Author Topic: US shame (Read 5023 times)

bandmiller2 · « **on:** January 17, 2009, 07:53:55 am »

I bumble around with alot of wood people assume I know chainsaws and want to know what to buy.I hate to tell them but if you want a real good saw its not made here.[I know Stihl has a plant in Va.for consumer saws]Its a shame all we make is consumer box store crap.Please prove me wrong.Frank C.

snowman · « **Reply #1 on:** January 17, 2009, 08:57:33 am »

When I was a kid the fallers all used Macs, on the landing we used Homelites. Both were good saws then.When the euro saws came around mac and homelite decided to not keep up.They just turned into hardware store saws. Ill never really understand why.

argyle1 · « **Reply #2 on:** January 17, 2009, 09:15:51 am »

your dead right snowman,when i was starting out it was all mac,home-at-nite,and pioneer---i never understood why they just layed down and let the europeans take over

underdog · « **Reply #3 on:** January 17, 2009, 10:55:07 am »

We do not make much of anything in America anymore.
It seems to be more inviromentaly friendly (for us) and cost effective to have manufacturing elsewhere, and if they need some assurance of quality maybe assemble here.
And they wonder why this house of cards is folding up.

Cut4fun · « **Reply #4 on:** January 17, 2009, 11:12:58 am »

I think I read that the MS 361 and under is made in VA. I dont consider them consumer saws. They have a pro size price tag to go with them.

cheyenne · « **Reply #5 on:** January 17, 2009, 03:27:42 pm »

The only thing made in this country today is excuses....Cheyenne

SwampDonkey · « **Reply #6 on:** January 17, 2009, 03:49:12 pm »

My pro brush saws, Sthil 550, are German made. Anything under that model isn't productive enough to make it worth while for pre-commercial thinning. You might get bye with a 400 series, but I can cut yards around anyone with a lesser saw. Just don't have the torque in hardwood or softwood in the upper diameters.

sawcollector · « **Reply #7 on:** January 17, 2009, 06:12:46 pm »

The STIHL plant in Virginia Beach made almost 4 million units in 2008, and exported about 65% of that out of the country. Says something about not having unions and not being on the stock market.
I explained in another post the difference between a "pro, semi-pro, and homeowner" saw a while back, and just so everyone knows, the MS 260 and MS 361 are made here.
If the first digit of a STIHL serial number starts with a 1 it was made in Germany, a 2 it was made here, a 3 it was made in Brazil, and a 4 is China. No saws are being imported from China, I think maybe a hedge trimmer is all.
So you can get a quality US made saw if you want to.

Rocky_J · « **Reply #8 on:** January 17, 2009, 09:24:19 pm »

McCulloch and Homelite are no longer American companies. Both got bought out 20-25 years ago and are foreign owned names. This comes up about every 6 months and after a quarter century there are STILL people who think they are American companies.

sawcollector · « **Reply #9 on:** January 17, 2009, 09:35:02 pm »

Yes Rocky, the American saws are now Chinese, and a German saw is now American!

bandmiller2 · « **Reply #10 on:** January 18, 2009, 07:40:48 am »

I have been a fire dept. mechanic for thirty something years.When I started they had three Homelite chainsaws not new then.I had absolutely no trouble with them ,bouncing around in the trucks for years.Still kept one for old time sake they were safe enough for the old guys but the kids needed ones with the chain brake.Frank C.

Kodiakmac · « **Reply #11 on:** January 19, 2009, 06:56:39 am »

Well, with our unoly trinity of Big Government, Big Business and Big Unions, it's a wonder we're manufacturing anything on this Continent.

Bernhard · « **Reply #12 on:** January 19, 2009, 01:19:05 pm »

I know times in the 60/70`when homelite saws have been offered ind catalogues and having a saw wsn´t that common here then today, casue they have been very expensive.

Later on Homelite and McCulloch had been sold by agmachinery shops.

Then, when the first DIY markets came up thy made decission, to move over to this kind of salesnetwork and that was there fault.

By loosing sales they lost quality, too.

Al_Smith · « **Reply #13 on:** January 19, 2009, 04:45:38 pm »

You can blame a lot of reasons for manufacturing leaving north America I suppose .All NAFTA has done is speed things along . but it was already well under way before its' inception .

However if it were not economically advantageous to make things on these shores companies such as Stihl ,Honda ,Toyota and the like would not have build plants here .

It kind of stinks though when companies like Ford ,Chevy and others feel it's necessary to move off shore .The bottom line is profit .Of course there is also "cooking the books " too but that's another subject .

When McCulloch and Homelite no longer were leaders in small power equipment it was as stated because they failed to keep abreast of new methods and model types .It wasn't because the products weren't good at one time ,just became obsolete towards the end .Just a part of history with the exception of the few of us that collect and maintain a few examples of a bygone era .

SwampDonkey · « **Reply #14 on:** January 19, 2009, 04:53:34 pm »

My father cut a lot of wood on the farm with an old Partner chainsaw. When he couldn't buy a new one he went Husky. That was a good saw until some ass tightened down the spark plug and stripped the threads.

snowman · « **Reply #15 on:** January 19, 2009, 05:20:04 pm »

Quote from: Rocky_J on January 17, 2009, 09:24:19 pm

McCulloch and Homelite are no longer American companies. Both got bought out 20-25 years ago and are foreign owned names. This comes up about every 6 months and after a quarter century there are STILL people who think they are American companies.

I never knew that, interesting. So I guess the question is why did they sell to china? 25 years ago USA was still manufacturing alot of its own stuff. Seems odd to me chainsaws would be 1st thing off to china.And 25 years ago saws were big business, lots of looging and no feller bunchers. Seems like they let go of a good market,the mystery deepens.

cheyenne · « **Reply #16 on:** January 19, 2009, 07:21:46 pm »

One co will buy up another to protect and broaden market share or get a foothold in a market they don't curently have. I can understand Husky buying Josered but not McCullogh unless it was so cheap due to bankruptcy they had nothing to lose....Cheyenne

capt n cutz · « **Reply #17 on:** January 19, 2009, 08:32:36 pm »

Quote from: cheyenne on January 17, 2009, 03:27:42 pm

The only thing made in this country today is excuses....Cheyenne

I guess I kinda thought that John Deere owned Homelite now, or at least did couple years ago.
Curious, what the future of saws will be like. I bet Stihl will be around for some time, but Husky (which I do like) I don't know.

sawguy21 · « **Reply #18 on:** January 19, 2009, 10:16:55 pm »

J-D did own Homelite for a spell. They wanted the Jacobsen consumer line to flog through Home Despot. The story I heard was that they ran afoul of CARB for dumping non compliant product in California, they did not keep warranty registrations so there was no way to trace them. To avoid huge penalties the subsidiary filed for Chapter 7and was cut loose.
McCulloch failed a number of times and the majority was purchased from the last receivers by Husqvarna. They recently purchased the north American arm from the Chinese.

ladylake · « **Reply #19 on:** January 20, 2009, 05:00:45 am »

There's a lot of companys headed the same way as Mac and Homelite, using a good name the sell cheap junk to make money NOW. Steve

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Author Topic: US shame (Read 5023 times)