New Saw Help

I currently have a MS250 18" bar I'm looking for more power and something that rips thru 20" trees and bigger. A friend of mine said I should get a 562xp what do u guys recommend

 

Check out our classifieds section. A nice 262XP went up minutes ago that will own a 20" bar and then some!

 

Thanks

 

I'm a big fan of the Makitak 6421 rental saws that Home Depot sells off every now and then. I'm hoping to turn it into a 79cc monster by spring. That should pair nicely with the MS250.

 

They were a good buy at $200, but last time I checked they wanted $319 for one.

 

A little more info would help narrow the field of options. How much bigger than 20" do you want do cut, and how often? What's your budget? Do you prefer new or used?

 

Ported m-tronic muffler modded with a sugihara bar. Square filed chain of course. You'll want to keep it polished with no signs of wear or use so you might as well buy 3-5 if you plan on cutting more than two trees.

Should be able to stay under 5k if you bring your dealer a box of doughnuts.

Anything less would be uncivilized.

 

An HD near me advertised a bunch of rental tools on CL recently. They were asking $350 for one of those Makitas.

 

A 562XP is a very nice saw, 59.8cc, with Auto-Tune. There are many others from Stihl, Echo, Dolmar/Makita and others. A Husqvarna 365 X-Torq saw is actually 71cc and with an hour or two worth of work can be turned into a 372 X-Torq. The last I saw they were going for around $600. A Stihl 362 CM also a good pro saw and also an auto tune type of saw.

In 20" or greater wood I would be in the 70cc range, no matter the manufacturer.

Here is a link to a guy selling Dolmar 7900s NIB for $725. 79cc and quite a good saw will pull up to a 28" bar.
http://www.firstgeartrucks.com/chain-saws/dolmar-ps-7900/

OH and I have a buddy that has a very clean Husqvarna 272XP for around $500 plus ship PHO. I will see if I can get some pictures of it for you.

 

probably want to consider weight/size of the saw as well.
Moving from an MS250 to any of the 60cc class saws you won't notice much difference from a 10lb to a 12-13lb saw.

 

I would cut 4-5 times are year some sizes would be more then 20 I would like new and around $1000

 

For $1k, you have a lot of options, but for 4-5 times a year I wouldn't go really big because the rest of the time you'll just be carrying around extra weight for nothing. I'd be looking at an MS441 or a Husky 365.

 

I'm gonna go next week to look at both saws and see which dealers gives me the best deal. Both dealers are very close to me. I'll check to see if they have any demo saws

 

FWIW the Dolmar 7900 mentioned above by KRL would also be a great choice, the only likely downside being that Dolmar's dealer network is pretty minimal so you may not have a nearby shop to help you out if it needs service. That model is mechanically a twin to the 79cc upgraded version of the Home Depot rental saws mentioned by bassJAM. It's bigger in displacement (79cc), but relatively light and really friggin impressive, for less money.

 

Nate Vansickel, in Ohio is a Dolmar dealer and a really good guy. VERY good prices and ships super fast! Also has most Dolmar 7900parts in stock so no waiting for him to order. By UPS the parts are usually here to me in 1 day, down state may take two.

You are not likely to come by the Husqvarna or Stihl saws in the 80cc range for anywhere near the $725 quoted above for the Dolmar.

Here is a 7900 that was tweaked by a member Mdavlee, it really goes and is not ported, just very careful selection of off-the-shelf parts and careful assembly.
http://firewoodhoardersclub.com/forums/index.php?threads/7900-experiment.6164/

 

There's 2 good dolmar dealers in NY. Edge and Engine and then The Cutters Choice.

There is port work done to it but no machine work. The timing numbers would be the same without a spacer except the intake would change if you went back to a stock piston and no spacer. It looks like I'll be doing 3 of them here soon at the same time. I don't know which direction all of them will end up going yet. I know one is probably getting the HD 12, one is probably going to get a stihl piston and stock tweaked carb, and the other a xtorq carb and maybe husky piston. Should be a good comparison if all of them are done differently.