A good all around Husky or Stihl saw for around $500

tomstrees

tomstrees

Participating member
I was checking around on ebay for a good used saw on ebay. I had a lot of experience with Stihl 440 and 460, there are a few of those online. What would you recommend for a comparable Husky? The 394/395s are probably out of reach in my budget.
 
What he said. Not sure where you are or what the bulk of your work is, but a 70 something cc is pretty versatile.
I like having a variety of saws, but I could get by with my 200T or a similar top handle and my 441 with a 20” for the day to day stuff and a 32” for whenever it’s needed. I wish I still had my old 440, she was a lovely machine.
 
Serf Life said:
I covet Sean’s 440, damn the commandment, but 372s are just as good imo. Check out ope, some reputable sellers.
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Who's Sean.
I prefer the handling filtration and anti-vibe on the huskys of this vintage myself.
Arboristsite as well.
I go under the same username on both and have sold hundreds ;).
 
tomstrees said:
How about a Husky 365? How much worse is that than the 372?
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What saws do you currently have, what kind of cutting do you do and how much cutting are you doing.
The early 365 was an open port design, they did well for a 65cc saw, then came the closed port 365 special which also had a side tensioner which was a nice upgrade, although the early version could be upgraded with a newer cover and removing the front tensioner.
Then they came out with the 365 xtorq(xt) which is a 71cc saw just as it's big brother the 372xt. The 365xt and the 372xt used the exact same cylinder, but the 365xt had a restriction in the transfer cover that reduced flow and lowered the performance slightly from the 372xt. In order to eliminate the restriction you remove the cylinder so you can get access to the transfer cover screws and then you can grind the restriction out.
Other than the transfer covers the 365 has a low top cover and a smaller air filter(not a problem for most guys and some really like them), and it comes with smaller dogs. Many guys buy the 365 and grind the transfers, then do a base gasket delete(or they cut a much thinner gasket if needed for proper clearance), then they open the muffler up for better airflow, and then adjust the carb for the changes, they run very nice done up like that.
Here's a 365xt set up that way running a 24" B&C in dead seasoned ash.
 
Thanks for the overview on the Husky 365; I would link the online saw but last time I did that someone beat me to it. So some of the models were better than others but you would have to modify the later ones? I don't do a lot of cutting now, log splitting has been a niche I have done a lot of. Have a Jonsered 2077 with a 20 inch bar.
 
Don't link it here, if you'd like to send me a PM you may.
You don't have to modify any of them to cut wood, but the strongest of the 3 is the newest 365xt because its 71cc to start with and if you were to mod it it would run just as the 372.
The 2077 should out cut any of the 365's if it's running properly, but any of the 372s or a converted 365xt will outrun it and have better anti vibe, be lighter, handle better, better air filtration, and get better fuel economy. For firewooding I don't think it will make a lot of difference in the overall time spent processing wood, there are many places to shave time, mainly in streamlining the process, I have 3 cords going out next week myself. Now that I got the practical aspects out if the way, I really enjoy running saws, so you should probably purchase at least one of each of them just so you can make your own judgement lol. Where are you located at, most likely I know someone not to far from you who has saws you can try out, to me thats the best way to do it because you can cut with a few different saws and get a feel for what you like, many of the guys I know are stuck on one brand or another because of local parts availability or a local dealer who can service the saw for them, I like the huskys because everything is available online and our local dealer is primarily a stihl dealer and gives you a hard time when buying husky parts(why should I support them when treated like that).
Hope that all helps :).
 
tomstrees said:
Here is a 372xp ending soon on ebay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Husqvarna-...-Chain-New-OEM-Rebuild-365sp-371/254688633030

I would be concerned with totally rebuilt units for the long haul, or am I being overly critical?
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Personally, I don’t like to buy used or rebuilt saws. We run them too hard and too long, and I’m not willing to put up with cantankerous machinery. We might get two years out of a daily use saw before we trade it in on another one. Compared to the cost of downtime, a new saw is cheap.

Think of it this way: if you spend extra two minutes every hour pulling on the rope on a saw, at the end of an 8 hour day you’ve lost more than 1/4 of an hour. Multiply that by the crew’s hourly rate, and around here that’s going to cost you at least $50. Five days a week, four weeks in a month, those extra two minutes add up to $1000 lost in downtime due to a saw that’s not starting like new!
 
I’d buy it if the price is right... I’m not sure that price will be right once it’s all over... maybe, but if it’s around 700$ I’d rather kick in the extra couple hundred and get a new one.

That guy seems to sell quite a few saws on the regular and his feedback is impeccable, I’d trust the saw to be a good one.
 
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