I have a 28" bar on my 044 with a full skip chisel chain. Would a 20" or a 25" bar be better with the same chain type? I am cutting mostly green ash in northern SD and will do a lot of cutting this winter in green trees. 28" bar seems to bog down a bit when getting throught stumps 24"+. I was wondering if anyone has experience using the smaller bar on this saw.
Stihl 044 most functional bar size
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Man put a 20 in. no skip you will love itstihl044 said:
(full chisel) iam running 28 in skip and 20 in no skip your saw is close to mine!
stihl044 said:
The general rule of the pro's is to always run the shortest bar necessary for the majority of your cutting. If most of your cutting is under 30", then a 16" or 18" bar is ideal; more power, cheaper chains, less sharpening time, better balance, less weight, etc. If you need more length on occasion take the 5 minutes to change to a larger bar.
i hear you but that 28 in and 20 in combo sure works out nice and a saw that big anything smaller you should just buy a smaller saw(less weight)Sealcove said:
I use a 25" bar on my 441 as the 28" seemed a little longer than I wanted to be swinging around. I wouldn't want to go any shorter 'cause I bought the bigger saw to use a longer bar. Just not too long. I use the 33RSC3 chain. It all works well for me. I'm sure everyone has their own likes and dislikes for this sorta thing.
smokinj said:
I agree that if you don't need a 70cc saw then you should be running a smaller saw and bar together. 70cc is actually way overkill for most firewood cutting (unless you get mostly 30"+ wood). On the bar size question I run a 372XP these days for heavy cutting and felling with an 18" bar and it is amazing (this is is a very common combination for professional loggers in the northeast). The extra bar length is nothing but a liability both in cost and energy unless you are actually cutting wood large enough to demand it. It is great to have a large bar available (24" is about all one could ever possible need in New England), but there is negative value in running it if the majority of the cuts don't require it.
28in. is good around here because the softwood can go 56 in. is the biggest i have done but know of a few that have done bigger.(25 in would do for me in 85 percent of the time) silver maples get BIG around here!(lots of them as well)kenny chaos said:
smokinj said:
Yeah I got some pretty big poplar but if I cut 'em down, then I have to split them. I'm trying to stick with some slighter stuff.
On a personal note, I took that trip to Chicago a few weeks back and while going through Indy, we went under this overpass (I forget the name of the road now) and I saw where someone was cutting a lot of wood. I thought of you and wondered how many of those free splits you could have loaded in the 08' minivan we were driving.
I found a 25" bar works the best on my 066 ,works 75% of the time no skip balances perfect,do not have to bend down as much as with shorter bars.A 32" skip is nice for felling the big stuff the other 25% of the time.
Thanks for the input, I was leaning to getting a smaller bar for firewood cutting. The big bar is nice for dropping the big cottonwoods and box elders we have here, have to get them out of the way to get to the ash, but on the ground the 28" is too long. I do some amatuer tree removal so I do need the larger bar, but I wasn't sure if the smaller bar would gain me much, but it sounds like it will thanks.
I like a 20" bar, it's what I run on my Dolmar 7900 most of the time... Seems to me like a good overall compromise for work on the ground - I might want to go lots shorter if I were climbing (which I don't do) I like to mostly keep the saw powerhead around waist level and cut while rocking the bar up and down (not a good description, but...) It is easier on the back as you aren't bending over, but also aren't carrying the weight of the saw on your arm muscles like you are when running a short bar and reaching out... A lot of the time I can even rest the end of the throttle handle on my thigh to give a third point of contact for more stability and control...
For my height (5'9", 32" inseam) the 20" bar works really nicely - I can reach down to the ground at about a 40* angle w/o bending over, which gives me good cutting ability while keeping away from my feet and legs, and reach up to easily catch branches up to about chest height... It is also big enough to handle all but the biggest rounds I need to cut, again w/ minimal hassles...
Needless to say, an 80cc saw like the Dolmar just screams through the wood with a 20" bar as well - cutting speed approaches free-fall speed - FUN!
Gooserider
For my height (5'9", 32" inseam) the 20" bar works really nicely - I can reach down to the ground at about a 40* angle w/o bending over, which gives me good cutting ability while keeping away from my feet and legs, and reach up to easily catch branches up to about chest height... It is also big enough to handle all but the biggest rounds I need to cut, again w/ minimal hassles...
Needless to say, an 80cc saw like the Dolmar just screams through the wood with a 20" bar as well - cutting speed approaches free-fall speed - FUN!
Gooserider
In my experience, an 044 seems to be best with an 18" and 28" bar. The 18" balances well, better than the 20" in my opinion, and a 28" with skip is a good choice for big logs, flush cutting stumps and such.
In my opinion there's no reason to have a big saw with a short bar. I had a 28" bar on my 41 and loved it.
Bigg_Redd said:
Depends on the wood you cut. As an example, your opinion is completely contrary to the vast majority of master loggers in Maine. An 18" bar on a 70cc saw is extremely common in these parts, and more likely the pro's here will shake their heads at the obvious neophyte running a unnecessarily large bar. You live in Washington so the equation is almost certainly different, but in the northeast a 28" bar is rarely used by professional cutters. There simply is no need for it, but there is a need for power when you are plunge cutting hardwood all day.
I can agree with you on that but most of us are just cutting fire wood and plunge cutting no way!but with that said 16 in or even 18 in. its eaiser for the firewood guy to use a lighter saw at this point.I know that 440 can run from 16. in to 32in. "Master logger" this guy isnt.He has a 28 in. bar and just wondering what size for a 2nd bar is?(not a master logger) he got a lot of softwood as well.
I tend to agree w/ Sealcove - I think that an 18-20" bar is a good size for most of us, most of the time, in the wood we get most often... I bought my 7900 Dolmar because I wanted a saw that would be big enough to handle ANY log that I got, including the occasional big monsters - but it's way overkill for most of my cutting, a Dolmar 5100 would have been a better match for 90% of what I do. (and if my Pull-on dies, the 5100 will be on the short list to replace it)
I have a 28" bar to use on my Dolmar, but I only put it on if I have a log to cut that's over about 30-35" around, which has happenned about twice in the last year that I've owned the saw - I have done about ONE tank of gas cutting with the 28" (and part of that was just running out the tank before I switched back to the 20") and about 10 tanks with the 20" bar... With the 28" bar, it's a great performing saw, that is heavy, tip heavy, clumsy and awkward to use. I would not want to cut much with a 28" bar. With the 20" bar, it's wonderfully balanced, with reasonable weight, and performs even better...
Gooserider
I have a 28" bar to use on my Dolmar, but I only put it on if I have a log to cut that's over about 30-35" around, which has happenned about twice in the last year that I've owned the saw - I have done about ONE tank of gas cutting with the 28" (and part of that was just running out the tank before I switched back to the 20") and about 10 tanks with the 20" bar... With the 28" bar, it's a great performing saw, that is heavy, tip heavy, clumsy and awkward to use. I would not want to cut much with a 28" bar. With the 20" bar, it's wonderfully balanced, with reasonable weight, and performs even better...
Gooserider
Bigg_Redd said:
You write that in the past tense. What happened to it? If it isn't too personal.
kenny chaos said:
It was a early 70s model that I got it at a garage sale for $50 about 15+ years ago. I used the crap out of it and gave it away about 5 years ago. It's sill running.
smokinj said:
Probably not - it would cut like a demon, but it already does with a 20" and I'd be concerned that the 16" wouldn't put enough load on the engine to keep it from over-revving. The other thing I find is that I like to keep the powerhead close to me rather than working at full arm extension most of the time. The 20" bar lets me do that, I suspect a 16" might be on the short side. Lastly, Dolmar reccomends a 20-32" range of bars for that saw, and I don't see any reason to go outside that range - to either side
Gooserider
Ok goose would you run a 16 in. bar on that 7900?[/quote]
Probably not - it would cut like a demon, but it already does with a 20" and I'd be concerned that the 16" wouldn't put enough load on the engine to keep it from over-revving. The other thing I find is that I like to keep the powerhead close to me rather than working at full arm extension most of the time. The 20" bar lets me do that, I suspect a 16" might be on the short side. Gooserider[/quote]
Bar length has nothing to do with "over-reving" in a tuned saw of any cc or HP. The saw is tuned to tach specs on the high speed screw for WOT ( wide open throttle )cutting.
No one ever cuts "at arms length"; ain't safe-- except in instances when necessary e.g limbing.
Probably not - it would cut like a demon, but it already does with a 20" and I'd be concerned that the 16" wouldn't put enough load on the engine to keep it from over-revving. The other thing I find is that I like to keep the powerhead close to me rather than working at full arm extension most of the time. The 20" bar lets me do that, I suspect a 16" might be on the short side. Gooserider[/quote]
Bar length has nothing to do with "over-reving" in a tuned saw of any cc or HP. The saw is tuned to tach specs on the high speed screw for WOT ( wide open throttle )cutting.
No one ever cuts "at arms length"; ain't safe-- except in instances when necessary e.g limbing.
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