Strimmer / brush cutter recommendations - What are the best makes, models etc

[Ted]

Full body

[lutonlagerlout]

if you treat them right they seem to last forever
i managed to get 2 TS400 s for £400 each inc VAT last year,not sure but that was a great deal
getting 13 " blades 10 for £175 +vat
regards LLL

[Tommy]

Now after posting my previous comments about their reliability, The strimmer I was attempting to use was a load of tosh, The spring for the bump feed head decided to compress, so everytime I went to feed more line through, the whole coil would snake out and tangle itself around the shaft.

Then as it began to rain, the ignition cord decided to seize.

I cut my losses and jumped on the blower (not literally) to clear the paths etc. Anyhoo, the blower decided to pack in, and so I ended up flooding the engine in the process, convieniently without the tool to undo the nut on the cover.

Is it the Stihl machines showing they aint that good, or is it that it happened on Friday 13th?!

[lutonlagerlout]

the power of jason
LLL

[scoffsred]

I bought a stihl fs86 off ebay 2-3 yrs ago for about £140 pounds and its never missed a beat, its a 2 stroke and i think its years old judging by the look of it. That was to get me started & its done me proud. If i was to buy 1 now i would buy the best i could afford new like

[Stuarty]

When i was on the grounds maintainance squad we used 2 Stihl FS85 strimmers, a stihl BR400 blower and a stihl HS80 hedgetrimmer. All quality gear never needing any surgery at all. Only one of those has since died, which i explained in a previous post. Drain the tanks in the winter, new plug and an air filter and usually a self feed head once a year and they will last for years. If i was working for myself id definatly use Stihl gear