I need to buy a whipper snipper.

My last electric was a 240V McCulloch about 10yrs ago and whilst it seemed to have enough power, it was a PITA as it was
(1) not as big as a petrol one so I was hunched over using it and it was real uncomfortable, you needed to be 4ft tall to use it.
(2) it used thinner line so it was fkd on buffalo, it snapped off every 5m of cutting.
About the time I got the sh!ts with it I moved and didn't need one for years.


So anyway now I have moved and the layout of the lawn means I need one again.
I have a LOW budget and whilst the cheapo petrol ones are good I know they will be a pain to start after 3 or 4 uses and may not last etc.

Considering electric again as
(1) i know how good brushlees and LiPo is from my RC stuff.
(2) I only have bumfluff lawn now, not buffalo

anyone....? $100 cheapo 2 stroke, or $100 - $150 electric? It will only be used once a month in summer and once in the whole of winter maybe....

(BTW I don't have any cordless tools where I already have the battery etc)

Mark, if you can get a straight shaft it keeps it further away,
I whipper snipped my shin a couple years ago, not fun!!!

The 2 strokes are the way to go, easy and powerful and satisfying to rev the fk out of and blast thru everything.


Until...


that one day when it won't start. And you spend the next hour (with 'oh I'll wait 10 mins I musta flooded it' breaks) cranking it over with no joy, trying every throttle & choke combo, all for nothing. Very strong urges to throw it out on the road begin to take hold. Blisters slowly form. Much swearing is done.

You give up, come back another day and it behaves perfectly, as if nothing ever happened, mocking you. But your relationship is never the same.

anyway, I've given up on bump feeds and use a little juey now. 20 seconds to change out, every time. Normally get my whole place done on 1 stick, or 2 at most.
www.littljuey.com/

mark! FFS ! an electric whippersnipper? Thats not a propper red blooded Aussie tool! 2 stroke mate! it's the only way! if you go electric you may as well start building your float for the 2016 Gay mardi gras!

^^^^
Or buy a blow up sup

endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=22874

I made are my own battery electric brush cutter. This thing puts a 50cc machine to shame when run at 53 volts and sounds like a turbine, it suffered server gyroscopic issues due to the high rpm and now runs just 22 volts. The batteries are a123 and charge then in 10 minutes.
You cannot by stuff like and is complete overkill for a garden lawn but was fun to make and will give years of trouble free service.

I have the ryobi 240 electric pussy one, it works pretty good, trick is to not buy the ryobi refills but keep the first cartridge and refill it with a slightly thicker cord. Heaps cheaper too

Not as good as petrol but does the job and saves on the fuel buying storing mixing etc and can be stored in side so it won't get flogged out of the back shed etc

Can of thinners...... spread evenly along edge on a warm day.
Stand back, strike a match and drop on thinners. WHOOOOSHHHHH Edges are done

240V for longevity

Whippersnipper?
Never heard of it, here in the U.S. we have "whipper snappers", those are young kids that are full of themselves.
But we also have "weed eaters", or "string trimmers", which is what I think you're talking about.

I've gone thru many weed eaters, tried many different kinds, and they all break down sooner or later.
The ones I've found to be most reliable are two stroke with straight shafts. The curve shafts don't seems to be able to handle the vibration of the spinning head for very long, so they break, not so with the straight shaft, at least not as much. And all self-feeding heads suck, they always get screwed up, so I use the precut lines that you slip thru manually, the convenience of the self-feeder isn't so convenient if it isn't reliable.

mineral1 said..
Can of thinners...... spread evenly along edge on a warm day.
Stand back, strike a match and drop on thinners. WHOOOOSHHHHH Edges are done

Lol ! Great idea.
A proper and fun-filled way to temporarily solve a world-wide problem, Mineral and you can nail some green ants at the same time. Beating up the grass with a
whipper-snipper-crapper is hardly in the same satisfaction league.
I love the smell of napalm in the mornings.

Some great ideas guys!

I manage a farm and we have always used the Stihl 2 stroke gear. Last year we bought some of the new Stihl Battery powered tools like the little chainsaw, chain pole saw, blower, hedgers, etc. All I can say is the two stroke gear that still works, lives in the cupboard now collecting dust. Haven't bought or tried the whipper snipper yet. I was a little worried about the weight of the motor being in the head but I think the battery at the top would balance it out nicely.

Roundup is your friend.

Concrete the yard and paint it green. No more lawns to mow or missus nagging. Simples
The kids learn pretty quick not to fall over whilst playing in the back yard.

The main problem I had with my devices was and still is reliability and easiness of releasing / extending line.
Everything I had so far from Ryobi, Victa to Makita has the same problem.
Most of the time I have to stop machine , manually pull the line few cm then start again.
In recent Makita model I have to even open the spool every time, as line is jammed every time.
I may do something wrong but I don't want to make PhD in lawn mowing just need simple and working device.
So far effect is the on my work 50 % time is spend on trimming then 50 % on fighting with jammed line.

I wish one day somebody invent electric line release system. With press of button line will extend few cm.
I found that most of the time line is not at ideal lenght and you either release too much and cut excess or keep using short and reeving motor too much.

Any solution or advice on this problem ? Maybe there is good , working replacement spool that works ?

2.I found that some models are less prone to others to entangle and jam with long weeds . This next reason where more of the time comes to untangle weeds instead of actual work.


BTW re eco mowers I found geese the most efficient and productive at keeping lawn short.
I had 3 of them and they could clean 2 acres i have easy.

dirtyharry said..


Macro - I feel your pain. I reckon I spend more time stuffing around with line than actually slashing stuff. Have a look at that thing some bloke earlier on in the thread recommended - "littl juey" (www.littljuey.com/). I reckon they look okay. I also reckon you should buy one and report back - if you reckon they're good too I might just get one myself

[b]




No, Harry I see already a problem. I have one of those Victa single line trimmers. What a complete waste of material. You replace single 30 cm line, then for a moment you have perfect cutting length, in minute line becomes shorter and shorter that you doing with not optimal line, but something like 5 cm leftover dangling and requiring motor to spin max rev. Then you must stop, replace and throw 15 cm unused line and replace with new 30 cm length.
Complete absurd and waste of material when you can utilize only 50 % of the trimming line, then most of the time you have line not optimal but too short; waste of time when constant replacing lines cost equal time to actual slashing weeds.

Maybe good for Sunday Dad that have patch of the grass equal to the size of his sail but nothing serious as I have to conquer.