Hi All,
Firstly I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Mark and I'm based in East Ayrshire. I've visited the forum several times as I've been doing some inernet reasearch on chainsaws and have found it a very useful source of info....there is clearly some real experts on here! I thought it time I joined up and said hello as I'm about to take the plunge into buying what will hopefully be my first "decent" saw (I've had a couple of cheapos in the past with varying success).
I'm no business user, but I live on a small farm and have a fair number of small-medium trees that I want to remove and use the firewood in the stove, so nothing goes to waste. I have been looking at second hand saws, but I've pretty much come to the conclusion that it's maybe not worth the risk (unless anyone on here can recommend something (or a trusted seller)). I certainly don't want to buy someone else's problems or poorly maintained saw.
I seem to favour Husky, but I have absolutely no justification for that other than I used to race one and loved it (motocrosser), so I guess Stihl looks good too. The saws all look good, and from all the advice on here it seems to really boil down to either Stihl or Husky. Looking at the sheer number of Husky models is really starting to fry my brain. I think I'm suffering from the old "paralysis by analysis" now. Is it the 346, the 550, go autotune, don't go autotune, go Mk1, go Mk2, get a 455 Rancher......aaaarrrrgghhhhh!!!!!!. I was actually watching some you-tube videos on the 460 Rancher and I thought - "Right, that's it....I'll get that one". Called the local dealer and they said they had never heard of it??? They said they only do a 455 Rancher.....so of course that sent me into a tailspin again (possibly just a US thing?). The problem is I have no real history with any of this. So, if I may ask, can you help with some advice to make sure I don't screw this up and buy something that doesn't hit the mark?
If so, my questions are as follows:
If you had a budget of around £500-600 (ish) to spend on a saw that was to be used for the odd felling job, prepping logs for burning and general maintenance:
1) what would you buy from the current range, or
2) would you recommend something second hand (if so, what?)
The features I (think) I want are as follows:
a) a good powerful saw
b) must be reliable, easy to start and able to sit around for a while without needing "fettled" all the time (it will be well maintained)
c) not too concerned about it being the lightest as I'm not using it all day every day (but don't want a breeze block)
d) able to run a decent sized bar 18"-20"
Then, if possible any recommendations on where to get one at a decent price (I called two dealers near me and their price for the 455 Rancher varied by more than £100 which surprised me). I'd normally like to go and kick some tryes, have a look etc, but under current conditions it's getting delivered anyway.....so I can buy from anywhere in the UK that is still open.
Thanks in advance for your help. Apologies if these questions have all been asked before.
Mark.
