Thread: ICE Gardening equipment

Honda for four stroke, Stihl or Echo for two stroke. If I ever buy another chain saw, which I will only do for carrying in the cars, I will probably get a 'Waukee just because of the battery ecosystem.

Originally Posted by Tins

Honda for four stroke, Stihl or Echo for two stroke.

I have had an Echo leaf blower for over 20yrs,it is used almost every weekend,for an hour at least.Apart from the occasional spark plug it hasn't missed a beat.

The boys have been having trouble with their Honda 4 stroke brush cutters,whipper snippers,mowers,etc.It is usually the carby needing an overhaul or replacement.So maybe they are not as good as they used to be.
The latest advice is to always use Stihl fuel conditioner.The shop i bought my chipper from said the same thing.

My Honda 4 stroke mower is over 30yrs old,still going.Apart from having to replace the occasional spark plug and the pull cord once.And blades every few years.
It is also the brand almost every mowing contractor uses.

On another note,Honda or B & S genuine 4 stroke oil seems to be half the price of the same weight/type of oil from Supercheap,Penrite or Castrol brands.
Apart from mower shops the genuine oil is also available from Bunnings.

I used to get oil from a blender in Bayswater.
I ordered 5 litres of chain & bar oil some years back, when I collected it I got five 1 liter containers of Ryobi oil !
Turns out they packaged it for Ryobi.

Hunting around, straight 30 for the 4-stroke equipment can be reasonably priced. I don't get near the blender any longer and their prices steadily increased.
SuperCheap weren't too badly priced (for a change) last time I looked.

The carby overhaul kits from Ebay or AliExpress seem to fix problems with the 2-stroke equipment. One 'gasket' has a couple of flaps that act as one-way valves, I think these get tired.
Just fitted a grommet, fuel pipes, fuel filter & breather to the Kaaz. $12 for one set, $13 for two so I got a spare that I'll probably never use

As for a chipper/mulcher....the pile is so big I'll get someone in to do the whole lot. If I find a chipper/mulcher I'll then try & keep on top of the situation.


Colin

20 years ago I was given a Bolens chipper/muncher with an 8hp Tecumseh 4 stroke engine that had put a leg out of bed. I found an 8hp Honda that had been on a tile lifter fwhich had fallen off the truck and had a few abrasions but was basically sound and fitted it in place of the Tecumseh.
The Honda has performed perfectly ever since and the chipper can take a 90 x 45 lump of pine down the chipper chute without missing a beat, it's a great machine but usually only gets an annual use as we don't have much green waste any more.
I also only use premium unleaded in any ICE powered power tools as there is too much crap in the standard stuff and the premium doesn't go off as quickly.

Originally Posted by Tins

Honda for four stroke, Stihl or Echo for two stroke. If I ever buy another chain saw, which I will only do for carrying in the cars, I will probably get a 'Waukee just because of the battery ecosystem.

I suggested an upgrade from an 8aH to 12aH for a Milwaukee line trimmer a friend has and they don't regret it.

What was a bit sad was that their 8aH only lasted a bit over 12 months from new, with the trimmer!

I'm amazing you guys bother with chippers. I picked a B&S 8hp I think chipper cheaply about a decade ago. I got it running, thinking it would be fantastic ...... What a useless heap of junk. It would takes hours to make a wheelbarrow of mulch. You had to break every branch down into bite sized pieces and slowly feed each stick through one at a time.

I suffered through using it for about 10 minutes and noticed absolutely no progress on the stack of branches to be mulched. So put it straight up for sale and sold it to some other sucker and threw all the branches on a burn pile. So much easier. I would take me countless hours to even dream of mulching the crap that drops on the ground around here, let alone prunings (I tend to prune with a chainsaw when the boss women isn't home )

seeya
Shane L.

Maybe the blades needed sharpening or replacing.

Originally Posted by DoubleChevron

I'm amazing you guys bother with chippers. I picked a B&S 8hp I think chipper cheaply about a decade ago. I got it running, thinking it would be fantastic ...... What a useless heap of junk. It would takes hours to make a wheelbarrow of mulch. You had to break every branch down into bite sized pieces and slowly feed each stick through one at a time.

I suffered through using it for about 10 minutes and noticed absolutely no progress on the stack of branches to be mulched. So put it straight up for sale and sold it to some other sucker and threw all the branches on a burn pile. So much easier. I would take me countless hours to even dream of mulching the crap that drops on the ground around here, let alone prunings (I tend to prune with a chainsaw when the boss women isn't home )

seeya
Shane L.

I am guessing something was wrong with it.
The one i have now,6.5HP Honda will easily do Eucalypt branches 60mm thick,and i can do a pile of branches larger than the size of my van in 3/4 of an hour at the most.
That would be at least 3 wheelbarrows full of mulch.
And palm fronds,green,straight through in around 15 seconds,dead dry ones take a few seconds longer.
Many of them are over 4M long.
Same for branchs,gums,ironbark,fiddlewood,Jacaranda,whateve r,some are 3M long,it just pulls them through.
Bamboo,6M long,gone in a few seconds.

This chipper has belts and a drum set up,which works a lot better than the old Greenpiece one i had before which was direct drive,with a similar motor size.

Whoever bought yours probably changed the blades as someone else said,and it is now fine.....