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Author Topic: A bar too long  (Read 5380 times)

Offline bandmiller2

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A bar too long
« on: February 09, 2019, 01:59:08 PM »
I have a pristine Stihl 046 I almost never used because it had a long bar and just felt unwieldy. I just bought  a 20" bar ( my all time favorite length) and are going to get some use out of that saw. The long bar made it feel unbalanced and heavier than it is. My go to saw is a Husky 365 and just for chuckles I weighed it and the Stihl with the 20" bar  Stihl 18.5 lb. Husky 19 lb. Seems on any crew the big saws and long bars get little use everyone grabs the light handy ones. Frank C.

Offline furu

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Re: A bar too long
« Reply #1 on: February 09, 2019, 02:47:02 PM »
Never use a saw bigger than what you need.  It wears you out.  Especially as we age.
I had a thinning crew come in for some work that I did not have the time to do back in 2011 and they were all using smaller saws but one young buck who had a 460 with a 20 inch bar.  They made fun of him for using such a big saw for thinning.  I actually think he may not have had a smaller one thus used what he had.
Me, my go to saw is an 026.  I don't take the 026 into the trees tops there I use the 201T.  When the 026 gets out sized I switch to the 460 with the long bar.  Right tool for the right purpose.

I think you will really like the 046 with the 20" bar. I would find it a little off center with my 460 to run a 20" but the older 046 might have a different CG and to each their own.  Use what you like.

Put 10-20 tanks through it and report back how you like it versus the 365 Husky.  Bet you never go back to your previous "go-to saw"
Integrity is not just doing the right thing.
Integrity is not just doing the right thing when no one is looking.
Integrity is doing the right thing when no one else will ever even know.

Offline terracefarmer

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Re: A bar too long
« Reply #2 on: February 24, 2019, 07:09:54 AM »
Bar length depends a lot on how tall you are, me personally, I only ever run 25 inch bars on about every saw I have, saves bending over so much to cut stuff up it seems, also helps give that little added reach a person wants.       

Having a balanced saw is ideal, but to run one all day long, if a longer bar and being unbalanced saves bending over, I'll take the longer bar every time, at the end of the day, my back doesn't hurt so much.   

I also run a 36 inch bar on the large saw if we're felling large diameter tree's, but its not too often its needed, we also have 16 and 20 inch bars and being the pro line of stihl saws, all bars are interchangeable, same goes for rim drivers.       

We also mix and match 3/8's and 404 chain, bar and drivers as well depending on what we're doing, so the bar selection is quite large on hand.