This thread is recent enough I figured no point in starting a new one....anyway I may be completely nuts but I think I'll never need to buy a saw again:
Background info: I have a bunch of stuff to cut at the farm; quite a few around 2ft diameter and every thing on down to things just beyond the brushcutter. My Craftsman [AKA Poulan Pro 295] isn't quite what it used to be, and not quite enough torque or bar for dropping a tree efficiently - though I have done plenty with it.
Soooo: I started looking at the 390; the dealer said it'd handle everything I had no problem, but if it was low vibration I wanted I should also look at the 361. Somehow remembered another site having many good posts about the 361, and knew that had to be my next saw - but hadn't competely evaluated my needs yet and moreso just couldn't justify $600 for a saw.
Recently further evaluating my needs, I realized something like the MS200 will be even more necessary than the MS361 - but $500 for a 35CC saw
........
Then it occured to me, just maybe I could get a discount on the pair!!! So, now I've spent 4 times what I really should have for a saw, and have two saws [but I got a nice discount
]; however the 200 [straight not 200T] just amazes me: nearly as much torque as the craftman, but 2/3 the weight and balances perfect even with a 16" bar. The 361 is a bit of a beast, but feels soft as warm butter when you get in a log - exactly the opposite of my Craftsman.
Best of all my wife can start and handle the 200, so she plans to do all the small stuff!
She wants me to take out the big stuff yet (that 361 with 24" is almost as big as she is), but I can sure live with that - and she said I could use
hers for limbing.
Long and short as it'd apply to this thread; I may be nuts [and better get some time beyond just the test lot before speaking too loud], but that 200 I think is just amazing (with a 14" bar and safety chain, I could bury it and just couldn't stop it - the 16" will stop it if you try) for the 14-16" bars.