Saw pulling left - not bar, chain or user

[mikecotterill]

Had this happen when the av mounts were shot

[monkeybusiness]

We put a couple of new rotatech bars and chains on a couple of saws I was going to chuck on eBay (but have ended up carrying on using for the time being). They pull all over the place - it is weird to be honest, as they ‘look’ straight but are obviously just dog toffee... 

[Bloom]

Thanks guys. My main concern was that it was something wrong with the saw, but the majority seems to think its some chain/bar anomaly. 

 

I'll get a husq bar/chain on it, if the problem continues I'll replace the AV mounts.

[felixthelogchopper]

On 16/03/2018 at 08:15, Bloom said:

Thanks guys. My main concern was that it was something wrong with the saw, but the majority seems to think its some chain/bar anomaly. 

 

I'll get a husq bar/chain on it, if the problem continues I'll replace the AV mounts.

Put Oregon  on instead. They seem to last better than Husky branded ones.

[peatff]

On 3/14/2018 at 18:52, Khriss said:

Oddly my rotatech chains have been ok - tho' are on smaller engined saws K

Mine too, first one got blunted on a piece of metal and sharpened up fine. 3/8" semi chisel.

[gdh]

If it's a new bar it could have been damaged in transit or a defect, I had issues with a new sugihara and it took me a while to spot the damage otherwise I would think the sprocket's the next logical step.

 

For what it's worth I've been using rotatech, including on a 24inch processor bar for 18 months with no issues other than the initial stretch.

[devon TWiG]

When you consider just how much wood a  sawchain will cut in its servicable life and the money it should be making you as it is your main tool , then why does any one try to save a couple of quid ?   I buy the best regardless of cost   , and in the grand scheme of things of daily overheads it is too small  an expense to bother thinking about  ....

[gdh]

4 minutes ago, devon TWiG said:

When you consider just how much wood a  sawchain will cut in its servicable life and the money it should be making you as it is your main tool , then why does any one try to save a couple of quid ?   I buy the best regardless of cost   , and in the grand scheme of things of daily overheads it is too small  an expense to bother thinking about  ....

That's a good point but the best chain is very subjective, in day to day use there's hardly any speed difference I've seen (at a guess, I think stihl were slightly faster) and if you add up all chains used in a year you can easily save a few hundred quid. 

 

I normally prefer to buy the best quality with machinery but going from sugihara and stihl to oregon and rotatech (for examples) hasn't made a noticeable difference and once you damage a few chains on stones or a bar you're glad you only spent a third of the price. 

 

I could well change my mind in a few years but it's making business sense at the moment.

[JLA Arborists]

I’ve used rotatech chain on my 12” top handle, 14” 181, 18” 560 and 20” 391. Never had problems after initial stretch. The 14” bar I had in the 181 didn’t last long at all though.
The last time my saw pulled / cut on a curve was when I was cutting loads of stumps on the rail and blunting one side more than the other, thus the right cutters were sharpened more which made it curve through a cut.

[monkeybusiness]

I’m pretty sure it is the chain at fault here. Following my earlier post I took a husky 560 which has a new rototech bar and chain on it to our log pile and it is unusable - pulls hard to the left so much that it binds in the cut. I flipped the bar and it still pulls left. I haven’t bothered sharpening it (it is still as new) and the cutters appear even. We have had other rototech chain in the past and not had these issues so it could be a bad batch to be fair, (it will be the same chain as the OP’s I would have thought) but it is unusable to be honest.