poulan saws

[kbdeere4450]

i own an early 70s 245a, a 78 306a, and a 1987 2000.  they are all good strong running saws.  when they were still biard poulan, they knew how to build them.  nowadays they are all cheap junk.

[beenthere]

Welcome to the forum.

Is that by chance Baird Poulan ?  Bought out by Electrolux in '88 ?

I hope you do a lot of reading on the forum. You will get a feel for how we enjoy positive input from your experiences and expertise.

Look forward to you pulling up a stump and having a good discussion.  

[Bill]

+1

[Woodwalker]

Given enough time I guess everything changes. Back in the 60's and 70's my Dad worked for a Poulan dealer. I worked there summers while in high school. In this part of the world, Poulan was "top of the line", Homelite, Mc Culloch, Pardner, Sears, David Bradley were usually hard to get parts for or find someone to service so most all were considered low quality and junk. Stihl, Jonesred, Husqvarna, Echo weren't sold anywhere around here.
Early Poulan models used letters identification, "F, K". All were big, heavy, loud and turned the chain a lot slower than modern saws. If you marked one tooth on the chain you could see the marked tooth every time it made a round.  A lot of guys ran what we called the "big" 1\4" chain and I've seen my Dad sharpen chains that would throw out long chips curled up like  "worms" that would uncoil to be three or four inches long. (cutting SYP) Most of the old saws I worked on had only a 2 digit model #. 45, 46, 65, 66, 68, 98. Odd numbers were direct drive and even gear driven.
Sometime in the late 60's Poulan started painting the saws green and came out with a small saw designed for the homeowner, model 362. Smaller, compact and ran at higher RPM's. Popular saw around here which Sears and Homelite sold clones of.
Smaller, faster saws replaced the old power houses starting in the early 70's around here. Stihl entered the market place here and Poulan now had some serious competition.  I watched a Stihl Rep. at a County Fair re-assemble a new Stihl without rings on the piston and then start and run the saw.
My Dad and I both got out of working on saws so I didn't keep up with them for years. Then I got to seeing them in places like Lowe's and Home Depot. Also starting hearing they were designed more the weekend warrior than the professional. I've still have a 45, 66, super68 and a 72. Haven't ran any of 'em in 25-30 years.
As stated above, lack of a source of parts or a service center can magnify a minor problem with any manufacturer  and turn that brand name to "junk" in the eyes of guy holding onto the handle bar.

[JHBC]

I owned two big early eighties? saws, one use branded poulan pro, it was a p60 or p61 I can't quite remember and yellow and black, the other branded pioneer, a p62 I think, pale green.  I got them both very well used about twenty years ago.  They were very good, big firewood saws.  Slow turning, but handled big 28 and 37 inch bars well. The saws were interchangeable and had husky 058 bars.  Very uncommon and hard to find local parts for, I gave them away to a relative last year.  But they were not junk saws, just odd.

[kbdeere4450]

Welcome to the forum.

Is that by chance Baird Poulan ?  Bought out by Electrolux in '88 ?

I hope you do a lot of reading on the forum. You will get a feel for how we enjoy positive input from your experiences and expertise.

Look forward to you pulling up a stump and having a good discussion.  

my 245a and my 306a saws were baird poulan, but the manuel i have for the 1987 poulan 2000 i believe says electrolux. it was either that or poulan weedeater co.

[Al_Smith]

I suppose Poulan is the most kicked on saw there is but many people who tout them as such have even ran one .Most of the Craftsman branded models were indeed targeted for the casual user and as such do a fine job for that .Some contend they were only designed to run twenty hours ,now where that idea came from nobody wants to fess up to but I suspect it to be erronious .

Some of the older models ,s-25 to be exact were at one time the icon of trimmers saws .Many survive today including two in my shed  which run  as good as if they were brand new .I assure you they have way in excess of twenty hours running time too .

Don't get conned into just forming opinions based on a brand name ,some might be a surprise to you .

[SPIKER]

I have 2 Poulan saws that both have treated me well.  Both are 15 and 10 years old green plastic style and run well.   I have cut a lot of wood with them and a lot of railroad ties as well    I am by no means making my living with them and probably wont mainly as it is too much work for me    however like I have heard from others they are good saws for the money.   I have more than gotten out what I put into them.   I have wore out several bars on both saws and a number of chains as well.   up until I replaced the plugs both started up easy as pie. the NEW plugs (split fire plugs) they seem to not care for as far as starting goes.  Running OK still on them but the splitfire plugs (might be diamond fire?) have been un-reliable.   I kept the OLD plugs and swapped the 14" old plug in and it fired up and run like a top...   My brother bought a NEW wild thing 4 maybe 5 yrs ago that has a starting issue that once I tuned it up works well now and it also needed a fuel line.   I think that he used some bad gas or E85 in it that caused its issues though.

Mark

[Al_Smith]

Come spring time the garage sales will abound .Low and behold every so often there lies a Craftsman branded Poulan .Looks good but won't start for love nor money .

Odds are great it was used a little bit then layed in the corner of a garage for 5 years full of old gas .They almost give them away .Chances are all they need is a carb rebuild .Cheap usually under ten bucks  for the parts .

You just never know though because my buddy picked up an 026 Stihl at a garage sale with a new chain and a funky carb for the paltry price of 25 bucks .Fact is I rebuilt the carb for it during  my coffee break at work for him .

It's just amazing the amount of servicable equipment that  gets jettisoned for the most simple of problems .

[Saw Dr.]

Given enough time I guess everything changes. Back in the 60's and 70's my Dad worked for a Poulan dealer. I worked there summers while in high school. In this part of the world, Poulan was "top of the line", Homelite, Mc Culloch, Pardner, Sears, David Bradley were usually hard to get parts for or find someone to service so most all were considered low quality and junk. Stihl, Jonesred, Husqvarna, Echo weren't sold anywhere around here.
Early Poulan models used letters identification, "F, K". All were big, heavy, loud and turned the chain a lot slower than modern saws. If you marked one tooth on the chain you could see the marked tooth every time it made a round.  A lot of guys ran what we called the "big" 1\4" chain and I've seen my Dad sharpen chains that would throw out long chips curled up like  "worms" that would uncoil to be three or four inches long. (cutting SYP) Most of the old saws I worked on had only a 2 digit model #. 45, 46, 65, 66, 68, 98. Odd numbers were direct drive and even gear driven.
Sometime in the late 60's Poulan started painting the saws green and came out with a small saw designed for the homeowner, model 362. Smaller, compact and ran at higher RPM's. Popular saw around here which Sears and Homelite sold clones of. Smaller, faster saws replaced the old power houses starting in the early 70's around here. Stihl entered the market place here and Poulan now had some serious competition.  I watched a Stihl Rep. at a County Fair re-assemble a new Stihl without rings on the piston and then start and run the saw.
My Dad and I both got out of working on saws so I didn't keep up with them for years. Then I got to seeing them in places like Lowe's and Home Depot. Also starting hearing they were designed more the weekend warrior than the professional. I've still have a 45, 66, super68 and a 72. Haven't ran any of 'em in 25-30 years.
As stated above, lack of a source of parts or a service center can magnify a minor problem with any manufacturer  and turn that brand name to "junk" in the eyes of guy holding onto the handle bar.

I believe you are speaking of 1/2" chain there.  1/4" has always been the smallest chain.  1/2" would have no trouble throwing the chips you mention.  Someday one of us is going to bite the bullet and have the chinamen re-pop a pallet full of the stuff, as it is getting pretty scarce these days.

I have never heard of a 362 Poulan, there was a 360, 361 (shown), 400, 401 and several other variants.  Sadly Poulan was not the first to this scene.  This style of saw was copied by almost every manufacturer, and was based on the ubiquitous Homelite XL-12 series.  Despite them all running pretty similar, the Homelites always reigned king.

 



For any of the doubters, I have included a few pics of my bigger Poulans.  Either one of these will cut with an 066 all day long, and be just as durable.  First up is a PP505 at 83cc. 
 



OK, OK, your technical guys are going to say that the last one isn't really a Poulan.  That is correct, it is a Jonsered 2083 in yellow clothes.  Whatever.

Here is a true-blue Poulan.  This one is an 8510 cutoff saw.  I have the parts to convert it to chainsaw duty, but have not had time to replace the crank bearings on it.  I have seen too many cement saws with lunched bottom ends to chance it here.  I bolted the bar on this one and made a few cuts without an oiler, and it really rips!  This series of 5200/5400/8500 saws is very stout, and the last of the all-Poulan saws.  They also came in Craftsman colors, and possibly Dayton.

 

[Al_Smith]

      This style of saw was copied by almost every manufacturer, and was based on the ubiquitous Homelite XL-12 series.  Despite them all running pretty similar, the Homelites always reigned king.
   

The XL -12 was  likely the most copied design in history .It's always been in doubt if Homelite actually gave license to the clones or like designs or weather they were pirated . However as far as power ,a larger design of that famous saw ,the Lombard AL-42 series of 4.2 cubic inchs would cut circles around an XL 12 .That said though the XL-12 is an icon of chainsawdom . Many still get-er-done yet today .

[ErikC]

Come spring time the garage sales will abound .Low and behold every so often there lies a Craftsman branded Poulan .Looks good but won't start for love nor money .

Odds are great it was used a little bit then layed in the corner of a garage for 5 years full of old gas .They almost give them away .Chances are all they need is a carb rebuild .Cheap usually under ten bucks  for the parts .

You just never know though because my buddy picked up an 026 Stihl at a garage sale with a new chain and a funky carb for the paltry price of 25 bucks .Fact is I rebuilt the carb for it during  my coffee break at work for him .

It's just amazing the amount of servicable equipment that  gets jettisoned for the most simple of problems .

I know a man whose wife works for the solid waste dept, who tinkers with saws a lot. She brings him about 1 a month that someone threw out, often for the same reason. A lot of cheaper homelites, poulans, etc--but a few smaller huskies and stihls have crossed his path and a couple of pretty nice pro saws. Seems like every time I see him he is working on a few new ones. He won't spend much money on most of them, but I bet he gets 2 out of 3 running again. 

[Troublermaker]

kbdeere that 245 was one tough saw. I know a man who ran a saw mill and that was all that he use. I had a couple that I ran till I couldn't get parts for them any more. The most trouble I had with them was with the muffler wouldn't staying tight. They was one tough saw.