Preference of climbing saws?

[tnttreeman]

Yep, the whole side cover comes off with the adjuster, no bar tool required. That's my favorite part of the saw.

 

[Stumper]

Jim, That is another reason I chose the 019T- The toolless cahin tensioning system option. It adds a couple of ozs but what a joy for the lone tree guy in the top of a tree who derails a chain

 

[CODIT]

I've been checking into the new Husky 338xpc what is being called "The California Special" E-mailed Bailey's week back and this is a climbing saw built on a 45cc frame. Wt. is right at 8 lbs.and approximately 2.7 hp. Interesting at best with a little beef of a small ground saw and the lighter wt. of a climber. I have not heard any feed back on this one yet. It is a brand new saw just wondering if any one had tried one out. Otherwise agree with the Echo and Stihl talk so far.

 

[Ryan Willock]

I would like to see how the 338 cali holds up as I am very interested in the possiblity of getting one to replace my 191T.

 

[greg carr]

my experience with the husky line of climbing saws has been horrible. they breakdown too much.the plastic cracks easily,the spark plug cover falls off usually on the first climb and its no fun getting that shock,the spark plug wire breaks( and it cost half the price of the saw to fix.WAY too expensive.I've tried the stihls but they just dont feel right in my hand,nothing against them though.I use the echo cs3000 now and its been great.cheap,cheap parts,easy to fix and I havent had any problem with lack of power.
But come on dont we all still have the old green poulan with no chainbrake and the exposed muffler somewhere in the garage?You could chock a truck with those things!I've still got a few burn marks from those.

 

[rahtreelimbs]

The Husky 334/335/338 line are exactly the opposite of all their other saws. Bottom line the 334/335/338 suck!!!

 

[greg carr]

OH for ground saws all I have are Huskys.used to use Jonsereds but we couldnt find anyone to fix them in our area( that was reliable)
The huskys run great in the winter here 2-3 pulls and your good to go

 

[CODIT]

Greg I love the Jonsereds! Great saws and Ive got a great dealer a mile away from home with great service its just that the Jonsereds never need much service.

 

[CODIT]

Back to the subject though. Most of the crews here use Huskys or Jonsereds on the ground and the Stihls or Echos in the tree. The Husky ground saws are very dependable saws and for that reason my question was put because the 338xpc is supposedly built on a 45cc displacement. That is possibly a 346xp engine in a 338xpt body. I.E. small ground saw dependabilty (at least in the engine) in this specific model. Ive heard the same about the 334/335/338xpts as far as the junk factor. Matter of fact several of the crews have had some bad experiences (couple of rebuilds in less than a year on a 335xpt) They got rid of them. The 338xpCali Special is only available from Husky Dealers in California. They may still have the same problems as the other Husky tree saws. I was hoping that sombody out there may have used one of the new models and could shed some light on whether Husky had addressed the problems with the tree saw with this one.

 

[CODIT]

Greg I love the Jonsereds! Great saws and Ive got a great dealer a mile away from home with great service its just that the Jonsereds never need much service.

 

[Xtra]

Climbing saws I've used in the past year:
Echo 3000 (Home Depot special) - too underpowered
Echo 341 - more power, but still a little weak for fast cutting large limbs
The Echos keep oiling the bar while idling, so they drip oil. Also the end of their sparkplug boot is exposed and it gets worn out. You'll find this out too late and usually while your in the tree.

Stihl 200T - although I've had some idling problems with mine (the idle speeds up and then dies when the tip is pointed downward) it has great power! I use a 16" bar and wouldn't trade it for anything . . . great saw! Dropped from about 30' only broke part of the brake handle.
(If the 16" bar is too small, up comes the 361 for chucking down the pole.)

Save your money on ground saws. I believe in using the best saw you can get while up in the tree. Too much can go wrong with a slow underpowered saw.

 

[Tree Machine]

the 338xpc is supposedly built on a 45cc displacement. That is possibly a 346xp engine in a 338xpt body. I.E. small ground saw dependabilty (at least in the engine) in this specific model.

I'd enjoy that power packed into a little saw, but little saw still means little gas tank. The frequent refilling would crush any efficiency, aerially speaking.

Used to use a Shindaiwa top handle, and really liked the power, but it would run out of gas with annoying frequency. I've dedicated that saw to other specialty purposes, and all my Husky 335's (3 of them) are in a box in the garage, de-nuded of bars and chain. You could say they're grounded, even though they still all run, I just don't have much use for them.

 

[greg carr]

I did like the Johnnys, at the time there just werent any dealers around and we went with Huskys.plus the orange is much more stylish for that arborist out on the town.

 

[Ryan Willock]

I used to work for a guy that had a 357, heavy thing.

 

[MasterBlaster]

I had a 357. It WAS a 'lil heavy, but it was well-balanced. The choke mechanism was too crappy for me, one 357 was enough for me. But, like TM said, they DO have power.

 

[DDM]

Anyone use a Stihl 009?

 

[DDM]

Gave up those little pos's 10 or more years ago.

I ran one once for a short time i didnt Like it...... I figured someone was still running one....

 

[MasterBlaster]

Oh, I'm sure there's someone out there with one! :alien:

 

[TreeJunkie]

I know this local joker who i occasionally sub for. This guy swears by those d a mned 009. Then he asks me why i'm running such a big bar on my 200t.. I run mostly 14" and an occasional 16".

 

[Dadatwins]

Oh, I'm sure there's someone out there with one! :alien:

And someone with a Mini-Mac 10, a Poulan s25da, a homelite super EZ, and a whole bunch more. My preference MS 200 / 020t.