I have a Husky 55 Rancher that I use for most of my cutting but I'm looking for a good quality light-weight saw for limbing, pruning, and trimming. I'd prefer gas but would consider electric as well. What has worked well for you?

 

Well, so far my Husky 142 has been a good saw.
Ok, maybe I will actually use it this weekend.
Its light tho.

 

I run husky 365, and 3126 saws for all general work

If I need to top or trim, I use a poulan pro 46cc with a 20" bar. It is light, has enough jam to get the job done, and starts up every time. Thats about all you can ask for

 

ii have a husky 44,357 and 61,i have had husky 1100&280,i like the 357 best,however i would stick with the husky 55 as even my 44 is too lite for anything serious

 

Husq all the way.

 

I have 2 bigger Huskies, have never had a lightweight Husky. Have a stihl l.weight and have been very pleased. Don't get a pos electric.

 

Husq is the way to go imho. We have a fleet of them and never have had any problems. Same with STIHL.

 

http://www.echo-usa.com/product.asp?...egory=CHAINSAW

And a review of a slightly older model.

http://forestry.about.com/cs/chainsaws/p/echo.htm

 

Most any saw is fine for the ocasional use that a homeowner would put it to. If you're gonna use the saw a lot then you want to get a better brand, such as Husqvarna or Stihl. I have both and am quite happy with all of them.
Of course the Stihl or Husky versions of the limbing saws are expensive, but you get what you pay for. If you want to go as small as 14" bar, and easy single hand use, you'll want the Husky 338XPT or the Stihl models MS180T or MS200T. These are well balanced, professional saws and suitable for one handed use. I believe all of them will support up to a 16" bar.
If you don't need something as small as those you may be able to pick up the consumer models of small saw by either, such as the Husky 141/142.

Chris

 

I use a Stihl 290 for limbing trees to cutting logs. It gets a little heavy in trees after a while, but it helps build the muscle. :-)

 

Call me crazy, but I always limb with my Stihl 440. Yeah its a large professional saw, but I dont like changing from one saw to another all day. If its just little work im doing, I have an older poulan that works great. As others have said, the Husky 142 is a good small saw.

marshall

 

while echo used to make decent saws, they are now lightweight and underpowered. one of the local shops around here, that deals in husky's and stihl, refer to the new echo's as 'gutless wonders'.

 

For lighter work, the Husky 346 is great! Also the STIHL 260/260 Pro is a good choice.

Depends on what you want to spend.

Hal

 

Dad's had this old echo for years. He's used the heck out of it and I don't know how/why its still running. However, I've heard the same about the new ones. Round here its Stihl's or Huskies.

Kurt

 

Let's see, they sell competing saws, and they bad mouth the competition. A lot of the time, that is what passes for marketing these days.

The last time I shopped for a chainsaw, I had a Husky dealer tell me how crappy the new Stihls were, and a Stihl dealer put down any brand that wasn't spelled s-t-i-h-l. Together, they helped me to decided to go a different route.

Shindaiwa was my first choice, but the local dealer was out of stock of pretty much everything, and so was the Echo dealer. Fortunately, I found an alternate source for the Echo model I wanted, so that's the way I went. I am very happy with the saw.