There is only ONE type of chainsaw out there. STIHL! All the rest are just wanna-bes. No offense if you have one of them!

All of our chainsaws, blowers and hedgetrimmers are STIHL. We have 3-020T, 2-026, 2-046 MAGNUMS, 2-066 Magnums and 2-064. Yes, a tree company that has TWO 064s still in USE! We also have 2 of those power pole saws that BuiltTough mentioned. They are soooo sweet! They are excellent when there are branches just out of reach when climbing or in the bucket truck. Also good for when the branch is just up the tree about 10 feet. Makes it so you don't have to climb EVERY TREE. We also have a couple hand leaf blowers and a backpack blower. As well as a couple hedgetrimmers too.

All of this equipment is used daily in the spring summer and fall. All these pieces of equipment will last at least 5 years without any major problems. We only replace stuff once we start having major problems. If it's a small repair we will do it ourselves.

Even the consumer grade STIHL saws are EXCELLENT. We had 3 039 that we used for 4 years. We put a 3 foot bar on one of them. We bought them for $500 each CANADIAN.

STIHL Rocks!

-Matt

 

Have you used one of the Competition saws?

They really put the smaller saws in their place.

 

I have used the Echo before. Not really a lot of power like I am used to in the STIHL. The Husquvarna has the power but it "FEELS" cheap. I have heard that the Husky doesn't have quite as good of a filter system as the STIHL. In the summer our saws are cleaned at least once a week. There is nothing out there that can beat the 020T (or as they call it now, the MS 200T) for a climber/bucket operator saw!

-Matt

 

What do you mean by competition saw. A hot saw with the muffler sticking in the air?

 

I don't know the specifics of our saws, they were handbuilt, with a stroked Stihl motor, wider bar and some kind of fancy chain that had two teeth instead of one for each link.

I know they did 5.4 second disk stacks, and thats pretty fast.


Thats 5.4 seconds through two 28 inch diameter hardwood logs.

 

All this talk makes me think... it's been too long since I've cut down a tree! You always need more firewood, right?

 

MATT- i have to agree the Echos lack power, but for 200 bucks how could i go wrong ? they take a hell of a beating too... my echo didnt exactly connect with my clip on my climbing harness, fell 25 feet. i picked it up, fired up with one or 2 pulls, no damage.

my climber dropped his Echos a dozen times and he swears they run better everytime. he uses a Stihl 020t now, so does my brother. great saws.

my first husky was a 20" 265 that was sorta underpowered. carburator was set wrong from the factory, and it blew up. well i had to trade it in towards another husky so i got a 24" 365. i personally love the saw, has the same power as my brothers stihl 066 and half the weight.

 

> can put on a Dremel and sharpen with it

I have found that to be okay to get a chain started. But, a hand file does a much better job, just takes 2 hours for a 28" inch bar.

 

Your kidding right? I could sharpen my 36" in about 5-10 minutes. Also though I use skip chains. Its about 1/3 less teeth.

 

That's the difference between a professional and an amateur. I can do a 36" bar in about the same time. Although, you know that as soon as you get a nice sharp chain and dig into a piece of wood, there is a nice rusty nail or stake waiting for you!

-Matt

 

Dude, I am laughing alot right now. I cant even begin to tell you all the times that has happened. How about the rock that has been wedged in the crotch, or the fence wrapped around the tree but has been grown over, or the bottle, or the concrete to fill the rot spot ( thats Shigo's great brainstorm, did he ever think about when its time to cut the tree down? Idiot..........I cant be too harsh though I have only heard that it was him from a friend). Way too many times I have been the recipient of that disaster and its always with my 066. I think every time I use that thing it gets wacked.
By the way no offense by "dude"

 

i think he was joking when he said it takes 2 hours to sharpen a 28" bar. anyways

yeah... murphys law right?

a few weeks ago i bought 2 brand new chains for my 24" husky.
put on a new chain, cutting a boxelder stump down. fugdin' BRICK in the middle. there went that chain.
7 days later i put the other new chain on my saw. cutting down a cottonwood stump. fugdin' ROCK in this one. those chains were shot before i even got one clean cut, $25.00 per chain.

but, i didnt just throw them away, i sharpened the CRAP out of the chains, took a file to the top, worked fine for a couple weeks.

 

That's the way it works. But if you have a dull saw that is cutting crooked guess what? You won't hit the slightest thing that would dull a chain!

Speaking of things that trees grow around: I quoted this tree to cut it down and grind out the stump. It was a willow tree. Around the bottom of the tree there were about 10 soccer ball sized rocks. No problem I thought, just move them before we grind out the stump. WRONG! We cut down the tree and cut the stump off just above grade. It was about 4 pm in the afternoon (in the middle of summer) and I had to be back in town for a prior engagement. So, everyone left except my dad and my younger brother. They stayed behind to grind down the stump. I quoted the stump for I believe it was $200 because it was in the backyard and I thought there were going to be a few smaller rocks in it. WRONG AGAIN! I think this tree was PLANTED in a whole bunch of rocks and then it grew around it. The stump was about 4 feet across. This thing was FULL of rocks. And I mean soccer ball sized rocks and smaller. My dad ended up having to tell the customer that it was going to take A LOT longer than expected so he would have to charge more and he wasn't sure how much until he was done. They had been sitting on the back porch and saw what was happening so they totally understood and said no problem. Well, long story shorter, my dad and brother didn't get back to the shop until about 10 pm that night! I still haven't heard the end of that from my dad. He had to get the job finished that day because it was 45 minutes out of town and he didn't want to go back again.

-Matt

Cost of replacing the stumper teeth when he got back to the shop: $80
Cost of JUST grinding the stump billed to the customer: $700
Laughing at my dad the next day because he had to stay out there until the job was finished: PRICELESS!

 

We need a 60' cottonwood cut down in our front yard. My dad was quoted $300 just for that. Seems awful high.

 

Stump grinding and taking down a tree are two totally different things. Around here we get about $4-$6 per inch in diameter, root flare to root flare, for stump grinding. I've boiled down tree work to $150 pr hr and thats a fair rate some co.'s get 200. So if all you have to do is box a tree over and chip it up, it could take only 2 hrs with cleanup. Think about what he said $80 pr tooth, what happens if you break 2,3,even 4 teeth because of rocks that you cant see. Also with a 4 ft stump there will be about an entire truck load of mulch left over. To rent a stump grinder is about $200 for a day. They are not cheap, to buy your looking at about 15-20k.