BrushcuttersStrimmers - curved or straight?
Moderators: KG Steve, Chantal, Tigger, peter
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Colin Miles
- KG Regular
- Posts: 1025
- Joined: Thu Nov 24, 2005 8:18 pm
- Location: Llannon, Llanelli
What are the advantages/disadvantages of having a curved shaft rather than a straight one?
Hello Colin
I asked the main man at our local hire shop about this before I got a brushcutter several years ago. The answer was straight shaft every time. They are much more reliable apparently - far less prone to shaft wear/failure. He advised me to get one of the Stihl machines with a rigid drive shaft as these can work hard for long periods with any type of blade without shaft problems - also no shaft maintenance is needed. The final piece of advice was to get the bike handle type (not loop handle) if you want to do more than just trim untidy grass as they are far more comfortable to use.
Hope this helps.
John
I asked the main man at our local hire shop about this before I got a brushcutter several years ago. The answer was straight shaft every time. They are much more reliable apparently - far less prone to shaft wear/failure. He advised me to get one of the Stihl machines with a rigid drive shaft as these can work hard for long periods with any type of blade without shaft problems - also no shaft maintenance is needed. The final piece of advice was to get the bike handle type (not loop handle) if you want to do more than just trim untidy grass as they are far more comfortable to use.
Hope this helps.
John
The Gods do not subtract from the allotted span of men’s lives, the hours spent fishing Assyrian tablet
What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning Werner Heisenberg
I am a man and the world is my urinal
What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning Werner Heisenberg
I am a man and the world is my urinal
from the engineering point of view a bent shaft has to bend every revolution, eventually it will break, the harder its loaded the quicker it will go.
from a users viewpoint the straight shaft will go under shrubs and benches where a bent shaft wont.
ive found the ryobi bent shaft too short to use comfortably for long periods , their straight shaft is a tad longer and seems much more comfortable to use.
i think the bent shafts are only on the market cos its a fraction cheeper to supply a flexible drive shaft than putting a gearbox on a straight shaft.
from a users viewpoint the straight shaft will go under shrubs and benches where a bent shaft wont.
ive found the ryobi bent shaft too short to use comfortably for long periods , their straight shaft is a tad longer and seems much more comfortable to use.
i think the bent shafts are only on the market cos its a fraction cheeper to supply a flexible drive shaft than putting a gearbox on a straight shaft.
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Colin Miles
- KG Regular
- Posts: 1025
- Joined: Thu Nov 24, 2005 8:18 pm
- Location: Llannon, Llanelli
Many thanks for your replies! Very useful information which the KG mag could use I think.