Howdy.
I heard a nasty little rumor from the fellow at our local saw shop about new Husqvarna chainsaws having some sort of chip in the carburetor that must sense Husqvarna brand 2-stroke oil or else it'll shut the saw off.
This sounds incredibly farfetched to me -- I suppose it'd be possible to include some sort of chemical in the mix that could be measured digitally, but I can't imagine Husky would actually do that. I'd think adding that feature to the carb would add extra manufacturing expense and reduce the perceived value of their saws. It also seems they'd have to advertise that the saw would only operate with their 2-stroke oil, and even then, it seems they'd be inviting a serious decline in business and potentially an antitrust lawsuit.
So. What do you guys think? Have you seen any recognition of this on the part of Husqvarna? Are you seeing saws in your shops that have shut off from other brand 2-stroke oil? Is this the dawn of a new logistical and financial headache for outfits that have mixed saw fleets, or is this guy just trying to give me the hard sell on Stihls? We're currently invested to the tune of a couple thousand dollars in Stihl 2-stroke oil, so if Husky's actually gone in that direction, it may be a determining factor.
I'd greatly appreciate your perspective. Thanks so much!
In case it matters -- our fleet is something like 60 saws strong, with Stihl 440s, 361s, 3 early 441s (that have performed dreadfully), a few 460s, and then on the Husky side of things, we've got quite a few 359s supplemented with 365s and 372s. Many of our saws have a thousand hour or more on them, and our newer ones have hundreds, so we're continually buying more. Evidently, the 359s and 365s are off of the market, so we're looking to purchase 12 or so 372s to fill out our saw sets. We've already got enough models in the rotation that managing a parts inventory is a bit of a chore, so I'd rather not wind up with a model we don't already have. From what I've read here, the newer 441s really are good saws, but we remain a little suspicious after getting burned on those three a few years back. Additionally, while I've never run anything with an Autotune or M-Tronic carb, I'm suspicious -- we run saws everywhere from 500 feet above sea level on the lower Colorado river cutting nasty crap to 10,000+ feet in the San Francisco Peaks cutting 30"+ white pine. We typically run our saws stock with 20" bars and full comp chains. Our crew supervisors have electronic tachometers as well as pretty good ears. We try to use OEM slugs, jugs, seals, and rings for rebuilds, so it's helpful that those parts are available for most of the saws we're running.
I heard a nasty little rumor from the fellow at our local saw shop about new Husqvarna chainsaws having some sort of chip in the carburetor that must sense Husqvarna brand 2-stroke oil or else it'll shut the saw off.
This sounds incredibly farfetched to me -- I suppose it'd be possible to include some sort of chemical in the mix that could be measured digitally, but I can't imagine Husky would actually do that. I'd think adding that feature to the carb would add extra manufacturing expense and reduce the perceived value of their saws. It also seems they'd have to advertise that the saw would only operate with their 2-stroke oil, and even then, it seems they'd be inviting a serious decline in business and potentially an antitrust lawsuit.
So. What do you guys think? Have you seen any recognition of this on the part of Husqvarna? Are you seeing saws in your shops that have shut off from other brand 2-stroke oil? Is this the dawn of a new logistical and financial headache for outfits that have mixed saw fleets, or is this guy just trying to give me the hard sell on Stihls? We're currently invested to the tune of a couple thousand dollars in Stihl 2-stroke oil, so if Husky's actually gone in that direction, it may be a determining factor.
I'd greatly appreciate your perspective. Thanks so much!
In case it matters -- our fleet is something like 60 saws strong, with Stihl 440s, 361s, 3 early 441s (that have performed dreadfully), a few 460s, and then on the Husky side of things, we've got quite a few 359s supplemented with 365s and 372s. Many of our saws have a thousand hour or more on them, and our newer ones have hundreds, so we're continually buying more. Evidently, the 359s and 365s are off of the market, so we're looking to purchase 12 or so 372s to fill out our saw sets. We've already got enough models in the rotation that managing a parts inventory is a bit of a chore, so I'd rather not wind up with a model we don't already have. From what I've read here, the newer 441s really are good saws, but we remain a little suspicious after getting burned on those three a few years back. Additionally, while I've never run anything with an Autotune or M-Tronic carb, I'm suspicious -- we run saws everywhere from 500 feet above sea level on the lower Colorado river cutting nasty crap to 10,000+ feet in the San Francisco Peaks cutting 30"+ white pine. We typically run our saws stock with 20" bars and full comp chains. Our crew supervisors have electronic tachometers as well as pretty good ears. We try to use OEM slugs, jugs, seals, and rings for rebuilds, so it's helpful that those parts are available for most of the saws we're running.
