Never seen one of these before

[Mickwhitt 4,642]

Browsing round various machinery sites I came across this cute little machine. 

Its a tow along strimmer designed for use behind a small garden tractor. The cutting head sits on a spring loaded, pivoting beam which also carries the engine.

If you hit an obstacle like a tree or post the cutter arm pivots around to clear the obstruction and cut close to it.

Works really well from the video on the site. 

Its either very expensive at £2670.00 or I'm very cheap lol.

Time to take out the drawing tools and get to designing one.

 

 

 

[ebinmaine 67,627]

I seem to remember reading/seeing something to the effect that they are "good on paper" but can be challenging in real world application..... Mostly because of the operator going too fast. 

 

It really is a neat idea. 

 

[pfrederi 17,741]

Would work for some things...but if you have metal fence posts the string gets eaten up fast.  if you have trees the string will damage teh bark and the tree.

[Alex175 784]

35 minutes ago, pfrederi said:

if you have trees the string will damage teh bark and the tree.

 

I could be wrong, but it looks like to me that the string doesn't extend past the framing on the top, so that frame runs/rubs against the tree, but the string shouldn't touch it.

[pfrederi 17,741]

10 minutes ago, Alex175 said:

 

I could be wrong, but it looks like to me that the string doesn't extend past the framing on the top, so that frame runs/rubs against the tree, but the string shouldn't touch it.

Maybe so but then it will miss a lot....and it is only going to do part way around unless you have enough room to come down the other side as a second pass...

Edited May 4, 2021 by pfrederi

[Mickwhitt 4,642]

Speed of travel looks a significant factor. I can imagine a quad bike ripping along at Mach ll and leaving a poor cut.

But a WH will do a nice steady snails pace in low gear and give the cutter time to do its work. 

Mick 

[Mickwhitt 4,642]

Just bought this off ebay....

Its a wheeled walk behind strimmer. Nice Honda engine and heavy duty cutter head so it will deal with pretty tough brush.

I bought it thinking it might modify into a tow behind but I will see how it goes as a walk behind first.

Mick 

[ebinmaine 67,627]

1 hour ago, Mickwhitt said:

bought it thinking it might modify into a tow behind but I will see how it goes as a walk behind first

 

Methinks you would see the value in both pull and push modes if you tried them. 

 

Having the ability to walk it and have infinite adjustability is a HUGE help with one of these. 

 

 

Perhaps modification could be done to use both ways without needing to swap handles or hitch hardware.  ?

[Mickwhitt 4,642]

The engine is running pretty rough. Ru s on full choke but try to put it in run or idle and its hu ting on the governor. 

Carb clean made things a little better but the air system is really involved and relies on numerous gaskets between air filter, carb and cylinder.  Seems like air leaks cause a lot of problems.

The air filter housing itself is badly deformed where it meets the opposing steel gasket face and I suspect this is the issue, allowing excess air into the pilot system.

I will try a new air filter housing and see where that gets me. 

Mick 

[Maxwell-8 4,277]

19 minutes ago, Mickwhitt said:

The engine is running pretty rough. Ru s on full choke but try to put it in run or idle and its hu ting on the governor. 

Carb clean made things a little better but the air system is really involved and relies on numerous gaskets between air filter, carb and cylinder.  Seems like air leaks cause a lot of problems.

The air filter housing itself is badly deformed where it meets the opposing steel gasket face and I suspect this is the issue, allowing excess air into the pilot system.

I will try a new air filter housing and see where that gets me. 

Mick 

Honda engines indeed have some problems with their carbs, All I come across have it. But when you get her running like it should, 4.5hp on a stringtrimmer is plenty off power

[Mickwhitt 4,642]

Brand new carb and airfilter housing arrived this morning so I will pop those on later in the day.

New head arriving by courier this afternoon so it will be all systems go be tea time.

While at the mower dealer I asked about cutting cord for it. He had some 122m rolls of 5mm square section industrial stuff. As a favour he let me have one at cost,  £30 which is fabulous value. I will never run out lol.

Mick 

[Mickwhitt 4,642]

New parts for the strimmer. You can see the old air cleaner box has been deformed some how, either overnigovertight or slack so its worn.

The pilot jet has an anti tamper seal on the new carb, the old one had been forced off and the jet played with. Makes setting up a *****.  

 

[Mickwhitt 4,642]

This is the beast running after y travails.

This is the trimmer line I bought.

Square section is supposed to be better at cutting. 

mick 

[ebinmaine 67,627]

Looks and sounds great! Well done sir.

[Lee1977 6,667]

What size trimmer line does that machine use?  My old straight shaft Echo used .095"  or close to 2.4 mm.

 

 

[Mickwhitt 4,642]

When I bought it the machine had a plastic strim head on it that was fitted with 4mm round line. 

The head was not properly fitted and someone had put an aluminium spacer on it with a longer bolt so I assume it was an after market bodge.

The new head I bought is aluminium alloy and very tough. It is designed for a shift strimmer but fits perfectly on this machine.

The nylon line I got is 4mm square section which cuts better. I will give it a whirl today and see how it performs. Watch this space.

[Mickwhitt 4,642]

This is the square section cutter line. Its not square but has some funky cross section that must improve its performance. Its pretty chunky.

Apologies for the mucky fingers by the way lol 

Edited May 29, 2021 by Mickwhitt
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