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MS 362 or 441???

Started by CJ Porter, March 25, 2012, 12:23:42 PM

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CJ Porter

Well I went with the 362 with a 20' bar and for now I'm using an Oilomatic Rapid Super chain.  I took it out and ran a couple tanks through it and I am very pleased. It is plenty of saw to handle what I am doing. I cut for 2 hours and I think I got a little over half a cord ready to load in that time. I did use my 290 for limbing. I really appreciate all the help you guys have given me.

I took a couple pictures of the trees so you guys will have I better idea of what I'm doing.



  

CJ Porter

Quote from: s grinder on March 26, 2012, 09:53:26 PM
CJ Porter,You would be doing your self a favor to have a machine to load the wood,spend one day cutting,one day loading.

I have a skid steer I will use if anything is too heavy to load by hand.

beenthere

Think you did well on the saw decision.

Those trees, if they all are like the pic, are a real challenge IMO. Wish you well.
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

Ianab

Yeah, if the 20" will handle the job, then a MS362 is a good choice. Pro grade saw that will handle full time use, light and powerful etc.

My 441 advice was assuming you needed a bigger bar, but if the 20" is big enough, you got the right saw.

Trees like that are "interesting" to work with, keep your wits about you cutting them, they can create all sorts of mantraps and limbs under tension. But firewood is about all they were ever going to be good for.  ;)

Ian
Weekend warrior, Peterson JP test pilot, Dolmar 7900 and Stihl MS310 saws and  the usual collection of power tools :)

WDH

Whoa, those trees are gnarly!
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

s grinder

Good choice of saws,thats some ugly wood to cut,be careful and plan an escape route.

lumberjack48

Quote from: John Mc on March 26, 2012, 10:50:48 PM
Lumberjack48 -

With Stihl, I think Picco is just low profile chain. I believe it's the Duro chain that is carbide. Been a while since I looked at it, though.

Picco all so comes in a full carbide chain. You can get the Picco up to 404 pitch chain, heres the chain chart.
http://www.stihlusa.com/chain-guide-bar/saw-chain.html

CJ Poter, be careful cutting these trees, they can be chin breakers, shin
broses and belle pushers. This kind of stuff will keep you on your toes, you need a 36" bar to stay out of harms way.
Third generation logger, owner operator, 30 yrs felling experience with pole skidder. I got my neck broke back in 89, left me a quad. The wife kept the job going up to 96.

kenskip1


Texas that has been hit by Live Oak Wilt CJ, I have a lot of this around my area.I am in central Coleman county.Ken in Coleman
Stihl The One
Stihl Going Strong
Stihl Looking For The Fountain of Middle Age

Clam77

We have alot of Oak up here in the midwest - What exactly are you looking for to determine if you have this wilt on your trees??  Is it a fungus on the outter bark or something?? 

Prefer not to have our trees up here getting it...    :-\

And CJ, do be careful - the last oak I cut up was an old 30" 100+ year old Red Oak.  I cut it into 2' chunks (with an MS362) to load into the truck but it still took a loader tractor to even move them on the ground - and that was with most of the tree rotten in the middle. 
Andy

Stihl 009, 028, 038, 041, MS362
Mac 1-40, 3-25

beenthere

south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

park ranger

I just cut up  some maple and alder with the 440 with a 32" bar.  It cuts tons faster than my 361 or the 029 and isn't much harder to use because you don't bend over all the time.  I just hold the saw at my waist and kinda rest it on the top of the chaps.  My 361 has an opened up muffler but still sounds like a bee compared to the 440.  The 029 doesn't even get out of the shop much any more.
It was a row of 16" wood 7'x 16' long all cut with one  tank of gas and one hand sharpened chain. 

CJ Porter

I have no doubt that the 441 will cut faster. And I'm sure there are going to be days when I wish I had bought one. The primary  reason I went with the 362 is price. I saved $200 buying the 362. That means $200 less wood I will have to cut to pay for the new saw. In the future after I have a few cords under my belt I might decide to go get a 441 but for now I am very happy with the 362.

beenthere

We'd be interested in seeing pics of the operation as you proceed.  Hopefully all goes well.
Enjoy that 362.  8)
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

Clam77

Guess I'm a little behind then huh beenthere...

I see that article is dated 2005..   :D
Andy

Stihl 009, 028, 038, 041, MS362
Mac 1-40, 3-25

shortlogger

I you decide to upgrade agin i would consider the 460 it has the same weight as the 441 but 6 hp where the 441 only has 5.5 hp but looking at the size of the trees you are cutting the 361 is proabably fine .
1 Corinthians 3:7 So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase . "NKJV"

lumberjack48

CJ  wait on till all the leaves are out, then fall a bunch down. Then wait till the leaves are brown. The wood will be 50 % or more lighter. This is the quick way to get seasoned wood.
Third generation logger, owner operator, 30 yrs felling experience with pole skidder. I got my neck broke back in 89, left me a quad. The wife kept the job going up to 96.

beenthere

lumberjack48
Wouldn't it be great if it really worked that way.  ;D
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

lumberjack48

I peeled pulp 20 yrs, we learned that if we left it tree length with the top on it lost 50% of its weight. If we sawed the top off, it lost very little weight.
There was always Ash and other hardwood mixed in with the Aspen. So as we were cutting and peeling we'd drop the hardwood, and skid it for firewood as we skidded the Aspen in the fall. The Aspen and the hardwood got so hard it was like sawing up ironwood.
About a yr before i got hurt a friend of mine wanted a pickup load of seasoned birch. I told him i didn't have any, but i was cutting Birch saw bolts. If he could wait a month i'd have a couple loads. I skidded the Birch tree length with tops, by the landing i'd measure the saw bolts out and saw the top off. I left the rest of the tree lay on till they were brown, when i cut-em up the wood was pure white and feather light, i was todly unpressed myself.

beenthere if i hadn't done this over the yrs i certainly wouldn't just pull it out of thin air.  I know that burly, limbing Oak will lose a lot of weight by doing this. This spring go drop a tree, saw a block off so you know how heavy it is. Then leave it about 2 weeks, see if it lightened up any.  :o
Third generation logger, owner operator, 30 yrs felling experience with pole skidder. I got my neck broke back in 89, left me a quad. The wife kept the job going up to 96.

CJ Porter

Lumberjack,  I'm afraid most of these trees are dead or to far gone to leaf out. Most of our trees are already putting on leaves or even finished by now. It's pretty warm down here. 88 degrees for a high today. Lows have been in the 50s for a couple weeks.

CJ Porter

Not to mention live oaks are pretty much evergreen. They shed leaves in early spring and the new ones are coming out as the old ones fall.

lumberjack48

When the new leaves come out drop a few, let-em turn brown, give it a try.
Third generation logger, owner operator, 30 yrs felling experience with pole skidder. I got my neck broke back in 89, left me a quad. The wife kept the job going up to 96.

CJ Porter

I think I have a tuning issue with the 362. It started cold no problem and if I killed it and immediately restarted it was fine, but if I killed it and let it sit for a few minutes it was hard to start. It ran well after it was started. It was pretty hot today (96°).

JohnG28

I had this issue with my 361 a while back.  The saw would get very hot when running hard in hot weather and then would be hard to restart. I had the high setting out as far as I could with the limiter caps but could not fix the problem until I pulled the caps and trimmed off the limiters.  After that I adjusted the carbs high setting richer and haven't had an issue since.  ;D
Stihl MS361, 460 & 200T, Jonsered 490, Jonsereds 90, Husky 350 & 142, Homelite XL and Super XL

lumberjack48

Usually you would open the low jet about a 1/4 turn to cure the problem. The way it sounds on here, these new saws are set to lean to start with. So be care full with the new saw in that kind of heat, its easy to walk out of a piston. Thats my slang for scoring a piston, a Stihl dealer recommended me to run 32:1, i had saws i'd ran 8 yrs with out a problem.

Good luck, stay cool and be safe
Third generation logger, owner operator, 30 yrs felling experience with pole skidder. I got my neck broke back in 89, left me a quad. The wife kept the job going up to 96.

CJ Porter

Well I bought a 441 yesterday and hired another wood cutter today. Hopefully we are going to start cutting a lot of wood.

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