Finally Bought a Stihl

[check]

Sold my Poulan. Bought a Stihl. Never looked back. Love that easy start system!

 

[kcflhrc]

I can honestly say my cheap old Walmart 18" Poulan has never failed me. I will use it until it dies and buy another.

 

[clemsonfor]

Picked up a MS251 this last week and used it all day today. Can't believe I waited so long to buy a quality saw. I used to hate trimming limbs and cutting firewood with the crappy Poulan I had. This should be the last year I have to buy firewood!

Wait till you get the saw bug and start buy multiple saws!! Imagine when you pick up and run a pro saw!! A ms260/261 or a 362 or 441. You will actually make some time and really feel a quality saw!!! I will run the homeowner saws but they are heavy for what they are and to me a 45cc saw is painfully slow cutting firewood. Limbing and yard pruning yes but not firewood duty!!! I love my ms650 with a dual port muffer and muffler mod. Makes quick work of the wood and gives you more time to load and be out of there and less time with a saw going weeee,ahhhh,werrrrr,weeee ahhhhh as it bogs up in wood over 10"s.

Yea those poulans, esp the wild thing line with no antivibe will really kill your hands and make them numb. I cant really run one of those now a days after running saws riding on springs or rubber!!

 

[clemsonfor]

Curiously enough my other saws ran well when new and the Stihl wouldn't crank when hot. I switched to Stihl oil and it's been running like a champ for quite a while.

That shouldnot make a difference. sounds like you have a carb adjustment error or your vent is plugged?

I would not use cheap oil though. I run full syn oil usually or partial syn if its a proven oil. Stihl oil is not bad but there is better cheaper altenatives out there. I am runing amsoil doninator now its about $12 a quart shipped to my house i think? I mix all my fuel 32:1. the 50:1 BS is an EPA driven thing to meet an emissions standard and leaves your saws lacking on the oil coating on the lower and upper end. Your saw may run fine but if you run it lond and hard in long cuts or modify it there is no way id run leaner than 40:1.

I also run NO E fuel from a station. I would avoid E fuel at all cost but if you cant i would just get new fuel every few months and not worry to much about it. I wont buy canned fuel as its expensive my ms650 holds a quart of fuel and its nothing to run a gallon of fuel through tthe saw cutting wood. That would cost like $30 buying the canned fuel. I dont know abuot you but i can pay for several carb kits and fuel lines if i was paying that kind of money for fuel before i would use it!@!!!

 

[clemsonfor]

Heartily disagree.
Get one for limbing, about 35cc
One for general felling, about 60 to 90CC
And one to cut down big stuff or CSM all day long - 120CC


I've bought several cans of premix, different ratios, 40:1 and 50:1. If I'm doing CSM I prefer 40:1. I refill the cans with ethanol free gas mixed w/ a good oil to the ratio on the can. That way when my son borrows a saw I can hand him a properly mixed can of gas. And if the mixed can gets to old it goes in a gasburner car.

the three saw plan!!! You have to be a member of AS, Hearth, FHC?

 

[clemsonfor]

I can honestly say my cheap old Walmart 18" Poulan has never failed me. I will use it until it dies and buy another.

Yea they work, i will give them that. Have cut lots of wood and kept many people warm. But when you run a quality saw you undersatnd the differences. its the same as a runner. He buys $500+ shoes to run in when he could go to walmart and buy some for $25. THey fit better are lighter for the power or speed he gets out of them and last better.

Quality saws with good antivibe are way nicer to run. A Quality saw will cut better and be faster usually for any given CC size compared to a cheap saw. And i have had a few cheap ones. The cost to repair them makes them a throw away saw and when things need to be done to them you often (if you dont work on them yourself) have to just by new. For example the Wild thing. The air filter disenegrates as its foam. A new one is $6 the fuel cap swells on them, i have had like 3 and they all do it and so does eveyone elses, there another $7 and a carb kit is like $6 but the labor to do what i just listed in a shop would cost you close to $100 in labor and parts and how much is the saw worth. Sure a stihl will probably need as many carb rebuilds if the same person has it but....

Trust me i own 8ish saws from 32cc china made ones to an 84cc stihl. I think the novelty of cheap saws is cool, i paid like $40 for the china saws i have new. I use them when i do small jobs or dont want my stihl bouncing on the traler for atv for long periods but there is no way id cut wood with a 42 cc wild thing!! Just too slow for me, but i have run some good saws so iknow what i am missing.

 

[freewookie]

I was looking at the echo 590 and stihl 271 but after picking them up they seemed really heavy. I only use about 2-3 cords a year so I figured the 251 should work fine. A couple on the thread have mentioned vibration. I noticed a massive difference on that. When I ran that Poulan all day my hands would be numb for days, had none of that with the 251.

I'll only be running 100% gas and stihl oil through it so no Motomix for me. Fortunately we have a gas station a few miles away that doesn't sell the ethanol crap.

I can see an additional larger saw in the future. I'd like to mill some posts out of all the cedars I have.

 

[Garandman]

Sold my Poulan. Bought a Stihl. Never looked back. Love that easy start system!

I got a Poulan for free*, may have to do that.

* He threw it in with some other equipment because it didn't cut well. Putting the chain on the right direction made a big improvement! lol.

 

[turnkey4099]

I got a Poulan for free*, may have to do that.

* He threw it in with some other equipment because it didn't cut well. Putting the chain on the right direction made a big improvement! lol.

And then there are the yard sale "locked up" saws. One pull on the chain brake fixes it!

Harry K

 

[MacLawn]

No ethanol gasoline, use only Stihl oil in everything I have that's two cycle except my outboards. I even use Stihl oil at 50:1 ratio in a 40 year old Homelite that was made to use 32:1. I just got my first Stihl last year.

And, READ that owner's manual! Even the dealer did not know you're not supposed to run it full throttle until after 5 tanks of gasoline has been run. Proper break in.

 

[davesl708]

I was running on a road in the rural area and looked over the bridge rail. There sticking out of the mud by its bar was a 20" Homelite saw. Came back and retrieved it. Cleaned the impacted air filter and spark plug. Fired it up and sold it in a yard sale. Used the money to buy a new bar and chain for my Stihl.

 

[freewookie]

No ethanol gasoline, use only Stihl oil in everything I have that's two cycle except my outboards. I even use Stihl oil at 50:1 ratio in a 40 year old Homelite that was made to use 32:1. I just got my first Stihl last year. And, READ that owner's manual! Even the dealer did not know you're not supposed to run it full throttle until after 5 tanks of gasoline has been run. Proper break in.

You had me scared so I finished the manual tonight. It's "full throttle off load". Think I always had a full load when I topped it out.

 

[4570Man]

I use the Husky XP oil. It is dyed blue and makes it fool proof to tell if your gas is mixed. The Stihl oil I have seen is not dyed and is harder to tell apart. My Husky 353 will out cut a Stihl farm boss. I don't have a Stihl pro saw to compare my 372 XP, but that saw will make either of the above saws look like toys. If I had it to do over I would buy a small XP like about 40 cc for cutting limbs and light work, and a big XP like about 90 cc for most cutting. I have definitely gotten my money's worth out of the old husky 353. I wouldn't be disappointed if it died on the next use.

 

[TomSeller]

I don't have a Stihl pro saw to compare my 372 XP, but that saw will make either of the above saws look like toys.

Really? Both Husky and Stihl are quality brands and neither are "toys".

 

[4570Man]

Really? Both Husky and Stihl are quality brands and neither are "toys".

With all due respect you misunderstand the post. The 372 XP makes the husky 353 and Stihl farm boss look like a toy.

 

[TomSeller]

With all due respect you misunderstand the post. The 372 XP makes the husky 353 and Stihl farm boss look like a toy.

Oh I understood the post. Toys? Really?

 

[turnkey4099]

No ethanol gasoline, use only Stihl oil in everything I have that's two cycle except my outboards. I even use Stihl oil at 50:1 ratio in a 40 year old Homelite that was made to use 32:1. I just got my first Stihl last year.

And, READ that owner's manual! Even the dealer did not know you're not supposed to run it full throttle until after 5 tanks of gasoline has been run. Proper break in.

Good luck with 'no full throttle'. Every moron dealer I have bought a saw from has fired it up and let it scream for several seconds.

Harry K

 

[check]

And then there are the yard sale "locked up" saws. One pull on the chain brake fixes it! Harry K

I love that one!

 

[check]

I got a Poulan for free*, may have to do that. * He threw it in with some other equipment because it didn't cut well. Putting the chain on the right direction made a big improvement! lol.

OK, I admit that I did that once. The first time I had to change the chain, I put the new one on backwards. Thought I had been ripped off!

 

[check]

Sold my Poulan. Bought a Stihl. Never looked back. Love that easy start system!

Actually the saw cuts OK, it was just that it constantly leaked oil, so every time I opened up the case there was a big mess in there.

Anyway, the guy that was working for me was dead broke and had nothing, so I sold it to him for a hundred dollars. He was happy as a clam!