Good Morning,
And I should re-introduce myself as well (long story of Non-work related injury). Sooo, I'm mike.
This topic has caught my interest since I am probably looking for a "new" Expert. Just to provide some perspective, I've got 4 ground saws that are still in service and running quite well--perhaps I should do a COMP. check anyway...In the beginning, late 80's onward, we had Homelites-(seriously) and a mish/mosh of Stihl products with the 038 Magnums (a forgotten legend) plus a pair of 066's that have the "elastomer" gizzy in the pull start handle. The 066's rarely got used because you could risk injury just from pulling the handle anyway other than "Just Right".
But I digress, My first "Boss only" saw was a lowly Echo CS-5000,(that Still runs great), and it is over 15(20?) years old--I happened to be visiting relatives and they needed a tree "rendered safe", so a quick trip to Home Depot and Hence, my 1st Echo.
As we ended up with a second crew, we realized that putting nice tools in the hands of the "Enemy", particularly unsupervised, would be a HUGE waste. So, the Enemy gets an 020, a couple 026's and an 038-(still 90's, mind you).
After years of running Stihl saws, I decided to make my Personal work saws "100% Personal". I was SO Anal that I would cable lock my saws if I was up a tree or just down the street to prevent unauthorized use!
This was mid-late 90's and I bought one of first 394xp's to appear anywhere near NJ (West Chester PA) Next was a 371xp that says 1998 on the chassis tag. My newest, and Modded (By A Legend) Saw is a 385xp ('01). The Gentleman that gave it a "Woods-port job did excellent work, and the last I had read he was out of the business ~2005 (for health reasons, sadly), so I'm not promoting, just commenting on how well a modified saw can hold up if built right first and then maintained well afterwards. I suspect there are plenty of Folks here who know the Fine Gentleman I speak of, Ken Dunn.
In the 90's and years prior, Ken Dunn was a legendary builder, and rightfully so.
And as luck would have it, It wasn't long after I got my 385 that I met the owner of another company--by chance, that had just gotten a 385 also and after we spoke for awhile, we had a "Non-Scientific" comparison between the 2. (Here would be the Real Proof) The first "Race" was my "Horse" by 3 lengths. Then we swapped bar and chains between us and that slowed me to 2 cuts for his 1, (instead of the 3 to 1) with my bar/chain combo. The other guy agreed that my "Woods-saw" was Wicked fast, but predicted it would probably "Blow-up" within a few months, since his own Stihls were lucky to go a year before replacement(!)
Then We had the standard discussion regarding the "Enemy" and how we both agreed that Stihl saws could take more stupidity and abuse than Huskys without being turned to junk quite as quickly.
I certainly expect that there are builders today that can mod a work saw as well as Ken did, and perhaps--when they no longer make parts for old Huskys, I'll be sending some saws his way(!)
Besides standard proper maintenance, I attribute the extraordinary longevity of my saws to a few other factors; 1, NEVER a Forced warm-up, 2, Tuned with a Tach, in the cut, and kept to the safe side mixture-wise and *Flame-point* the use of Silkolene Pro-2....And Most Importantly of all---NEVER LET ANYONE ELSE USE YOUR SAW!!!!!!!! ("sorry dude, liability")
BTW, we had figured out the need to MuffMod all our new saws once "Phase !" stickers showed up, But Ken Ported the 385 and an 020 that both run strong to this day!
otstir:'n.
