Welcome to Strider tree gear!
today I'm finally giving you guys a review You've been asking for
the Makita.
It's the XCU08 model.
It's the 36 volt brushless, 14 inch bar
3/8 pitch
043 climbing chainsaw.
This is the one I've been using primarily as my climb saw for the last
eight months almost now, and so I've got quite a bit of experience
with it, and I'm happy to tell you about it
here we go.
Alright, so this is the basic saw, there's not a whole lot to say
about it.
If any of you guys have used electric saws.
It's pretty similar to everything else on the market.
It has a little bit of a cheaper feel underneath the clutch cover
the parts feel a little bit looser.
They don't feel quite as heavy duty as maybe the Husqvarna, which is
sort of the high-end on the market.
And that's what I'm going to be comparing it to.
So this is actually the 540LiXP rear handle version.
I have the top handled version of the 536LiXP, which was the older one,
but this is more comfortable comparable in voltage and in
quality and the ability to cut.
So 36 volt, uses your standard Makita batteries
It uses two of them.
I wouldn't use anything smaller than the 5-amp hour batteries,
and it goes through these pretty quickly.
It's similar to a tank of gas
if you like to idle your saw.
So if you're not always turning your saw off, it'll probably last
about the same amount of time, similar number of cuts, especially if
you're using small pruning Cuts. this will cut make
a lot of small pruning cuts. What really eats up the battery is
the big deep ones, for whatever reason.
It just doesn't get much actual cutting time when you're making
full-on heavy-duty full bar length cuts.
So the Makita right now
I've got a slightly shorter bar on it than the Husqvarna, but I find
that they cut pretty similarly.
My guess is that the Makita is somewhere in the neighborhood of 85-90%
as effective of a cutter as the Husqvarna.
That's been my experience anyway
it's a little bit hard to tell because this is rear handle
this is top panel.
So you actually get little more leverage with this one, but this one
tends to bind up.
Sorry, the Makita tends to bind up and stop when it's buried when the
bar is buried or if it gets pinched or bound up at all.
So it tends to be a little bit more intermittent
the overload feature tends to kick in a little
bit earlier and a little bit more easily than on the Husqvarna.
Again,
I remind you, the Makita is less than half the price of the Husqvarna even though
it's fairly comparable in function, the weight is very comparable.
I couldn't say I know off hand which one is lighter.
If the if one is it's a matter of ounces.
It's not significant.
I would say this one's got the
power mode and an eco mode.
I don't ever use it the Eco Mode.
I just run it at full power.
We love to have the Husqvarna just sitting there by the chipper
it makes a great chipper saw and how used up in the tree occasionally, but as
far as the battery endurance goes fairly comparable, as far as the
cutting goes
I think the Husqvarna guy's got the edge.
We'll do a little experiment.
I've got used blades on both of these, used chains.
And so it's not a perfect dead-even experiment.
I'm not going to go through the trouble
to do that, but I'll show you. It'll give you a general idea.
I've just sharpened them both and they're both probably similar in the
amount of use that they've got on them,
although they're both freshly sharpened.
More than that, I don't have a whole lot to say, if you've already got
Makita tools,
Obviously, it's fantastic to be able to use the same batteries.
Assuming you've got the 5-amp hour ones
I wouldn't use any smaller batteries.
They just would die too fast and same with the 540 LiXP
If you have the older Husqvarna top handle saw the, I think it's the
536 LiXP with the BLI 200 batteries.
Those won't actually run this very well at all
If at all, so my old batteries for the old saw had two of them.
That was like a nine hundred dollar purchase when I bought
the old top handle Husqvarna and I can't use those batteries
anymore.
They just don't function on this saw.
It needs the X, the more advanced batteries.
So that's another little extra cost there, think those batteries about
$150 a piece and you have to buy them separately.
So this whole outfit, two batteries and the charger is somewhere
around $1,100
$1,200 maybe depending on where you get it from,
whereas, this whole outfit with four batteries.
So similar: two sets of batteries with the double charger.
I think I got it for less than 500 bucks.
I think I got it when the batteries were on sale.
So I got some extra batteries with it too, so much, much cheaper.
We're going to do a little head to head
cutting. Let's see what the times are on this chunk of Oak right here.
I'm not going to bury the bar, we'll do three cuts each as fast as I
can.
And you guys can draw some
conclusions for yourselves in this very un-scientific test.
I think any difference in that cutting speed, it felt to me like this (Husqvarna)
was maybe a little bit slower, but that's probably a matter of
sharpening difference.
Like that could have very well been made up just with slightly.
Friend sharpening.
They run the same chain
both of them
nice thin 043 gauge chain.
So there you go
I hope you find that helpful.
I decided not to buy the top handle version of this (Husqvarna)
after I bought this (Makita).
I got this in the interim because I think the value on this guy is
good enough to where I'm not worried about it.
And I'm not worried about the difference in cutting power.
This (Makita) is my go to.
I like having lots of these batteries.
I use the blower, I use the other tools, and I'll probably get another
one of these here soon, as soon as this one poops out, but I've had it
for what 2/3 of a year now, and it's been great.
I hope you found that useful.
Thanks for joining me here at Strider
Tree gear and stay safe out there.
At least safer than me with my stupid and lack of eyewear,
and I'll catch you next time
Bye.