When the Desire Cometh, it is a Tree of Life

I had an extraordinary experience today. A very good one.

I have lots of trees. They fall down a lot. I have to keep saws in order to deal with them.

When I first got here, a hurricane passed by at a distance, and even though we were not hit, we got winds high enough to knock over lots of large trees. This was about 23 days after my arrival. The previous owners left the property in great shape, and I only got to enjoy it for three weeks before Satan blew his nose all over it.

I had no saw, and after the storm, getting a saw was impossible. Not only were local stores cleaned out; because people had gotten used to Internet shopping, online retailers all over the US were cleaned out. One state did that. It’s a good lesson to remember.

One day not long after the storm, I had a near-miraculous experience. I was stubbornly Googling to find saws, and I found a Jonsered (red Husqvarna) 16″ 40cc saw advertised on Tractor Supply’s site, and it was at a store only 20 or so miles off. I bought it, thinking there was no way I would actually get it. I thought it had to be a website error, or maybe an employee would hide the saw and sell it to a friend or relative. Incredibly, when I went to the store the next day, the saw was there.

I managed to find a 20″ 60cc Echo CS590 online at Acme Tools, and I pounced. Once it arrived, I had two fairly good amateur-grade saws to get me through the job of fixing the property.

I didn’t know much about small engines. I didn’t know:

1. Modern gas is garbage, and that goes quadruple for ethanol gas. If you let ethanol gas sit in a small engine for even two months, you may clog your carburetor so badly it has to be disassembled and cleaned.

2. Sta-bil gas treatment, which is what most people use, is also garbage. It forms a thin protective layer atop gas in your tank, but if your tank ever moves, the layer breaks, and the protection stops until it forms again. Not knowing this, I used Sta-bil.

3. The most important thing to think of when you buy a small engine is the quality of the local repair apparatus. If you don’t have a good repair shop nearby to fix your gold-plated Stihl, you are much better off buying and scrapping three Poulans in a row.

I clogged up both my saws. More accurately, Democrats clogged them up, because they’re the idiots who force the ethanol scam on us, and they’re probably somehow responsible for the fact that even ethanol-free gas is not as stable as it used to be. I have no evidence to back that up, but I’ll bet it’s true, because the whole thing has that Democrat smell about it.

I fiddled with various solutions to the problem. I bought cheap Chinese replacement carburetors to get around cleaning the factory carbs. This sometimes worked well. I kept having problems, though, and around 16 months after I bought the saws, I took the Echo to authorized repair centers, and while they did manage to get it going, they took about three months. When I started using it, screws fell out of the case because they had not been tightened enough, and that cost me more time while I waited for new ones to arrive.

The saws have continued to have issues, and I am part of the problem. I let them sit more than I should have. The more problems I had, the more discouraged I was, so the less I tried to use them, and then I let them sit longer.

I bought an 18″ Makita cordless saw to fill in the gap. I have to say it’s wonderful. It has incredible torque, and it always, always, always runs. With 4 batteries, you can do the kind of job that would take you about two hours with a gas saw, as well or better than a gas saw. After that, you’re stuck with a dead saw, but that’s not so bad, because maybe 95% of cutting jobs involve less than two hours of work.

I’m not saying the saw will run for two hours on 4 batteries. It won’t. I’m saying it will do a job you can do in two hours with a gas saw. Most of the time, when you’re doing a job with a chainsaw, the saw isn’t running. You’re driving wedges or moving around or doing other things.

I have some trees that need work right now. Two oaks are hanging out over a neighboring property, and I have to get together with the people over there and move them. I haven’t been able to get either of my gas saws to work right. The Jonsered surges while idling, making the chain move and making the saw dangerous, and the Echo can’t be started no matter how many tricks I try. I got all sorts of expert advice which does no good.

I have really suffered with these saws. I’ve had jobs pile up on me. I have wrestled with these saws over and over in my shop, exhausting myself and getting filthy, never knowing when the next adjustment or change in procedure might make them work. It’s very unpleasant, walking out to the shop for the fifth time, after four failures to get results, not knowing whether this day will be any better.

I was willing to spend money. I was willing to work on the saws myself. It didn’t matter. I could not get anywhere. I felt that any American with a good net worth should be able to get a saw fixed easily and quickly, but it was an obstacle I could find no way around.

Every time I thought about the problem, I felt frustration. I felt hopeless. I marveled at the difficulty, and even though I was willing to pay for help, I marveled at the cost.

Mechanics now charge about a hundred bucks an hour, which is obscene, but they’re no better than they were when they charged 10 dollars. If you keep taking a $300 saw in, it can turn into a $900 saw before long. What if you buy a $900 saw to begin with, and it has fewer problems, so you save hundreds on mechanics? It starts to make sense after a few years of suffering.

I used to say I would never buy an expensive saw, but over the last week, I have had a change of heart. Getting my Echo saw repaired seemed impossible in this county, and I as getting nowhere fixing it myself. I didn’t want to take it back to the people who held it hostage in the past. I started to think it might be better to get a more powerful new saw, which I needed anyway, and treat it right from the outset. I could buy a brand with a good local repair shop and put my Echo problems behind me.

I tried to get advice on the web. I got some great advice and some stupid advice. People told me this Echo model is a dream saw which always starts reliably. Go Google it and see if you believe that. There are multiple videos of people who have struggled with this saw; they publish their solutions. Other people I communicated with offered solutions I already knew about, which did not work. Others, more helpfully, recommended certain saws to me.

I learned some stuff which may possibly be true.

There are two types of chainsaw: professional (logger and arborist) and bad (homeowner and farmer). An average homeowner can get years of satisfying use from a bad saw, but pros do not like them. They’re less durable, and they tend to be heavier for their size. Drop one from a tree, and you may have to scrap it. They have other shortcomings too.

There are three good brands of chainsaw in America, or maybe I should say manufacturers, since a manufacturer can have more than one brand. The manufacturers are Stihl, Husqvarna, and Shindaiwa (parent of Echo). Stihl and Husqvarna make the best pro saws. Shindaiwa/Echo makes some pro saws, and it also makes the CS590, which has pro guts in a homeowner-saw body. If you shop, you can get a CS590 for around $400. Add over $300 to that for a comparable Stihl or Husky with all-pro construction.

The CS590 is probably a fantastic bargain for people who use saws frequently, know how to prevent them from clogging, and have good repair shops close to them. For me, it was an orange plastic torture device most of the time. I did a lot of things wrong when I got my saw, making it worse, and I had no help.

Yesterday, I finally decided I should get a pro saw and then keep looking for places that could fix the Echo and the Jonsered. A new Echo place had opened up, so maybe there was hope for that saw. I would work it out so I had two big saws, at least one of which would most likely run on any given day.

Based on advice, I decided I wanted a saw with modern electronics in it to make it run better. Husqvarna and Stihl have saws that adjust themselves to deal with things like temperature and humidity. Pros tell me they work better than old-fashioned saws. Husqvarna’s system is called Autotune, and Stihl’s is called M-tronic.

There is a Stihl/Husqvarna dealer 5 minutes from me. I thought that would be a great choice. I would pick a model on the web, go in, ask them how quicky they did mechanical service, and get a price. If they made me happy, I would buy a saw.

I figured I wanted a Husqvarna 562XP or a Stihl MS362 C-M. Big enough to move a 25″ chain, which is exactly what I need.

I went to the nearby place. They were very nice, and they assured me they could turn small repair and maintenance problems around in a week or so, barring the need for hard-to-find parts.

On the other hand…

1. There were three guys there, and none of them knew much about chainsaws. They were not very familiar with the Stihl line. I had to Google and confirm stuff they said. One of them said I needed to visit when the “two-stroke guy” was there.

2. I’m pretty sure they represented a non-M-tronic MS362 as an M-tronic saw. I don’t think they knew it.

3. I asked what they could do regarding price, and they said “nothing.” Stihl sets the price, and you pay it. Over $900.

4. I mentioned Echo, and they said they wouldn’t let an Echo product come through the door. So much for getting my old saw worked on.

5. They’re a Husqvarna dealer, but they don’t sell Husqvarna saws.

In the parking lot, I looked up the next-nearest Husqvarna dealer, and I drove over. Same kind of place. Tractors, saws, zero-turns, and so on. There was one guy there, in a dirty shirt. Young. He worked on machinery, himself. He was the owner.

1. He knew everything about Husqvarna saws as well as Echos. He used to work in an Echo shop. I asked him all sorts of stuff about the 562XP on the wall, and he knew all about it. He knew all the known issues. He knew the best way to cope with the ethanol crisis. He told me stuff no one else had, and I have researched for years.

2. He said he could fix Echo products. No problem. He also does Jonsered, of course. He had a Husvarna 435 there, which is just like my ailing Jonsered. He can fix my bogging Echo trimmer.

3. I asked about the price, and he gave me a 15% discount which wasn’t officially supposed to kick in until later in the month. I asked about the warranty, and he said Husqvarna would add three years if I bought their gas.

4. He told me about the yearly stuff the new saw would need and about what it would cost.

When he told me about the discount, I was sold. He said I only needed to spend $28 on the gas, so I jumped on it. He registered me with Husqvarna. He took the saw, filled it, and checked it out.

I was looking at around $970 for the Stihl without M-tronic. I got the Husky, Autotune, the gas, and a 5-year warranty for about $840, and I finally had a place to get things repaired.

I’m going to bring my sick tools in and get them fixed. Then I’ll have three gas saws and one cordless, so it’s not likely I’ll end up with no saws that work.

When I left the store, I felt like I was high on heroin. The stress left my body completely. The misery of dealing with this saw with no help for 7 years was over. I can deal with the two trees I have to help move this week, and I can expect to have working saws from now on. I can get yard tools fixed.

I’m not doing the sensation justice. A stronghold was broken. It was a very big deal to me. I felt ecstatic. Euphoric. Peace enveloped me. I thought I could feel my blood pressure dropping.

This story shows how to sell saws, both for your own store and for the one your competitors run. The guys at the first saw did as much to sell me this Husqvarna as the guy who got the money. They tried, but I don’t think they’re all that good at sales. They seem like nice people, but the other guy completely outclassed them, like Tyson Fury boxing Kevin Hart.

I may be able to deduct this expense because I rent out my pasture. Sure hope so. I plan to start running every small engine I have, every Thursday, from now on. Once everything is working, I’m going to keep it going without a lot of down time.

That’s the end of my tale of struggle and frustration. Even now, I deflate, breathe out, and sink into my recliner when I think about how relieved I am.

It’s going to be amazing to see everything on the property working.