Best petrol bruxhcutter/whipper snipper.

[artme]

I have had a neckful of my electric unit. Not strong enough, need to drag cords everywhere etc,etc..

Stihl 2stroke straight shafts on special at the moment. Might that be the go??

[Cliff Rogers]

I can recommend the Echo units, a bit cheaper than Stihl & you can get them with the 'ECHO ‘ES’ Easy Start System for effortless and comfortable engine starting' so you need to be a big strong bloke to start it.

My wife bought one 'cos she didn't like my big heavy cantankerous hornet brush cutter.

She says it is very easy to start but still gets a bit heavy after a while.

[Chief Tiff]

What about cordless? I bought the AEG 58V whipper snipper to replace my POS Ryobi which wouldn't maintain a state of tune; as a bonus it can also use all the "Ex-pandit" add-ons. It is no less powerful than the Ryobi and the battery lasts long enough for my 1-1/2 acres.

Stihl and Victa also make cordless versions but the AEG seemed to me to be the most rugged.

[Gabriel]

The only real insight I can put forward is that when I purchased mine was a few different people saying to purchase a straight shaft over a bent one. Apparently the straight shaft isn't prone to as many issues. ...

I have a stihl fs55 (by memory so could be off with the model number) and after 4 years still very happy with it... used about every 2 weeks for 1 hour or so

Not sure how helpful this is.... but it's my experience..

Cheers
Gab

[rob streeper]

I've got the Stihl Kombi system. Best I've ever used.

[Yanis]

yes Stihl or maybe Honda. I bought the Honda, came with steel saw blades and whipper head. Neither are cheap but they are really good units.

John

[Pagie]

I have a Stihl fs 85 .Very easy to start, powerful. Straight shaft, can take blades.

[AlexS]

...She says it is very easy to start but still gets a bit heavy after a while.

Don't worry Cliff, she'll build up her strength after a while, then you can buy her a bigger one.

[Cliff Rogers]

I had a bigger one, she didn't like it so she went & bought the Echo.

[fletty]

After the failure of yet another BIG SHED brand whipper snipper, I went to my local mower retailer instead and asked what the local Council used. They advised that the Council has the Shindaiwa T230X on contract so I bought one on the spot! It was about $50 dearer than the top line Ryobi about 5 years ago but it is fantastic. It starts easily, has plenty of power, good balance and has never let me down. At the time, I could not work out how to connect the brush cutting blade but, so far, the heavy nylon line has cut down anything I have put in range of it and I haven't missed the blade at all?
fletty

[artme]

Plenty to think about here>Thanks all!

I have heard good reports on Shindaiwa.

The easy start option with the Echo sounds good!! I can give SwMBO a couple of lessons and leave her to it!!!

[Kidbee]

After the failure of yet another BIG SHED brand whipper snipper, I went to my local mower retailer instead and asked what the local Council used. They advised that the Council has the Shindaiwa T230X on contract so I bought one on the spot! It was about $50 dearer than the top line Ryobi about 5 years ago but it is fantastic. It starts easily, has plenty of power, good balance and has never let me down. At the time, I could not work out how to connect the brush cutting blade but, so far, the heavy nylon line has cut down anything I have put in range of it and I haven't missed the blade at all?
fletty

Confirming that I have a two stroke Shindaiwa T260X and it has plenty of grunt. In saying that I also had an Echo before that which lasted me about 20+ years. Used some 4 stroke Hondas at work and found them to be a bit gutless.

[Mobyturns]

Confirming that I have a two stroke Shindaiwa T260X and it has plenty of grunt. In saying that I also had an Echo before that which lasted me about 20+ years. Used some 4 stroke Hondas at work and found them to be a bit gutless.

Our Honda has been brilliant, too big for our small block, but it handles the guinea grass across the road very well. No problems starting, simply prime the fuel, first pull almost all the time. If its not first go, usually means we were slack priming the fuel.

[Ubernoob]

I do a fair bit of house sitting so I seem to get to use a range of different ones and oddly everyone I house sit for has a decent whipper snipper. I used Stihl trade level stuff for a while and it is pretty heavy if you aren't used to it, the best units I have used are Shindaiwa for all around performance but for light to mid level garden stuff I really liked the Makita straight shaft unit I used.

The most powerful one I have used is the Stihl FS 130, it is heavy and really expensive but lord does it have some torque!
FS 130 - STIHL FS 130 Professional Brushcutter


I have a ~10yo straight shaft something something from the Big Green shed and it is noisy, the shaft whips like crazy with a steel head and it is generally just a horribly noisy thing(108dB I think) but it has cleared an entire creek of weeds multiple times and has never missed a beat. I really want to get rid of it but I admire how well it has done thus far and will keep it 'til it dies, it no longer gets solid blades as the head is so wobbly I'm worried I'll lose a leg, hahaha!

[malb]

Have the smallest of the Stihl straight shaft 2 strokes, have used it and abused it solidly for more than 5 years without any hassles. Only change is I fitted a Universal brand string head upon purchase because I detest bump feed type heads. Until this year, it did fencelines and uneven ground for 1/2 an acre, plus the first cut of the season when the grass etc is about 1m high (block to damp to cut during early spring when we had on average half our annual rainfall over about 6 weeks and everything grew very fast.

Same machine is now doing the same thing at Alex, except that it has 2.5 acres to work at, more trees to trim around, and about 80m of dam wall to cut as well.

Unit is a FS55, never an issue with it. Before that had 2 Echo's similar size that lasted 10yrs each, and a McCulloch a little larger that lasted 5yrs. Have a tennant who is a part time mowing/garden guy. He has a 4 stroke Honda which hasn't given him any grief.

I suggest getting a lightweight fairly compact unit (D handle rather than handlebars) if you need to work in reasonably confined spaces near other plants etc.