spike60
Addicted to ArboristSite
parts.. not fleabay... dealer only...
Oh that's right.. nobody ever needs used parts:greenchainsaw:
Seriously though.... any (not just Solo) coventional 2-stroke "late entries" into this market will be faced with a very short product life... 2010 (EPA) looms.... That translates to a very small market, limited parts availability and little access to used parts. Sometimes the old brands make sense.
Andy is right on target with this post. He has brought this up in the past and I find it amusing that nobody else even bothers to discuss it. This is really going to happen and there are manufacturers who still do not have a solution. Some of them will not have one, or may not have a solution that you will want to own. So, it's a fair question to ask about what an OEM with limited market penetration will do when those regs take effect. Whether as a dealer or an end user, I'd be concerned about future product support before I tried something just to be different.
The Husky/Red Max marriage made a lot of sense because with both X-torque, and Strato-Charged, both manufacturers where on the same technology curve. Others are trying cats and variations of 4-stroke technology, but there are limitations with these approaches.Husky has bought some time with the cat mufflers, but as we know, they are quickly moving away from them. Echo and Shindaiwa have formed an alliance as neither one had a viable long term solution individually. There is actually a lot more scrambling going on behind the scenes than anyone outside the industry could imagine.
Also, a few companies have been been buying time, ie emission credits, by selling a lot of "clean" homeowner trimmers in the box stores as well as dealers. Companies like Solo and Dolmar can't play that card. (Jonsered falls under the Husky umbrella so I'm told).
We'll all be doing a lot of posting about this in the not too distant future.opcorn: