"Husqvarna" or "Stihl" What Looks Better ??? These Days.

Arborist Forum

Help Support Arborist Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
i put German oil in Swedish engines.

I hold up a German clearing saw with a Swedish harness.

My chaps are from Sweden but my hard hat is from Germany.

I put German branded blades from Japan on Swedish clearing saws.

And I like to run German chain on Swedish chainsaws.

Except for the harness, I do every single one of those.

Now you're making me think I should check out a Swedish harness. :laugh:
 
The Borg.

20190618_202739-jpg.742613



53757cff-e6af-4cd6-a61f-e351804f2f4c.jpg
 
The latest iteration of Husqy's "Balance XT" harness will make you never want to wear another harness again.

Stihl dealerships don't even understand harnesses for heavy clearing saws, because they sell so few of them. And that is at the distributor level, not even the shop level. They package the 560 CM (23 lbs) with the "Deluxe" harness, because that one costs $5 more than the "Forestry" harness, so a $5 higher price must be better, right?

Yet the "Deluxe" harness does not include a buckling strap across the chest to help better distribute the weight, like any kind of high capacity backpack would. The "Forestry" harness, routinely supplied with the clearing saws in Europe and Canada, does have that cross buckle. Even so, the "Balance XT" is light years ahead of the regular Stihl "Forestry" harness. 23 pounds on your shoulders gets pretty noticeable quite a bit faster than any other way to run an engine that cuts wood.
 
I also wanted to say this about what "looks" good - and this is a problem for both Husqvarna and Stihl, and I hope they are listening:

BLACK EARMUFFS ARE COMPLETELY STUPID!

On a hot summer day, do you reach for an all-black outfit to go outdoors and work in the bright sunshine? Why not?

The last thing I want covered in the color black, is well, any part of my body on a hot day, but especially not my ears, which work a little bit like a radiator on an engine as blood flows through them. Do I want my ears covered in a piece of plastic that absorbs as much heat as it can get?

I would wager that across 1,000,000 hours of chainsaw use, there would be a higher accident rate among people wearing black earmuffs vs people wearing a light colored plastic ear muff.

Orange and Black "look" cool. The color black is the opposite of cool temperatures. As a sawyer heats up, frustration builds, and attentive-ness drops.

Peltor used to sell hardhats with orange plastic ear muffs. Why can't anyone do that today? Because black "looks" cool?

I think the PPE Engineers at Husqy and Stihl ought to put on their PPE and go outside and work a full day running saws in July and August and see how their cool looking hardhats of today feel for an actual user of their equipment.
 
I also wanted to say this about what "looks" good - and this is a problem for both Husqvarna and Stihl, and I hope they are listening:

BLACK EARMUFFS ARE COMPLETELY STUPID!

On a hot summer day, do you reach for an all-black outfit to go outdoors and work in the bright sunshine? Why not?

The last thing I want covered in the color black, is well, any part of my body on a hot day, but especially not my ears, which work a little bit like a radiator on an engine as blood flows through them. Do I want my ears covered in a piece of plastic that absorbs as much heat as it can get?

I would wager that across 1,000,000 hours of chainsaw use, there would be a higher accident rate among people wearing black earmuffs vs people wearing a light colored plastic ear muff.

Orange and Black "look" cool. The color black is the opposite of cool temperatures. As a sawyer heats up, frustration builds, and attentive-ness drops.

Peltor used to sell hardhats with orange plastic ear muffs. Why can't anyone do that today? Because black "looks" cool?

I think the PPE Engineers at Husqy and Stihl ought to put on their PPE and go outside and work a full day running saws in July and August and see how their cool looking hardhats of today feel for an actual user of their equipment.

Labonville sells a hardhat with orange muffs. They sell just the muffs that attach to the hard hat.
 
We had a nice one. It was badly damaged on the 30 Nov 18 7.2 earthquake. Was sitting on top of a display unit for small engine parts and it fell around 7ft. Broke the rear handle off and a few other bits.
Lost a few other saws as well.

You in Alaska? I was maybe 60 mile south of epicenter. I've felt quakes, plenty living in CA up until 2016. Nov 30 I thought I was having a damn stroke. Old ladies running out of there houses screaming. Crazy day.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top