutters and managing the raker height, but it cannot do anything about keeping a person from over-sharping/under-sharpening one side of the chain. Rectify by sharpening up just one side of the chain.

A loose chain can bind on the bar if you get some "english" going on in your cut- perpendicular forces against the chain, which causes the bottoms of the links on one side of the chain to bear down harder on the bar (this will tend to also mushroom the bar track). Probably worth mentioning here that a properly operating chain oiler is very important (dry chains mean more heat and more binding).

I struggled with my Sthil MS192 (it was bought with the wife in mind). What I thought was bar and chain issues was operator errors. I found that smaller diameter stuff was easier to bind up by unknowingly twisting the saw (imbalanced sharpening as well), causing the bar to bind in the wood, and causing the chain to also stress against the bar track. IMO, smalller/less powerful saws are less tolerant of optimal operating conditions- chains really have to be sharpened right. You can't brute-force them: although not a good idea, sometimes with a bigger saw you get into situations in which you just have to brute-force it in order to finish [unsafe to stop]). In general, I found out that the MS192 isn't a felling saw- ha ha!

For a smaller saw I like what was suggested above: Echo CS-370. Looks like a nice saw. But OP is looking for a "larger" saw, so unsure that this would fit the bill.

Here's my 562xp being used by an actual pro (former logger- a friend who did this quick job for me- too close to the road and I wasn't comfortable getting up in trees [still ain't, but I now understand how to approach doing it and am able to]; RIP Ralph!)

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Here's my friend back in the day, being an actual logger (NOT firewood saws!):
View attachment 721092

Looks like a busheler cutter judging by the photo.

 

[dflur]

I'm 58 years old and I'm in decent but not excellent physical condition. Average strength I would say.

I am not a chainsaw guy. In other words, I've been using decent consumer Stihl chainsaws all my life but I don't know anything about cc's, chain types, tuning, modding etc etc. Primary use has been yard and property cleanup as well as cutting firewood. I have the proper safety gear and a solid understanding of basic chainsaw safety.

But now I have ordered a saw mill. It should be here in a few weeks. It can handle up to 26" diameter trees.

My primary saw is a Stihl Farm Boss with a 20" bar. I don't remember which one but it is about 3 years old, bought new and was the larger of the Farm Boss saws. In my mind I'm thinking 350 but it might be a 271. I don't even know if the Farm Boss came in a 350. Anyway, it is a decent saw. I suspect it is a consumer level saw with a "farm" designation for marketing.

This weekend I felled several pines that were around 12 inches in diameter. The Farm Boss was okay but not great. I also recently cut up a much larger oak blow down (probably 25ish diameter) and the Farm Boss struggled a lot.

So I am going to be felling larger trees than 12" pines in the near future. My son-in-law will be there most of the time (we'll own the saw mill together). He has a big tuned pro-level Stihl. He has a good bit of felling experience. But I feel like I need a bigger saw for myself. I'm thinking 25-28" bar.

I'm not really looking for brand recommendations.

What I need to know is what I can get for this job that is: 1) Reasonably light. (Again, I'm 58). 2) Appropriately powered for cutting down large but not huge trees. 3) Reasonably safe for my age and experience and 4) What type of chain for my age and experience from a safety vs efficiency standpoint.

Any basic advice much appreciated.

P.S.: Not too interested in modding or tuning a saw.

I have the Stihl 290 farmboss. It cuts real good and doesn't have any problems with a 12 inch tree, pine or hardwood. Be sure the chain is sharp and learn the finer points of sharpening. The saw you have would seem to fit the bill for your needs.

 

[Skeans1]

[mention]N80 [/mention]
Could you throw up a picture of the cutters and depth gauges of the chain? I’m very picky on a chain a fresh off the roll chain cuts like garbage it’s slow vs a ground chain.

As far as a larger saw having ran saws falling timber for around 15 years I’m more of a husky guy but do run Stihl as well the 500i is a great saw. Most of these saws are on the big side of what I’d recommend to most people honestly my smallest saw is pushing it for most it’s a 562 they will pull a 32 when asked to as well as being light.

This is not too long after break in back in 2013 the saw is still running with a 32 a lot of it comes down to chain setup.

 

[kenmbz]

I have an Echo CS-490 for about 4 years and have bucked dozens of Ash and a few Maple/Oak/Poplar.
Still runs fine with 18" bar it is strong, with 20" bar it works well but can bog.

For the bigger stuff I have an Echo CS-620P and 24" bar. It is fast, but a bit heavy.
It is well balanced in the cut, so while cutting it feels no heavier than the 490

Both were significantly cheaper than the Husky's, and about 1/2 the cost or the Stihl (or less!)

Both start easy and the 620 has a decompression button, titanium cover and double bumper spikes.

Was using the 490 for this 34" tree, was a lot of work-switched to the 620 and all done in less time than 2 cuts from the 490.

 

[iptman]

This is off topic and might not be appropriate for this forum but as the OP I'll add my two cents.

Amazon, especially with Prime is cheap, fast and easy. You can almost always find what you need and get it in a day or two with less hassle than driving out to Walmart/Lowes etc.

That's why I used to use Amazon.

I don't anymore. I dropped Prime and rarely order from them now. Why? Because:

1) They import too much Chinese stuff that is non functional, junk, unreliable and/ or that is a direct rip off of someone else's product.
2) They destroy local business
3) They actively reflect and endorse political and social issues that I do not agree with or simply just don't want to hear about when I'm shopping for dental floss.

But more importantly I have found that I can spend a few minutes more and buy a lot of stuff directly from the maker of the stuff for only a little more money....and here is the kicker....often for less.

Case in point. I wanted to get my son-in-law a Spencer's logger's tape from U.S. Tape. It was less buying directly from them and shipping was free with my purchase. It took maybe a minute longer than buying from Amazon.

I also try to buy local as much as possible with merchants I know and trust. Buying from the big box stores is no better than buying from Amazon.

I think Americans in general need to be better consumers. We're too lazy though. I'm actively trying to do better and I think everyone should avoid doing business with companies who publicly do not share their values......what ever those values may be.

Just my opinion.

Well said. We definitely need more people with the courage of their convictions. I bailed on Amazon in April of 2020 when I noticed all the deliveries from them came from random 1099 contractors and their personal vehicles. I don't want non-background checked people driving up my driveway scoping out my property or seeing my kids playing in the yard. Since Amazon has no way of specifying delivery from FedEx/UPS/USPS we just quit them altogether. I also have a suspicion my shed break in that happened around the same time was directly or indirectly attributable to one of these random delivery drivers. We will use Walmart.com since they don't have their own drivers so deliveries come from normal channels. We also stopped shopping at the local Giant grocery store when they started posting the race/gender/sexual preference of the owners of all the products' companies right on the shelf, of course omitting white straight males (obviously this can be deduced). I'm not playing those overtly racist balkanization games. Now we drive 15 minutes to Wegmans for groceries instead of 2 minutes to Giant.

Back to chainsaws. Do you have a Stihl dealer that will let you take a saw off the shelf and start it out back, hold it and get a feel for its weight and balance? I bought my 462 and 261 at a local hardware store and they allowed me to try out a few saws like that before I chose the ones I bought.

 

[Tbone07]

The issue with the Farm Boss is that when the bar was fully into the tree on the back cut and sometimes the notch cut it would start to bog and I'd have to reposition, etc etc. (The chain was sharp). That is when the smaller saw makes more work.

*That could change. I have 250 acres of woodland. Probably over 100 of which is in planted pines. We have pine beetles and sometimes they'll die in clumps of 4-5 trees. Up until now I couldn't do much with them. Now that I'm getting a saw mill those dead/dying trees make great lumber...if you catch them early enough. But they go from dying to unusable in a shockingly short period of time. So it might be that my usage will go up.

With 250 acres of woodland, and a bandsaw mill. I bet you're gonna find yourself cutting up all sorts of stuff to send through your mill. I know I sure would. If you're going to manage that much property, I would absolutely recommend stepping up to Pro level saws. I don't want to push brands but Stihl is all I'm really familiar with.

For managing our 130 acre farm I bought an MS261 and MS461. The 261 gets ~75% of the time, 461 the rest. I run the 261 with a 20", and the 461 with a 25" Stihl light bar. That combo is perfect for just about everything I need to do. If there's something bigger I need to cut, it can handle a 32".

 

[Deere Dude]

Okay, I'm going to throw a bomb into this discussion. I wasn't going to talk about brands, but what about an Echo? I had a small one that was stolen and it was excellent. Their higher end ones are about 10-15% less than comparable Stihl, within a few ounces of the same weight with similar power. The reason I'm asking is that our local Farmer's Exchange (imagine a feed and seed from the 1930s and run by a local family for 100 years. I have known 3 generations of them)

Other than the wall of new Echo gear in the back you'd think you'd walked into the 1930's in there.

I bought a 620P 60cc Echo over a Stihl 362 about 4 years ago. 3/8" chain.

Both dealers are within 4 miles from home. I really ike the Stihl dealer and go in to chit chat now and then and the Echo dealer just wanted to sell the cheaper 60cc saws he had on the shelf instead to the more pro style saw he would have to order.

The 620P has compression release which is great, saw was quite a bit cheaper, doesn't seem to heavy. I can run a 27" bar but I just wanted a 20" bar. I ordered it from Arlington Equipment in Indiana I think. I took it out of the box 3 days later, put gas in and went to work. Never readjusted anything and runs as smooth as new. I maybe cut 30 cords of wood so far, oak up to 26" rounds and it never slows down. Of course I make sure chains are sharp.

I also have a 50cc 026 Stihl, 55cc John Deere which is a rebranded Echo, and a couple smaller ones. I would not hesitate buying another 620p. I always grab for the 620p for everything as it just makes cutting easy, in my view.

 

[fruitcakesa]

Best advice I've seen on this thread was the wedges. The saw is most likely bogging down because of binding. There are some good YouTube videos of professionals explaining how to do it. I am just a couple of years younger than you and have back problems. My Echo 58v 16" bar is a champ and can deal with most issues up to about 24". Add me to those recommending you let SIL do the big felling. No need to buy another big saw if he has one anyway.

When bucking logs I start my cut and when clear of the chain drive a wedge in the kerf to avoid pinching.
When felling trees I always stick in a wedge or two just in case.
Cheap insurance to avoid a stuck saw.
I have more than once had to remove the powerhead and leave the bar stuck in a cut to fetch wedges or tractor in order to remove the bar.

 

[N80]

I have used wedges (wooden) in the past for felling larger stuff. But that was a long time ago. Don't have any now. Expecting some in my stocking for Christmas.

As far as brands, I have no experience with Husqvarna. Other than the one little Echo everything else has been Stihl including blowers, pro string trimmers etc.

I do not like the inability to get Stihl parts and supplies on line from Stihl. Fortunately Stihl 'dealers' are popping up around town. One a at John Deere place, one at an Ace Hardware and I was in Northern Tool today and they have a couple of isles of Stihl stuff so getting stuff locally has become easier. While I was at Northern Tool I found a Stihl chain for my Farm Boss. It said $37 on the shelf (which is too high in my opinion). Got to check out and the clerk said it was $80. I said that can't be possible. He checked on his computer and insisted it was $80. Needless to say I did not buy it.

None of these local places has parts for older Stihl gear but at the Ace they will order it and are helpful but that is a pain. Stihl needs to get with the times and offer direct on line parts sales.