On 06/08/2016 14:18, Adam Aglionby wrote:
Looking at strimmer/brush cutter for clearing largish overgrown
area.

Seeems to be a number of X in 1 devices with hedge trimmer/ chainsaw
attachments around.

It`s likely to be a one time major clearance and then minor
maintenance after so not looking for daily use quality but putting
chainsaw and cheap in same sentence worries me...

Any advice or experience?

Don't know about advice, but take what you want from my experience.

The first one I had was a Ryobi two stroke. It was ok and had enough
power to drive the various tools I had for it (line head, hedge trimmer,
chainsaw pruner). It did not last that long before it appeared to ingest
a part of its own carb, and the results were not pretty:

http://internode.co.uk/ryobi/

I replaced it (on a spur of a moment) with a 4 stroke ryobi that was on
sale at a cash and carry (paid about £75 for it!). That was far less
satisfactory. Heavier, less powerful, slower revving. It also had a
habit of stalling when you held it at the wrong angle, or the fuel tank
was less than half full. Over time it got progressively harder to keep
running at all. Even after attempting to set the tuning up better, it
was getting close to impossible to get useful periods of work out of it.
Turns out that major engine components (like the cam shaft and the push
rods) are made out of plastic, and as it gets warm they wear
increasingly quickly. So before long the timing is all to pot and you
are shagged.

So at that point I decided I was done with toy tools, and discovered
that the ryobi attachments can be persuaded to work on Stihl power
heads. Ordered a Stihl KM 94RC-E engine from FR Jones & Son (about £245)
and have not looked back. Its in a completely different class. Lighter,
smaller, more powerful, freer revving, can run properly at part throttle
as well. Easier to start. Never stalls or cuts out, lovely machine to
use. I would have been much cheaper and easier if I had bought one in
the first place!


--
Cheers,

John.

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