I added aftermarket dogs to get some clearance in front of the saw. The bottom spike is causing a bit of an issue having to much leverage. Not sure of where exactly to cut them back to. Thinking from the bottom towards the top thereby getting the fulcrum closer to the chain. Not sure on that though. Any thoughts would be appreciated as cutting anything smaller than a foot just seems to get sucked in.
The long bottoms are nice if your bar is long and heavy enough to tip the saw down onto the chain when you set it down. It can be hard on the tailgate paint too, but it all depends on your needs. I'm careful not to get small stuff close to my dawgs and if I'm cutting small unattached stuff, I always make sure to have it safely secured. Usually that means with my steel toed boot. I like the extra clearance and the leverage. Flush cutting stumps sure is easier with big dawgs.
Dawgs that aggressive belong on a modded 70cc or a 90 plus cc saw. Very good for longer bars falling trees with thick bark. Good leverage for a the humboldt face cut.
Thats why I'm hesitant to cut them down. I didn't know that it was even an issue until I went to cut a log about 2' long in half. It was about a foot in diameter and I put the dogs against it too keep it it steady and it kept sucking it in.
another thought would be to cut back so that it’s still a quarter inch the longest. Or some other number. Try it out and cut it again if you don’t like that.
I had the same problem on a 044. I did just what your talking about. Shortened the lowest spike to be even with the others. Works for me but I'm not telling trees. Just cutting up firewood.
I don't get it. All those do is reduce the effective length of the bar. The chain should self feed, if you are using the dogs to cut, learn to sharpen better.
Sharpening isn't the problem the saws crankcase hitting the flair is. Don't like my saw kissing the log is all as I take pretty good care of my equipment. Felling anything large that's irregularly shaped is nicer with dogs. An extra inch off of 3' of bar isn't much of a problem.
I would do kind of like others have said and just take off 1/4 inch at a time. I would leave the very bottom of the spike in the same plane and angle the top of the bottom tooth down
The saw will self feed. With the dogs planted in the bark the bar and chain pivot around the lowest contact point. No need to hold the weight of the saw or push n pull it around to guide a cut. Just run the throttle and let the saw do all the work. I have dogs on every saw just for bucking up firewood. I find most of my wood already cut or blown down so I rarely fell a tree.
It's a chainsaw, the chassis touching the log won't hurt anything. My logger buddies (where I get the refuse off the landing) NEVER run anything longer than 24" with .404 and they put some very large high value timber on the ground. I do put the $hit on them regarding the 660/661s they run though