PTO Gen, chainsaw, or ...

[Rob-D]

Here’s my take on chain saws.

I have helped my friends with cheap ones and you may have a good one but what I’ve found is they don’t hold up especially well. My brother ran them when he was using wood to heat and they were always apart.

I bought a small Stihl about 10 years ago and it still runs perfectly. You get what you pay for. So let’s say I bought a cheap saw at Wally mart 10 years ago. My saw cost me just under 200 bucks so maybe the cheap saw cost 125. Well ten years later that works out to $7.50 a year and I’m still using it and it is still running the way it did when I bought it.

Just a little while ago I bought a new Husky and it cost me about $325.00. I could have gone to Wally mart and got a cheap saw for 150 or maybe even less but it still only amounts to 10 or 15 bucks a year at the most. If you’ve had a Husky and a cheap saw then you’ve had the opportunity to decide first hand. The loggers around here and there are a few, all use Husky and Stihl. They do it everyday all day long, what does that tell you?

 

[EddieWalker]

Husqavarna is the number one selling chain saw in the world. Echo and Stihl are the next big sellers and all three are top rated. There's no question about it, they are good saws.

Poulin makes several lines of equipment from the Walmart low dollar models to there top of the line, Poulon Pro models. I have two Poulon Pro's and have had a Husky chainsaw. Both chainsaws were 20 inch bars of similar size engines and displacement. One was allot cheaper than the other, they both have the same power, but the cheaper one has always started easier and has lasted about five times longer than the Husky did.

We can all buy a lemon from time to time and I'm sure that's just what happened to me. Unfortunatley, I didn't like the way I was treated by the Husky dealer and the entire experience left me with a bad taste. I wont' buy another Husky, but I won't bad mouth it either, I'm sure they are great saws and most people will be overjoyed at having one.

A friend had a similar sized Stihl when I had the Husky and we cut allot of oak together. Both saws performed the same in that they ran all day and cut wood all day long. Both had to have there chains replaced several times due to the constant use. The Stihl cost quite a bit more than the Husky did and I thought for the money, the Husky was a better deal.

When my Husky died, I looked at Echo, but didn't want to spend the money. Stihl was more than I wanted to spend too. I bought a Poulon called a "Wild Thing" from Home Depot and hated it. After the first tank of fuel went through it, I couldn't get it to start again. I took it back to Home Depot and got a full refund. They said they get allot of them back. My dad was visiting and he talked me into the Poulon Pro that we saw in Lowes.

It's been a great saw and I have no regrets. It's why I recomend it to others, even though most will recomend the Stihl or Husky. I don't know if those who recomend the more expensive saws have any experience with the Poulon Pro, but for allot less money, I think it's a much better deal.

If you were doing this for a living, I wouldn't recomend this saw for the simple reason that I don't know enough about all the different brands out there.

Good luck,
Eddie

 

[Glowplug]

I had a Poulan Pro from Lowe's. It performed well. Sometimes difficult to start, but when any gas chainsaw has set for a while that tends to happen. Someone stole it from the jobsite when I was building my home. That's when I bought my Stihl 290. I thought, "Good grief, $350 for a mid-level chainsaw?!?!" But let me tell you. . .that is one nice piece of equipment. I often dream about buying the Stihl 390 but $550 is a bit steep. And I'm not a logger. I feel that Husky, ECHO, Stihl, and even Poulan are all good reputable chainsaws. Everyone has their preference. I like orange chainsaws just like orange tractors. And no, I'm not talking about Husqvarna and Kioti!!

BTW, I was not using my chainsaw to build my home. I was using it to clear downed trees on the property. I left the homebuilding up to the contractors.

 

[Highbeam]

"I bought a Poulon called a "Wild Thing" from Home Depot and hated it. After the first tank of fuel went through it, I couldn't get it to start again. I took it back to Home Depot and got a full refund. They said they get allot of them back."

Hmmmm, one day chainsaw rental is 25-50$ maybe. Buy a saw, run it, and then return it a week later for free? Sounds like a scam. Not that Eddie scammed the system but the frequency of the returns might be partially due to the borrowers.

You haven't lived until you've had to use your backup saw to cut your regular saw out of a pinched tree and then used your ball hitch to hammer the saw bar straight enough to run a chain.

 

[Egon]

You haven't lived until you've had to use your backup saw to cut your regular saw out of a pinched tree

Then there is the case where the second saw is also firmly imbeded in the tree trunk and its axe time. And when things do move guess what falls on what?

I now have several bars for my saw as my falling skills are still in the very challenged stage!

 

[Rob-D]

You haven't lived until you've had to use your backup saw to cut your regular saw out of a pinched tree and then used your ball hitch to hammer the saw bar straight enough to run a chain.

I would liked to have been a fly on the side of your tractor for that event!

 

[shvl73]

"I bought a Poulon called a "Wild Thing" from Home Depot and hated it. After the first tank of fuel went through it, I couldn't get it to start again. I took it back to Home Depot and got a full refund. They said they get allot of them back."

Hmmmm, one day chainsaw rental is 25-50$ maybe. Buy a saw, run it, and then return it a week later for free? Sounds like a scam. Not that Eddie scammed the system but the frequency of the returns might be partially due to the borrowers.

I think some of the box stores get more than a few "borrowers".
Either Eddie got a lemon or I got a gem but, mine runs well, idles nice and starts fairly easily considering I leave the old gas in it in the off season.
I can remember my dads old pioneer saw and how often he'd be messing with it. This cheapie works real well for me.

 

[MarkV]

Hey Bob, now that you have gotten all this good advice and decided on a medium priced chain saw I have an idea for the money you saved. Spend an extra $100 and get some chain saw safety chaps and a helmet to go along with that saw. A search on the Safety Forum will pull up some scary stories about how quickly a chain saw can bite you. Have a look at www.Baileysonline.com to see some safety equipment and a bunch of other cool stuff.

MarkV

 

[EddieWalker]

You haven't lived until you've had to use your backup saw to cut your regular saw out of a pinched tree and then used your ball hitch to hammer the saw bar straight enough to run a chain.

My "other" chainsaw is a Poulon Pro also. But it's the one on the 12 foot pole that you use for trimming branches up high. In an emergancy, it will cut out your regular chain saw when the tree turns the wrong way and pins the bar.

For safter gear and equipment, you can also check Northern Tool. Lowes has them here too, but Northern was cheaper. I don't know about other souces.

Eddie

 

[charlz]

I spent a couple of my highschool years running a firewood business. I used a Stihl 041 with a 28" bar. Best saw I have ever used, gas, oil, clean the filter, change the chains when they are worn out and thats it. I only went through one bar in probably thousands of hours of use (cutting in a log pile, something you are not supposed to be doing anyway). One trick to keep your bar sprocket lasting longer is there is usually a little pinhold right by the center of the sprocket. There is a special grease gun tip that lets you pump a little grease in there to lube the sprocket.

I imagine the new plastic saws are toast if you drop a tree on them but I dropped a few trees on my old Stihl and after a little TIG welding it was good to go

A maul/sledge and splitting wedges will get your bar unstuck while felling trees... provided the tree is of large enough diameter that the wedge won't hit your bar when you drive it in. If you pay attention to the weight, lean and movement of the tree while making your face cuts during felling you can avoid a lot of stuck bars. That said I've ran out of wedges more than once and had to resort to the axe and I've felled thousands of trees.


As for the original topic, I would go for a gas saw, an electric chainsaw might be fine in the yard but dragging cords through brush etc. would really suck. On 20 acres you might be using the gas saw more than you think just because it is portable.

Not having my old saw anymore I recently had to purchase a saw to clean up some blow-down. I did some research and selected the Husky 152 which was onsale for $179 (if I recall correctly). Stihl or Husky low-end saws are about the same, lots of plastic parts and will not hold up to hard daily use. Stihl does not allow their saws to be sold in box stores or online... one of the things that makes their saws more expensive.

The only things I don't like about the Husky are: 1)it seems to use about 2 tanks of bar oil per tank of gas, my old Stihl was the other way around, you knew that at the end of the second tank it was time to fill up the bar oil, this way you never ran out and risked burning up your bar. 2)the bar oil leaks out while in storage, you have to place it somewhere you don't care gets covered with bar oil or put cardboard or something under it.

The saw has surprised me with its power and cutting ability, its perfect for a small acreage owner like me who does not process firewood etc. I do only have about 8 hours on it though. The saw does not come with log teeth which I thought I would really miss but it when through 14" stuff good enough to not need them. There are mounting points there and it looks like you could get a set of teeth, probably from the next size saw up and install them.

Charles