Chainsaw recommendations

[trelane]

New member of the forum. I'm a relative novice with chainsaws, moved to Georgia with an acre of land. I need to take down four trees in the front, none larger than 12". In the wooded back, I want to harvest fallen trees and limbs for firewood. Strictly non-professional.

Budget is around $175. Your recommendations?

 

[hornett22]

maybe used .

try a pawn shop or ebay.a nice stihl 031 can be had for less than that.

 

[BostonBull]

With the budget you have set out, you wont find any GREAT new saws. You will find some DECENT new saws but nothing more.

USED saws can be had for this amount. A used Husky 359, or Used Stihl 025, 029 could be had. They may be in rough shape but its tough on that budget. A good used saw can be had in the 200-250 range.

 

[lees trees]

I recommend a stihl 025 to customers and they don't regret it. better to have a little more than alot less I think $275 or close to it then you don't waste $175 on some cheap saw that wont work next season. read the manual. trust me

 

[computeruser]

Look around, there are deals to be had.

If your trees are truly 12" and smaller, you ought to go buy an Echo CS346, which you can find NIB on eBay for less than your budget price. Pull out the muffler screen and retune, the saw will get its oomph back that way. With a loop of non-safety chain you will have a durable, reliable little machine that is ideal for the homeowner and is actually a solid performer.

Here, in top-handle trim:

There are other options, too, in the way of older saws. I just bought a Husqvarna 154 that runs quite well, for less than your budget amount. It would be way more saw than you need, but is a durable, proven design capable of helping out friends and neighbors with bigger projects, if the need arises.

And also ask around at the local saw shops, OPE dealers, and the like, you might be able to find a killer deal on a NIB New-Old-Stock saw, too. I scored this little guy earlier this year, again for less than your budget amount. It had never so much as seen fuel, and still had its "safe use instructions" tag hanging on the handle. Killer little saw with this 13" Narrow-Kerf bar, great for limbing and smaller trees!

 

[ShoerFast]

Hit up your local Craigslist.org , word search "chainsaw" in the for sale section, cross your fingers and you may get lucky?

Here is the cleanest old-school Stihl 015L , I have seen in a long time for a Buck-20 in the Denver CL.

Back in the day, I think I could sell them for about $139. if I bought 12 at a time.

 

[DGG]

Trelane - Welcome!

You might want to look at the Husky 350. I think it is a good middle of the road homeowners saw for a reasonable price.

I think for a $175 budget, unless you buy a used chainsaw, you are in the Poulan "Wild Thing" chainsaw arena, which is not where I'd want to be, or a very small new saw. I'd rather rent a good saw for the day from a local equipment rental company.

Here's a Baileys link to specs on the Husky 350.

http://store.baileys-online.com/cgi-bin/baileys/840

A 50cc size engine and an 18" bar will handle most things a homeowner is generally gualified to cut on. I would get some safety equipment also. Get this safety equipment before you start the saw. Also remember to get and "read" the chainsaw's instructions as to how to mix fuel, etc. One little trip to the emergency room will make $175 seem like peanuts.

Another option is an electric chainsaw if the light duty cutting will be done close to an electrical outlet. I use mine for quick limbing when I don't want to wake up the neighbors or mess around with fuel. They run about $50-80 dollars and with a sharp chain do a remarkably good job on the smaller stuff.

Will you give us an update on what you decide on?

 

[MrGriz]

If this is more or less a one time thing, you may want to just rent a saw (I can't believe I just typed that ).

Check out your local Home Depot, they have pretty reasonable rental rates; they also sell used rental equipment. Their saws are Makitas, which are really Dolmars in a green dress. Usually the rental equipment is well maintained and not used as much as you might think. In fact, they can look up the rental history and tell you how many rentals and how many total days on rent the saw has seen. They can also tell the number of days it was down for repair and how much was spent on each individual piece of equipment during its life. This might be a good option for you.

Good luck and welcome to the forum.

 

[trelane]

Thanks for the welcome and the feedback.

I guess I'll raise the budget. It's my father's day gift, and I think they want papa around for a while.

I'll start investigating and I'll let you know what I end up with.

 

[straight6jeff]

Don't forget to budget for some PPE. Gloves, ears, hardhat, glasses/screen, boots, chaps.....

 

[johnha]

ditto what Computeruser said, if your budget is $175, check out an Echo CS346 on eBay.

 

[GASoline71]

Just be careful about scam artists on ebay...

There are nice homeowner saws made by Stihl, Husqvarna, and Dolmar... all for under 300 bucks.

Used saws are a crapshoot... especially if you are a novice like you have stated. Sometimes you get a diamond in the ruff... other times a decent lokkin' saw is a POS...

Gary

 

[trelane]

I've been looking and trying different models, mostly Echo and Stihl.

Local HD just put the Echo CS346 on clearance for $219, I came back to this thread and saw two recommendations.

I think I'll head back and pick one up.

Thanks again!

 

[stumpjumper83]

A quick word of advise.

To quote an earlier post, "Pull out the muffler screen and retune, the saw will get its oomph back that way. With a loop of non-safety chain you will have a durable, reliable little machine that is ideal for the homeowner and is actually a solid performer." Here is were I see the issue and possible problem, non saftey chain. For me my 4 saws are income producers, all but one have saftey chains on them. The one that does not is a mid size logger saw that I use for felling big trees and occasional vineer grade stuff where you have to keep ahead of the tree in the cut or they can split and ruin log value. For the occasional user & homeowner saftey chain should be a must. Too many people have been badly injured or killed by chain saws. I'm a part time pro and my climbing and limbing saws wear saftey chain. I think as a whole we here are a good group giving out good info, but we have to be on our toes about what kinda stuff we suggest to people. Not every homeowner is ready to got get a stihl 660 or 880 and do race cutting with it. Also we should probably advocate letting saw tuning be done by professional saw mechanics. Not that it cant be a d.i.t.y. project, but I wouldn't want to give someone info were a slight mistake could ruin their saw or cost major repairs. That is all.

 

[sawinredneck]

For that price, and a new saw, I would look at the Stihl ms170. I think it is one of the better buys in that price range, and for 12" wood, I think it would work very weel for you.