My lightly modified MS361 has a 25" Stihl light bar on it and it's nicely balanced.
General consensus - Stihl MS361 with 24" bar
- Thread starter MartDalb
- Start date
Help Support Arborist Forum:
I have a 20 on my 361 but then again I put a 20 on anything bigger than 50cc. On the 50cc I put an 18. I sold all my really big saws since I quit using them..
In hardwoods no 60cc saw will pull a 24" burried in the wood with any sort of authority.
The 361 is a turd stock until you gut the muffler. It runs much better after.
In western softwood a 361 is workable with a 24",but even then I prefer skip chain on a stock muffler modded 361.
A ported 361 by @huskihl will pull a 24" bar with authority in both soft and hardwood if you have good chain sharpening skills.
The 361 is a turd stock until you gut the muffler. It runs much better after.
In western softwood a 361 is workable with a 24",but even then I prefer skip chain on a stock muffler modded 361.
A ported 361 by @huskihl will pull a 24" bar with authority in both soft and hardwood if you have good chain sharpening skills.
It is indeed.
thankfully you walked away unharmed! Jeez..
Skeena2
ArboristSite Lurker
I ran a 28” bar on my 034 super with a ship tooth chain. It worked well on pnw old growth. It worked well even milling. The same 28” bar is now on my 261 and works great there.
Sacrificing a bar for ergonomics is a trade off I’d make any day of cutting. Insufficient oiling will eventually wreck a bar. But it’s one of the easiest items to change out on any chainsaw.
My family moved from Rolds two generations ago.
Sacrificing a bar for ergonomics is a trade off I’d make any day of cutting. Insufficient oiling will eventually wreck a bar. But it’s one of the easiest items to change out on any chainsaw.
My family moved from Rolds two generations ago.
MartDalb
Addicted to ArboristSite
Yeah got myself a drink that nite.
MartDalb
Addicted to ArboristSite
My 361 is stock, I don't work in mods or know anyone here that does that.
I do repair and fix my own saws though, every inch.
It's sorta rare actually here, in Denmark, that people do mods etc, afaik. anyway.
So you would suggest sticking to a 20" Light bar - I can't not go ES light bar, those pictures of these saws makes me drool
pgguy2021
New Member
To say bs is like saying your situation is what everyone else's situation is. Standing up to buck is never ever a bad thing. Less back strain, keeps you farther away from a potential kick back, allows for a different way to run a saw.
pgguy2021
New Member
25 inch on a 261cm will oil good. Oil runs out right about same time fuel does
And, when you upgrade a Stihl MS 361 with a 20" bar to a 24' bar you will find out that it will not oil the bar as you hoped that it would. The power might be sufficient but the oiler cannot handle the bigger bar and chain as it should. My solution was to buy an MS 440. That worked.
You can upgrade the oiler to a Ms460R oiler and have all the oil you would ever want.
Rather amazing that Stihl never notified me of that possibility. I bought the saw brand new in the spring of 2007:
There was a thread only this site the let it be known, although not from Stihl.
The 361 was kind of the start of stingy oilers from Stihl and it's still going on until this day. My 400c wears a 460R oiler as it sucked even with a 20" bar.
Here was my last 361 I bought in 2019 I believe. The previous 361 was purchased around 04.
It might be considered an emissions modification.
Not really. It would surprise me if a Stihl dealer went out of their way to let me know what parts on my saw were either used on other models, or could be replaced with parts from bigger saws that would give better performance. If I were dealing with a bunch of older guys that had grease and oil permanently packed under their fingernails, that would be a different story. Around here, the guy has to look your model up on the computer just to tell you what sparkplug it uses (hint - there are ONLY 2 to pick from).
This is exactly it. Most dealers are pretty clueless.
Last week I was trying to buy a Husky small spline 3/8 sprocket rim to convert my 550XP from .325 to 3/8. The kid at the dealer asked for a model number... finally I had to break it to him that yes you can convert a 550 to 3/8 even though it's not on the IPL
I like to mess with them. I'll tell him/her what I want. When they ask for the model, I'll tell him what I'm putting it on. Just before he/she gives up and asks for help, I'll tell him/her all the modules that it fits, and what models it was probably included on in one of the stock configurations. Sometimes they look up and ask if I'd be willing to run the keyboard for them because it would probably be faster. The really sad thing is that I don't actually know much about saws.
Every once in a while I get tempted to clean up an 036 and take it with me and tell them I need a new drive bearing for it so that when they bring it out, I can pop my sprocket off and see if the bearing fits the shaft and the sprocket (it won't fit the sprocket). I'm not going to do that to some poor kid that's just trying to do their job, but if I knew when the manager was going to be behind the counter, it would be worth doing just to illustrate the importance of knowing what you're looking at in order to provide good service to your customers.
Why would stihl notify you of that ?
You can swap the guts or just get the whole pump from a 460/1 R model and it gushes plenty. Guys have talked about that on the forums for years.
... "Why would Stihl notify you of that ? ..."
------------------------------
Perhaps just to notify an original 361 buyer that a top-rated $750 chainsaw was weak when it came to oiling a 25" bar and perhaps to offer a solution. Just MHO.
------------------------------
Perhaps just to notify an original 361 buyer that a top-rated $750 chainsaw was weak when it came to oiling a 25" bar and perhaps to offer a solution. Just MHO.
