Husqvarna 550xp repaired-ish

[Sawyer Rob]

How do you guys cut wood without eye protection........ everytime I try it I get sawdust in my eyes.

I don't, but some of the guys that help me just won't, so after telling them a time or two, I tell them, "you are on your own"!!

SR

 

[s219]

Didn't get a chance to use my Echo 501P today -- too darn cold -- but I did notice that that I bought it in late 2016, so it's been 2+ years of running it. That's long enough that I'd feel comfortable giving it a strong recommendation. Also saw I paid $469 with 20" bar/chain back then. I think the prices have gone up since.

 

[Oldpath05]

Cold?????? Virginia aint cold, single numbers is cold, I had 4 above yesterday 2 above today. So for the last two years would you say you've gone threw atleast 5-6 gal of gas on the 501p and still starts and idles good? You say you also have a 550xp, do you know if that chainsaw bar will fit on a Echo 501p? I have a $45.00 brand new 18" extra bar for my 550xp, I have to figure that into a new saw purchase equation.

How far away are you from Lynchburg? My Daughter is a reporter at a news station down there somewhere.

 

[bullbreaker]

I have had the 501-P on my radar . So far here is cheapest I have found it .
ECHO Chainsaws

 

[Jstpssng]

That's probably the best bet right now, but where is there a true blue Husqvarna dealer around Me that knows there ABCs and will cross the T's when checking over a saw, I'll have to spend some networking see if I can find one, hopefully there's one closer then the upper mid west.

I remember 40 years ago there was chainsaw shops all over the place, here there and everywhere, I think what happen is the paper market and lumber mills bottomed out and now there's less loggers to buy saws, which had a ripple affect on chainsaw dealers. Then Husqvarna said we need to sell more saws so lets get into the big box stores and cater to the urbanite lumber jacks and then we can make junk and they wont know the difference and or care, urbanite loggers just like to buy stuff and JD and everyone else sees that and now their all selling junk in big box stores

This is what happened to all of those small dealers that you are talking about... and I won't even pretend that I don't think it's a good thing.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Buying them off the internet isn't helping the small local dealer either...

SR

 

[tjkubota93]

The past couple weeks I've been looking into several chainsaw brands and where or how far away one is, Stihl and Echo are close by so I been looking for bad reviews on Echo, hard to find til I was sent a link from the ArboristSite, boy was that a bad one. It's mostly about Echo 5 year warranty= No warranty, but besides the bad review and a $230.00 repair bill on a $300.00 saw, a couple post turned my world up side down.

Echo CS-490 DEAD after 11.5 months?
p-1#7>> You didn稚 mention what ratio mix you were using, but tuned for a 50 to 1, and if you used let痴 say 32 to 1, saw will run hotter and leaner and can score a piston if not re tuned for the different mix. There are many other reasons too. When a saw starts acting up, it痴 best to stop using it and find out why before damage begins.

p-6#12>>While the oil in the fuel is needed, it is also an impurity as to how fuel burns and octane rating is concerned . The more oil, the more you lower your octane. Lower the octane the hotter the burn. That's why on most cans of ready use it says they "use" 92 or 93 octane fuel, not "it is" that.

These two comments to me dont make since>>> "32 to 1, saw will run hotter and leaner "<<<< how can less gas and more oil make a saw run hotter and leaner? to me that would be better for breaking in a new saw, I usually go 40-1.

"Lower the octane the hotter the burn." <<<And this dont make since, I always thought the higher the octane the the hotter the burn and combustion which equal more power.

I was giving Echo CS-501p a hard look but now after reading that thread I'm not so sure. Then my son tells me today while he was in town 22 mile away he saw a Husqvarna 550xp for $570.00 at the hardware store, said they had full line up of Husqvarna saws, do I dare go Husqvarna again, I didn't even get 6 years out of the one I have...........

Now a couple other thoughts on that thread, I see all the posters rag on Echo's no warranty but where was all or any post saying>>"Wellllllll I have a Husqvarna, Stihl, Jonsered, RedMax, ABCXWZ saws with scored pistons and they warranted mine. Oh I get it those saws dont break down, didn't know that. A scored piston some say is from a gas issue, maybe not mixed or mixed with motor oil, so how can one prove it's a bad saw, they said Echo saws are to lean from factory, that could go back and forth for 9 pages, but IMO Echo should've took the high road and warranted the saw, might of gained a sale, possibly from me.

Now according to the OP Echo said that his was from sawdust that got into the carburetor because it was fine sawdust and Echo said it got in there because the chain was not properly maintained or in other words dull chain.

I won't buy another echo. I had one (cs501p) that was new, the air filter didn't do a darn thing but block wood chips. The throat of the carb was full of dirt. I got rid of it because I called echo and the kid that answered the phone was a smarty pants jerk. All I did was ask if they could reccomend a better filter or a way to keep all the dirt out. Not going down that road........... sold it for $50 loss on Ebay. That's a design flaw.

 

[tjkubota93]

346xp

 

[Jstpssng]

I had an Echo CS520 which I bought when my 346xp lost the crank after just 3 years. It was a little heavier and slower than the Husky it replaced, but was a good saw for 6 years. The trouble is that I kept it for 8. It also had a 5 year warranty which the saw it replaced didn't.

 

[Oldpath05]

This is what happened to all of those small dealers that you are talking about... and I won't even pretend that I don't think it's a good thing.

Mechanical wood harvesting might have some play in the small saw shops shutting down, but in this state I think Bucksport, Rumford, Greatnorthern and a few other paper mills that I cant think of right now, that have shut down has a much bigger part in small saw shops shutting down, not to mention a dozen or so sawmills thats closed down in the past 30 years. Around me a lot of people use to cut 4' fir&spruce to have hauled to Bucksport, I also cut some years ago and have had it trucked there, made a nice weekend job.

In the past 50 yeas I have cut and yarded<<(Old time Maine term) wood in almost every way there is to do it, so in what little time I used a feller-buncher there's no way on Gods green earth would I'd want to run a chainsaw all day every day compared to operating mechanical wood harvesting equipment, I am a HUGE fan of making a machine do the work. I wont use horses either, I keep horse under the hood.