288 Chinese Import

[michaelhiggins]

Did a search for Chinese imports, but could not find anything.  Are they something we don't talk about?  So I'm thinking of retiring my husky 288, it's 30 years old, i'm retiring too but still need to do firewood and have gotten use to using a 28 inch bar with plenty of power.  The husky is less than reliable these days and for $300 I can get a new g288 knock-off and use my old bars and chain, plus have a few spare parts on hand.  The question is are they built well enough to be reliable for seasonal personal firewood use.

[bluthum]

I don't know about that specific model of chinese import but I've conducted a personal experiment with a joncutter chinese chainsaw for a couple years. My perception has been they have decent durability and poor reliability. Lots of tlc and tinkering required compared to name brand. Less investment up front, much more later. 

If you depend on your saws for income don't even consider it. If you plan for moderate use be ready to work on it.

I just retired a chinese saw after said experiment and was thinking of posting my thoughts. Short answer is buy a big name brand. 

[michaelhiggins]

Thanks for your input.  Wanting to stay with a long bar and not being able justifying professional saw prices to get there.  I can deal with some carb tuning, replacing kill switch or a bad ignition...and I have an old Swedish 288 for possible parts.  I worry that I won't be able to get some replacement parts for the clone, because I have some problems now with the husky 288 parts not being available.

[newoodguy78]

Do you do the eBay deal at all? That model saw is old enough maybe you could find one somebody had sitting on the shelf and just wants to get rid of. 

[bluthum]

Given you have a parts saw, willing to tinker and what sounds like nonindustrial needs it sounds like you might be a good candidate for the clone model. A used real one would be preferable but in my world at least, pro model saws never show up on the market. I wanted to say almost never but it's never in my experience. Maybe a different story in larger more affluent areas though.

[michaelhiggins]

Just purchased a g288.  I'll report back in couple of months.

[Spike60]

How bad is your old 288, and what do you think it may need? Curious as to how much is needed to ring it back to reliable.

The fact that there are 288 clones out there will help alleviate the problem you mentioned about OEM parts becoming hard to get. So, it's good news in that regard.

Guy we need to get in here is @weimedog , as he has one himself. The thing I've learned, (mostly from him), is that each of these clones has it's own reliability/durability experience such as bluthum mentioned with his joncuter. Some are sorted out better than others. 

[weimedog]

The one I had was OK , had a bad bar oil pump that I replaced with an OEM pump. Also had some goofy stuff with how the carb was laying on the "tray" and the intake boot. Again OEM to the rescue. But really the only complaint I had with the blue 288 was it was a bit boring. It ran, I cut a lot of ash with it. Put it down for another project saw and it's been collecting dust. Interesting to me is my OEM 281 would out cut it handily. SO at some point I will dig into the blue 288 and see whay. I suspect either ignition ( timing ) or compression. Both solvable. The plastic was actually pretty good. Just blue. Cases, Tank, etc. pretty solid so those willing to blend the better parts from that Holzfforma series to their OEM saw can actually extend the life of a 281/288 for a long time for not a lot of money.