Help me figure out these Stihl Brushcutters please! FS311, FS360, FS240

[anymanusa]

I am looking at the intro Tech Bulletin and it says that the FS 240 has a drive tube length of 58.9 ", 1496 mm, and the FS 240R is 61.6 ", 1565 mm. Overall length is FS 240 71.1 in, 1805 mm and FS 240R is 73.4", 1865 mm.
FS 240 is bike handle and FS 240 R is loop handle. So the R model is slightly longer but for safest operation you should not put a limit stop on a loop handle, only bike handle, so there is no chance of a kickout throwing the blade back into your legs. The shaft can be swapped or the handle bar and throttle swapped but it would be way expensive. Let me look around and see if I have either a shaft or longer tube in my stash and I will let you know if you have not bought anything yet.
Also the reason the big clearing saws are shorter is that most are sold on countries that have short people in them. STIHL sells way more clearing saws in third world countries than in USA and EU.
Eddie

Thanks for clearing that up. I was afraid of that. Whatever it takes I'd like to find a powerful tool that is the proper length for me. If i have to buy something and swap handles or change a drive shaft and tube, thats what i want to do. I haven't bought anything yet because I'm still researching to see if what I want is available. Switching a fs240r to a bike handle set up may be really easy. I'm not sure how the handle is attached, so I'm gonna take my km130r apart and see if it would be easy to relocate on a bike handle.

I refuse to spend good money on a short tool unless it can be made longer. Right now I'm looking at;
Fs 240, 311, 360, 460.

 

[anymanusa]

Hey thanks for all the technical help guys, all this stuff is unnecessarily cryptic and I'd never know most of this oddball info if it wasn't for this forum and your help.

 

[anymanusa]

I should also say that my op mentions the fs240 when it should say fs240r to be technically correct. I'm not helping by mis-stating things in my op.

 

[anymanusa]

So there isn't any rocket science to relocating the handle. That's easy, just getting all the parts together might be costly though.

 

[anymanusa]

So I've completely disassembled this km130r and everything looks plug and play.

If I can't buy what I want from Stihl, I might just buy the solid shaft assembly for the fs240r and the bicycle handlebar and mount from the fs240, and the throttle cable assembly from the fs240, and have something fairly close to what I want.

I would most like for stihl to sell me a fs460 c em L though.

 

[bayard]

i have the fs 250, i have along handle on it from an old echo trimmer.

 

[anymanusa]

Where are you located in the "Beautiful South"? I had a look on stihlusa.com and didn`t see the L versions of the clearing saws listed. Depending on which distribution company is in your area, you could try to contact them if your dealer doesn`t have an answer. Now I give you the german order number of the FS 460 C-EM L. It`s highly possible that this will not help you, but maybe your dealer can check the number in his computer system.

FS 460 C-EM L would be: 4147 200 0100



I often heared that they don`t know exactly what the customer would like to have or is talking about. It`s right that most of the trimmers (not clearing saws) have the 4-Mix engine. I think the smaller trimmers are much more popular in the U.S. as the larger clearing saws.

They told me that this was the generic part number for all fs460 saws. They don't have distinct part numbers for the variations. The variations are noted separately.

They (Stihl corporate) also told me that their were 12 distributors in the US and I could check around with some of them. Sean is trying to find out if I can get the longer shaft for a US model 460 and replace the standard shaft with it.

It's pretty frustrating that I can't just get something like this on the internet or via shipping.

 

[DND 9000]

Well that sucks. It is possible that the units in the U.S. have different numbers depending on the exact model version. For Germany the number I gave you stands for the L version. Sorry I can`t help you more.

 

[anymanusa]

So, in trying to figure all of this out, I have learned a little bit about these things. First, I found that the FS240R has about a 2.5" longer shaft than an FS240. Second, I learned that I can buy a tube assembly and a shaft from a FS240R and replace my short split tube on my old KM130R with it, for a longer reach on my KM130R. I did that, for a cost of $125 USD, now I have a 2.5" longer KM130R, which is awesome, because it's always been too short as well. I've bought all the other stuff to make my "R" version into a bicycle handle version as well. The Stihl dealer wanted about $225 in parts to make that happen. So I looked for most of the parts on ebay, used, not chinese, and found the handlebar clamp for $18, the handlebar with grip for $32, the throttle cable was $28 from the dealer, and now all I'll have to do is extend the kill switch wires on my throttle handle and I'll have a fully converted, long version, KM130R wth bicycle handles!

I'm very happy for that. I cannot wait to have all the parts here to make this happen.

On the other front, I have some phone calls out to see if I can obtain the long tube and shaft for a FS 460 C EM, and just convert a new FS 460 to the long version by swapping out the longer tube and shaft.

If all else fails, maybe I can find a forum member who would list a long shaft and tube assembly on ebay for me at a pre-agreed price, so that I can get them to buy the shaft in the UK or Germany and ship it to me. I would have to sweeten the deal a little, I understand, but hell, what other option do I have if Stihl won't supply me a long shafted unit here in the USA?

 

[anymanusa]

So it looks like the FS 460 is available as the 185cm long version in Australia, the UK, and Germany at a minimum.

https://www.stihl.com.au/STIHL-Prod...nal-Clearing-Saws/21996-1585/FS-460-C-EM.aspx

Interestingly the AU version doesn't specify "L" in the long version, they just list it as FS 460 C EM.

This UK store seems to have a smokin' price:

http://georgecarrpowerproducts.co.uk/stihl-fs-460-c-em-l

660 british pounds is about 900USD if I'm correct. That's 4-500 less than here in the states.