New one

So I don't foresee. Hauling around a mothership and umbilical cord as the future of chainsaw work. But. You never know!
 
Possibly, but batteries seem to be getting better and better in the meantime.

https://phys.org/news/2016-12-student-award-winning-graphene-battery-slash.html

If you google graghene there is a lot of high end promise coming from that sector. It's just as Justin has said at this point, production cost holding it up. They'll work it out. And when they do the paint on our truck will power the electric motors that give us fast responsive acceleration.

Chainsaws with very light batts and long run time.
 
I talked with my pal yesterday who's into RC cars for the last 25 years or so. He's had from the full blown crazy custom nitro racers to nowadays he says nothing touches the battery powered cars for performance.

Which confirms my belief that the tech is there to build a crazy battery powered chainsaw, there's just no economics behind it.

Maybees, you'd think one of the big boys would make a "concept saw" if it were possible.
 
I guess that they surely did. But releasing the "concept" thing in the public is a double edged blade. It's good for the fame, but the competition knows what you're doing, and the customers compare with what they can actually buy and that's not in favor on the products already on the market.
 
I don't think you guys appreciate just how much lighter n powerful an umbilically fed two stroke chainsaw'd be!

It'd be like an electric, without the weight of any battery, just raw engine push button badacidness!

KTM's leading the way on fuel injected two strokes. They've got em now, not in some distant future.

Jomo
 
I also know I'm not the only crew foreman who likes to keep his tooltruck as close n visible/accessible to him/her as humanly possible.

Jomo
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #61
13.2lb PHO 82cc would be sweet.
 
I need to weigh in my new one. Echo had a sale Saturday. 20% off. I also had 200.00 in credit on my card. So I saved about 360.00 on the Echo CS800-P. I had them fit it with a 32 bar and full skip round chisel chain. 80.7 CC and seems strong. See how she breaks in. Dry weight is 16.7.
 
You sure seem to be loving those Echo saws these last few years, Stephen. Is it all for price point, or are they actually competitive in performance with the "real saws" :D ?
 
They have upped their game and honor the warantee. Everyone that has picked up one of my newer generation echos have been impressed. I should break into the 680 now and open her up.
The other thing I have been impressed with, is the Echo rep. listens to customer feed back, and thing actually get fixed and changed. They are weak on the pro dogs (double) and 3/4 orcfull wrap handles. The 800 has double dogs, but yet to have a 3/4 wrap handle. The 600P is built good, but they need to change the filtration. But I think they will soon.
 
Interesting...thanks, Stephen.

In my dotage, I don't reckon I'll likely ever buy a new saw. These several older Stihls of mine just keep on running finer than frog's hair split three ways. But I like to keep my ear to the ground, and I appreciate your advice.
 
YVW old friend. You know I love my old Stihls as well. I was not easily swayed. To be honest, I just wanted a quick replacement for if a Stihl went down that I would not care if they were somewhat abused at the chipper or brushing by a groundsman. Pleasant surprised I was. Three saws I will double cut with in the tree. My 044, my 066 and my Echo 590. The 680 is new to me, but I have cut a few trees in 1/2 aloft with it and it might wake up to my liking better with a muffler mod like the 44 has. That and a 24 bar instead of the 28.not to say I don't already like the 680. Just wish I could slap bigger Dawgs on it and a 3/4 bar.
 
I bought an echo backpack blower, the dealer (from whom I get my stihl products) assured me he'd honour the 3 year guarantee.

Seems good, never had anything but the big two so the ergonomics are a bit new.

Lot of love for their smaller toppers, they're keeping the others honest at least.
 
I have owned an Echo string cutter/brush blade unit for a looong time. It still works pretty well, though I have had to rebuild the carb twice and it seems to need me to fiddle with the carb adjustments every so often. Doesn't always start easily. No real love from me, though I won't dis it too badly. It is at least 20 years old, so...
 
Interesting ideas, I've always thought the umbilical setup is the way to go. Have the gas and oil on a belt or backpack, and an ultra light but big engine. Electric powered ones could be very good too if they knew how to make it as good as possible, but if they haven't perfected their gas saws after all of these years, they won't come close on the electrics. I was wanting to build an electric saw at one point in time, more work than I had time for. They get the most torque when they are under load at low rpm VS gas getting the most power at higher rpm. In terms of efficiency gas at full throttle not cutting burns about as much fuel as when cutting, but the energy is just wasted when not cutting. An electric motor uses what it needs, so at full throttle without cutting it barely uses any power, so it barely wastes any. But in the cut it will draw and put out a lot of power. Although not ideal to have no clutch, an electric would be harder to stall the chain in a cut than with a gas saw. A gas saw is also limited to a certain max continuous power output with no higher burst output while a well built electric motor the size of a coke can could do 3-5HP continuous, and short term peak 10-20HP for 5-30 seconds. The big issue is run time VS power output. Even though electric is more fuel efficient, the energy density of gas far outweighs the energy density of any available battery by like 50 times. That's why diesel electric is so popular because you get the energy density of diesel coupled with the efficiency of electric motors, and ideally a small battery too to store energy from an idling engine.

I've always wanted to try a diesel saw. An unusual design I thought of a month ago was a diesel engine backpack with a hydraulic powered saw. Still it would suck to mess around with fuel/oil/hydraulic lines, but you could always have a quick connect no leak line system. Another design I'd like to see in big saws is a farther forward hanging front handle for better balance and control, and definitely a longer rear handle for more leverage, and diesel power. They could also fit a lot more gas in those handles, probably twice as much if done right, but then where would the extra oil go so you don't run out?
 
Back
Top