Stihl 044 Bar choices

[ECpirates96]

I recently purchase a lightly used Stihl 044 with a ES 20" bar. What this should work on 80% of my jobs I was wondering what bar lenth combo you would recommend for larger jobs. Most of the bigger trees locally are oak. I am thinking a 28" Stihl ES bar would be a great complement to the 20". Also what chain for this bar? Is a Stihl oilomatic chain any better than Oregan and 3/8 over .325? .50 verses other sizes. I just don't want to make a purchase and it being a leason learned and wanted to pull from the vast experiance here. Thanks

 

[little possum]

Dad runs a 28" reduced weight bar on his 044. Somewhere in the 24-28" range should be good. Most bars are .050 gauge, and you should run 3/8s on the 044. We run mostly Stihl chain, a lot of the semi skip. It is square ground from the factory. Usually hit it with a round file in the woods though.

 

[oscar4883]

24 IMO is a good fit. It would have to be a big tree to not be able to get it with a 24 easily.

 

[PA Plumber]

I think you are on the right track with a 28 incher for the second bar.

I have a 32 incher for the 441 and rarely used it. Most of the time I run a 24".

A 20" bar on a 70 cc saw is a nice firewood set up.

 

[lly_duramax]

I use a 20'' and a 28'' on my 441. I bought the combo from Baileys 28" Oregon Power Match with a loop of full comp 72LGX. I bought a loop of Oregon full skip too just in case. Up until recently a 20'' bar was the longest I have ran. It takes a little getting used to to keep it out of the ground but its not that bad.