Only Stihl I Ever Liked may come back?

[Big Red Oaks 4 me]

I had a MS 360 a few years ago, and it had a safety feature that I really liked. When you took your hand off the throttle trigger, the chain stopped. It was a really good running and cutting saw, and was in excellent condition. A friend had been looking for a good used 360, and I sold the saw to him for 300.00. After he got it, he hardly used it, like maybe an hour or so, and that's all. I saw him in town the other day, and he wants to sell it back to me for 300.00. I know it's been well cared-for, as this guy was a Stihl technician for many years before he quit doing that. He was a good tech, too. I have a Husky 562 that I really like now, but I have missed that "safe" Stihl. Should I get it back? Opinions welcome!

 

[Bobby Kirbos]

Are you trying to get us to convince you to buy it, or talk you out of buying it?

 

[tallguys]

Just buy the saw... you already know that you want to!

 

[1Alpha1]

If in doubt, buy it back.

 

[Big Red Oaks 4 me]

Well, my point was that I don't really need it, but if the guy still has it tomorrow evening, I will buy it back, and then I can blame it on y'all!...….

 

[1Alpha1]

When I'm on the fence about something, I usually lean and then end up falling in the direction that I was thinking of.

Blame it on us. We're good............

 

[WolfMann]

Do the right thing....buy the saw.

 

[scottr]

BRO4me , every saw I own has the chain stops feature when I remove my trigger hand .
Sounds like your friend used your saw for a hour for free .

 

[Big Red Oaks 4 me]

BRO4me , every saw I own has the chain stops feature when I remove my trigger hand .
Sounds like your friend used your saw for a hour for free .

That safety feature is scarce around here, but I'm older now with health issues. Wife doesn't even like to see me go to the woods with a saw.

 

[Deleted member 117362]

It's a Stihl, just buy another 562 and forget about it.

 

[scottr]

If you and the wife feel safer with the Ms360 by all means buy it back .

 

[sundance]

That safety feature is scarce around here, but I'm older now with health issues. Wife doesn't even like to see me go to the woods with a saw.

I'm probably confused on this safety feature....never seen a chainsaw that the chain didn't stop when you released the throttle? Maybe I've just led a sheltered life.

 

[reedo]

You can see it work here. It’s the Q models that have this.

 

[sundance]

Thanks, now I understand. Does stop much quicker than a normal saw. I've never seen that feature before.

 

[SteveSr]

This "quick stop" feature was a trial balloon that Stihl floated to test the design and marketability of the feature. They do that from time-to-time. Another instance was with an 023L. The "L" was for low noise. However they accomplished this by severely restricting the intake and exhaust and costing significantly in the horsepower department. The 023L became a "red headed step child". I haven't noticed the "quick stop" feature in any other models so this feature may have the same fate.

 

[Big Red Oaks 4 me]

She's home again!!! The guy that I had sold it to only has a 260 now that this one is gone. He kept a clipboard hanging in his shop with dates recorded where he cranked and ran his 2 saws every 2 months, and only used Hi-Test non ethanol fuel. Here she is....

 

[Ryan'smilling]

This "quick stop" feature was a trial balloon that Stihl floated to test the design and marketability of the feature. They do that from time-to-time. Another instance was with an 023L. The "L" was for low noise. However they accomplished this by severely restricting the intake and exhaust and costing significantly in the horsepower department. The 023L became a "red headed step child". I haven't noticed the "quick stop" feature in any other models so this feature may have the same fate.

It's kinda nifty in my opinion. I'm sure it would prevent a few accidents every year if it was on all saws. I'm certainly not advocating for that by any means though, and I'm sure that almost all of those accidents could be prevented by a careful operator using a saw with the other safety features intact. That is to say that if it's your practice to engage the chain brake with your left hand before taking your right hand off the handle, then this would be a totally redundant feature. Also, if the saw is tuned correctly and not turning the chain at idle and the operator presence lever is functioning correctly, it is not very likely to cause an accident, even being carried without both hands on the saw and the brake engaged.

But, what we think is irrelevant because Stihl gets to make the decisions about what to produce. And... They still make saws with that feature. I'm not sure if you can get it on any of their saws, but I know for sure that they make an MS362C-Q with this feature. You can probably order one from your dealer after you convince them that they exist.

 

[Big Red Oaks 4 me]

It's kinda nifty in my opinion. I'm sure it would prevent a few accidents every year if it was on all saws. I'm certainly not advocating for that by any means though, and I'm sure that almost all of those accidents could be prevented by a careful operator using a saw with the other safety features intact. That is to say that if it's your practice to engage the chain brake with your left hand before taking your right hand off the handle, then this would be a totally redundant feature. Also, if the saw is tuned correctly and not turning the chain at idle and the operator presence lever is functioning correctly, it is not very likely to cause an accident, even being carried without both hands on the saw and the brake engaged.

But, what we think is irrelevant because Stihl gets to make the decisions about what to produce. And... They still make saws with that feature. I'm not sure if you can get it on any of their saws, but I know for sure that they make an MS362C-Q with this feature. You can probably order one from your dealer after you convince them that they exist.

I like the feature because of how fast the chain stops when you release the lever, and I am accident-prone. I'm not old enough to be wearing Depends yet, but I AM accident-prone....

 

[Ryan'smilling]

I like the feature because of how fast the chain stops when you release the lever, and I am accident-prone. I'm not old enough to be wearing Depends yet, but I AM accident-prone....

My good friend actually just injured his right hand while using a chainsaw 3 weeks ago tomorrow. He's safety concious but doesn't have a ton of chainsaw experience. He was cutting up a limb on the ground and took his right hand off the saw to relocate a piece he'd just cut. He almost instantly noticed blood on the saw bar.

From our debrief, we concluded that the chain was still coasting down when his hand contacted it. He was sure the saw wasn't engaging the clutch at idle or anything like that. The quick stop feature would have likely prevented this accident, though manually engaging the primary chain brake would have also.

Thankfully he was extremely lucky and suffered no injury to anything but meat. No tendons or ligaments were damaged. He's gonna have a good scar to remind him of it, but he's almost back to having 100% use of his hand.

 

[Big Red Oaks 4 me]

My good friend actually just injured his right hand while using a chainsaw 3 weeks ago tomorrow. He's safety concious but doesn't have a ton of chainsaw experience. He was cutting up a limb on the ground and took his right hand off the saw to relocate a piece he'd just cut. He almost instantly noticed blood on the saw bar.

From our debrief, we concluded that the chain was still coasting down when his hand contacted it. He was sure the saw wasn't engaging the clutch at idle or anything like that. The quick stop feature would have likely prevented this accident, though manually engaging the primary chain brake would have also.

Thankfully he was extremely lucky and suffered no injury to anything but meat. No tendons or ligaments were damaged. He's gonna have a good scar to remind him of it, but he's almost back to having 100% use of his hand.

10-4 on that! I've used saws for decades, and the only "injury" I ever got was from and old, small Poulan XXV that the handlebar was too close to the chain, without any kind of guard or brake. The bar hit a small branch and it "jumped" out of my left hand just long enough for it to bite my left thumb. I didn't even realize what had happened until I saw blood. The "stinging" came a minute or 2 later. That was one of those lucky injuries that was minor. I have fallen down and tripped-up while using larger saws, but managed to keep them away from me during the fall.