500I gets my vote. Buy once, cry once. Like Hermio wrote, use it, take care of it, and if you decide to part with it....
Talk me (homeowner) into or out of new saw
- Thread starter javadog
- Start date
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Is the grant only available to buy a new saw or is it a grant towards getting the work done? Don't know how it works?! If it's the latter it would cover a pretty comprehensive refurb of the 360 I'd have thought and once done should be more than capable of the job! If it's the former then the grant and selling your 360 might go half way to an ms400 or a bit more towards an Echo if they're cheaper. In UK here and echos aren't any cheaper than equivalent Stihls really.
Did you get the new ms400 yet?
You know you want it so just go buy it.
You know you want it so just go buy it.
Michael E
New Member
Getting 20 years of service out of any piece of equipment is not bad. The fact that people still insist you get a tune up and keep going tells you a lot about Stihl quality and parts availabilty. I would suggest you get that MS400 and use it for the next 20 years.
Unless you're going to learn how to fix saws, you will want a really competent dealer not too far away. There are a lot of hundred-dollar-per-hour boobs pretending to be saw mechanics, so it's not like you can just walk into any authorized repair place and not find a moron behind the counter. If you want another Stihl, make sure you can get to a good Stihl dealer or repair shop pretty quickly.
Concerning Echo, I got a Timberwolf and thought it was a horrible saw until I got the straight dope on maintaining and running it. The Echo repair places around here are slow or staffed with people who have trouble tying their shoes, and I had a hard time getting good information on the web so I could do things myself, but now that I have a few clues, the saw is great. The guts are pretty much like a pro saw. The carb's main jet is a problem, but you might not care, and if you do, it probably means you're the kind of person who can replace it.
I don't know anything about Stihls. I tried to buy one at the nearest dealer, but they didn't know anything about their products, so I drove to a Husqvarna place and bought a 562XP.
My feeling about saws, after 7 years of living on a farm and dealing with a zillion fallen oaks, is that a land owner needs 1) a cordless pole saw for 85% of the work, 2) a light, overpowered 16" saw for cutting stuff up to 10 inches, and 3) a very strong 20"-minimum saw for the things he will hate doing with a 16" saw.
Saw Suppliers gave me a really nice deal on an Echo because I am in a disaster zone.
Concerning Echo, I got a Timberwolf and thought it was a horrible saw until I got the straight dope on maintaining and running it. The Echo repair places around here are slow or staffed with people who have trouble tying their shoes, and I had a hard time getting good information on the web so I could do things myself, but now that I have a few clues, the saw is great. The guts are pretty much like a pro saw. The carb's main jet is a problem, but you might not care, and if you do, it probably means you're the kind of person who can replace it.
I don't know anything about Stihls. I tried to buy one at the nearest dealer, but they didn't know anything about their products, so I drove to a Husqvarna place and bought a 562XP.
My feeling about saws, after 7 years of living on a farm and dealing with a zillion fallen oaks, is that a land owner needs 1) a cordless pole saw for 85% of the work, 2) a light, overpowered 16" saw for cutting stuff up to 10 inches, and 3) a very strong 20"-minimum saw for the things he will hate doing with a 16" saw.
Saw Suppliers gave me a really nice deal on an Echo because I am in a disaster zone.
javadog
New Member
Well, the plot in this saga has thickened. I saw wisdom in good advice in all the posts in this thread. In the end I went to the dealer last Friday and bought one of their 400 saws. I thought, even if this is somewhat of a bad decision, I have made many costly bad decisions that have been way way far worse than buying a chain saw (usually involving lawyers, wedding rings, real estate agents, or some combination thereof) . Anyway, there have been two developments today that changes the picture quite a bit. One, after fixing the oiler and putting on a new bar and chain on the 360, plus adjusting the chain tension correctly, I was very impressed with how well it did today. It ran great, after the usual few minutes of fiddling and operator error to get it started.
The second thing is that I was informed by my neighbor that she contacted Samaritan's Purse, a Christian disaster relief organization, and that they would be able and willing to come out and saw our downed trees for us. Sounds too good to be true, but even if they were able to buck the oak tree trunk into
moveable sections that would be an immense help.
So I am left with the decision whether to look into returning the 400, since I haven't even started it, did any sort of break in stuff with it, or cut anything with it to see how awesome it was. I'll have to wait until next week to get ahold of the salesman at the dealer to see what happens next .
The second thing is that I was informed by my neighbor that she contacted Samaritan's Purse, a Christian disaster relief organization, and that they would be able and willing to come out and saw our downed trees for us. Sounds too good to be true, but even if they were able to buck the oak tree trunk into
moveable sections that would be an immense help.
So I am left with the decision whether to look into returning the 400, since I haven't even started it, did any sort of break in stuff with it, or cut anything with it to see how awesome it was. I'll have to wait until next week to get ahold of the salesman at the dealer to see what happens next .
Paul, sounds like my area as far as Stihl techs and dealers. The best one got flooded out several years ago and just couldn't recover. The local ones now, have trouble putting on their shoes , let alone tying the laces. The only one decent is 30 miles away. Father was fair, his son took over and has a holier than thou attitude. My neighbor owns a local Agway / Stihl sales. I try only to buy oil from him as his son also took over. Very common to see items for sale with three price stickers overlapping.
I'm fortunate that my 361 ,probably 20 + years old is still running great. The 500I , so far ok.....
As you say Paul, get great support, but sometimes almost impossible.
