Hi Roger, the 7900 is a fine saw and I almost bought one the day I demo`ed it. There was a smaller dealer there who has a good rep and he just picked up Dolmar, so I felt that I could buy from a good dealer. But then you get into relying on THAT distributor that I mentioned earlier. I hate to say it but I`m going to wait and see if Dolmar becomes a presence in this area before I buy one. I didn`t see that 7900 as the big Husky killer that sawman sees, in fact I had just run a stock 385 to compare to my Greff 385, and I`m convinced that the stock 385 has more juice than a stock 7900, although the 385 does weigh 1 1/2 - 2#s more, but the price is about the same. And there are Husky dealers everywhere should I ever need one. I didn`t sense that the 7900 is lighter than a 372, atleast with a halfwrap, infact I thought it was heavier, by feel, not looking at literature. My overall opinion is that the 7900 is more like the 460 Stihl, heavier, pricier, and a little ballsier than the 372. It does have much better anti vibe than the 460 and as an added bonus it runs D009 bars, the same as the bigger Huskies. I`d like to know more about this saw blowing away the Stihls and Huskies in European competition, are we talking stock saws or modified? It does have an impressive power to weight ratio, but I`m wondering how much it is already hotrodded from the factory to get it, and how much potential is left. Factory hotrodded is a good thing for the average guy I`d say, but for anyone looking to build a saw, how much potential is left? I don`t know, that`s why I`m asking.
Sawman, maybe it`s just cobwebs in my head this morning, had to skip my morning coffee, but your point about the different chains is a little vague isn`t it. I`m going to surmise that you guys were running small cube saws if you were running VP on one of them, so consequently the LP you refer to would be the .325 with bumpers, not the full grown 3/8s LP, although the baby LP does have a good sized tooth. So my point being, that small cube saws are inherently less powerful and performance can be more easily influenced by the size of the bite being taken, meaning that maybe the LP is too much chain for whatever saw you guys are running. As for your analogy of giving things a second look and being a Chevy man but still looking at a Mercury, you know that you will be supported by a dealer at nearly every town and city in North America, whatever brand you choose. That`s painfully "not so" with the Dolmar line. Consider the fact that Roger can`t even buy one. I hope this changes because I`d like to see more quality saws on the market, but with the distributor here in CNY, it`s not going to happen unless it happens by itself. If Dolmar doesn`t take off in a big way, quickly, the existing dealers are going to be left out in the cold when this dist. hightails onto the next flash in the pan. I hope I`m wrong because I liked the saw well enough that I want one. Russ
