njc110381

That's my thinking. A bit of weight often means more solid build. Same power from a smaller engine makes me think it will wear itself out more quickly?! The comment from Ukulian, although reassuringly positive for the 390, does suggest that the 450 is a tough little saw. If it can do a year in the hands of a rough ground crew without giving any trouble then it's going to last me ten! It does raise a question though - would you give your groundies 390's or more 450's when the saws they are running now finally give up? You're supposed to be helping me chaps, not confusing me! Lots of positive feedback on both - I was hoping there would be a clear winner but it seems that whichever I go with I won't be disappointed. If the 390 uses less fuel vs the 450 then it will probably save enough money to replace itself over the life of the machine...

Scores are looking very positive for the 390 so far. Now all I need is a price from my dealer. It wasn't on his price list so I've just chased him up to find out what he can do. It'll probably be more expensive than I can get it online but they look after me. If he can get it I'll buy it from him.

I'd noticed that too. The 38cm bar would be plenty for what I want to do but a bit of extra torque would be good. The narrower kerf chain on the 390 also suggests the same. I had kind of expected to get plenty of praise for both... looks like I was right in my assumption! I understand the newer 390 has come from development by Shindaiwa, as the two companies have partnered up? Going by my Shindaiwa hedge trimmer which is years old and just refuses to die, that's certainly not a negative point! Thanks for your replies... I might just give this topic a few days and use the replies as a vote! I don't think I'll go wrong with either! What would you say makes the 390 better Geoff? Apart from the obvious weight advantage?

Hi guys. I'm hoping to pick the brains of someone who uses one or both of these saws. I want to buy one, but I don't know which. Both come in at 1.9kw and there's only half a kilo in it weight wise. The thing that's bothering me is that the 390 produces the same power with 6cc less engine and also runs 3/8 .050 chain. The 450 runs .325 .058, which to me seems to be a more robust option. I know it was often fitted to the old mid range pro Husky saws like the 254xp where as the 3/8 .050 is what's fitted to the smaller Stihls? Both are listed as pro saws and the warranty is good, but I'm struggling to choose because it just feels as if the newer 390 is a bit of a compromise. Am I wrong to think that? I know what I'm doing with a saw and have my ground tickets, but that's as far as it goes. I'm not a day in, day out user but I do want something decent and long lasting because when I have a hard day on the saw they earn their keep! Currently I run a little Echo CS-310 (don't laugh, I bought it on a whim) which is great for what it is, but a bit lacking, and a Stihl MS660... a bit of a step up! I want the saw for felling trees up to a foot or so round and for cutting firewood. The 310 is a bit slow when the wood is that big, and the 660 is just a lump. With the 18" bar on it flies through them but I'm carrying a lot more weight than I should be for running that size bar! It's performance is wasted somewhat. What do you think? I'm hoping someone will turn up and throw an obvious answer at me. It's the sort of thing that comes with experience, and most of you have more of that than I do!

On my trailer the ramp tailgate is about the same height as the feed hopper. I use a strap with the ratchet on one end and then just a long strap that makes a big loop that you can tighten... Hopefully you can picture what I mean? It doesn't need hooks and just feeds back through it's own buckle. I run that through the bottom of the ramp, over the axle by the wheel and then under the machine and back over the axle by the other wheel. I then run it back out and up the outside of the tailgate, back in at the top and around the hopper in a similar manner. Tighten that up and it's rock solid. No straps needed on the front. It sounds long winded but takes maybe a minute to do

I did another job with mine a couple of weeks back that would have been a 100+m uphill drag with loads of fairly small stuff. Client kept the chip to mulch the bed that I'd just cleared. They're certainly good starter machines and spot on for smaller jobs or narrow access. If I do get a bigger chipper I won't be selling the little one! It's done too many jobs now that my old towable one wouldn't fit into.

Do you plan to do any serious off roading? Just thinking about the restriction in chassis flex - it's something that people new to mogs often don't consider, and it can cause issues. Not wanting to sound negative. I just don't want to see you make an expensive mistake!

I'm just in the process of building a trailer for mine. I'm planning on it being a similar layout to the 18/100 - it certainly won't be any bigger or heavier, but can be wheeled off when needed. There's no negative to it that I can see. I was using mine in just that situation today. Taking the chipper to the branches meant I could chip 20-30 branches into a wheelie bin then drag that out and tip it. Better than dragging 20-30 branches to the chipper. It saved me hours of walking. I'm also amazed at the material it handled. I thought after reading this topic that I'd push it a little to see how it coped. It chipped a good length of 5" willow that I thought would stall it. The drum design seems to stop it from over feeding on thicker stuff. It doesn't pull as hard on thick branches as a disk chipper - probably because at that point the blades are pushing away nearly as much as pulling? It certainly would have killed my 18-100 or given me a serious beating trying to slow the feed, that's if it would even have fitted down the throat. After that I gave it a fork that would have a TW150 scrabbling for grip. In fact I'm positive that it wouldn't have fitted. The wide throat allowed that piece in with ease.

I just traded my 18/100 for a Greenmech CS100 and I think the CS100 processes branches faster. Certainly it's the case with forked material or more bushy stuff, as the throat of the infeed is much larger. For a similar ability level it's also much more compact which can be very handy. Of course it won't keep up with a 6" roller fed machine. But then a 6" roller fed machine won't keep up with a 9" roller fed machine. Not everyone needs to haul around a machine the size of a Bandit 1990 though. I've rarely found that my little machines restrict me because they suit the sort of work that I do. Bigger is better, but only if you need it. The other week we took down a 30m poplar and it took me about half an hour to process all the brush that wasn't wanted for firewood. Not that it makes good firewood, but I wasn't going to tell that to the free wood scroungers that were swarming around it like flies around a turd!

Now I've used my CS100 a few times I can really recommend it. They're fantastic little machines. You could tow it around sites with your tractor when needed. The down side to a tractor mounted machine is that you'd have a more bulky machine to haul around, even when the tractor isn't needed.

Well it's been out a couple of times now. One day for garden prunings - budliha, pyracantha along with some dead sycamore windfall and a bit of conifer, and another for a larger poplar take down. I have to say, I'm quite impressed! On the small stuff, the wide infeed opening means you can chuck in a big arm full of cuttings in one go, and they still feed. My old Entec wouldn't have that as the hopper was very cone shaped. It would push down until it wedged and stop feeding so needed to be given half a dozen bits at a time which was very time consuming. The conifer flies through. I didn't block it once, although the revs did bog right down a couple of times as I was getting a feel for how hard I could push it. On the poplar it also did well. I shoved a couple of logs through that were up around the 5" mark, and with a bit of control from me so it didn't over feed it handled them fine. Again, it got the job done much quicker than my old Entec, and threw the chip further. One thing that I did find odd is that there isn't much of a noticeable blowing effect from the discharge spout. The chips fly out at a hell of a pace but if you put your hand over it you can hardly feel a breeze? The Entec was like holding your hand in front of a leaf blower? I reckon that could be a real advantage for filling sacks because they won't blow around so much. I also picked up a wheelie bin yesterday and went to look at a little trailer for it. I'm thinking of making it so it will fit a bin either side of the discharge chute and the chipper will be usable on the trailer when it doesn't need to come off.

Good to see some pictures. Keep it up - they're a long slog but it will be worth it in the end

I used to love milk and would consume a fair amount of it. Usually full fat or Jersey and organic. It seems I've recently developed lactose intolerance, which is a real downer for me because I love vast quantities of milk, cheese, butter etc. Strangely though, and with no placebo effect possible as I've just read this and hadn't considered it, I've been hurting a lot more recently than normal. Work hasn't changed but my body is really tightening up and my joints hurt more. I'd say that this came on not long after I cut out a lot of the milk based products from my diet.

Yesterday's was Adidas by Little Mix... Dear god I could have shoved my saw in my face by the end of the day to get it out of my head! That's what going in the wife's car does to you... Me and the lad I work with often talk about it. It usually starts with "wtf are you whistling?" and then a long rant of how it's stuck from last night at the pub/wife's car/kids tv. Now and again you get a good one, but more often than not it's crap! On a good day I'll have some AC/DC going on in there. but not often.

I'm only going by a farmer who used his tractor to mow his local playing field as a good will gesture. He got had for it. May have been red diesel use, I'm not sure? But it's worth checking! Even as a historic tractor I put white in mine. Red is crap anyway!

Agrimog - my understanding of the lwb models is that the **50's will take a linkage as the rear axle is right at the back just like it is on the shorter ones. If an L is added then it suggests rear overhang, and what you're saying is a very good point that I hadn't thought to add. Edit... Towing the mower is dangerous ground for Ag I think. And even domestic works that are not verge work (You can use a tractor to maintain highway verges and trees, but as soon as it's in a garden?). I currently have mine as a historic tractor. I can't use it for work - only display use and driving around for fun, which is fine while I restore it.

Even the "long" mogs are pretty reasonable in size and have very good turning circles. My 406 will swing round in places I'd struggle to do the same in my dad's Ford Fiesta! It's a long time since I owned something that will turn like that. Owning a mixture of lwb Landies and Japanese pickups for the last ten years has got me into the habit of doing a fifteen point turn every time I need to turn around!

I used to do that with my old Entec. It's a very good trick when using a gravity fed machine. Unfortunately yesterday it took a while before I found anything large enough to do te job, so the broom had to be employed. I'm not sure about chocks for the wheels. I was thinking I may add some small latches to it somehow that will engage into holes drilled in the wheels. A bit excessive but a good long term and dead solid answer to the issue. It's not even a big issue really, but it is a small niggle that only happened once in the half dozen different spots I wanted to chip in. All in it's a very good machine. I'd really recommend them:thumbup1:

The older mogs do have a serious lack of protection if you were to roll it. Roll cages were produced to fit by the likes of James Jones etc, but really you would be better off with a slightly newer one I think. The U90 was designed to work hard, it just doesn't handle it as well as the rest. Probably a good half way house between a full spec mog and a Transit tipper, but when going that far you may as well do it properly. Any of the models with a turbo, so 1200 and above, would be my choice for serious work. The standard OM352 engine with no turbo is sluggish to say the least.

Well skyhuck has a lot more experience than me in this field, but my thinking is to avoid the U90 as the engine really isn't great for lots of standing still implement tasks (running the chipper whilst stationary). A 406/U900 has quite a tight cab for passengers and the PTO gearbox isn't as robust as the square cab models. Long distance comfort isn't an option in the old round cabs. I'd still take one over a U90 though - I love my old 406! Towing wise all will manage what you want to do. All will have fantastic off road ability so choose a short or long wheelbase by how much chip you may want to carry. Personally I think the long one suits that need best unless you chip into a big trailer. It's also a little more stable both on road at speed and off road. That said, off road I think most drivers would bottle it long before the mog was at risk. For sensible money I think a 1250 or 1450 takes some beating for arb work. If you want a really huge chipper then maybe step up to the heavy chassis models as they will carry it better.

My Trukloder used to do that. You learn to read the machine after a while and just know what's going on. I used to chuck a handful of smaller stuff in the end of the hopper when doing short logs - holds them in nicely and helps to drag them through. I used my CS100 for the first time yesterday. Absolutely amazing little machine considering it's size. It beats my old Entec hands down with bendy or forked material. The rubber curtain bothered me when I was doing pyracantha - the thorns stick in it and it won't feed. I spent more time picking thorns out of my arms and fighting with it then anything else! In the end I thought I'd take a chance on shoving it down the chute with the broom, but we all know what can happen when you start doing things like that. Luckily I didn't, but it came close! My only gripe about the little machine is that it really could do with a brake. I was working on a slight incline on a driveway and it was hard to hold it still. I think I'll fudge something together to brake the wheels next time I'm rained off.

Nice machine. Not something for a novice to drive though. I couldn't keep up with all the controls that's for sure! I like the ones that they fit on Unimogs - one or more of the cutters can feel an obstacle and move the cutter around it. Some even have a little strimmer to cut around the pole before carrying on!

I think personally I would have a thicker piece of plate welded to the back of the butt plate and then drill through and bolt on a heavy recovery eye. The advantage to that is that if your double line pulling is very rare you could simply screw it on when needed. That would keep any protrusions out of the way until you needed them - the eye could just live in the tractor somewhere or be tied to the winch even.

New mog photos! Very nice Casto! In fact, I reckon I'm going to have to chat you up for a go in it at some point. I just couldn't believe the low down grunt that it's got compared to a normal 406 - it made the drive to the chip shop very entertaining! Re. the screw splitter, I get on fine with mine. Very stringy stuff can need a pull now and again but I've never had one that I can't do. And for logs with knots or twisted grain it flies through faster than any ram splitter I've ever seen. I was doing some beech a while back and the grain was spiralling at about 35 degrees of of straight. Nothing else would touch it but my Hycrack popped it apart like it was a normal log. It doesn't seem to need a grain to follow.

Do they really need to be there at all? I always wear a helmet/visor when using it - be stupid not to whether it's got flaps or not! I remember using my chipper once with safety glasses and ear protection because I forgot my helmet. Never again!