4-stroke string trimmer..

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I've been on a small engine buying kick, recently having bought a stihl ms250 chain saw and a John Deere JX75 with the Kawasaki FJ180V engine.

I am really looking for an excuse to replace the cheapie homelite trimmer I bought in '97 when I bought my first house. I have my eyes on a nice Stihl trimmer, but I just can't justify it since that homelite works so well. When I bought it, I viewed it as a throwaway, but a better alternative than an electric trimmer. Who would have known it would last so long?

In the mean time, I'm going to have to get my kicks buying a stihl leaf blower for winter light snow removal duty.
 
An electrical string trimmer works okay for trimming around the grass and stuff like that. For cutting large areas of weeds, you can't beat a four-stroke gasoline engine weed trimmer. It is worth the money. It makes short work of large areas of weeds.
 
A little follow up: I've only got a few months and maybe 5-6hrs use on this micro OHV 4-stroker. Bads: It is heavy and vibrates just like your typical cheapy 2-stroke trimmer. Commerical useage would be difficult.

Goods: It is powerful, starts easily, no worries of pre-mix and does not produce the gas/oil stink of a 2 cycle.

MTD does seem to be continuously improving these little babies as there is already an 'improved' engine out.

Again, this was not an expensive trimmer. My expectations are quite low!

Joel
 
Popular Mechanics Magazine had a Honda 4 stroke, and a Shindaiwa (I think) 2/4 hybrid that they rated against other trimmers. They broke trimmers down by professional, near professional, and homeowner. A nice article. If I recall they preferred the mid-range 2-cycles to the top of the line 4 cycle units becasue of weight and initial cost. usually PM's website is easy to navigate for old articles if interested, I think it was spring of this year. I enjoy PM's reviews as they really seem to give their tested equipment real life workouts in real life conditions.
 
I find the the type of vibration the 4 stroke units (that I have tried) produce gets very annoying after a while. Having used only a ryobi and troy built 4 stroke trimmer and compared them to me Echo.

Also the weight difference is incredible after about an hour.

Chris
 
used to use a couple of pro Stihls, and now have an OHC Honda and love the little Honda. Top end power not as good as the Stihl (smaller engine) but much better torque down low and much quieter and no tuning needed. Also much easier than the big Stihl's for the other half to use
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FWIW, Honda are comparable model for model here $ wise against Stihl and Husky.
 
Well guys, a little 'year later' update for you. The troy-bilt 4-stroke trimmer is no longer. I should have asked before I bought it last year! I took it back to Lowes and exchanged it for another make/model. Each time I used the Troy-Bilt trimmer, the more I disliked it. I hated the 'quick change' string head, where you force feed a pre-cut pc of line in there, I hated the direct-drive (no centrifugal clutch) 'feature', the weight and vibration were a bear and the unit was a pita to start. I think most of the starting difficulty was my doing though. If the unit was not stored properly, engine oil would seep from the sump into the combustion chamber, soak the sparkplug and load the muffler. This lead to hard starting and a HUGE blue cloud. It also had this weird zip start clock spring type of recoil start. I go so fed up, I tossed it back in the box (had it up in my garage loft), grabbed the receipt and went back to Lowes. I thought they would give me more of a hassle since their OPE return policy is 30 days. Almost 13mo later and they didn't even bat an eye! The woman commented she was surprised I still had the receipt. They were so good about it, I figured I buy another trimmer from them. I went with a Husqvarna 125L. I used it for about 30min today. Very nice. Smooth, powerful, real snappy throttle response and LIGHT! I love the clutch and ease of starting. I didn't notice any smoke or smelly exhaust from it either @ 50:1. From reading the literature, I discovered it has a catalytic converter buit into the muffler. No idea these were on 2-strokes. The Husqvarna was $199 as opposed to the ~$150 troy-bilt. No more 4-stroke trimmers for me unless it's a Honda or better. Live and learn!

Joel
 
thats cool man..We have a Husqvarna back pack blower...We've only had it maybe 2 years or so..but even after sitting all winter, it will start on the 1st or 2nd pull..It has a kawasaki motor on it i believe..i'm sure your string trimmer will run as good as our blower..they seem to be really well built
 
That's good to know that Lowes has good customer service! That Husqvarna should give you years of service. So how does the weight of your new trimmer compare to the one you just exchanged?
 
Carl, the Husqvarna is spec'd at 10lbs as opposed to 13.5lbs for the TB. The Husky seems better balanced as well. I didn't get nearly the arm fatigue from it as I would from the TB. The bump/advance string head is also way better on the Husky. That quick load job was horrible on the TB.

Joel
 
I don't know that I would call that good customer service from Lowe's or not. Will Troy-Bilt or Lowe's have to eat the cost of the returned trimmer?
 
I'd call the customer service awesome. I spend lots of money at my local box stores and seldom return anything. The trimmer had maybe 2-3hrs run time on it at best, looked new, had everything that came with it and I disclosed everything to the returns dept. No guilt from this guy.
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Joel
 
I just got a 4 cycle TroyBuilt

29cc, 3oz sump
Boss purchased it as a replacement for the Ryobi that DIED in under 20 hours of use!
Right out of the box the first oil fill I gave it was VP Racing Synthetic(Group V) 10w40. I had a quart laying around and I will have to use this for extended periods(2-4hours straight) so I wanted a thicker oil. Changed it after about 12 hours or so, as suggested. It was brown and "sparkley" instead of orange like it was new. Still smelled good though
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Pros: POWER! This baby cuts through just about anything without getting bogged down.
Noise, although loud at full throttle its not outside of reason. At idle it is SO quiet.
Vibration, I havent found too much an issue with its vibration.
Spool head, this is my fav trimmer head I have ever used. Tuck in the 2 pieces, and wind it up. No tangles!
Fuel, I don't have to mix oil/fuel anymore. She gets the same 87 octane I give the mower.
Exhaust, it does not smell at all when running and no smoke. I like the smell of 2 cycle but it can get tiring after 4 hours on a hot hillside huffing fumes.

Cons:
Weight, it is a bit heavier than the others I have used. Not terribly so but its noticable.
Throttle trigger, worst angle ever. My hand gets crampy, then numb, and then nearly handicapped. Hand tingles and have issues for hours afterwards. I need to do something before I get nerve damage...
Starting, its a little funny. Primer 10x, choke level 1, pull chord 5 times, move to choke level 2, pull to start, let run for 15 secs, move to choke level 3. Operate. Its alot simpler than it sounds when you get used to it, but it was a bit much when I first started out with it.

After using this thing HEAVILY all this week, I gotta say I honestly like it alot. It does a wonderful job and I am digging having something that sounds like an idleing Honda in my hands
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And hey, its something else I can change the oil on!
PS. It is running better quality oil than my car!
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Quote:


I just got a 4 cycle TroyBuilt

29cc, 3oz sump
Boss purchased it as a replacement..




Yeah, that's a totally different model then the one I had. Improved engine, better spool/load mechanism, it has a clutch, etc. I couldn't imagine using the one I had commercially.

Joel
 
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