I’d buy a bridge if it was on sale……bought cheap 37cc Ryobi

[WWDIII]

I’ve been known to buy stuff I don’t need as long as it was on sale. I need another saw like I need a hole in my head. I have a 291 Stihl, 490 Echo and a 4000 series Efco. They work fine for what little I do with a saw. The normal, a little firewood, cleanup, deer season etc.

I had a cheap Homelite I’d throw in the bucket of the tractor, cut shooting lanes etc for Deer hunting in East Texas. Then I went and backed over it with my tractor cleaning up a tree that blew down. Cheap refurbished Homelite or not, it worked dang good and took a beating over the years. It just couldn’t survive getting ran over by a 50 HP Mahindra tractor. Guy that backed over must be some scatter brained retired guy!

Anyway, I was in Home Depot yesterday and they had a palette of these 37 cc Ryobi saws with 16 inch bar marked down to 100 bucks. Even came with a nice storage/carrying case. So here we go I have another saw. I’ve read a little about Ryobi saws and most stuff I read was positive.

I think I’m going to make a saw carrier, mount on my tractor and leave it. That way I don’t have to stop and go get a saw.

I’ll fire it up this afternoon and see how it runs. I think everybody needs a beater saw lol.

 

[EchoShindaiwaMakitaDolmar]

Ryobi and Milwaukee Tools are both owned by the Chinese conglomerate TTI. My neighbor bought a Ryobi gas chainsaw about two years ago to take down some palm trees and he had lots of issues with it. Let us know how it works out.

 

[moxiemaul]

I had one of those Ryobi saws for a while, I liked it- would still have it but straight gassed it in a moment of brain damage. I looked into replacement/rebuilding but its a budget saw and if I fixed it up it'd still be a budget saw... so I kept the bar and chain and let the rest go. Replaced the saw with an Echo 310, which honestly is a bit more powerful for the same size/weight range but I sure can't complain about the Ryobi.

The Ryobi original chain was the usual terrible zomfg kickback safety chain, it was bad enough I tossed it after a few tanks of gas and put on a good one.

 

[Old2stroke]

Be sure to do a good tuning job, it will for sure be set too lean from the factory.
Nothing wrong with buying something you don't need. Wanting it is what matters. I do not NEED a 500hp car to go shopping.

 

[echomeister]

Don't try to take the spark plug boot off the plug. It's a one way operation. On mine it pulled the wire out of the boot.
I fixed by wrapping a stiffer wire around spark plug, throw away the boot and then twist the fine spark plug wire around that one.

I have put mine through the ringer noodling the bark sides off of oak rounds. Still goin strong.

It's worth $100

 

[WWDIII]

I may not fire it up till I get to the lake house/country place, like said above it’s going to be lean. That’s where the need for the saw comes in. Also where my carb setting tools are. A few years ago I bought a set of 8 or 10 of these funny shaped carb tools. They sure came in handy.

I bet if I dig around I’ll find a new 16 Oregon chain. Finding it might take 5 or 6 beers lol!

I opened the plastic case that came with it and it has a bottle of oil with ethanol shield already in it, new one on me. I use ethanol shield when I can’t find non ethanol. But never seen it in to 2 stroke oil, says it right on the bottle. Learn something everyday.

 

[Marley5]

Had a Ryobi weed eater some years back that was excellent.
Good luck with the saw.

 

[WWDIII]

I have a Ryobi blower in the attic that worked great but put in storage while building out house and it set up with bad gas. I bet a 14 dollar carb from Amazon and it would be good to go. I may dig it out and fix it. What’s kinda funny, most of the Ryobi gas stuff seems to get good reviews, same for Warrenty.

 

[dboyd351]

I think Ryobi may have subcontracted getting their saws built, at least at one time. About 12 years or so back there was a Ryobi model 10352 which used a Zenoah engine and was essentially a clone of the Redmax GZ400/4000. For awhile, it was the go to saw for buying cheap and hot rodding. Could be a bit finicky because of the Strato intake setup, but they were very light (9 lbs PHO) and ran like a scalded cat when they were tuned properly. Earthquake, along with other brands, also marketed a popular budget version of the same saw.

 

[sean donato]

I think Ryobi may have subcontracted getting their saws built, at least at one time. About 12 years or so back there was a Ryobi model 10352 which used a Zenoah engine and was essentially a clone of the Redmax GZ400/4000. For awhile, it was the go to saw for buying cheap and hot rodding. Could be a bit finicky because of the Strato intake setup, but they were very light (9 lbs PHO) and ran like a scalded cat when they were tuned properly. Earthquake, along with other brands, also marketed a popular budget version of the same saw.

Zenoah licensed their designs of the gz4000/400 to many mfgs, ryobi, homelite, mcculloch,craftsman etc. The earthquake model was an all Chinese machine, comparable to the gz400 model. In not certain it was a licensed product, there are quite a few minute differances in the carbs/intakes and plastics, that are just off from other versions marketed by other mfgs. Every ryobi,homelite, craftsman and mcculloch branded one I've had had the Japanese engine and not the Chinese engine like the earthquake. Although I've been told they could have come with either. When zenoah was bought by husqy, basically all reproduction of the gz4000 phased out fairly quickly, with the exception of earthquake. I think they stopped offering them around 2010.
parts were still readily available for several years after production stopped, all short blocks from any of the "name" brands were Japanese made, and quite a good value. I wish I would have stocked up on more of them, and more spare parts really. They were great little saws for what they cost.