Mark_Skyland

Luckily they are a bit tougher than that. plus you can replace the blades although I'm not sure on the price.

I was just looking for some feedback from any users of the Echo rotary blade head. [ame= ] [/ame][ame= ] [/ame] It looks like a really good bit of kit although it is going to cost around £250 so I was just wondering if there is a market to start stocking them. Looks fairly unique to me. Any feedback will be much appreciated.

The latest 550/560's now have a finer mesh filter which is orange. It must make some difference to the power though as it has to be more restrictive.

A good chance it is this if its an older model. Had the same issue with a II series the other week, was just a dirty air filter, crap in the tank and a loose plug. Pity the customer didnt want to pay and caused a right fuss. I suppose when you buy a new machine all servicing and general maintenance should be done under warranty:sneaky2: Could also be a faulty tank vent forcing fuel back into the engine(air filter housing) from the tank, had that before.

Did any of the dealers have them up to buy there and then rather than pre order? I thought they may have managed to get them available for the show.

I will be interested to hear what the problem is if you find out as a customer is complaining that his 201T C-M doesnt oil much. It must be enough as he says the chains run fine. I havent seen the machine yet but only ever had this problem on the 200's when crud would block the pump inlet. Could be worth checking the oil tank breather is allowing air in, just make sure you drain the oil tank and leave the cap off before blasting some air into it.

Hunky monkey beaver? That sounds like under the counter stuff to me and not something we sell in our up market establishment thank you very much. Sorry nope, I very much doubt we would be buy that clothing in mate.

Now that would be nice, probably needs to be buy 20 get one free, unless its a machine then its at least buy 40

They are a brilliant trouser and if I had to do work in the trees again it would be my choice. The Pfanners do seem to be the hardest wearing though.

The metro 6R4 sounded nice. [ame= ] [/ame] Not in the same league as a good old petrol engine but the most powerful engine in the world deserves a listen, 22 million horsepower [ame= ] [/ame]

Im not sure. Its rare that we order some in and they just turn up without a delay. We can only order through a third party so it partly depends on their stock/order time. A few of the UK suppliers can order direct with Uli distel but It looks like they experience delays too. I dont know how many they produce per year but it must be fairly small in comparison to the rest of the other dedicated tree work items we sell.

There cant be many pairs left for sale in the UK but it looks like treekit have some, Distel Alu Classic America Short Climbing Spurs

You cant do that with a zillon That isnt a picture of the replaceable zillon rope. It only has an eye on one end. You get a big piece of heat shrink tubing to cover a figure 8 stopper knot etc.

I agree which is why I replied. I dont see why we or anyone else should have to pay VAT on any of our PPE not just boots and helmets.

It can take longer to, print the packing slip, pick the item, get suitable packing material, package it up, attach packing slip, input delivery details to courier system, print the label out and attach, move the parcel to the storage place then move it again when the courier arrives, then receive it back and do it all again as the customer needs a different sized pair of boots! Realistically if you looked at every individual item and worked out how much it would cost to package it up then add the cost in it would probably kill me. Then you would be accused of over charging if a customer bought multiple items that all went in the same box.

Well, I suppose you could also break a job down into how much you would charge for every individual branch cut, some chipped some not. It could be done but how can it be carried efficient and effectively? The cost with royal mail can be broken down into about 15 or more different categories, size of parcel (also depends on if its a large letter or a parcel) weight, 24 or 48 hour delivery and compensation level. So we would have to size the parcel up work out the price and start splitting the postage charge up, for the sake of saving the customer about 60p (which we cant as we have to charge VAT) I think the extra labour would put the price up. So, basically we lose out on the vast majority of orders ie, we have to subsidise the postage cost. Cheers Mark, I knew I could count on you to big us up. Dont worry, we get our fair share of abuse about our postage charges even though they are fairly low in comparison so are used to it.

Unfortunately fellas we do pay the royal mail VAT and it can be cheaper to ship to France than it is to Northern Scotland. We didn't pay VAT on our previous account with royal mail but we do now with this one, plus side is we do not have to drive to the post office and queue up! Even then we still have to charge VAT as it is a supply of goods, if we didn't charge VAT we could be in big trouble. Also it is postal costs and packaging costs so I do not know how or if you could even split that up. We are looking into cheaper postage costs when the new web site is up and running, there is hopefully going to be a few tiers rather than free over £60 and £4.75 below that (Northern Scotland and NI £6.5 no matter how much you spend) which is where we are ATM. It is difficult to sort out as we have been stung so many times in the past.

Possibly engaged the chain brake which could be jammed between the clutch and drum. Pull the sprocket cover off, remove bar and chain and see how it pulls over. Best not to start it as the clutch could spin off but it should point you in the right direction to the issue.

Thanks for the replies and info. I used a 346 a good few years ago and thought it was brilliant, a lot better than the ms260 we had.

Does it feel like it has good compression? You could whip the exhaust off and check the state of the piston as what you describe could be low compression which is the worst case scenario. Firstly I would put a new correctly gaped plug in, check the tank breather is leaking fuel. There have been a few different mods to this over the years, the latest being that if the tank breather leaks fuel it doesnt do so into the back of the carb. Clean the outside of the carb with compressed air, there are some magnets and sensors on the throttle linkage which if they pick up a bit of stray metal can screw things up a bit. Otherwise, warm the saw up and cut some timber with it for a couple of minutes on full throttle but under load, that will get the saw re tuning itself.

I can see you have had that conversation more than once as well! There must be way more 550's sold than 261's so I would expect a higher number of complaints about the 550. Husky have reigned the 50cc bracket for quite some time. Unless you have a poor 550 it just doesnt compare to the 261.

I was talking to a customer the other day who was contemplating a 550xp but really loved his 346. I mentioned that I think the trio brake version is still available in France. Just out of interest does anyone know if they still are, or where else you could pick one up from?

I think there has been a bit of confusion going on. On your very first pic I thought the bottom chain was the new one (it does makes sense now I have looked through the thread again) Must just be dodgy camera angles as the bottom chain looks like it has been filed square. So yes, a standard round 4mm file will do the job. fine. Just dont press down too hard which increase the hook on the chain and try not to drag the file backwards along the tooth on the return stroke. If you do you can knock the sharp pointed corner down a bit which can make a big difference to performance. Oh I you might find you need to take the depth gauge's down more often (well thats what I found when I used that chain although I am bad for forgetting to do the rakers!)

No problem. Im interested to hear how you get on with the chain. Good job sawchip pointed my mistake out as I would have confused matters further. Now that Everton have been tonked I bet you have nothing better to do on a Sunday night than pop down to your workshop and take a few more pics:thumbup1: I'm going to do a bit more research tomorrow (that square ground chain looks too different) and look forward to hearing what your saw shop bloke has to say. I do prefer a full chisel chain all the time but I do like the other stihl full chisel chain, the 3617 as it didnt need the depth gauges taking down all the time.

That will teach me to look properly in the future! Yes you are right on that one. It is interesting though as I presume it is something your local dealer is doing to the chains as I wouldnt have thought Stihl were doing that? So, the top chain is the 3616 full chisel and the bottom chain is the 3636 semi chisel square ground? Doesnt look like 3636 in the other pic though, the cutter looks taller.