Stihl MS 250 C-BE or Shindaiwa 488

[JohnnyBoy1986]

Love all the replies. The reason the 488 was on sale is because they are now out of the saw market since Echo bought them. The 488 is a good saw as well as a few other models that they built. All of you bashing the 250 compared to a 488 are not that intelligant since they are two completely different saws. Compare it to a pro Stihl then make your judgement.

compare em all day long and im still a shindaiwa man over stihl. I run alooot of my shindaiwas and occassionally i love to pull out the husky's. work on stihls all day long, just not that big a fan of the "newer" (or more recent if you will) lineup, doesnt live up to the older reputations as much. JMHO, maybe guys around here are alot rougher on em lol. Anywho, not trying to jack the thread or cause a debate, but as far as being able to work comfortably with reliability shindaiwas are as good as any of em in my opinion. power depends on the operator, im comfortable letting my shins do the cutting and bought out or not by echo, parts will be available for years to come, i know, im a dealer . He couldnt have gone wrong with either saw here, but compared to the other model stihl he wanted, he's better off this way.

 

[carnaco]

:agree2:, my only fear would be why he sold the Shinny so cheap. If he was a good dealer that would make me feel much better about the purchase. A good dealer would fix any problems that may arise.

The dealer is a large reputable business who sold Shindaiwa for 20yrs. They were liquidating their inventory. They will stand behind the 2 yr. warranty.

 

[mbopp]

Kyle over at Edge & Engine bent over backwards for me to track down the correct flocked filter for my 488. While I was at it I got a few spare bar nuts also.
As far as chain, there's a Carlton distributor not far from me so I'm running their .325 semi-chisel.