Stihl FS220 Clearing Saw? Good/Bad/Ugly?

[Jack_Shaft]

I have the opportunity to get one of these units donated for my local snowmobile club. The deal is that it comes to me with a blown top end, I fix it, it's ours. I did this with a Husqvarna 250RX brushcutter a little while ago and it worked out great thanks to some help from this site.

My only question is regarding the reputation of the FS220. Is it a good brushcutter? Is it prone to failure? Is it able to take a pretty good beating?

Perhaps one of you out there own one.

 

[Jack_Shaft]

Uh oh. No responses usually means I have a "Golden Oldie".

I think I may just take the plunge on this one and see for myself if it's any good or not.

 

[Jack_Shaft]

Partstree.com does not carry Stihl...

Now I need some IPL's to see what I am getting into.

Where can I get an IPL for an FS220?

 

[Jack_Shaft]

No luck yet finding an IPL, but I found a replacement P&C for a relatively cheap price, should be OK.

 

[stingray bay]

I have the opportunity to get one of these units donated for my local snowmobile club. The deal is that it comes to me with a blown top end, I fix it, it's ours. I did this with a Husqvarna 250RX brushcutter a little while ago and it worked out great thanks to some help from this site.

My only question is regarding the reputation of the FS220. Is it a good brushcutter? Is it prone to failure? Is it able to take a pretty good beating?

Perhaps one of you out there own one.

HI Jack_Shaft Belated reply, I've got two of these saws and they must be getting on for 15 years old. I highly recomend them for the hammering they take and the reliabilty (we live a long way from the nearest shtil shop) the stihl shop is try in get me to upgrade but they just keep going (2000+ hours on each) so I'm not planning to throw them away anytime soon.

They do have one weakness, the clamp that holds the cutter head onto the shaft does tend to crack but this is easily fixed with a saddle over the top.

Regards

Mark

 

[blsnelling]

Do you realize that you just replied to a 1 1/2 year old thread, lol

 

[fishercat]

actually,

Do you realize that you just replied to a 1 1/2 year old thread, lol

you and i just did too.

better late...................than never.

i have done it a few times.it's the thought that counts.

:greenchainsaw:

 

[StihlyinEly]

Since he called it a "belated reply", I assume his tongue was planted firmly in cheek. Perhaps, more importantly, the guy finally got an answer to his question after making a bunch of unreplied-to posts 1.5 years ago.

Guess it's better late than never, especially since even if the OP has long since lost interest (or died or something), everyone else can learn from this thread.

Guess it's no mystery why he didn't post back the resolution of the evolution, since he got no joy initially.

 

[stingray bay]

yes I did, I just figured that if he went ahead and did the 220 up he should know that someone else out there has one (two!) and has the decency to let him know. Just in case he (or anyone else) can't find anyone else to answer his 220 questions - better to reply to an old post than to keep all that information to yourself I reckon.

 

[stingray bay]

Just in case anyone else is searching for information on the FS 220 and can't find it anywhere on this site I found what I was looking for (max no load RPM)elsewhere and can advise that this machine makes top power a little over 9000 rpm and max no load setting is 12,500.

Regards

Mark

 

[Jack_Shaft]

Well... re-visiting this thread after a long time, just stumbled across it again tonight. Luckily, I didn't die (lol) so I can return to comment on things. I managed to fix up the FS220K and it runs great. The RX250 that I mention earlier in this thread was a POS that failed immediately after I rebuilt it. That one headed straight for the dump.

I will be trying out the FS220K in the next few days, hope it works good.

 

[stingray bay]

Well... re-visiting this thread after a long time, just stumbled across it again tonight. Luckily, I didn't die (lol) so I can return to comment on things. I managed to fix up the FS220K and it runs great. The RX250 that I mention earlier in this thread was a POS that failed immediately after I rebuilt it. That one headed straight for the dump.

I will be trying out the FS220K in the next few days, hope it works good.

Great to hear you (and the FS220) are still alive! I did discover one other problem with the 220. There is a circlip at the bottom of the output shaft casting that holds everthing into the cutter head. The groove that this clip fits into wears (mostly from grass getting stuck between the casting and the cover) and the clip can jump out which means the whole output shaft including the blade can fall out potentially taking the the protective cover with it and do some damage to you or anything else it comes into contact with. The "problem" is that Stihl have made this casting ridiculously expensive (read 1/3 the price of new machine just for the casting!). For the moment I have prolonged the life of this machine by machining the groove deeper and using an oversized circlip. So my advice is to remove this circlip periodicly and check the groove is adequate, also check the cover that bolts over the circlip is there and in good condition. Regards Mark