Husqvarna / Gas / Professional

Husqvarna 555

Name: Husqvarna 555
Brand: Husqvarna
Price: 760 USD
Availability: InStock

50cc class

59.8cc

Engine

3.1 kW rated

18 in

Bar

cuts to about 16 in

13.01 lb

Weight

powerhead only (excl. cutting equipment)

~$760

approx., with 18" bar and chain

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Husqvarna's 60cc class has an XP version and a plain version, and the 555 is the plain one — 59.8cc making 3.1 kW against the 562 XP Mark II's 3.5 kW, for about $190 less. The trade is real and specific: no AutoTune, so there are carburetor screws to set, and a 24-inch maximum bar where the XP is rated to 28. For a landowner running a 20-inch bar in firewood that is a sensible place to save money, because the 555 still gets the 3/8 pitch chain, the X-Torq engine and the same 13 lb class of chassis. Where it stops making sense is for anyone cutting at altitude or across seasons, since retuning by hand is the thing AutoTune exists to eliminate. Buy the 555 to get 60cc cheaply; buy the 562 XP Mark II if the saw earns money.

Best for: Landowners who want 60cc power on a 20-inch bar for firewood and do not need AutoTune or a 28-inch bar.

Specifications

Engine class: 50cc class (by displacement)
Engine: 59.8 cc
Rated power: 3.1 kW
Bar length: 18 in
Bar range: 13-24 in
Single-pass cut: about 16 in (bar minus 2)
Chain: 3/8" pitch / .050" gauge (X-Cut C83; .058" C85 option)
Weight: 13.01 lb, powerhead only (excl. cutting equipment)
Power type: Gas
Use case: Professional
Warranty: 2-year consumer / 1-year commercial (Husqvarna limited)
Model: 555

Manufacturer figures except the engine class and single-pass cut, which are derived here. What each spec means

60cc for ~$190 under the 562 XP
3/8 pitch, 24-in max bar
No AutoTune — manual carb

Where it is strong

59.8cc and 3.1 kW for roughly $190 less than the 562 XP Mark II
3/8 pitch chain steps up from the .325 the 50cc saws use — better in big wood
Rated to a 24-inch bar, a genuine step past anything in the Rancher range
X-Torq engine keeps fuel use and emissions down for the displacement
Simple carbureted fuel system that any small-engine shop can service

Where it falls short

No AutoTune — altitude and seasonal fuel changes mean adjusting the carb by hand
0.4 kW and four inches of maximum bar behind the 562 XP Mark II
13.01 lb powerhead is over a pound heavier than the 50cc saws, and it is felt when limbing

Written from the spec sheet and the maker's documentation. What owners report is summarised separately below.

What owners say

Read from owner discussions, long-term write-ups and dated retail reviews; nothing here was measured on this site.

The 555 is the non-XP 60cc Husqvarna, and owners use it as a farm and firewood saw rather than a production saw. The praise is specific and consistent: against a 455 or 460 Rancher it is not a small step but a different machine — magnesium case instead of plastic, AutoTune, faster chain speed and noticeably better response — and against the 562 XP the power it loses is described as barely perceptible while the fuel economy improves. Most of the owners in these threads bought one for a parent or for their own property on that basis and have no repairs to report beyond sharpening.

Two things cut against it. The first is structural: it carries the small bar mount while the 562 carries the large one, so bar choice is narrower and running Stihl bars means an adapter and moving the oil feed. Twenty-four inches is the ceiling and owners describe it as pushing the saw, happiest on a 20 with skip chain if you insist on 24. The second is the value argument that owners themselves keep making — if you want something lighter than a 562 the 550 XP saves 1.7 lb against the 555's 0.4 lb, for similar money, and more than one owner says they cannot work out why this saw and the 545 and 565 exist. The failure to actually look for is the piston ring locating pin: a repairer who has seen it on many 560s and 562s says the pin that stops the ring rotating shakes loose and wrecks the cylinder, and one owner's cheap used 555 did exactly that two tanks after he bought it. If the AutoTune carburetor dies the saw will only start on prime, and that is a dealer job — nobody reports successfully fitting a conventional carburetor instead.

The owners who are happiest with theirs are landowners cutting firewood and clearing a farm with a 20-inch bar, who wanted a magnesium-cased AutoTune saw and did not want to pay 562 money for it. The ones who regret the choice wanted a bigger bar than 24 inches, or cut mostly hardwood, and were told after the fact to have bought a 562, 372 or 572. Buy used with care given the ring-pin history and the thin North American ownership base, and if you buy new, factor in that dealers see fewer of these than of the 550 and 562.

What owners like

Owners are blunt that it is a different class of machine from the Rancher saws it sits near on price. One says the 555 absolutely smokes the 455 and 460 on both power and chain speed, and points at the reason: it is a full magnesium-case saw where those two are plastic. Another makes the same argument from the other direction — it is not all displacement, the 555 has AutoTune and a metal crankcase, so it is noticeably more responsive and more durable than the lesser saws in the comparison.
The power it gives up to the 562 XP is smaller than the price gap suggests. One owner calls the reduction barely perceptible and says the fuel-economy gain is the part you actually notice, for less money. Several others frame the saving as roughly $180 at the dealer and point out that $180 buys a lot of gas, oil and chains in the firewood game.
It survives rough owners. One buyer got a 555 for his father as a farm and firewood saw and reports that his dad is hard on equipment and has not managed to kill it; the only change from factory was a Sugihara bar with a full chisel chain. His summary is the one most 555 owners give: keep the chain sharp and it will just keep working no matter what.
The power delivery suits bucking rather than racing. Owners describe a wider power band with more power at lower RPM than the XP saws, at the cost of peak horsepower and throttle response — which is why it reads as a farm and firewood saw to the people who own one rather than a felling saw for a climber.
AutoTune on this saw has a quiet record. The owner whose father has run one for years says the AutoTune has been nice and reliable and the saw has never given trouble, and a 455 Rancher owner who stepped up to a 555 says he was blown away by how well it cut compared with what he had been using.

Common complaints

The small bar mount is the limitation nobody mentions on the spec sheet. Owners repeatedly flag that the 555 uses the small mount where the 562 uses the large one, which narrows bar choice; running a Stihl bar means an adapter and relocating the oil feed hole. The standing advice from the people who point this out is that if you are getting into hardwood at all you may as well spend the little extra for the 562.
Twenty-four inches is its hard limit, not its comfort zone. Owners say it dances best on a 20-inch bar, that 24 is definitely pushing it for the size of saw, and that at 24 you want a skip chain depending on species. Anyone wanting 28 inches and up for felling is told to look at a 372 or 572 instead, and one buyer talked himself out of a 555 for exactly that reason once he worked out he wanted 32 to 40 inches.
Owners question whether it should exist. One calls it a sort of pointless in-between saw and does the arithmetic: if you want something lighter than a 562 you take the 550 XP at 1.7 lb less, not the 555 at 0.4 lb less, because the small loss in chain speed is worth a 13 percent weight saving rather than a 3 percent one. Several others say the same about the 545 and 565 — if they wanted less power for less money they would drop to a 550 and get the weight back too.
The piston ring locating pin is a real failure mode on this engine family. An owner who bought a cheap 555 with good compression ran two tanks through it before it made chattering noises and destroyed the top of its cylinder; a saw repairer answering says he has seen this happen on loads of 560s and 562s — the pin that stops the piston ring rotating works itself loose and gets smashed around inside the cylinder — and that he has never seen it in any other saw, suspecting the piston material is too soft for the RPM.
AutoTune failures land you at the dealer with no fallback. Two separate owners describe a 555 that will only start on prime and runs only while fuel is squirted in, with the electronic carburetor dead; one asked outright whether it could be converted to a conventional carburetor, and nobody in the thread reported having done it. The first checks owners suggest for that symptom are a clogged fuel line or an air leak, not the electronics.
It is scarce enough in North America that the ownership base is thin. Owners describe the 555 as far more popular in Europe, Australia and other markets than in the US, and one says Husqvarna never pushed it hard enough — which makes dealer familiarity, used examples and secondhand advice harder to come by than for a 550 or 562.

Questions owners ask

Will the 555 handle a 24-inch bar?

It will, but owners put 24 inches at the limit of what it can do in stock form. The recommendation that comes up repeatedly is a skip chain at that length, with the proviso that it depends on species — and that the saw dances best on a 20-inch bar. One owner running a 20 with a full-house 3/8 chisel chain calls that the right pairing. If you want 28 inches or more, owners point at a 562, 372 or 572 rather than trying to make this one stretch.

What does the small bar mount actually cost me?

Bar selection, mostly. The 555 takes the small mount while the 562 XP takes the large one, so you are shopping a narrower set of bars, and running a Stihl bar on it means fitting an adapter and relocating the oil feed hole rather than bolting it straight on. Owners who raise this are usually making a buying argument: if hardwood is in your future, the extra money for the 562 buys the bigger mount along with the power.

Is it worth stepping up to the 562 XP Mark II?

Owners split on it, and the split is about bar length rather than power. On power, one 555 owner calls the difference from a 562 barely perceptible and says the fuel economy goes the other way; the saving at the dealer is around $180. But the people who say spend the extra cite the large bar mount and hardwood: if you will run a 24-inch bar regularly or cut mostly hardwood, the 562 is the saw they tell you to buy and never look back.

Mine only starts on prime and dies unless I keep squirting fuel in. What now?

Two owners describe exactly that with a dead electronic carburetor, and one of them asked whether a conventional carburetor could be fitted instead — nobody reported having done it successfully. Before concluding the carburetor is gone, check the cheap things owners found first on these engines: a clogged fuel line, the return line, and an air leak, any of which will produce a starts-on-prime-only symptom. Deep AutoTune diagnosis needs a servicing dealer with the software.

How much better is it than a 455 or 460 Rancher?

Substantially, by owner accounts. One says the 555 absolutely smokes both on power and chain speed and notes that it has a full magnesium case where those saws are plastic; another adds AutoTune and the metal crankcase and calls it noticeably more responsive and more durable. The caveat offered in the same discussion is that a heavily modified 460 could match or beat a stock 555, so the comparison holds for off-the-shelf saws.

Is there a known engine failure I should look for on a used one?

Yes, and it matters when buying secondhand. A saw repairer says he has seen the piston ring locating pin work loose on many 560s and 562s — the same engine family — and get smashed around inside the cylinder, damage he has never seen on another brand's saw; he suspects the piston material is too soft for the RPM. An owner's cheap used 555 with good compression did exactly that after two tanks. If you rebuild one, owners warn off budget cylinder kits for unchamfered ports, flaking plating and circlips that shake loose, and recommend an OEM cylinder and piston instead.

Drawn from 6 owner threads and long-term reviews, kept on file with this entry.