Why don't professionals here use professional saws?

[Cedarkerf]

A lot of city workers are occasional use saw users with a two hour taining class. Around here what used to be a major logging areas a 440 is an all around kick around saw with 460's and 660' their money makers. And yes they are cared for and protected by being locked up.

 

[l2edneck]

First off all my saws are "pro series" saws

Simply because i consider my self a proffesional in my buisness.

I was curious as to what other are seeing in use commercially around them seeing as homeowners always seem to be told to get a commercial grade saw to cut a bit of firewood.

Commercially around here they would stihl be usin echos for limbin saws,but home depot is plenty but dealers are not....I would imagine that most municapalities use the dealer within there limits...I only say that because we have around 20 different municapalities in a 40 mile radius,probably 45 dealers(not includin yer small engine shops and just freeks that work on stuff fer fun and money)

......and personally i never see them except in passing on the road.

 

[berryman70]

I'm a mechanic for a County highway dept. here in western NY. All we ever had for saws were some wore out homelite xl's We finally convinced our equipment purchasing supervisor to try stihl or husky. We ended up with husky 257's they've held up good. Like someone stated in a previous post a homeowner cutting a few cord of firewood puts on more hrs. a year. We just have them for ice & wind storm damage that block the road & some light brush cutting in the ditches & right-a-ways
I consider the guys that run them to be pros in what they do, but nowhere near the same as a pro logger, ect. We also have a stihl cutoff saw & trimmers.

 

[beowulf343]

I have to laugh at something that I have observed. All the talk on AS is always about requiring a professional saw.

First off, in the last couple of years, every saw I have seen here used by City workers, construction works, Hydro workers clearing brush, In the back of a commercial vehicle or any other commercial use has been a Stihl. Every single one. No huskies, no dolmars.

Now I am sure that there are commercial users here using brands other than Stihl and using commercial grade saws, it is just that I have yet to see this.

Well, seems like the "commercial" users don't spend alot of time in the chainsaw forum. (I'm talking about guys who make a living by their saws, guys who run a saw 10 hours a day six days a week. Heck, I put more tanks of gas through my saws in a week than many guys on the chainsaw forum do in a year.) Talk about saws up in the commercial thread. Bet just about every guy up there uses a "commercial grade saw", whether it be dolmar, stihl, husky, etc. I strictly use pro grade, the others just don't stand up to the pounding. And those guys you mentioned can not be considered commercial saw users.

No offense meant meant to anyone on the saw forum-there are some very knowledgeable guys here who know their saws. Just alot of them don't seem to spend the time running their saws like we commercial guys do.

 

[Cam501]

With municipalities, most of them get such a low budget that even with bid assist they still don't have the financial resources to buy what they really need. This goes for all OPE, not just saws. We have a local muni that spends $2000 a year repairing a Husky rider that only cost about $2500 new because they can't get budget approval for the mower they want and need. Often long term costs are ignored by municipalities, it's just the "what is it going to cost me today" that is more important than anything else. As for pros and non pros i don't have too much to say on that except that most of our tree guys in this area usually buy "pro" saws except around the 3.5-4hp range. For some reason they always buy stihl 310's and husyk 455's for their mid size stuff. Nearly all our 260's 359's, and 357xp's go to homeowners.

 

[PWB]

Around here the pros use pro saws..........
I work for a municipal road department, about 180 people in the bargaining unit. 8 people in our shop, 7 saws, all sthil from 026's to an 066. We don't use them every day, but they work all day when we do use them. They might sit for a couple months at a time, but we can't mess with them when we need them. They HAVE to run when there's trees down on the roads. Cutoff saw is stihl too. Small (8"?) Vermeer chipper, most of the other shops have larger ones. As far as I know, the municipality hasn't bought anything except pro saws for at least 10 years. Only been through about 10 chains on the big saw, but it's seen a lot of trees we had to work from both sides with a 36" bar. These saws replaced a bunch that got stolen during a breakin a few years ago. THat bunch had husky, sthil, homelite, mac, and probably some others I don't remember. Came from 5 different shops that amalgamated when they turned 23 municipalities into one (Whole county is one tier)

The local pro we hire do get the ones we're not set up for (hydro lines, buildings, etc.) uses pro huskys except for his big saw (ms 880). Had too many problems with a couple of 3120's......

 

[Diesel JD]

I agree with Tree Sling'r on the definition of pro equipment. Its "pro" if you make money with it...its occasional user if its a hobby or firewood cutter. That being said, I think the issue is that the true professional users out so many hours on saws that things like being easily and economically rebuildable, and easy serviceability come into play. I was shocked how quick some of these logger types can burn up a saw even with proper maintenance to the point that it needs rings/piston etc. Also the argument that a pro saw used in an occasional use niche will last just about forever is also probably true if they are decently maintained. Its about how much you are willing to pay for durability, just like over the road and medium duty diesel trucks are built with an engine lifespan of 500K-1 million miles in mind before its first overhaul.... and at that the overhaul is easy(relatively) and inexpensive (comparatively)passenger cars and trucks could probably be made like that but people don't usually make money with their cars, drive that many miles on them, and they're usually tired of them after 5 or 10 years. Therefore the user would never pay the premium. So it is with the non pro quality saws. I'm not a pro...I use my Stihl saws pretty sparingly during the non firewood season, and for the work I do, they are great, they run when I need them to, but it would take me a long time to run 1200 hrs on one so its hard for me to swallow the premium for the pro saws, since I don't make that much money with them.

 

[Cam501]

I agree with Tree Sling'r on the definition of pro equipment. Its "pro" if you make money with it...its occasional user if its a hobby or firewood cutter. That being said, I think the issue is that the true professional users out so many hours on saws that things like being easily and economically rebuildable, and easy serviceability come into play. I was shocked how quick some of these logger types can burn up a saw even with proper maintenance to the point that it needs rings/piston etc. Also the argument that a pro saw used in an occasional use niche will last just about forever is also probably true if they are decently maintained. Its about how much you are willing to pay for durability, just like over the road and medium duty diesel trucks are built with an engine lifespan of 500K-1 million miles in mind before its first overhaul.... and at that the overhaul is easy(relatively) and inexpensive (comparatively)passenger cars and trucks could probably be made like that but people don't usually make money with their cars, drive that many miles on them, and they're usually tired of them after 5 or 10 years. Therefore the user would never pay the premium. So it is with the non pro quality saws. I'm not a pro...I use my Stihl saws pretty sparingly during the non firewood season, and for the work I do, they are great, they run when I need them to, but it would take me a long time to run 1200 hrs on one so its hard for me to swallow the premium for the pro saws, since I don't make that much money with them.

I just have issues with tree guys that buy an MS 180 or ask us to order a MS 170 only to spend 4 times what the saw is worth in the next year and a half fixing it. They arent' saving any money by doing that.

 

[musch]

City guys around here use almost exclusively 260 pros. Yeah I've seen em,

Arborist friend of mine (big company) uses 200ts, 361s, and 660s.

Stihl is pretty entrenched here in WI.