Petrol Strimmers

[heronviewer]

I've an old Trimac 210 which cannot be repaired and am looking for a new one. While heavier, the Husqvarna 122C looks OK - has anyone experience of it and is it possible to fit a harness of some kind to it ?

 

[Noel]

No experience with the Husky but you should be able to hook most of the handle bar type strimmers onto any harness. If there isn't a fixing collar on the shaft shouldn't be hard to find one or make one.

 

[Inspector]

I hate 2 strokers so I bought a 4 stroke Makita string trimmer. Works good and I don't have to futz with gas oil mixes. Just grab the gas can from the lawn mower etc. I do put it in a 1 gallon gas can to carry with me as I work my way around the property, about 4 acres.

 

[Bm101]

When we bought this house 6 years ago I bought a viking lawnmower (stihl) and a fse 52 trimmer. Electric double feed wire strimmer.
For 6 years they have been faultless. Mower serviced once.
I worried they might be crap consumer level ranges after using stihl professionally for years. Unfounded. Been ace.
I know you asked about petrol strimmers... Sorry.

 

[heronviewer]

Thank you all. I don't want an electrical one.as the battery doesn't last long enough for me to get the job done in one go. I'll see if I can find any harnesses and that might be the way to go. There is nothing on the market of the same weight as my old strummer and my shoulders are getting old and stiff !

 

[Hlsmith]

The cheap harnesses are absolutely rubbish and agony after half hour
The Stihl advanced harnesses transfer the strimmers weight to the your hip rather than shoulder and heavy brush cutters can be carried all day they are about 50 quid

Other makes of strimmer that are popular with professional users round here are echo and Tanaka

 

[Bm101]

Yep sorry. I realised it was probably a futile post while writing it. Nothing compared to Stihl when I was doing it for a living. Would guess not much has changed in 20 years. Googling advance harness shows me that todays harnesses look very comfortable and worth the £35-40 odd. Life has changed so much and sometimes we moan but honestly when it comes to workwear its often so much for the better now.

 

[Hlsmith]

To be honest the latest range of Stihl gear has really gone down hill loads of blokes I know are moving away from them they have pushed it a little to far with the cost savings particularly with the long handled hedge trimmers pole saws and smaller strimmers

 

[Inspector]

Should have mentioned the Makita came with a shoulder strap to help with using it for longer periods.

Pete

 

[Woody2Shoes]

Thank you all. I don't want an electrical one.as the battery doesn't last long enough for me to get the job done in one go. I'll see if I can find any harnesses and that might be the way to go. There is nothing on the market of the same weight as my old strummer and my shoulders are getting old and stiff !

I've always used 2 stroke Stihl strimmers. I recently got a Stihl FSA 90 cordless brushcutter with a large battery and a harness (a neighbour gave me a try of his). What a revelation! Excellent power, runtime, low weight, trivial starting, no messing with fuel/oil, no need to wear ear defenders, no need to wind up the neighbours, no need to breathe partially burned 2stroke fuel.

https://www.stihl.co.uk/STIHL-Products/ ... -only.aspx

I would strongly recommend you don't discount the cordless option (from Stihl, I'd not buy a cheapy) - you could always get a second battery but you probably won't need more than one AP300.

Cheers, W2S

 

[whiskywill]

The cheap harnesses are absolutely rubbish and agony after half hour
The Stihl advanced harnesses transfer the strimmers weight to the your hip rather than shoulder and heavy brush cutters can be carried all day they are about 50 quid

Cheap and cheerful but they work brilliantly. I have one. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3292380 ... _322_10103

 

[Trainee neophyte]

I spend a significant amount of my life strimming. My advice is to buy the BIGGEST machine you can afford/use. (My advice for chainsaws is to buy the SMALLEST chainsaw you can get away with). The bigger machines (2.8hp and above) come with sensible harnesses, and are able to cut far more, far more quickly. I also throw away the head it comes with and get something like this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/POWERSTRIM-STR ... ay&sr=8-31

Actually, I've just bought one of these , and it is rubbish, but I can't find a link to my old one which is now worn out, which is why I bought the new one. You need 3 lengths of 4.3mm cord, too, and make sure that the head holds the string in the centre, not at the edges, otherwise you will be forever breaking the string. If anyone knows of any better kit, I'm all ears - the search for the perfect strimmer setup continues.

All of the above presupposes that you want to cut brush, scrub, small trees, rocks, old bicycle frames, bits of scrap iron etc. If you just want to neaten up the edge of your 10square feet of lawn, forget all I said.

 

[TFrench]

If anyone knows of any better kit, I'm all ears - the search for the perfect strimmer setup continues.

I bought a stihl strimmer off my tree surgeon mate. He'd fitted it with the stihl polycut blades (he has to have the best of everything!) and its incredible. The set that was in it finally wore down this weeked so I replaced them - it now feels like I'm in control of a huey helicopter taking the tops off trees in 'nam.

 

[sammy.se]

Don't know if this is helpful here, but someone I know says they now use cable ties instead of traditional string in their equipment, since it lasts much longer and is cheaper. I have no experience with strimmers, so just passing on the info...

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

 

[Bm101]

I bought a stihl strimmer off my tree surgeon mate. He'd fitted it with the stihl polycut blades (he has to have the best of everything!) and its incredible. The set that was in it finally wore down this weeked so I replaced them - it now feels like I'm in control of a huey helicopter taking the tops off trees in 'nam.

If you aint strimming bare chested in a pair of faded combats, a paper pack of Marlborough reds tucked under your ear defender straps, cold bottle of beer tucked into your waistband, wearing a bandana with Fortunate Son by Creedence belting out at full volume you are just pretending to be 'nam chopper pilot.

 

[whiskywill]

I have used one of these for the past two years with 3mm square cutting line.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3280559 ... f458c0e842

 

[Trainee neophyte]

I bought a stihl strimmer off my tree surgeon mate. He'd fitted it with the stihl polycut blades (he has to have the best of everything!) and its incredible. The set that was in it finally wore down this weeked so I replaced them - it now feels like I'm in control of a huey helicopter taking the tops off trees in 'nam.

If you aint strimming bare chested in a pair of faded combats, a paper pack of Marlborough reds tucked under your ear defender straps, cold bottle of beer tucked into your waistband, wearing a bandana with Fortunate Son by Creedence belting out at full volume you are just pretending to be 'nam chopper pilot.

Is there any other way to strim?

(BTW, the polycut setup like sexy, but I'm still looking for videos of it doing real work - a little bit of lawn trimming is fine for the advert, but I want to see real men with real bare chests, strimming sheep, pine trees and similar tricky environments. Investigating further)