Chain saw to pack in 4X4

Maria, we have an inverter, so we carry a 550W electric sabre saw with a variety of blades up to 300mm long.
The advantages are low weight, low space, no fuel, no smell and quiet.
Plus.... with the right blades you can cut a bull-bar, or almost anything else.

Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 Motorhome

Try the new little Makita 2 strokes, got a bar about 300mm long. Saw them at a Makita Do in Adelaide last week, they seemed to go oright,
Regards
GregF

Hi Maria

I pack a 300mm Stihl chainsaw and have done for 15 years - same unit. They are around $400 new and just last forever.

I own a cordless sabre saw as well and they are great and with the right blades they will cut just about anything. To cut firewood they would run out of choof too quickly and you would be recharging after every cut. I had a need to cut 2 x tree roots off the other day - about 150mm dia - and the cordless emptied one battery per root. They are a good option if you don't have a chainsaw and they do pack down much smaller and don't require oil and petrol - so a lot of good points but would struggle to cut enough wood for a decent campfire.

Hope that helps.

David

Stihl MS192t weight 3kg, 12" bar, easy to remove plastic housing,built in chain tensioner ---around $629
Stihl MC180--12" bar around $539
Stihl Model 009good saw but discontinued.
Echo also good saw 10" bar (model cs2600es)
" " 12"bar (modelcs320T)
Or Bunnings have a small petrol chainsaw for $135!!
Remember you get what you pay for . Stihl are good quality saws.

hi maria j
this might not be the place to put this, but i have a stihl 025 wood boss excess to my needs it has a 14'' bar measured will the bar was attached.cheers bill. phone 0439841474 $300.

The shortest chainsaws available are the arborist models which have the rear handle on top like the Stihl MS192T Excellent power to weight & cut a reasonable sized tree.
Cheers Craig..............

Hi Maria

We have a few chainsaws but wanted to get the most compact so we could always have it in the car.

Size was important and even the addition of a carry case was unacceptable to us, hence we put a plastic shopping bag over ours each time its used and this stops the odd oil/petrol drops.

The most compact chainsaw is the Stihl MS170 miniboss typically $350.
Ensure it comes with 35cm bar.

The MS180 is a slightly more powerful but almost identical cousin , its significantly dearer and extra power is wasted for general use.

There are arborist chainsaws which don't have the handle at the back which are shorter but are much harder to use for general tree removal etc.

The MS170 , while not cheap is all you want and the smallest , but as other post have indicated you can pay 50% less and get a bigger but equally useful product e.g. Talon.

Maria,

I'll go against the tide of spending big dollars on a chainsaw.

We have a small Talon, 38cc job. Cost us $160 almost 5 years ago and has done a swag of camping trips, cutting firewood and clearing tracks. I've never so much as changed the sparkplug.

The only maintenance has been tightening the chain and sharpening it (using a $50, 12 volt sharpener).

The old "you only get what you pay" theory has been dismissed by me many times. Sure, if you're a treelopper and belt the living daylights out of it, get a good one, BUT, for the average camper, a cheapie will siit your needs.

Cheers,

Jim.

Bunnings have tiny 2 stroke chainsaws for $130 at the moment, 12 or 14" bar.

I was going to buy a cheapy a couple of months ago ( all approx $260 ) then asked for a price on the cheapest Huskie they had....a superceded one for $320....

And although it will never get a hard life, hopefully in 5yrs time it will still start 1st pull ...so was glad to pay a few extra bucks for it ..

And I got a canvas carry bag ( approx $25 ) for it from In Front canvas which holds everything ( saw, petrol,lube , spanners etc ) and also stops other things from coming into contact with the saw ..

Question is what do you want to use it for?

If just occasional firewood then get something cheap.

But if you expect to have to clear logs off tracks then think about a 20 or 22" bar.

Maria,
I'm with Jim. I have a Bunnings (GMC) cheapy based on Jim's logic. I know GMC may have gone bust but for the dollars I'll throw it away when it breaks and buy another and still in front of a Sthil
Cheers
Trevor

Hi i boughrt 2 12" gmc saws from bunnings for $100. and have cut heaps with them easy to use easy to start and cheap, I think they are the ozito ones for $135 but in my experience cheap is good.Cchris

Best way to improve the cutting performance of the cheapies is to chuck away the supplied handyman/saftey /no kickback chain with only a cutting tooth every 4 links and replace with a proper quality chain.- should cost less than 35 bucks.

the saw will pull itself thru the wood rather than have to be forced ,in fact if you force it you will stall the smaller underpowered saws.