Choosing a saw for high altitude

[ken morgan]

I know nothing about Stihl saws (except that I absolutely do not want one, so I do not care about them), but I DO live over 7000 feet up, so I have some experience with the altitude.

I do not think you should worry too much about the limiter caps on current saws, every single one of them must have a way to remove the limiters and properly tune the machine. I do not think I will ever want a saw that thinks it can do this itself - just more over-priced, complicated and unneeded crap. Any decent dealer should be able to quickly and easily do this for you, and if you find one so stupid that he claims it is not needed, well . . . they ain't one of the decent ones!

My favorite mid-size saw that is also great at high altitude is the Echo 590/600/620 (all pretty much the same saw). The limiter caps are very easy to remove, neither the engine nor the exhaust needs modification (IMHO), and the saw is easy to tune for anyone with basic competence. Although I dearly love my CS-590, I would recommend the CS-620 instead for altitude.

The CS-590 has a somewhat unique carb that includes a combined high-speed carb circuit that utilizes both a typical H tuning screw AND a fixed bypass circuit that prevents some idiot from leaning out the saw so bad it burns up. Unfortunately, at 7,400 or higher, that fixed bypass circuit actually prevents you from leaning out the saw enough; I can get very close to the specified WOT RPM, but not quite. I think it is totally fine for 7000-8000 feet, but I wonder if it would be acceptable at 9000? I have not tried it that high, so I can only wonder. The CS-620 is a 'pro' version of the same saw, and one of the very minor changes to it is a different carburetor. That might justify the additional cost for real high-altitude use.

EDIT: a general apology to all for replying to this ANCIENT thread - I do not like to necro-post, but I did not notice the original dates. I sure wish they were more obvious on this forum!

Zombie thread alert!!
Damn...8 years, thats a good one...

 

[Mauser]

Hey, I wasn't the first one to kick that corpse, just the only one to acknowledge it. There were three necroposters above me - Go quote somebody else!

 

[motolife313]

I think you will be at about 20 percent power loss at that elevation, so u need more displacement or it will be slow cutting. Be easier on a big saw then pump up a little saw and starve it of air

 

[ken morgan]

Hey, I wasn't the first one to kick that corpse, just the only one to acknowledge it. There were three necroposters above me - Go quote somebody else!

Just laughing with you Bro!..... Did the same thing occasionally on some of the older car forums I frequent.... Imagine resurrecting a 8 year old thread on the RX7 club forum....(in 2006)(so the thread was from 98 or so.. ) that place was populated with pimple faced denizens of 4 chan and /b/ in their infancy.... used to get hammered all the time for it.

 

[Mauser]

I was laughing too - couldn't you hear it in my typing?

I generally don't like stupid little pictures in my text, so I always enable the hear-o-type feature on my keyboard so that no one will take me too seriously!

 

[Ted Jenkins]

The biggest cubic displacement allong with highest compression and advanced timing will get at least some of the lost HP back. The saw will not perform at lower ellvations though. Thanks

 

[BannonS]

Update: the 250 is crap at 9300’ , however, I traded for the 261, with a 20” chain, a pound lighter somehow, and the “intellicarb”. I was very weary of this feature, but I will tell you it works amazingly. So far anyway. The 261 rocks, and will adjust itself and rip through some wood at 9300’ anyway. Now to learn how to use the harbor freight sharpener.