On Friday I went to a friends house to help cut some wood. He is a city boy and bought 5 acres with a house on the outskirts of a town. He needed help getting some dead Ash cut for firewood and I have been educating him about the CSS process. I packed the 460 with the 20 and 24 inch bars and the 550XP. About my 7th cut in a downed Ash the saw just jerked real hard and stopped cutting. I figured I hit a piece of metal in the tree. The chain had a bend in it sideways. I grabbed the 20in bar and chain but when I took off the side cover I realized the sprocket was broken. The Stihl was done for the day. When I bought the 550 I got it with an 18in bar. Several postings stated that a 16in bar really balances it out nicely. After Friday I am glad I went with the 18. The Husqvarna cut for the rest of the day and I put around 5-6 tanks through it. Had the bar buried and had to go to the other side to finish the cut several times. The 550 earned its keep and has over 11 tanks through it, great little saw. I stopped by my local dealer on the way home and he put a new sprocket on it and I grabbed a fresh chain. During the drive back to my town I was thinking about the saw breaking. If something else caused the sprocket to break and the engine needed opened up it would be a perfect opportunity to get it ported and hot rod it up a little. It was only a worn out sprocket and a wasted chain. That is good and bad, it would have been nice to make it into a screamer.
Looks like you made out ok considering times like that make you think the worst. I only cut like 5-7 cords a year with my 455 and it does well for what I do with it. But thats all I have, no backups just yet. You have many backups and can plan for days like you just had. I'd be a wreck until I had a backup to carry me.
Wow, interesting it will interesting to hear what the other guys have to say about this. But glad you had a back up saw to finish the day with. Thats why aquired the herd that I did. You never know when something will happen while out in the field. I just took my 046 out for the first time today. They are an impressive saw. What sprocket did you have in yours? Mine came with a 8.
The Stihl is stock so I guess it is an 8. Having a backup is nice. That is the way my dad always did it. We lived 20 minutes from town plus the down time to get things fixed. That makes for at least an hour of wasted time when trying to get stuff done. When I have a day planned to get something done it is frustrating when things break. The 550 saved the day. The 460 still has my respect, it has cut through a lot of wood and the sprocket is a wearable item. Plus, the 460 just makes me smile when I run it. Great saw.
I always go out with at least 2, sometimes 3 saws. I don't bother with extra gas and oil, I can fill my 5x10 trailer high with two of them.
A 460 with the dual-port muffler will run an 8 pin with no problems. I've even run the 28"/8 pin and while it's no torque monster, it ran that just fine as well! That really surprised me!
