Bar length for chainsaw mill 52' or 60' ?

[Rosss]

I have been alaska milling with a 36' bar and now have collected a number of logs that are too wide to mill with that bar.
I am considering what length bar to get.
Most of what I mill and will mill would fit ok with a 48' bar.
There would be some logs that would need a longer bar.

Question; If I get a 60' bar for those quite occasional larger logs will this length bar be usable for milling stuff in the 32'-40' size that I will mostly be working on?

I saw a post on a different venue claiming that a when the bar is too long for the cut and there is lots of bar hanging out the end that the bar bends or twists and that the mills running those bars were eventually wrecked?
Any truth to this?

Thanks in advance for your input.

 

[BobL]

Longer bars won't wreck the mill and they have some pros and cons
They do sag in the middle so they don't always produce straight cuts across the log.
The carry more chain so less power gets to the cut
The chain stay sharper longer but also take longer to sharpen.
They are heavier to tote around and being longer may not suit a tight space.

Ultimately it's up to you.

 

[Rosss]

Longer bars won't wreck the mill and they have some pros and cons
They do sag in the middle so they don't always produce straight cuts across the log.
The carry more chain so less power gets to the cut
The chain stay sharper longer but also take longer to sharpen.
They are heavier to tote around and being longer may not suit a tight space.

Ultimately it's up to you.

Thanks Bob

 

[ML12]

We've got a 36 and a 60. We often wind up using the 60 to get around cool features in the log that we would otherwise have to cut off the fit the mill around (crotches, branches, burls etc). But the rest of the time the 60 is far too long. I'd like to have a 48" bar as that'd do most of the wood around here.