OK, Im getting out my big spoon and stirring the pot............

I buy a new chainsaw every year it seems... they quit working and its more expensive to repair than to replace..
in the last few years Ive chewed thru 3 TSC/Orschelins Poulan's, and my second 51cc craftsman just died..running great, stalled out is now DOS( dead on scene)...and yes, I keep them oiled, and my chains sharp( keep 3 on hand)
getting tired of the cheap TSC/Ebay crap Ive been buying, so......

whats a good general purpose saw, that wont run me several hundred $$ to buy, and will work for everything from pruning the larger branches of my fruit trees, to felling cedars in the pasture, cutting firewood and dropping some larger trees, 24-30 inch, as I clean out fence lines?

Let the discussions begin.....

 

This is how we stir the pot, stir the pot, stir the pot!

I'm going to get the 62CC XP Husky if I can get my 288's sold for a decent amount. There's no way I'd get anything smaller from them, too dang heavy.
I like my little 258 Stihl. Just don't use a lot of ethanol in it.
Ethanol could be your biggest problem. I want to try using avgas, have had good luck with the canned fuel.
Echo makes a good machine. It doesn't seem to turn as fast but has more torque.
I've heard Dolmar makes an excellent saw, but have never seen one.
They've all got their good points and bad.
You're not going to get a quality saw without spending some money. But you probably knew that.

 

My main complaint with Husqvarna's is that the only dealer in our area is in Sterling. That's about 72 miles RT from my place.
That's a long way to drive to pick up something or get warranty work done.
I still haven't gotten a replacement for my Stihl 032 that got stolen. I took such good care of that saw.
I am thinking of getting a Poulan only because Home Depot sells them and they have a great return policy if I don't like it.

I have a little MS250 that I always keep in the truck. Alaska has no ethanol so I have no fuel problems even if its in the tank for many months.
When in CA, if I use ethanol fuel it has to be brand new. If I try to use mix that is a couple of weeks old it will barely run.
There are a few places in CA that sell non Ethanol fuel but it is close to 7 bucks a gallon. It is always 91 or 93 octane.

I would think getting non-ethanol fuel in your area would be easier but it probably isn't much cheaper.

 

Chris, you know better. It doesn't matter if we're talking about saws or any other tool, you get what you pay for. If you don't want to spend 'a few hundred dollars' for it, you're going to get what you've been getting in the past. Stihl, Husky, Echo and Dolmar make quality products, altho they all have their 'consumer' line which is light, cheap and not made to withstand any kind of abuse or neglect. They're throw-away tools, plain and simple. If you had the opportunity to take some of these saws apart, you'd be amazed that they even run. That's why I was so surprised yesterday when I took apart a so-called 'pro' saw made by Stihl. Unlubricated, exposed plastic gears was not something I was expecting to see, even from Stihl.

 

Shindawia makes a good saw but as stated stay away from ethonal fuel around here it cost .20 cents above regular ethonal fuel.

My .02

 

Rarely did I need a chain saw so I bought a Poulan because of the price. So far, it is serving me quite well at the cabin. I'm cutting up trees that are a foot in diameter.

 

Get a "pro" series in husky or stilh and it will last you your lifetime. With the amount you can spend on garbage saws every few years a real saw is the way to go.. Run premium fuel only and stabilizer only too...
If your going to buy online used a rancher 55 sounds perfect for you..

 

Chris, NE- stir the pot is exactly what I was thinking with da janitor around....

I have four Stihl saws, all over five years- two are pro level. ethanol is only fuel we have unless we hit a water fuel station for twice the amount, ain't happening....

pinched between bulldozer tracks, dropped off the cliffs, off the ladders, run over by everything, even deer. hubby is very rough on equipment, hence multiple saws, I won't let him touch my 6 lb. saw. just dropped off an 024 cause we get free spring inspections from the Agway here....

if you take care of your own stuff- stihl. very adaptable, easy to set idle n high speed. thermo plastics for long time usage, you will get tired before they do.

yeah, I pick on chaikwa, but for me: too heavy saw with husky, too much dealer need to solve a problem, not the same operation when hot which affects the pull n start operation. chain binds on the stringy trees like a wet hemlock. a little too high maintenance for me when out in the woods, away from my shop/barn. kinda like chaikwa I guesss.... but he IS cheaper.

 

Stay away from that heavy (&*&)(&^(*&^*^%*^%*&^)(* POS! I'd buy something smaller first. My little 258 will cut alongside that rancher all day- actually, longer, because you're not worn out so fast. After running that little Stihl, the rancher is a very big disappointment.
There' 2 places in McCook with sober gas, one in Cambridge, one in Curtis, 25 miles each way, Bartley and Indianola both have drunk gas, 13 miles. Sober gas costs about another 20 cents here as well.
It's a 50 mile round trip for me to get much more than fuel, soda, crappy fast food pizza, or bar food.
I want to try avgas because it's got a really long shelf life, or so I've been told. As long as I don't have to go out of the way to get it.

 

The best way to go if you have a forest is a few different saws...

That said we use 2 larger Husky's, a rancher 55 and whatever the next size up is, IIRC a 460 for the bigger stuff and a stihl 021 for the smaller chores.

Dad also has an old craftsman that just won't die and always runs strong so we have kept it, and we also had an old echo that finally died a while back which we used for years...

Buy a good one, put good properly mixed fuel in it and run heck out of it and you should be good.

 

Y'know, reading thru these replies has made me realize why Stihl is so popular. No, REALLY. All sarcasm aside. It's the societal norm. Look at our trucks now; quiet, light-weight, rides 'nice', everything is modular in terms of repairs. For example, you can't just service a wheel bearing anymore, you have to replace the whole unit bearing when it goes bad way before a greaseable bearing would. Everything is based upon what is convenient for the owner, not what will last a long time. This is the way pro saws have gone in recent years too. The cheap ones like Craftsman, Poulan and the like are throw away's for those people that want even MORE convenience. No servicing is even thought about when purchasing these because it only gets used once a year or so. When it breaks, just throw it away and get a new one, but complain about how it didn't last. Kinda like the old Yugo's or Fiesta's.
I know Heidi and I go back and forth about the Stihl/Husky comparison, but it makes sense and she hit the nail right on the head when she stated how light they are, how they can be dropped, run over and otherwise abused. It ties in with what I've been seeing on the chainsaw forums regarding parts availability too. Seems like everyone is always looking for used parts, and for ALL the makes, not just Stihl. People just don't care how they treat their equipment or about the way something is put together anymore, but rather how convenient it is to use as well as replace. It used to be that a man was as proud of his tools as he was the product he produced. He'd NEVER let something happen to a quality tool. Now? Not so much anymore.
So keeping all this in mind, it probably doesn't really matter what saw you end up with, you're going to spend the same amount in the long run, either in parts and/or replacement costs for a cheapy, or in initial purchase price for something that will last a little longer. Maybe.

 

ok, heres my thoughts.

1. what are you doing to kill a chainsaw in a year?
2. how often are you using the saw?
3. what are you currently buying?

 

This is the one I grew up with.....it doesn't care a hoot about ethanol or bar oil, all it needs is ambition

 

I always carry an ax and a chainsaw or K12 to a roof when we need to open them up. The reason for the ax? Because no matter what, it always starts!

We use jonsered for vent saws, husky now owns them. Been super reliable. Stihl is a good saw but we can never get them started in the cold. I have an xp360 that has been a great saw.

 

Well, since they don't make the old LOMBARD saws anymore, I run Stihls. I suppose I could run Huskys, but the plastic just didn't sit well with me.

I bought a used 028 Magnum, and it gets abused, stays in the truck 24/7, has always had ethanol blend fuel, all you can get in Illinois, and has always started on the first or second pull.

I don't do 40 million cords a year, but when I drag it out, it cuts until I collapse.... It hasn't failed me yet. Fair warning, this is an older model, I can't say if the new ones are built as well.