Narrowing the tracks can be a useful function depending on what you are doing the majority of the time. This machine was originally designed to be able to craw through narrow gates, alleyways even into doorways(inside buildings). Once the machine is at its intended work location, you can widen the tracks and work from a very stable platform. Sure beats digging and breaking dirt by hand. You can also put on a hydraulic breaker hammer if you need to smash concrete. Have known a few people who have drive into suburban back yards to dig underground irrigation lines. Personally as a mountain bike trail builder, I build trails narrower than 30 inches and having the tracks all the way in at 28 inches is a huge plus when you are digging a trail tread on hill/sloped surfaces. So the question is, do you need to narrow your tracks for any reason? are you squeezing anywhere tight? or are you building trail? If you don't need to squeeze into tiny places or are digging narrow trail, you may want to get a bigger machine that has more breakout force and can dig faster. Bigger mini excavators generally don't have track narrowing functions.
In the Operations Manual, it shows tract expansion done differently. It suggest lifting the blade-side with the boom before lowering the blade, as to avoid lifting the machine with the blade implement.
I suppose that might be the factory recommended way of doing things, but all the operators I know all just lift the machine with the blade and excavator arm on the back.
You can. I build a 28 to 30 inch wide trail. The trick is to keep digging yourself level of in-sloped trail tread to be a stable platform to keep working from. I'll post more recent trail building videos showing that the machine is incredibly stable when you set yourself up correctly.
Yeah I find that moving the arm up doesn't work well when spooling the Fecon. Moving it down and spinning the turret works fine. I dont know about tracking. I'll try that out and let you know.
My observation - there is a zzzing noise as you pull out of the vertical. This often means it's not cutting perfectly straight, usually indicates sharpening time - you can move the blade over at the far end before you finish the cut, saves a few seconds, chk out the shootouts
Totally. I've become way more comfortable milling after a few years of very regular milling. I now sharpen before I know I need to be efficient, and save time and effort by milling the last piece of scrap with out having to swing the blade. Even now I feel I keep figuring little things out.
I never understood why people pivot their saw and whatever when not cutting something really big. You gain like 0.5 sec in cut time for lifting 7 kg up and down 2-3 times. Do that for 2-3-4-5 hours while I dont and you're wasted while I can keep on going. I'm not superman btw.
575 is great of course but to heavy and thirsty . I m lumberjack 15 years in Slovakia . And I have 545 and 550 and for 99% I don have any problem in forest . I also tried 575 the speed and power was amazing but in forest to heavy . But Husqvarna is best . When is -29 and +31 saws working same.
The Husqvarna 550 mark 2 is in the same class at the Stihl 261. Both have 4 horse power. I've used both and find the Stihl power head is a pound lighter due to a more plastic construction including the wrap handle, while the Husqvarna is heavier by a pound, it seems more durable and ergonomic. Both saws are great. Somedays having a lighter saw would be nice, other days I need it to as robust as possible. Really is a toss up about which one is better. Do you have a 261?
@@benchangsaw9652 ive got a weird 1-off franken saw built from 2 025 stihls an 026 and a 261 all put together, ported, and on AV gas, not really a fair comparison but super fun to cut with, especially pulling a 12in bar.
It's good practice to flip your bar over every 2-3 hours of cutting time or about every 3rd-4th time you sharpen your chain. It allows the bar to wear down evenly top and bottom. Your bar will last much longer and perform much better over it's lifetime.
Consider a CMP tilt bucket. Several of our trail building colleagues in other organization around Northern Californa all have the same bucket on the same tractor. Its not for all digging purposes. A 12 or 16 inch bucket w/ teeth is more ideal for harder ground with rock. This tilt bucket does come with bolt on teeth, however we still choose the 12 inch bucket w/ teeth for the harder tasks.
BenChangSaw I am in western North Carolina Appalachian Mountains where it is very rocky and can get steep. There are some areas where the tilt bucket would be helpful but will still need the 16 “ bucket to dig rocks and roots. I’ve been making trails on my machine for about a year. You can see a video on my page too.
