all the chainsaws at the GIE+Expo 10/20/2016 Louisville, KY

[Definitive Dave]

Probably a long boring read, with stupid ramblings, but hopefully enough pictures to keep a few readers interested.

The GIE+Expo is a big outdoor power equipment and landscape industry trade show open to businesses and retailers only with more that 1 million square feet of indoor exhibit space and 20+ acres of outdoor demonstration area. It is held in October in Louisville Kentucky.

I am pretty sure I looked at every indoor exhibit and took a picture of every chainsaw at the show from all the vendors.

3.5 hour drive each way with a driving thunderstorm on the way down and rush hour construction traffic through Cincinnati on the way back.

Admission : $60.00
Parking : $8
Bottled water :$3.50
Boars Head BBQ ham and cheese sandwich $9.75 Sandwich was pretty awful

The place is huge, literally square miles of parking. Inside I actually got disoriented and a little lost at one point.

I planned to see all of the major brands exhibiting: Stihl , Husqvarna, Jonsered, Makita/Dolmar, Echo, Shindaiwa, Redmax, Efco, Tanaka, Oregon. I was also planning to see the Farmertec, Raisman, Cannon, Tillotson and Huayi booths.

Once I finished the 20 minute walk from the parking lot to skyway to convention center to Lobby B to Exhibitor room, I was greeted by a billion signs hanging from the ceiling and a hoard of people, some of whom were more interesting than the exhibits.

Way off in the distance a few familiar brands



The first OPE booth on my indirect tour of chaos was Echo, they had a number of saws on display and seemed to have their own group of fans. They also had a featured saw in the New Products pavilion later on.

No great giveaways or anything that grabbed me as exciting. They shared the booth with Shindaiwa and when I asked about the Shinny saws which are featured on the cover of their catalog piled up everywhere, I was told there might be some outside. Hmmm lightning storm outside, nahhhh, guess no shinny saws for me to see



Sadly Redmax had no chainsaws on display either.

 

[Definitive Dave]

Next closest Booth was my beloved Stihl, pinnacle of all chainsaws.



The first part of their big display area was large plexiglass “safety” booths and they contained games to entice people to try different battery powered Stihl ope products. Ugh WTF is this…



I spent a good 10 minutes milling my way around past lots of sales people and game players who were rewarded with a camouflage embroidered Stihl hat after they donned Stihl safety equipment and entered one of the gauntlets of death to try a battery powered tool.
Chainsaws, blowers and string trimmers were all featured.
I finally found the real chainsaws on a back corner display facing away from the booth itself.
I saw an old man ogling an MS171 with his equally vintage wife.
The MS362 and MS261 they had on display where the new models but they didn’t even have an MS880 let alone their full range of saws.
There was a Stihl rep guy nearby telling an attendee all about the great improvements of the MS193T and how it was “the best saw for a climber on the market today”.



I took a look at the battery powered chainsaws they were bribing people to try. They are the colors I would expect, and they made the smart move of making the folks wear “Stihl” safety gear even though the chaps wont protect against battery powered saws. As a sales move, it brings the potential customer into more contact with the brand so they get points for that strategy.

The little saws are quiet and I guess they cut pretty well. My MS241 will go through an 11x11 about three times as fast as these saws cut through a 6x6. Also they all seemed to have carving bars. That may be to pull less DL but seems silly for a limbing saw to me.



There were a pair of booth babes at Stihl who were pleasant but didn’t seem to know if I was allowed to have a Stihl calendar without running a basketball through an obstacle course with a handheld battery operated blower.

 

[Definitive Dave]

Next up was the Husqvarna Booth
A lot of guys were there having a séance or some other type of circle-centric meeting in the middle of the booth, but I made my way to the back to the rack of chainsaws.
They had the full lineup on display and I had to actually make guys stop passing the 3120 around so I could snap the pictures. Seriously, they would hand it to the next guy in line and they would all make a face like they just saw Carmen Electra in the shower.
Pretty sure the 3120 was the only saw that had a GB bar on it.
The Husky booth babes were handing out hats and bumper stickers and all manner of swag, I got a couple cool stickers that will probably live on my toolbox.
Nothing new they seemed to be focusing on and most of the sales people were involved in the crop circle.




Just across the Isle was a much smaller Jonsered booth with a good display of saw muscle




Next up was our favorite low cost whipping boy EFCO




1 sales guy standing around, no swag, I offered to buy a t-shirt for Al, but apparently they don’t have any and never have

 

[Definitive Dave]

Close by was Makita – well this booth is all blue except the saws in back which have Makita badging but an orangish/red color. Their sales guys were talking to each other pretty cozily so I left them alone.
The battery powered saws were blue though




Farmertec were in the main area but a very limited and unimpressive display.
They seemed to answer any question they were asked with “we have all parts for MS660” and a Vanna White style wave towards the side table full of MS660 bits.
I did ask about parts for new models and they told me MS192T very soon.
Friendly but not really helpful

 

[drf256]

Sexy Dave...

 

[Definitive Dave]

The Oregon booth caught my eye with their demo of their new automatic chain grinder. It was doing a loop of 3/8” .050 round ground and could do a 72Dl chain in about 7 minutes. Availability early 2017 with a MSRP of $6000.00.
Possibility of user programmability to allow custom angles, raker depths and possible gullet clean outs
A lot less dough than the Frantzen (see later in review) and a lot more than the E&S (also later).



Oregon also had on display lots of bars on the wall for the new speedcut, versa cut and control cut series.
Unfortunately they are not sure when availability will be fully implemented. I would love to try the 16” 3/8 speed cut combo vs other bars and chains.



Next To Oregon is a new company out of China ZOMAX
The Oregon guys told me they had never heard of them but all of their saws use genuine Oregon bars and chains.
I don’t think the EPA is going to like them and I don’t think this girl liked me taking pictures

 

[Definitive Dave]

Apparently before I arrived the building was hit by lightning and about ¼ of the display area inside was without power all day.

In this dark area I found Tanaka, I think they have a 7 year homeowner warranty but it was pitch dark in their booth and the flash didn’t help much.
I bet these guys are mad at the money they spent to sit in the dark all day.




I stopped at Solo and they are out of the chainsaw game altogether, but this demolition saw uses a neat idea. The Mix oil and fuel go in different tanks and it uses a smart system to make the proper mix for the running conditions. Clever but I bet contractors will still screw it up J

 

[Definitive Dave]

These guys caught my eye – Mini trench has trenchers built for large chainsaw and demolition saw power heads, concept seem dangerous but the claim about a foot per 7 seconds in the soil outside.
They had them mounted on Makita, Dolmar and Husqvarna power heads on display indoors.




Raisman really wanted to sell me their carb kits which they claim are good for up to 80% ethanol, due to being made in Ethanol happy Brazil. No booth babes just 4 guys and a card table.

 

[Definitive Dave]

TriLink had a booth but the guys weren’t super helpful, they did have some chain on 25’ rolls to fondle and a banner ad that looks interesting for an upcoming product. Their prices are about 1/5 OEM Stihl prices and 1/3-1/2 Oregon prices.




Found another Chain and bar Chinese import company at the edge of the dark zone that I was unfamiliar with. E&S (excelsior and sharp) claims to be the chain supplier for Rotary and had a bunch of chain and bars on display and sent me home with a charm bracelet of 18 different labelled chain samples, which seems like a great advertising gimmick. They also are producing harvester bars in .404 which might be fun for big HP race saws and bike saws J

They offer an automatic chain grinder for $300 and an automatic raker grinder for $300.

 

[Definitive Dave]

The Stens booth had the Franzen and also the Franzen mower blade machine.

Mr Franzen was there and I asked when he was going to make a square grinding attachment
He is not even considering it




I couldn’t seem to find the Cannon bars booth which was one of my preset destinations, but in wandering around lost for about 10 minutes I did find another battery powered OPE company, LERA, huge elaborate booth, never heard of them.




I did finally find Cannon and I am very glad I did. We had a great conversation and I will be placing my first order shortly, which will include 16” and 20” fat belly racing bars as well as plenty of other stuffs.

If any of you guys are in the market for Cannon bars even the super mini narrow kerf, let me know. Their production is slow because everything is built by had so I would rather make 1 big order than 3 or 4 small ones.


I met ever so briefly with Huayi and hopefully the emails will be smooth, I am a big fan of several of their carbs and would love to buy direct. In particular their MS200T clone is very nice at 1/5 of the cost of the Zama from Stihl.

Tillotson was also a great conversation. That Blue MS660 Clone we see online? That is available in South America but so far doesn’t meet US EPA regulations.

They did tell me they make an excellent carburetor for the 064/066, better than the Walbro offerings.

I will be exploring buying those in bulk soon.

Have any of you guys used the Tilly for the 064/066?


So I spent about 4 hours wandering around and looking at saws, and snapping a few pictures hope you enjoyed the way I wasted a Thursday
Dave

 

[Milkman31]

I like booth babes!

 

[Definitive Dave]

the sluttiest booth babes were in the Mercedes work truck area, two chicks in black leather at a counter with nobody around
there was also a booth babe dressed as a mermaid who was taking pictures and signing them with lots of creepy guys at a booth for some sort of pavestone sealer

There were some really "unique" folks there, such as some people who seemed to be collecting as much free junk as they could carry, I saw a guy with two backpacks on and a carry bag in each hand, I guess he figures for the $60 admission he better get 100 pounds of keychains, pens, mini flashlights and other assorted knickknacks in return. There were several of those folks.
I also saw a guy who seemed to be collecting receipts out of the trash cans around one of the cafeteria areas. In hindsight I wonder if he was looking for CC numbers to steal or something.

 

[Wilhelm]

And You didn't think of bringing a ported monster saw along and open Your own stand?

Would have been fun to see folks faces if You had ran a ported 9010, 880 or 3120 in that plastic safety box where they tried the battery powered saws.

I would have taken anything "free" as well, they'll write it off as advertisement costs anyways.

 

[Definitive Dave]

I just realized that in the Echo section the first picture has a guy in a pink backpack and the sign in the background of the new Echo model pic says Women...coincidence???


But at least Echo hasn't announced "a big push for battery powered OP in 2017".


This is the only free stuff I picked up besides business cards and a few catalogs.


speaking of catalogs, I think the Chinese are catching on to American marketing with this one

 

[Stump Shot]

Pics of "booth babes".

 

[exSW]

I find the inattentive marketing force bothersome. I go to a couple of these kind of deals a year. I may not buy that day but I remember the good ones later.

 

[Definitive Dave]

I find the inattentive marketing force bothersome. I go to a couple of these kind of deals a year. I may not buy that day but I remember the good ones later.

I was a little surprised and put off by this too,
This event is not geared to the public and entrance for landscape companies and contractors was quite a bit more than for merchants ( I think it was $200 per person for them).
Many booths had great visuals with sales people who seemed enthusiastic and knowledgeable - examples were the air-tow trailer guys who make dump trailers that load at ground level and the PBI Gordon lawn chemical guys who all seemed like the sharpest dart in the game.
I was mostly disappointed in the Chainsaw related stuff, maybe I am jaded, but maybe since they only sell to their dealer networks, a trade show is mostly going through the motions because they are expected to.
I was told exactly that by a lonely guy at a mostly empty booth with a banner who is a middleman for the big carburetor companies and the giant distributers.
His company facilitates sales and deliveries between Walbro and Zama down to the regional distributers like VE Peterson and then down to the distributers like Gardner who sell to poor schlubs like me

It was really obvious that folks like Cannon actually care about the product and building good dealer relationships.

Some of the Chinese import/manufacturer/re-packer guys spoke zero English, which seems odd given how expensive the booths are.
Several guys with tables full of chainsaw parts smiled at me said "no english" and handed me a business card.

The E&S chain guys had three or four guys handing bags of stuff to anybody who would take it and an English speaking guy answering questions, which seemed to draw a lot of "business" in the small dark corner.

 

[rburg]

Thanks for the tour. I enjoyed it.

 

[stihl_head1982]

Hey hey! An arm chair outdoor power equipment tour!
Seriously man, you should do news. Great information.

 

[Adirondackstihl]

Pics of the 16" & 20" belly bars?