Dealing with Chinese Buying Chainsaws _ Clones

[Bedford T]

Hello

I am trying to develop a standard for myself in judging them. I am going to sell these and will be 100% honest with the buyer and the ads will be clear. I would like to know what the standard is. Please don't brother saying they are junk because that is not totally true. I have researched the situation and understand how they can do it legally. The ones I have dealt with are emphatic that they sell "exact copies" of a handful of older saws. That part did not seem underhanded, I think when the re-sellers get hold of it that it goes south.

Its better than buying at harbor freight, you always have to make adjustments to most any product to make it work. I buy equate aspirin before i would buy bayer. Same trade off here. With the brandname clones there is very little you might want to do. Sprocket cover, needle bearing, elastostart assembly, chain adjuster and chain catcher on a ms660, and your saw is great.

Whens someone hangs a stihl bar on it and starts playing word games that same saw turns into a fake in my book. or a chinese ms880 that one was never made there

I was on the tube tonight and the chainsawguy channel I search for Chinese clones and nothing came up but looking in his bay store he is selling them. I think he is straight up. It seems he goes way beyond and does all the right things and you can have one for less than 700.

On the other hand a guy had an ad that claimed a stihl ms660 for 950 and then the title got fuzzy and i think he had reasoned that if he put a list of oem parts out there it would legitimize the saw. I had a minute and shot him a message about its either a clone or a stihl not both, at some point aftermarket parts kill the stihl, not clear at what point that is?

The prices are going up. The china men and women see us as suckers in pricing and they charge prices all over the map. I think they have pride in their work. i have met 5 suppliers and am impressed with all but the most popular one on here, she's a total iron maiden and surprisingly not the best source. That's another thing how do you find the suppliers? I have been at it 3 months and only found 5 that I want to try. They have these weird sense of humor they will insult you and laugh. They mommy's were really tough on them i understand.

Shipping a 070 is close to $200... dang dog, saw aint but 300 if you buy a mess of them. $200 for shipping one

The 070 I was shown was deadon, the 381 72cc perfect Australian saw. I really enjoyed the 038, one of my favorite saws. As mentioned above the 4 things that I would immediately change on the 660 from the dealer for $60 total to make it perfect. But that is not guaranteed you gotta buy from the right folks. And they love western union. if they are honest you will get your saws and if not well it is not ebay. thank you

 

[Conquistador3]

I seem to recall all Zenoah G5000 clones are actually made by two manufacturers in the same industrial city, mostly using the same components. The importers here in the West just have a few details, like plastic colors, changed but underneath they are exactly the same saws.
I know for whatever reason chainsaws in Australia are as expensive as dental care here, but here you can get these Zenoah clones on eBay for a true pittance: some sellers even sell you two saws for €120, shipped. Exactly the same saws are sold in brick and mortar shops at over twice the price. I know some people would say "I'll pick the shop so if there's a problem I can get the saw fixed by them" but in truth you'd be much better off shipping the saw back to the eBay seller or simply throw it away and buy another.

Now let's speak about the saws themselves. How they perform is all down to two things: how the saw was assembled and what you expect from it.
Usually the components aren't as bad as you'd expect, but assembly quality vary greatly to say the least. Here it seems more a question of luck than anything else. The good thing is most eBay sellers will replace the saw on a strict no questions asked basis.
And then there's what to expect from these saws. The chap using a saw once or twice a year to do a spot of garden maintenance or cut a little firewood is unlikely to feel any difference from a reasonably priced homeowner saw. In fact I dare say, bang for the buck, these Zenoah clones are better than some "big brand" homeowner saws, like the Euro McCulloch's we have.
But if you do more, like felling trees and even cutting a lot of firewood to heat the house, I'd say forget about it.

 

[Chris-PA]

I have two, one a no-name G621 clone off eBay and the other an Earthquake CS3816. I've said before the no-names at least should be considered as chainsaw kits, and given a fairly extensive tear down, clean up of flashing/molding, and proper reassembly. Along the way the base gasket can disappear, some fuel & oil lines maybe replaced, and even some ports get widened and muffler opened up - then you have a cheap saw close to the original design, which is usually a good Zenoah based one. There may be some bad parts, but these are available off eBay cheap. These saws are not a good idea for someone with no skills, experience and/or interest in working on saws.

In the US some of these saws are actually EPA, which means modified ports, a cat muffler and reduced power from the original design - but that's not a different strategy from some of the big brand names.

I have seen the EPA listed clones in 45cc (G5000-based design) and 37cc (G3800 design) at several big box stores lately. The casting quality looks considerably better than mine (no bent or drooping fins, less flashing, etc.), although it is clear to me they are the same manufacturer.

 

[SalahHH83]

I have a 58cc Chinese saw that I got for $108 shipped. So far, the thing has really impressed me for what it is and pulls a 20" bar through hardwood nicely. I bought it to play with and practice some modding on. The biggest thing that stands out is the cheapness of the plastic parts - especially the starter - compared to a Stihl or a Husky. The only problem with the saw is the oiler leaks. I'm sure the carb will be a problem in the long run as the Chinese carbs in general are a weak point. As far as power goes, it's surprisingly powerful out of the box. I haven't done a compression test and squish test yet (coming), but on start up it feels like it has very good compression. If I had to guess, the starter will probably be the first part to fail. The oil pump would be the other.

 

[Bedford T]

Likely not a farmertec. Thank goodness for oem. Just replace the parts before they fail. It will be way cheaper. I am doing a build soon and plan on starting out with certain oem parts.

 

[AlfA01]

I have a 58cc Chinese saw that I got for $108 shipped. So far, the thing has really impressed me for what it is and pulls a 20" bar through hardwood nicely. I bought it to play with and practice some modding on. The biggest thing that stands out is the cheapness of the plastic parts - especially the starter - compared to a Stihl or a Husky. The only problem with the saw is the oiler leaks. I'm sure the carb will be a problem in the long run as the Chinese carbs in general are a weak point. As far as power goes, it's surprisingly powerful out of the box. I haven't done a compression test and squish test yet (coming), but on start up it feels like it has very good compression. If I had to guess, the starter will probably be the first part to fail. The oil pump would be the other.

The oil leaking on those Chinese saws seems to be across the board on the saws that I've dealt with. I've got two of them in the backyard and they both leak oil badly. That's why they are in the backyard. Those two are just parts saws now, but do a fair bit of wood cutting in their day. One of the still runs, but need some carb work. It tends to vapor lock when its hot.

 

[Bedford T]

I forgot I wrote this post, time does educate. Never started selling them, don't think it's a good idea. Must have been looking for more reasons to build kits.

 

[AlfA01]

I forgot I wrote this post, time does educate. Never started selling them, don't think it's a good idea. Must have been looking for more reasons to build kits.

I was looking through eBay and saw some kit saws on there. I thought about it for a second and then thought better. I'm glad I didn't buy one, but instead bought another Dolmar and some upgrade goodies for my PS-7910.

It's not that the saws are bad. They are actually pretty good for the price. It's that they are hard to give them away sometimes. I had a Pakistan man chasing me down the street trying to sell me one. Funny thing is, he had the chainsaw running in his hand so I think everyone thought he was crazy.

You can get them all day for 80-100 EU here new, and 20 used. Not much room there to make a buck.

 

[RandyinTN]

Why even go through the aggravation?

 

[MG porting]

Why even go through the aggravation?

The biggest reason why most of us are building these saws like lets say the ms660 and ms440 is prise and like me its fun and I can make one run really well with port work not saying I can't get more out of a oem but at the same time some of us have oem saws and just like to beat the clone that didn't cost a arm and a leg like the $15,000 oem saw and not everyone can fork out that kind of cash so we just buy the clone. And we feel good about it because we built the saw just like building a 600+hp big block building one yourself is more fun than having someone else building one for you. Just saying.

 

[AlfA01]

The biggest reason why most of us are building these saws like lets say the ms660 and ms440 is prise and like me its fun and I can make one run really well with port work not saying I can't get more out of a oem but at the same time some of us have oem saws and just like to beat the clone that didn't cost a arm and a leg like the $15,000 oem saw and not everyone can fork out that kind of cash so we just buy the clone. And we feel good about it because we built the saw just like building a 600+hp big block building one yourself is more fun than having someone else building one for you. Just saying.

That's pretty cool too. Anyone that builds anything from the ground up deserves some kudos. I'm mainly referring to the already made saws that are flooding the markets and typically have no replacement parts when something goes wrong.
My point to the thread is that they tend to leak oil (all of the Chinese production saws) and instead of buying a kit saw, I'd prefer building a previously owned saw to the way I like it (porting, filter mods, etc.,). Also, the OP was asking about selling Chinese saws. In my opinion, whether you build it or buy a production Chinese saw, there isn't a lot of room for profit due to the very low price they tend to draw.

Cheers,