I have a long (high) conifer hedge that needs attacking (40m long)
I can't cut it down as it is not mine but forma my land boundary ... I am
allowed to trim it.

Thought about getting the Ryobi 30cc petrol power unit with pruner (small
chain saw) and angled Hedge Trimmer.
http://www.mowermagic.co.uk/acatalog...Strimmers.html

http://www.mowermagic.co.uk/acatalog...tachments.html


There are places selling these for ~£90 for power unit incl either item, and
then I would add the other attachment for about £40

This would give a significant reach - and be far easier than standard 18"
electric hedge trimmer I have


Anybody have any views on these items ?

I have little knowledge on RYOBI kit ........ probably all made in China
anyway nowadays.

On Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:40:39 +0100, Rick Hughes wrote:
I have little knowledge on RYOBI kit ........ probably all made in China
anyway nowadays.

My mitre saw and bench drill are Ryobi - chosen after browsing lots of
different vendors at mid/low-end, all of who seemed to use a similar
amount of plastic, share the same motors etc. (i.e. the bits that were
likely to cause problems if anything were) - so I concluded there wasn't
much in it really and I was better off putting the money I saved toward
other things. Both items have seen a huge amount of use since with no
ill-effects so far.

For (corded) hand drills the Ryobi offering(s) *did* seem less well made
than some of the competitors, so I thought it worth paying extra for a
'better' product there.

Petrol stuff might be a different matter - although doubtless there's a
lot of commonality there, at least in engines/carbs. Our petrol
edger and hedge trimmer both use almost identical Walbro carbs, for
instance, despite being made by different folk.

Suggest you take a look at the physical items - quite often it's easy to
spot things that will obviously annoy or are likely to break quite
quickly.

cheers

Jules

On 14 Oct, 16:40, "Rick Hughes" wrote:

Thought about getting the Ryobi 30cc petrol power unit with pruner

I have a Ryobi 25cc and 30cc strimmer, the 25cc of which is an Expand-
it, for which I also have the hedge trimmer.

Ryobi pricing is great and the build quality is acceptable for
domestic use, certainly fine for the money you've paid - with caveats.

The start easily when cold (priming and decent petrol assumed) and
when hot. They're utter pigs when half-warm. Their carb design has
improved through several variants over the years, the 3-position choke
being pretty much esssential and the current "roto choke" supposedly
being much better again.

As strimmers, I prefer the 25cc. This is because of the small loop
handle, rather than the wide handlebars on the 30cc. Even with a
carefully adjusted carry-strap, I find this harder work to use. With a
slack carry strap, it's horrible! Handlebar strimmers are OK on
paddocks & verges, but I've got fruit trees up a steep bank and I'd
hate to work around those with it. There's no discernable power
difference. Incidentally, _square_ strimmer line is the mutt's nuts
on damp grass.

Expand-it is brilliant. I particularly like the easy way I can rotate
the hedge trimmer for top & sides, which saves a lot of faffing with
tilted fuel tanks and cutting-out when only half empty.

I've used the chainsaw pruner, but didn't get on with it - a
limitation of the things in general. It's hard to chainsaw a thin
(i.e. bendy) branch from one side, as it just pushes out of the way.
This makes it hard to cut and leaves a ragged end behind. Personally I
use a long hook with a string-worked pruner. For thicker stuff I have
a B&D corder Alligator scissor chainsaw. It's short-handled so I need
access, but it cuts really nicely as it grabs branches _between_ two
jaws, it doesn't push against.

The hedge trimmer works as you might want.

I've only one complaint against the Ryobi stuff, which is serious but
fixable: it falls apart! Screws are insecure and work loose with
vibration. The wire exhaust heatguard falls off, followed by the
exhaust. More seriously, the cylinder works loose on the crankcase and
loses compression, which is when they become awkward to start. You'll
also see black oily crud blowing out everywhere. The fix is fairly
simple, to strip stuff down and re-assemble with Loctite 243 on the
threads, but it's annoying that they couldn't have done this in the
factory. It's cleaner if you do it on a new machine, which also
avoids losing the screws. Funny intermediate size Torx on some of them
though, a #27 which isn't an easy size to find.

On 14 Oct, 16:40, "Rick Hughes" wrote:
I have a long (high) conifer hedge that needs attacking (40m long)
I can't cut it down as it is not mine but forma my land boundary ... I am
allowed to trim it.

PS - I love the 3-in-1 combi ladder I bought from Aldi for £60. Makes
a great work platform for hedge trimming.

On Wed, 14 Oct 2009 09:59:54 -0700, Andy Dingley wrote:
The start easily when cold (priming and decent petrol assumed) and
when hot. They're utter pigs when half-warm. Their carb design has
improved through several variants over the years, the 3-position choke
being pretty much esssential and the current "roto choke" supposedly
being much better again.

Wonder how the flywheel keys are over time on Ryobi stuff? I've found a
lot of things using small IC engines have recoil start, and the recoil
mechanism is attached to the flywheel - which is usually some form of soft
alloy.

After a while either the flywheel key shears or it eats its way through
the flywheel, which then shifts position relative to the shaft - and as
the ignition timing's derived from the flywheel, the engine stops working...

I've become quite adept at making new flywheel keys and cutting deeper
key slots in damaged flywheels ;-)

More seriously, the cylinder works loose on the crankcase and
loses compression, which is when they become awkward to start.

I've seen that on all sorts of other smaller engines too (from lawn
tractor engines down) - just seems to be one of those things that affects
many of them.

cheers

Jules

"Andy Dingley" wrote in message
...
On 14 Oct, 16:40, "Rick Hughes" wrote:
The fix is fairly
simple, to strip stuff down and re-assemble with Loctite 243 on the
threads, but it's annoying that they couldn't have done this in the
factory. It's cleaner if you do it on a new machine, which also
avoids losing the screws. Funny intermediate size Torx on some of them
though, a #27 which isn't an easy size to find



Andy ... can you go though a list of the nuts/screws that I should Loctite
in ... I'll do it before I use it.

I found a place on line that sells Ryobi 30cc (D handle) plus any one
attachment - strimmer, hedge trimmer or pruner for £90 and incl P&P so
after the positive comments here - I'll go buy.

On 15 Oct, 12:37, "Rick Hughes" wrote:

Andy ... can you go though a list of the nuts/screws that I should Loctite
in ... I'll do it before I use it.

I think the wire heatguard (2 screws) comes loose in the box and has
to be attached after purchase anyway.

There are a couple holding the exhaust manifold to the cylinder, which
require stripping the plastic cover to gain access.

To get to the cylinder you have to remove the crankcase end cover (4
screws) and the petrol tank (don't lose the rubbery locating plates),
but there's just room to leave the petrol hoses attached. You can now
get to the 4 screws which hold the cylinder on from beneath, the ones
that really need locking in place. These need a narrow, ideally angled
screwdriver (I used a hex-bit in a bendy-drive) with the obscure Torx
size. In the middle of a field, I've also used a flat-bladed penknife
and swearing.

Every Ryobi I've fiddled with appears different, but it's not rocket
science..

"John Rumm" wrote in message
o.uk...

[1] My one was the Husqvarna attachment IIRC - which has a hinged
articulation not present on the basic Ryobi.


The suppler actually states that it is the articulated Husquvarna version
that they supply, getting that and pruner from them.

Great comments - Thnx

"Andy Dingley" wrote in message
...
On 15 Oct, 12:37, "Rick Hughes" wrote:

These need a narrow, ideally angled
screwdriver (I used a hex-bit in a bendy-drive) with the obscure Torx
size.

where did you find the obscure Torx size, if it's that odd I may need to
order one.

On 20 Oct, 12:42, "Rick Hughes" wrote:

where did you find *the obscure Torx size, if it's that odd I may need to order one.

Snap-on bloke was passing, so I held the strimmer out and he found a
hex bit to fit it.