Going to buy an MS661 but....

[Starscream]

I'm looking to get an MS 661 and whilst looking on the interweb I noticed that the MS 880 with the same bar (30") is only £150 more. It's not often that I do massive trees and doubt I'd ever have the need to whack a 4ft bar on it, but when spending this much money an extra 150 isn't much. But if I did have it I would then future proof myself in case something like that did come up. I need to go into a shop and compare the 2 as I will have to take into consideration weight etc. It won't be an everyday saw (far from it) but what would you do in this situation?

Ps. Not interested in other brands equivalent.

[Stubby]

I would go for the 661 purely on the weight issue . I am old and weak though !

[njtimber]

I've got 660 ,880,084 we do hard wood thinning on several local estates to be honest the 660 gets all the work,the bigger saws are good for occasional massive beech trees in the manor gardens but to top out or limb off a tree they are too heavy in a harness. The 660 is capable of Ariel work and large felling,also good for trimming out big crowns,I mainly use it with a 25 inch bar. The 88 stays in the shed most of the time, its good on the alaskan mill though because it has plenty of power, but it is a heavy clumsy lump !

[MattyF]

Will be more than £150 when you add a 4ft bar on ?

Would choose the 661 every time , there is not barely any trees in the country that a 36" bar would not deal with if your confident in double and bore cutting when felling ,the chain speed is a lot faster and it weighs less.

[Peter]

661 for me, I've never felt the need to run anything bigger and we've dealt with some big trees over the years

 

I run a 42" bar with full chisel skip chain for the big stuff.

[Thesnarlingbadger]

The only thing I will point out is the new saws that sthil have brought out tend not to be as robust as the older kit or as powerful. Not by much but I was enough for me to go out and rush buy a ms660 before they were taken off the shelf. I didn't fancy having a big saw without enough guts, you can put up with it with smaller saws but not a big timber saw. That being said I have no experience with the 661.

But that being said the 88 is effing heavy and not nice to use up a tree as has been mentioned.

[IVECOKID]

880 for me , old school engine setup and fixable , I use mine once a month and run it on Stihl motomix . Not has heavy has I was expecting but I was use to a big old Dolmar plus I have absolutely no desire to go up a tree with anything bigger than my 461 .

 

Ste

Edited February 27, 2016 by IVECOKID

[Peter]

660 7.3 kg and 5.2kW

661 7.4 kg and 5.4kW

 

More power and better power to weight ratio for the 661.

[TreeswingerPerth]

We have an 880 , barley gets used , maybe once or twice a year . Go for the 661 , as Matty says there's not much you can't cut with a 36" .

[Ian C]

661 for me aswell, used to have an 880 who we called Nigel after my yard land lord because it was over weight, numb, didn't work much and no one liked it!