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Well I'm leaning towards the 372 unless anyone thinks that autotune and less vibrations are worth the extra cost/weight for the 576. The 372 also has a higher chain speed by the look of it.

Do you get alot of kickback on a short bar with the 576?

Thanks for all your thoughts, those were the 3 saws I looked at but if you know any better ones please say. A 20 inch bar would be the maximum I would run, I would probably stick to an 18, it's just nice to have the choice in future.

I'm looking at getting a new chainsaw (currently use Oleo-mac 962 and Husqvarna 357) and thought I should get some advice from the experts. I mainly want to run 15-20 inch bars for crosscutting hardwood logs from 2-20inch but it will also be used for some felling. I'm looking at three Husqvarnas; 360xp, 372 XP X-TORQ and 576 XP AutoTune. Specs are here Will the 576 cut much faster on an 18-20inch bar than the others or is it worth saving weight and sticking to a 560xp? Any help appreciated.

The 1x37 is a good machine if you're doing small wood because it's a manual, it will also make 20+ inch firewood if I remember correctly, the only small problem is the belts wear out and there's 4 of them to change about every 100-200 tons. Our machine did about 1000-1200 tons before the cost of repairs got too much and we changed it. If you look at second hand 1x42s check if they are belt or hydraulic driven, the original ones were still belt driven so aren't as good (in my opinion).

Whats the slot like, maybe buy a cheap one from another machine and weld it in?

We don't but alot of people store wood in potato boxes so that should work. We season our wood for around 12 months after felling but you can half that for ash. Price depends on your area, I would go for £100+ not including the box but you might/should be able to get quite a bit more depending on other suppliers prices around you and the area you're in. The deposit might be a good idea but alot of people might see a £5 deposit as a good way of getting a £50 box. Have you got a way to unload boxes when you deliver them?

Quick review for anyone interested: We got a Tajfun 400 joy from Kilworth recently and it's a very nice machine once you get used to the joystick (I had previously used manual controls). Pros: 15 ton splitter - this is the best feature, most logs will go through sideways and even on 15 inch diameter oak it hasn't failed to split yet. It's also very fast. Swinging conveyor (out) - I think this an option but it's very useful Last piece of wood - This is hard to explain but two plates come up and support the end of a log which, if you cut alot of firewood you will know how annoying it is when the last piece falls in the splitting chamber before being cut. Auto off - If you open the main guard everyting pauses including the chain and conveyor which is very quick way to stop blockages. Hydraulic splitter adjustment. Cons: Changing the chain (you have to take processor chains off to sharpen them) is very fiddly (you should get at least 10 tons per sharpening on hardwood) Most of the machine is very strong but the guard above the chainsaw is a bit weak. Our chain drive belt (everything else is hydraulic) went after 100tons and was horrible to change. On 18 inch logs the splitter can force them up and bend the inside of the machine, this is the one design flaw I can think of but once you know to expect it it's ok. Anything under 15inch is fine. The price has just gone up by a few thousand as more people switch to this machine. Needs about a 45HP tractor. If your cutting big timber this is a very good machine but if you do alot of 2-5 inch logs it is slow cutting these because of the joystick being a set speed. Kilworth are expensive on new chains etc but they have been a good dealer in our experience. Feel free to ask anything else.

Yep. This was the first year we stockpiled that much in advance and we had exactly that problem so we thought if we wanted to keep stockpiling, which we will have to do if we can't get a few dry days anymore, we need to find a drying system. We can get the heat through hot water pipes from a boiler but I don't think that a heated floor will do any good because theres no where for the moisture to go. We came to the conclusion that blowing air up through a drying floor would be the best option but because of the cost I thought I would look around to see if someone had tried something similar or knew of a good system.

We store it like this and ideally want to dry it without changing the system.

Our standard firewood is 9, 12 and and a bit of 18 inch which is split 6 ways so a width of 1 - 4 inches.

We're looking at the drive on floors with mesh gaps (something like this FLR Crop Drying - Drive-on FloorsVentilated hardwood floors, softwood floors, grain drying floors, root crop storage) but as I have no knowledge of the different types I thought I would ask here. As you say there might not be enough 'resistance' with logs for the air flow so I was was wondering if there are any floors around where you can block sections. This all is very vague ideas at the moment though.

Thanks for the reply. We looked at storing in containers and still are a bit but decided a drying floor would be less hassle for large amounts. By seasoned I mean they have been stored in lengths for 12 months then we bring them in and cut them. The problem is because we are selling more than we can store we have to cut some damp wood and we need a way to dry them, then even when they are dry and stored in a dry shed the moisture starts to get back in so we want to be able to swith a dryer on for a couple of hours at a time and keep the stack dry to avoid mould. We will probably have a biomass boiler so underfloor heating (with air vent)seems like the best thing for us. We are just looking for advice on any reliable makes or if someone had tried this with a grain floor before.

Hi, I'm new around here and looking for some advice. We want to stockpile a few hundred tons of seasoned firewood and are having trouble getting it dry so we're looking at using underfloor heating to dry it from a biomass boiler. The floors we're looking at are grain floors and I wondered if anyone had any advice on types, cost or just another idea completely? Edit: We're looking at doing the same with woodchip.