barton174
ArboristSite Guru
OK, so here's the deal. My Grandpa owns and lives on the family tree farm, where he retired to, about the time I was born (1980). He is currently 84 years old, and while he could work me into the ground 5 years ago, that's not the case, now. He's not leaving this farm any way but in a box, and he's going to do "farm work" until he does. Most of his cutting is done with the little echo top-handle saws on the 3 and 4-wheelers, and the Husky 351 on the tractor or whatever he throws it in. However, when there's something that needs cut, that's bigger than the 351 wants, he gets out the old Deere 80EV, sans the optional chain brake. He's also not nearly as strong as he was, or has the reflexes that he had, or quite the coordination, awareness, and cognitive ability.
We can't and won't take the saws away from him, but the 80EV in particular is somewhat concerning, all around. He's also notoriously cheap, especially on low-use kind of stuff like this, so the plan is that I just get another comparable saw and sort of "trade" him for the old Deere (i.e. put it in my barn, so he doesn't use the 19lb saw with no chain brake instead of the newer saw). I ran this saw last weekend during youth deer season, and it runs pretty well, but while it's 78cc, it's obviously a slow, torquey kind of power. Even before the muffler mod, my 371xp cuts quite a bit faster.
So TL;DR, what's a saw that will pull a 24" bar, that's kind of similar in power/speed to the old 80EV, but that's lighter and has a chain brake, and is reliable? Also, since I'm funding this, I'd like it to be reasonably low buck! Because of the cognitive stuff, working similar to a Husky is preferable.
365XP? 262XP? 6400? 272XP? 371/372?
Is a 357 / 359 in the same league, power and bar length-wise?
Thanks,
Mike
We can't and won't take the saws away from him, but the 80EV in particular is somewhat concerning, all around. He's also notoriously cheap, especially on low-use kind of stuff like this, so the plan is that I just get another comparable saw and sort of "trade" him for the old Deere (i.e. put it in my barn, so he doesn't use the 19lb saw with no chain brake instead of the newer saw). I ran this saw last weekend during youth deer season, and it runs pretty well, but while it's 78cc, it's obviously a slow, torquey kind of power. Even before the muffler mod, my 371xp cuts quite a bit faster.
So TL;DR, what's a saw that will pull a 24" bar, that's kind of similar in power/speed to the old 80EV, but that's lighter and has a chain brake, and is reliable? Also, since I'm funding this, I'd like it to be reasonably low buck! Because of the cognitive stuff, working similar to a Husky is preferable.
365XP? 262XP? 6400? 272XP? 371/372?
Is a 357 / 359 in the same league, power and bar length-wise?
Thanks,
Mike