windthrown
361 Junkie
OK, I am coming off of my sabbatical and I have a thread here which I have had in the back of my mind all spring/summer/fall cutting thousands of trees here. This is basically a critique and/or suggestion for anyone over at one of the global Stihl saw factories. Oh and yah, bathe me in love, I need gobs of rep points from all my old friends (and enemies) here on the equipment forum! So here goes... (stirring the :censored
My daily users are: 210, 025, 290, and a 361. I sold my 460 and parted out a another 025 on Ebay last week. I have 3/4 of a 023 for parts, and a 260 in pieces. I have used most of the Stihl lineup and torn down, fixed, and bought and sold pieces of them on Ebay. I left this forum earlier this year after all the flap about posting about the 210 that I bought on Ebay (yes, I am personally responsible for changes on this forum, and I got infraction points from the mods :fart: and all that). I subsequently had to fix the 210 which led to my 210/023/025 collection and teardown expertice. Someone aptly dubbed it the "Saw From Hell". I still have it and it is running OK with donor parts.
Anyway... my suggestions for Stihl:
#1) Dump the 170. The 180 is a better saw and has real parts on it. That would reduce the Stihl lineup by one saw.
#2) Dump the 230 (or the 250). The 210 and 250 are far better selling saws and the 230 is stuck in no-man's land. Actually, maybe instead of dumping the 230, dump the 250 as that one seems to have tooo much power for the clutch and brake, and the clutch chamber gets hot and burns holes right through the oil pump and tank. I see a lot of 250's burned up this way on Ebay. I had one do that to me as well. Burned a hole right through to the oil pump and line. This seemingly does not happen on the 210. There are so few 230s out there that I do not know if they suffer the same effect from overheating. But the 250 dies a tragic death from too much torque trashing the clutch, burning out the needle bearings, or plain melting the oil tank. That would reduce the Stihl fleet by another saw.
#3) As for all of the above saws, maybe label them as "Stihl Lite(tm)" or something. They are not real Stihl chainsaws. They are chainsaws that you have to jam, pry and cram into place to get them apart and back together. They have all this plastic crap that does not seem to fit right, and you have to pry stuff on and off of them just to get to the air cleaner. My particular peeves are with the plastic cover on the 170/180, and handle connection on the 210/230/250 series. Shove, jam, cram, snap, break, swear.
#4) What is with the C lineup? What is that? A cheesey tooless chain tightener with plastic gears and teeth that are made to break apart? What is wrong with the tried and true dual side nut tightener system??? Dump the C models and reduce the Stihl saw models by about half.
Now, on to the real Stihl chainsaws.
#5) Here we need to inject the need for a real Stihl 30-35cc saw. OK. There are the 192T and 200T which are good arbor saws for tree work. There are also the newer 192 and 200 saws with rear handles. However they have the same drawbacks as the tree saws with the mufflers and they are really EXPENSIVE! I wanna baby 361, or a 261. Yah, that's what I want. A 261!
Or maybe I just need a Dolmar 410 instead?
:monkey:
#6) While we are on the subject of the 260, why is there a 260 model w/o a decomp button? MAKE all 260's with DECOMP BUTTONS. Do away with the 260 "regular" model. Make them all PROFESSIONAL model saws. Scrap one more saw from the Stihl lineup.
#7) I am not all that familiar with the 270/280 series of saw. I have seen few of them, and I used a 280 cutting about a cord of wood. I dunno why Stihl makes them. Seems that they overlap the 260 and 290/310/390 series of saws. Do away with them and reduce the lineup by another 2 saws. Or merge them with the 290/310/390.
#8) PUT A DECOMP BUTTON ON THE 290!!!! That damn 290 starter has gotten me into the habit of drop starting all my saws now. It is a lot easier to drop start a saw, yah know? Bad habit, yah yah, I know...
#9) Reduce the 290/310/390 series of saws to the 290 and 310. The 390 buyers should all be buying a 361 anyway. That would reduce the lineup by another saw. And I KNOW that many out there hate the 290 saw, even though it is the best selling saw that Stihl makes. Can't get rid of that now, can we? I also happen to like the 290. Makes a great backup saw for the 361, is a heck of a lot cheaper, and it will do nearly the same job. It is a tad heavy, but for bucking logs, it is fine.
#10) Lets see, the 460... needs to be a 461! That thing was gonna give me whitefinger with all the vibration. I would imagine that all the larger saws should be updated to xx1 series anti-vibe saws. However, the 441 may have been a mistake. Dunno about the rocking-horse spring setup or the strato. It runs damn smooooooth though, which is good. The loggers around here dearly love their 440s, and want them back in production. Try to use the 361 as a example for the 461, 651, 661, and 881.
Now, after all these suggestions are taken into account, Stihl will have a few Stihl Lite(tm) saws, no more C model saws, and about half the lineup as they have today. Which I think would be about right for the current market. Never mind the other saws that they are selling overseas, like the 341, the 240, 380, etc., etc. Stihl makes basically way too many saws in the same class, size and price range.
FEED ME SOME LOVE! Or rep.
My daily users are: 210, 025, 290, and a 361. I sold my 460 and parted out a another 025 on Ebay last week. I have 3/4 of a 023 for parts, and a 260 in pieces. I have used most of the Stihl lineup and torn down, fixed, and bought and sold pieces of them on Ebay. I left this forum earlier this year after all the flap about posting about the 210 that I bought on Ebay (yes, I am personally responsible for changes on this forum, and I got infraction points from the mods :fart: and all that). I subsequently had to fix the 210 which led to my 210/023/025 collection and teardown expertice. Someone aptly dubbed it the "Saw From Hell". I still have it and it is running OK with donor parts.
Anyway... my suggestions for Stihl:
#1) Dump the 170. The 180 is a better saw and has real parts on it. That would reduce the Stihl lineup by one saw.
#2) Dump the 230 (or the 250). The 210 and 250 are far better selling saws and the 230 is stuck in no-man's land. Actually, maybe instead of dumping the 230, dump the 250 as that one seems to have tooo much power for the clutch and brake, and the clutch chamber gets hot and burns holes right through the oil pump and tank. I see a lot of 250's burned up this way on Ebay. I had one do that to me as well. Burned a hole right through to the oil pump and line. This seemingly does not happen on the 210. There are so few 230s out there that I do not know if they suffer the same effect from overheating. But the 250 dies a tragic death from too much torque trashing the clutch, burning out the needle bearings, or plain melting the oil tank. That would reduce the Stihl fleet by another saw.
#3) As for all of the above saws, maybe label them as "Stihl Lite(tm)" or something. They are not real Stihl chainsaws. They are chainsaws that you have to jam, pry and cram into place to get them apart and back together. They have all this plastic crap that does not seem to fit right, and you have to pry stuff on and off of them just to get to the air cleaner. My particular peeves are with the plastic cover on the 170/180, and handle connection on the 210/230/250 series. Shove, jam, cram, snap, break, swear.
#4) What is with the C lineup? What is that? A cheesey tooless chain tightener with plastic gears and teeth that are made to break apart? What is wrong with the tried and true dual side nut tightener system??? Dump the C models and reduce the Stihl saw models by about half.
Now, on to the real Stihl chainsaws.
#5) Here we need to inject the need for a real Stihl 30-35cc saw. OK. There are the 192T and 200T which are good arbor saws for tree work. There are also the newer 192 and 200 saws with rear handles. However they have the same drawbacks as the tree saws with the mufflers and they are really EXPENSIVE! I wanna baby 361, or a 261. Yah, that's what I want. A 261!
Or maybe I just need a Dolmar 410 instead?
:monkey:
#6) While we are on the subject of the 260, why is there a 260 model w/o a decomp button? MAKE all 260's with DECOMP BUTTONS. Do away with the 260 "regular" model. Make them all PROFESSIONAL model saws. Scrap one more saw from the Stihl lineup.
#7) I am not all that familiar with the 270/280 series of saw. I have seen few of them, and I used a 280 cutting about a cord of wood. I dunno why Stihl makes them. Seems that they overlap the 260 and 290/310/390 series of saws. Do away with them and reduce the lineup by another 2 saws. Or merge them with the 290/310/390.
#8) PUT A DECOMP BUTTON ON THE 290!!!! That damn 290 starter has gotten me into the habit of drop starting all my saws now. It is a lot easier to drop start a saw, yah know? Bad habit, yah yah, I know...
#9) Reduce the 290/310/390 series of saws to the 290 and 310. The 390 buyers should all be buying a 361 anyway. That would reduce the lineup by another saw. And I KNOW that many out there hate the 290 saw, even though it is the best selling saw that Stihl makes. Can't get rid of that now, can we? I also happen to like the 290. Makes a great backup saw for the 361, is a heck of a lot cheaper, and it will do nearly the same job. It is a tad heavy, but for bucking logs, it is fine.
#10) Lets see, the 460... needs to be a 461! That thing was gonna give me whitefinger with all the vibration. I would imagine that all the larger saws should be updated to xx1 series anti-vibe saws. However, the 441 may have been a mistake. Dunno about the rocking-horse spring setup or the strato. It runs damn smooooooth though, which is good. The loggers around here dearly love their 440s, and want them back in production. Try to use the 361 as a example for the 461, 651, 661, and 881.
Now, after all these suggestions are taken into account, Stihl will have a few Stihl Lite(tm) saws, no more C model saws, and about half the lineup as they have today. Which I think would be about right for the current market. Never mind the other saws that they are selling overseas, like the 341, the 240, 380, etc., etc. Stihl makes basically way too many saws in the same class, size and price range.
FEED ME SOME LOVE! Or rep.
Last edited:
, but I'll forgive ya for now.
