Would appreciate advice for chain saw purchase - Stihl MS 290, Stihl MS 260 Pro, Homelite UT10520

[Bigg_Redd]

I'm probably the only one who feels this way but I don't like the 290. It just didn't seem to cut well given its size, even after being working over by a good saw guy.
I mostly use a 210C which for smaller stuff or an 036 for large stuff.

Just my half cents...

Not really. It breaks down like this - owners of 290s/310s/390s love them while owners of Dolmers think they (290/310/390) are overweight and underpowered.

You have lots of company here.

 

[smokinj]

I'm probably the only one who feels this way but I don't like the 290. It just didn't seem to cut well given its size, even after being working over by a good saw guy.
I mostly use a 210C which for smaller stuff or an 036 for large stuff.

Just my half cents...

Not really. It breaks down like this - owners of 290s/310s/390s love them. Owners of Dolmers think they are overweight and underpowered.

You have lots of company here.

with a 036 iam sure the 290 wouldnt be impressive big money differnce as well

 

[Gooserider]

Dolmar P5100-S ($394) - This is the last saw I looked at. The balance seemed really nice on this saw - better than the others. Couldn't beat the weight, and with great power to boot (the best in it's class). And it's got anti-vibration technology (not necessary for me, but a tie-breaking feature). The dealer is 6 miles away from me, and there are two others within ~25 miles should something happen to the close-in dealer. I could see using this for limbing as well as bucking, where I wouldn't say that about the MS-290, MS-270, or 455, and it's not the high price that the 346XP is. I think this is the one.

One other comment - I have an inherent mistrust of any brand I see in a big box store nowadays. I know how these stores operate - they chisel the vendors down on price, and pretty soon the vendors figure out that to hit the cost targets of the big box retailers, they have to scrimp on quality. It's a horrible, downhill slide that I've seen too many times before. Just the other day, I saw Husqvarna in a big box store (I don't go to these places often) and it just ruined my image of their brand. In the case of Husqvarna, if they are not there yet with lower quality, they will be sooner or later. Worse, they may be there today, and I'm making a buying decision today based on yesterday's quality. No thanks. Stihl and Dolmar don't sell through these big box retailers, so I trust their brands and quality levels far more than Husqvarna.

I think Dolmar is the great bargain saw these days, they give you a lot more saw for the money - perhaps because they put more of the cost into making saws instead of advertisements.... I love my 7900, which I use for most things, including felling and limbing. Never used a 5100, but it felt really nice when I picked one up the other day at the Bangor show.

It is good that you have dealers nearby, though my experience w/ many of the dealers listed on the Dolmar website wasn't really good - seemed like I knew more about the line than they did... However, there are also some excellent shops out there, so that may not apply... I also don't see that there is a huge amount of "magic" about having a Dolmar dealer as opposed to a "brand X" shop - there isn't anything that odd or unusual about a Dolmar, and parts are available readily, so I don't see any reason a good saw guy couldn't fix the rare Dolmar problem just as readily as he could the same issue on a Brand X saw.

As to Husky and the Big Box stores - my understanding is that Husky quality depends highly on the "grade" of saw... The "consumer-grade" Huskys are made in Asia, and are essentially Poulans (owned by Husky) with orange covers, and like modern Pull-on's, quality is questionable at best. The Pro-grade Husky's are still made in Europe, and are still high quality... Guess which versions of Husky are sold in the Big Boxes.... By the same token, my local True Value hardware store sells Stihl, along w/ Husky, Echo, and a large range of other OPE... I don't see a huge difference between True Value and some of the other Big Boxes, other than the question of who owns the franchises...

Gooserider