What bar do you like?

[James Sawyer]

light weight bar shorter then 25" aren't worth the extra cost I think... but for me the longer bars are worth it. As my bars wear out, I'm slowly switching over. I'm finding for me they wear about the same and balance my saw better. I sold on the light weights

 

[fields_mj]

I looked around on websites, and before the links to the ebay bars were suggested - tsumura, laser, etc - I decided to go to my dealer and pick up a Stihl bar. My ms311 saw came with a 20" Rollomatic E bar. The guy at the dealer pulled a stihl Light 04 bar off the rack and said it's a lot lighter than a regular bar. I gave him a hard time - told him to be careful what he said because my next question was going to be 'How much lighter?'. To make a long story short. Today I weighed my Rollomatic E bar. It still has some oil soaked sawdust attached, but it weighed in at 2# 4.4oz (1031 grams). The new Light 04 bar weighed 2# 4.6 oz (1036 grams).

So much for advertising hogwash.

Out of pure curiosity, I checked with the dealership. Their numbers say that a Rollomatic Super E 3/8x.050 25" bar weights 3.9 lbs, and the light weight version weighs 2.2 lbs. 1.7 lbs on a 25" bar seems like a pretty good savings on weight. Whether that difference justifies a 70% increase in price is a different story. I can see where the difference on 16" - 20" bars would be a [lot less though.

If I get my 064 back up and running, I'm thinking about putting a light weight 25" bar on it. In theory, that would put its total weight at about a pound more than an 036 with a standard 25" bar, or about the same as a 70cc saw with a standard bar. In other words, I get an extra 15cc of displacement without any weight penalty

 

[NeSurfcaster]

All the new husky/stihl oilers are weak. The 661 oiler is pathetic and my 562 husky is on the raged edge of too weak. A cheaper riveted bar is gonna need touch ups every week and a solid milled bar is bi weekly. If your hard on saws you might as well buy a riveted 50 to 75 dollar bar. If you maintain your stuff it would be worth it to buy a solid bar. Unless your gonna make your own chains stick with 20/24" so u can buy chains anywhere. The Japanese bars are tough to beat for quality and price. Whatever bar you pick you gotta keep the rails clean and mounting area clean if you wanna get 50+ tanks of fuel out of the bar especially with poor output oilers on modern day saws. Have fun be safe and a quality bar will last at least twice as long as a riveted bar if not 5 times as long

 

[James Sawyer]

All the new husky/stihl oilers are weak. The 661 oiler is pathetic and my 562 husky is on the raged edge of too weak. A cheaper riveted bar is gonna need touch ups every week and a solid milled bar is bi weekly. If your hard on saws you might as well buy a riveted 50 to 75 dollar bar. If you maintain your stuff it would be worth it to buy a solid bar. Unless your gonna make your own chains stick with 20/24" so u can buy chains anywhere. The Japanese bars are tough to beat for quality and price. Whatever bar you pick you gotta keep the rails clean and mounting area clean if you wanna get 50+ tanks of fuel out of the bar especially with poor output oilers on modern day saws. Have fun be safe and a quality bar will last at least twice as long as a riveted bar if not 5 times as long

I think EPA Restrictions have a lot to do with Saw manufactures build specs. The oilers on today saws don't have the volumes of the old. I'm assuming the oiler are all part of the saw emission limits. My solution was to install a MS461R oiler on a MS362 to get enough oil for a 25" bar. The oiler on R model... my understanding is higher volume oiler. So, installing upgrade oiler from a larger saw is another option but they aren't cheap.

 

[NeSurfcaster]

Yup can't blame the saw manufacturers for the poor oilers. Epa ruined that situation. It's a shame ya gotta spend another 100 on a oil pump when ya buy a new saw. And the guys running half sharp chains are burning up new bars in 10 tanks.

 

[sean donato]

I think EPA Restrictions have a lot to do with Saw manufactures build specs. The oilers on today saws don't have the volumes of the old. I'm assuming the oiler are all part of the saw emission limits. My solution was to install a MS461R oiler on a MS362 to get enough oil for a 25" bar. The oiler on R model... my understanding is higher volume oiler. So, installing upgrade oiler from a larger saw is another option but they aren't cheap.

It's just the cross bolt and piston that are different iirc, when I did the oiler on my ms400 I couldn't get them separately, my dealer had the part numbers but couldn't give an eta when they would come in. They had the 461r oil pump on hand.

 

[sean donato]

All the new husky/stihl oilers are weak. The 661 oiler is pathetic and my 562 husky is on the raged edge of too weak. A cheaper riveted bar is gonna need touch ups every week and a solid milled bar is bi weekly. If your hard on saws you might as well buy a riveted 50 to 75 dollar bar. If you maintain your stuff it would be worth it to buy a solid bar. Unless your gonna make your own chains stick with 20/24" so u can buy chains anywhere. The Japanese bars are tough to beat for quality and price. Whatever bar you pick you gotta keep the rails clean and mounting area clean if you wanna get 50+ tanks of fuel out of the bar especially with poor output oilers on modern day saws. Have fun be safe and a quality bar will last at least twice as long as a riveted bar if not 5 times as long

They must have changed the oilers recently on the 562xp, I frequently ran mine with a 24" bar and never had issues oiling the bar adequately.

 

[chilipeppermaniac]

20" is pretty standard on a 70 ish cc saw in east coast hardwoods. I quite assure you it will fall flat on its face with a 28" buried in white oak, hickory, locust etc. It's definitely an area/species dependant thing for how long of a bar is too long.

If I am not mistaken, the OP is from Bulgaria. He should decide his best bar length based on the wood he would normally be sawing most.
For a 460/462, it seems like the most sense would be like sean donato mentions a 20 on up to a 25 inch. Correct me if I am wrong, but I am not sure if this holds true. If one has a ported 462 with a pipe and upgraded oil pump, I bet the 28 inch bar wouldn't bog it down too badly.

 

[chilipeppermaniac]

In the hardwoods we have here, a stock 660 is about right with a 25"-28" bar. It'll do a 32" or even 36", but you aren't going to be winning any speed contests

This is probably true, and if some folks either have 1-660 or a 2nd one, they can use different size bars depending on the trees needing cutting, bucking, felling etc.

I know that my original purchase of my 660 was to mill with. As I was gearing up to do so, I found my 051 and 075's, so I scrapped that idea and use it for felling larger stuff or bucking. I have various lengths of bars in the Stihl Rollomatic E, ES/ ES Light lines on all my Stihls ranging from 16, 18 on my 026's and 044 on up to 25, 28 and 32, 36 on my 660.

 

[wildwes]

I have various lengths of bars in the Stihl Rollomatic E, ES/ ES Light lines on all my Stihls ranging from 16, 18 on my 026's and 044 on up to 25, 28 and 32, 36 on my 660.

I'm more or less equipped the same way

 

[thompsoncustom]

All the new husky/stihl oilers are weak. The 661 oiler is pathetic and my 562 husky is on the raged edge of too weak. A cheaper riveted bar is gonna need touch ups every week and a solid milled bar is bi weekly. If your hard on saws you might as well buy a riveted 50 to 75 dollar bar. If you maintain your stuff it would be worth it to buy a solid bar. Unless your gonna make your own chains stick with 20/24" so u can buy chains anywhere. The Japanese bars are tough to beat for quality and price. Whatever bar you pick you gotta keep the rails clean and mounting area clean if you wanna get 50+ tanks of fuel out of the bar especially with poor output oilers on modern day saws. Have fun be safe and a quality bar will last at least twice as long as a riveted bar if not 5 times as long

Are the 661 oilers like the 660 ones? I modified my 660 oiler to put out a tank of oil to tank of gas when adjusted to max, oils a 42in bar just fine. Might be worth doing.

 

[sean donato]

If I am not mistaken, the OP is from Bulgaria. He should decide his best bar length based on the wood he would normally be sawing most.
For a 460/462, it seems like the most sense would be like sean donato mentions a 20 on up to a 25 inch. Correct me if I am wrong, but I am not sure if this holds true. If one has a ported 462 with a pipe and upgraded oil pump, I bet the 28 inch bar wouldn't bog it down too badly.

No one was talking about ported saws. Sure a well ported 462 will pull a 28" effectively in hardwoods. Haven't ever seen or heard anyone taking a saw with a tuned pipe into the woods for production work, and that's not a common mod to begin with. Need to keep things in perspective with the topic on hand.

 

[Hermio]

I normally go through at least 20 chains for each bar, and then the bar can be swaged and ground 2 or 3 times before the groove bottoms out. I have never used anything but the Stihl stock bar. My chain of choice is Stihl RS.

 

[chilipeppermaniac]

No one was talking about ported saws. Sure a well ported 462 will pull a 28" effectively in hardwoods. Haven't ever seen or heard anyone taking a saw with a tuned pipe into the woods for production work, and that's not a common mod to begin with. Need to keep things in perspective with the topic on hand.

Thanks sean,

I was not meaning to derail, but simply to add that there are options for guys who are not happy with less than optimum, detuned EPA hindered saws, much like the 70's muscle cars that had 170 hp engines and smog crap out the wazzoo. I understand your intent and mention of no tuned pipes in the woods for production work. However, I may have misspoken what I meant. I was mostly intending the mention of pipe mods as those that make a stock muffler less restrictive to improve exhaust airflow. I used the wrong word when I typed pipe.

No worries on my end, sir.

 

[chilipeppermaniac]

I'm more or less equipped the same way

wildwes,

ONE day if I had had a boatload of cash on hand I could have really cleaned up on bars. I kick myself on how it went south.

I was at an equipment auction that happens twice a year in the next county over at their Fairgrounds. In one building with shop tools, hand tools etc, was a pile of Stihl bars. These bars ran from probably 14-36 inchers, and numbered at least 50+ brand new bars. What I didn't expect was when the high bid was reached, the auctioneer said for that price, the bidder could choose from one to all. Hoping that he might take 1 or a few, and we could buy some at that price or the bidding start over, my heart sank when the high bidder took the whole pile at maybe $50-$60 per bar.

 

[Chainsaw Pete]

Just out of curiosity, is your 20" bar the same length/gauge/pitch as the Light 04 bar that you weighed? If not, that would make a difference.

I haven't ever weighed them, but I do know that my 24" Tsumura light bar is noticeably better balanced on the saw that it is on, then the same length/gauge/pitch Rollomatic ES that was on it. Not that I minded the Stihl bar either, just giving my experiences.
When it comes to the light bars though, I do prefer the Tsumura over the Stihl, I couldn't tell you why, I just like them better.

Yes, the Rollomatic and Light 04 are same length, pitch, ga, - identical and they even have the same part number. I think Stihl just changed the name and graphics, how else to figure same part no.?

 

[sean donato]

Thanks sean,

I was not meaning to derail, but simply to add that there are options for guys who are not happy with less than optimum, detuned EPA hindered saws, much like the 70's muscle cars that had 170 hp engines and smog crap out the wazzoo. I understand your intent and mention of no tuned pipes in the woods for production work. However, I may have misspoken what I meant. I was mostly intending the mention of pipe mods as those that make a stock muffler less restrictive to improve exhaust airflow. I used the wrong word when I typed pipe.

No worries on my end, sir.

You forgot about the 190hp automatic pos 80's corvettes lol.
Muff mod, yes they help most saws.