small gas chainsaws...

Recommendations for value and price. Go!

I just purchased a Husqvarna 350 with 18 inch bar. So far this is the best chainsaw I have ever owned.

In the past I have had a few McCulloch 16" and a Stihl. The Husky is a good saw for the money.

Stihl.

Buy used pro grade, West German Stihl comes to mind.

http://www.vminnovations.com/Product_5048/Husqvarna-435-Chainsaw-16-Inch-40-9cc-Refurbished-435-BRC-RB.html

I bought a 10cc bigger version from this place a year ago. No complaints and $179...

Dr. Hess wrote: Stihl.

what he said

Stihl is very good, though not all models are wonderful. There are others as well.

Biggest thing I would say is what are your local dealers? If they are Dolmar, get a Dolmar. Buying what you can get repair parts for quickly and easily is very important with chainsaws. As well the repairs of said chainsaw.

Fueled by Caffeine wrote: http://www.vminnovations.com/Product_5048/Husqvarna-435-Chainsaw-16-Inch-40-9cc-Refurbished-435-BRC-RB.html I bought a 10cc bigger version from this place a year ago. No complaints and $179...

I bought that same saw earlier this year. It's been great for cutting small amounts of firewood and a couple of trees on my property.

I hired a professional tree cutting crew to drop some trees. They came with close to ten large worth of Stihls.

I bought the smallest Stihl with the EZ recoil start this spring for brush and small firewood duty around the house. First time I used it was all day clearing heave brush and small trees. Like Buttah. It then sat for 3 months in my shop untouched. Last week I fired it again in 3 pulls to cut up a small tree. Worked great. I think it was $240 or so...

My big measure of it will be if I can reliably start the thing about 4 times a year without having to rebuild it every other time. I do REALLY like it so far, and the recoil start thing is teh awesomeness.

Husky vs. Stihl is like a Ford vs. Chevy debate. Both make good models and both make overweight low powered pigs. And both make great Pro saw's..

If you want ultra cheap.. Check this out. http://www.arboristsite.com/community/threads/craftsman-professional-redmax-gz400-gz4000-ryobi-10532.85596/

It looks like some badge engineering from craftsman, will give you a highquality saw for little money. Orange paint tax be damned.

You may remember my what Chain saw thread a few months ago. I ended up buying the smallest cheapest Stihl. At first I wondered if I had made a mistake. Then I used it and have been very impressed with it. I can't afford a big Stihl, but if I needed a bigger saw, I would try to find a Makita, Dolmar or Husqvarna. The Huskies aren't what they used to be, but what is?

wbjones wrote:

Dr. Hess wrote: Stihl.

what he said

My dirt bike club bought a couple of cheap Poulans that didn't last a year. The next time saw purchase came up, we bought a couple of cheap Stihls and four years later (when I left the club and moved on to car racing) they were still going strong.

I defense of cheap saws, I have a Poulan "Wild Thing" that has lasted 15 years and several hundred hours of cutting. I have a Poulan Pro I just inherited with no hours on it and it's nicer to use (less vibration).

On the other end I have a big Husqvarna that I picked up at a yardsale and it's super smooth and very powerful. New it would have cost $450 so it depends how much you're going to use the thing. For very little use, poulan pro is good bang for your buck.

I have a big Husq 455 Rancher that I use for just about everything. It goes through wood like you wouldn't believe even with a consumer chain on it. 3 Years of heavy use and it still runs like new - better actually since it took a little time to break in.

Now I'm looking at 16" bar Husq's.

I have friends with Stihls and they all like them a lot. They also like mine. I really don't think you can go wrong is you shop intelligently with either brand. Both makers have soft spots in their lineup.

I bought my first Poulan Pro about 10 years ago...said purchase coincided with the purchase of my first house. I got it as a factory refurb from eBay- IIRC it set me back about 100 bucks or so. New the models were going for nearly double that. 16" bar, 2 cycle, kinda normal sized engine. I used it immediately out of the box to slice up a 70 foot pine tree that had dropped on my property, and periodically after that for firewood and general cleanup. It lasted about 7 years, and then something went wrong with the carburetor, and the shop wanted like 80 bucks to fix it. I went online and lo-and-behold a factory refurb was something like 120 bucks, so I bought as close to the identical saw, so I now have a spare set of blades and bars and whatnots, and the new saw works just as well as the old. Its nothing special, but it works and does what I need it to do around my 3 acre homestead.