dissecting an earthquake chainsaw

[DexterDay]

The cheaper ones listed are returned? That may need anything? Or are you ordering the expensive ones...

Cheap ones.. and sometimes you get one that has not been ran. The last 2 I got (Wed), one was brand new. With the other being slightly used (minutes of run time).

As mentioned above, the packaging sucks. But none of mine have been damaged yet.

 

[GrassGuerilla]

It seems as if they were shipped out pig rich and will barely run, bogging in wood, won't rev. Typical Sears customer runs them a few minutes, try's to cut wood, declares it junk (read the Sears reviews of these saws). Then returned them in mass. All they seem to need is a carb adjustment to run. Some come with all accessories (scrench, files, manual) most if not all seem to come with a new Oregon bar & chain, with a guard.

Mine had obviously been stuck in wood, albeit briefly. For $42.50 or so, it's a winner of a deal.

 

[Mike from Maine]

Ray, I still intend to run my MS230 and the 45cc Quake on video for you.

Here's my stock 026 and others vs an out of the box 4518

 

[GrassGuerilla]

Here's my stock 026 and others vs an out of the box 4518

Seems a fair assessment of the video would be that the quake was roughly half the speed of everything else, no? For a stock saw at roughly 1/10 the price of the others, that seems reasonable. I'm guessing that a MM and retune should close about half that gap. And it's down 5cc or more vs any of them.

Might be more reasonable to time the quake vs say an Echo cs4400. Or an 024 woodboss.

Thanks for posting that Mike, dug the split screen action.

 

[Mike from Maine]

Seems a fair assessment of the video would be that the quake was roughly half the speed of everything else, no? For a stock saw at roughly 1/10 the price of the others, that seems reasonable. I'm guessing that a MM and retune should close about half that gap. And it's down 5cc or more vs any of them.

Might be more reasonable to time the quake vs say an Echo cs4400. Or an 024 woodboss.

Thanks for posting that Mike, dug the split screen action.

It took the whole video for the quake to make one cut --

eq45 - about 54s
026 -- 19
357 -- 14
359 -- 12

Those were the closest saws I had -- my reasoning for including the 357/9's was they weigh about the same amount as a 4518. The 026 is an early 48cc version.

When I swapped the quake to a new 16" .325 chisel chain with an 8 pin the time dropped to 35-7 seconds. About double the time of the 026.

 

[raybonz]

Here's my stock 026 and others vs an out of the box 4518

Still like that video and look forward to the EQ modded and compared to the 026.. If it even comes close to the 026 that would be awesome! Your 026 would kill my little 023 Mike!

 

[Chris-PA]

I guess that is not a surprise to me. I have not seen the 45cc version, but the 38cc was choked with a very restrictive muffler, along with very small ports and port timing that was not going to make much power. I never did run it stock, but it took a few iterations of mods to wake it up.

 

[Chris-PA]

OK, I admit it. I like the Earthquake chainbrake handle / hand guard.

 

[Brink79]

www.moreoutdoor4u.com

And the coupon code is EBAY

 

[a. palmer jr.]

It's amazing that you can get a saw with that kind of engine for that price.

I just looked on ebay and didn't see any of them for that price. The Buy it Now price is around $100. There was a couple of them in the $45 range but the bidding hadn't ended and there was 3 days left. That outdoor place had them..what was meant by the caption "as is?" I don't recall ever seeing that on new items..

 

[Steve NW WI]

From their page, these are actually returned units, some have not been used, some have had very minimal use. I haven't heard of anyone here that's gotten one with a lot of use yet:

EARTHQUAKE CHAINSAW 18 INCH - 45CC VIPER ENGINE CS4518



Selling "AS IS" item is complete - there is no warranty comes with motor, bar and chain.

They have been serviced and run but with buyers inability to trouble shoot small engines we are selling them "AS IS" for parts etc.

Basically, they're covering their backside, they don't want to see them again. Good for us that want to take a chance, so far that chance is mostly that it's gonna get broke in shipping with their packing or lack thereof.

 

[gottagetsawz]

The "as-is" saws are the ones every one is buying, most of them are returns from stores with little or no runtime, last time I checked the 45cc saws was selling $59 with free shipping

 

[MasterMech]

I just looked on ebay and didn't see any of them for that price. The Buy it Now price is around $100. There was a couple of them in the $45 range but the bidding hadn't ended and there was 3 days left. That outdoor place had them..what was meant by the caption "as is?" I don't recall ever seeing that on new items..

Same seller, different website.

 

[a. palmer jr.]

I hope none of them got straight gassed during their minimal run time...

 

[trophyhunter]

I hope none of them got straight gassed during their minimal run time...

I'm convinced they are fueling these and running them at some point before they are sold and shipped, not one report of a straight gassed scored one yet and there's got to be plenty of that going on with any 2 stroke product box stores sell to the public these days.

 

[Philbert]

On a related topic . . . A certain home center with large orange racks near me was clearing out Homelight saws for $79, and Ryobis for $159 this evening

I was only really interested in the carrying cases.

Anybody know anything about the Ryobis?

Philbert

 

[GrassGuerilla]

On a related topic . . . A certain home center with large orange racks near me was clearing out Homelight saws for $79, and Ryobis for $159 this evening

I was only really interested in the carrying cases.

Anybody know anything about the Ryobis?

Philbert

You'll have to check the model # of the Ryobi. Several generations ago they were actually made by Zenoah, essentially a rebadge redmax. My understanding is the current Ryobis being sold at the depot are McCulloch-Homelite relatives (no idea who's actually designing them.) the Zenoah ones are several years old, and unlikely to turn up at HD, but who knows? A pallet that's been misplaced in the store (for instance hiding in the hardware dept amongst the ryobi stuff there). One never knows.

 

[Chris-PA]

You'll have to check the model # of the Ryobi. Several generations ago they were actually made by Zenoah, essentially a rebadge redmax. My understanding is the current Ryobis being sold at the depot are McCulloch-Homelite relatives (no idea who's actually designing them.) the Zenoah ones are several years old, and unlikely to turn up at HD, but who knows? A pallet that's been misplaced in the store (for instance hiding in the hardware dept amongst the ryobi stuff there). One never knows.

As far as I know they are all Homelite saws now. I don't have any of them but from the IPLs and looking at them they appear to share nothing with any Zenoah or Jenn Feng (formerly McCulloch) design.

 

[Brian B.]

Looking more and more like this deal has dried up.....

 

[trophyhunter]

Looking more and more like this deal has dried up.....

Uh oh, the website doesn't even show the as-is saws any more. Man I'm glad I bought some of 'em while I could!

Well gentlemen, get thy selves out and buy incandescent light bulbs on the cheap while you still can. Those are supposed to dry up in another week or so...