Tell me about gas powered weed whackers

[maunahaole]

My yard is out of hand. I have come to the realization that my battery operated weed whacker is insufficient for my needs. I need something that is gas powered to get through some dense weeds and can take a cutting blade for trimming branches and smallish trees and shrubs. It's the tropics. Stuff gets crazy when unchecked. I need a bigger weapon. Shindaiwa? Honda?

[Too Tall]

Anything Honda makes is aces. FWIIW I've owned a Forestry version of an Echo weed whacker for nearly 30 years. One pull and does it's bidness. This model looks similar to what I have: SRM-266

Use good fuel. Wear eye protection, long sleeves, long pants, kiss yo momma.

[lumpy]

I have a cheap Poulan Pro weedwacker that runs well, pretty big motor. I got a cheap Ryobi brush blade for it (a lot of them interchange) and it's insufficient. Either the three lobe blade is a problem or the blade is just too small. The Poulan pro brush utter attachment has four blades and I bet it's better. If you've got the cash get a Stihl or an Echo. I have a nice old Stihl but can't get a carb rebuild kit for love or money.

[kpomtb]

I'm from TX, the home of the combo bike shop/power equipment shop, I sold and serviced this stuff at the first bike shop I worked in. I would buy from a shop that can service them, not a big box.

If you want to use a blade, get a straight shaft trimmer. They are heavier duty than the curved models. Good gas, the right oil mix and fuel stabilizer will go a long way to keeping it running. I'd guess out there you don't really have an off-season for growth, but if you do think it will be idle for awhile, run all the gas out. Stihl, Echo, Honda, Husquavarna are all good brands.

[Mabouya]

Definitely get a straight-shaft.

I've had my Tanaka for over 10 years and it's still as good as new. Can't remember if I've ever changed the spark plug, but other than than that, all I've done is add gas (+oil, of course) and new plastic line.

Tanaka Grass Trimmers

[progetto]

Stihl straight shaft here, I punish it with little maintenance and it never lets me down.

[EricKeller]

my experience with these things is the gas goes bad pretty quickly if you let it. Mine ran fine at the beginning of the year, but by the end of the year all the volatiles had boiled off and it wouldn't start. Poulan Pro really is a misnomer, I think. I managed to break the starter pulley on mine because it was really cheesy. Of course, it lasted almost 20 years, but the internals are horrible

[Jonathan]

If you can find ethanol free gas you will be happier in the long run. You always get what you pay for. I'm pretty sure the big box stores sell less robust name brand versions of better equiptment you'll find at a real mower shop.

[EricKeller]

Stihl seems to have the best reputation. I inherited my Poulan Pro, so I suppose it doesn't owe me anything. You can easily get parts online, nobody around here will touch them as far as I can tell.

When I had gas problems this year, I went looking for ethanol free gas, I think the closest station was a multi-hour drive. I just put the old gas in the mower (diluted a lot, of course). It's not that expensive to just replace it frequently.

[SpeedyChix]

Another pile on for Stihl. Our old FS 66 sports a PolyCut blade head most of the time since it's out doing trail maintenance more often than not. Works to cut tall grass and thick stuff w/o a whimper. String heads are simply tedious and aren't enough. You can run a blade on these as well if the PolyCut head isn't enough. Off season some gas stabilizer and a fog on the spark plug take care of keeping the carb happy come spring.

[Chad]

Another pile on for Stihl. Our old FS 66 sports a PolyCut blade head most of the time since it's out doing trail maintenance more often than not. Works to cut tall grass and thick stuff w/o a whimper. String heads are simply tedious and aren't enough. You can run a blade on these as well if the PolyCut head isn't enough. Off season some gas stabilizer and a fog on the spark plug take care of keeping the carb happy come spring.

Ditto

[dashDustin]

I'm from TX, the home of the combo bike shop/power equipment shop, I sold and serviced this stuff at the first bike shop I worked in. I would buy from a shop that can service them, not a big box.

my shop was originally Plano Schwinn and Mower. Still have John Deere tools. And still get calls about fixing lawn mowers.

[Nierman]

If you get the straight shaft Stihl you will find yourself randomly clearing illegal singletrack corridors.

Engine on my cheap Ryobi still going strong for 12 years but I've had to replace cracked fuel lines and primer assembly.

[ryker]

If you can find ethanol free gas you will be happier in the long run.

+1. You can find cans of ethanol-free gas in some big box stores. Really expensive but no big deal if you only go through one or two a year. I would probably do that if the Chevron two blocks away didn't have it at the pump.

[David Tollefson]

If you get the straight shaft Stihl you will find yourself randomly clearing illegal singletrack corridors.

This is what I immediately thought of when this thread popped up. If only there were a silent one... So much faster than the long-handled brush cutters I've been using.

[fiveller]

my experience with these things is the gas goes bad pretty quickly if you let it. Mine ran fine at the beginning of the year, but by the end of the year all the volatiles had boiled off and it wouldn't start. Poulan Pro really is a misnomer, I think. I managed to break the starter pulley on mine because it was really cheesy. Of course, it lasted almost 20 years, but the internals are horrible

As Jonathan mentioned and others have alluded to, ethanol is a nasty thing. Gasoline itself is surprisingly stable, in my experience. Ethanol, though, absorbs water and in a short period of time, your "gas" isn't gas. Fuel stabilizer (Stabil, Sea Foam, etc) go a long way if you don't have a good source of non-ethanol gas handy. Non-ethanol (also marketed around here as "recreational") is oftenfound where there are boats or farm equipment. Ethanol is also very corrosive, especially to older engine bits that were never intended to use it. Modern engines are designed to use it but not store it.

The advent of ethanol gas caused me no end of pain in our boat until we understood the problem. In the old days, we could run gas that had been in the tank all winter with no problem. After ethanol, gas would go bad in a matter of weeks.

[lumpy]

This is what I immediately thought of when this thread popped up. If only there were a silent one... So much faster than the long-handled brush cutters I've been using.

It's called a scythe with a brush blade. Ultra functional in the right kind of brush.

[SpeedyChix]

This is what I immediately thought of when this thread popped up. If only there were a silent one... So much faster than the long-handled brush cutters I've been using.

Battery powered chain saw has been a huge plus to the kit of trail building tools, er yard maintenance (used to be my acquisition pitch). Reasonably quiet and enough charge to get through most projects.

[sine]

I have an Echo (straight) that I purchased from some small dealer years ago. Still works fine with zero maintenance.

[Jonathan]

Wawa just infiltrated central FL from up north. Our local ones have an ethanol free pump. There is usually a line of yard maintenence trucks waiting to fill up equiptment. Ethanol put a pretty good f-job on my 1959 Farmall Tractor. I hate the stuff.