Petrol Strimmers and attachments

[Colin Miles]

I need to buy a decent strimmer as the electric flymo I had was fine for my previous small garden, but nowhere near up to the current task. My neighbour has a Flymo XLT 3000 and I suppose that if I get one as well then we may be able to sort out any problems for each other, but has anyone any experience of these, or any suggestions for better makes?

Attachments: how useful are these and which ones do you use? I have a Mantis tiller so I don't need that attachment and also a reasonable hedge trimmer. But I was wondering about the edger and the pruner.

[richard p]

i got a 30cc ryobi last year and have added the pruner and hedgetrimmer. the chainsaw/pruner thingy is worth its weight in gold for lopping off overhanging branches which would otherwise need a stepladder with a normal chainsaw. the trimmer bit isnt a genuine ryobi one,(found it on ebay, cant remember the makers name)it is adjustable for angle which means its easy to use parrallel to the ground to lop off blackberry thickets at ground level, aswell as the more usual hedgetrimming. ryobi also make electric vesions which take the same expand it attachments, im seriously considering getting the 1000 watt one as well.
the split shaft also enables the strimmer to go in a normal car boot.

[Colin Miles]

Thanks Richard. Yes, I think the pruner will be most useful. But so many Strimmers/Brush Cutters to choose from!

[penny]

What do people think of the mantis tiller? I was thinking of putting it on my birthday list. Penny

[goldilox]

Hi Penny,
I bought a Mantis tiller some years ago while we were living in Scotland. The ground there was quite stony and often wet (!) I used to get quite frustrated with it because it got clagged up with mud frequently, and it was bad to start up.
A few weeks ago (after being here 5 years) I unpacked it again. After quite a bit of fiddling my husband got it to start really well. Here we have (again) very stony and rocky soil with lots of old building rubble, but the Mantis is coping really well with it.
I can at last say that I'm really happy with it It's very light to use and carry too.

[Colin Miles]

My Mantis copes beautifully with my current site where the soil is a pretty good loam and there aren't many stones, albeit some are quite large. However, at my previous place the soil was a heavy clay and there were lots of stones, many of them about egg-sized and awkward in shape. These tended to stick and I would have to stop and remove them.

As for starting, it is important to have a fresh mixture - and to have the start button on! At one stage my button had come loose and I didn't know which was start or stop. I had a problem with mine a few days ago when I used it, but changing the spark plug seemed to do the trick.

I believe they do an electric version now but I don't know much about that but I think KG reviewed it - or at least mentioned it.

[Sarah]

Don't know if it helps, but I bought a Ryobi rechargable strimmer last weekend. So far I love it! It came with two battery packs, and having used it for ages, I still haven't run one down. It was expensive, but I'm very pleased so far. It even coped with very long grass on areas which haven't been touched for years.