4 stroke string trimmers (1 Viewer)

[Scott Strang]

Has anyone here tried one of these? I bought one and find it much more useable than the 2 stroke models.

One annoying "feature" is the quick load head with it's precut line pieces. They get eatten pretty quickly when edging around concrete. I'm wanting to put a regular head on this thing that uses conventional spools of string.

Has anyone sucessfully done this?

Mine is a Troybuilt 465 straight shaft.

Thanks

 

[Philip Hamm]

I've never understood these for most homeowners. For a lawn service or professionals (or people with very large properties) I can see a big advantage to mobility, but for a homeowner where everything you're going to trim is within a hundred feet of an outlet, what's the advantage to another oil change, spark plug, more gasoline, noise, another ICU to maintain? Electric is just perfect for this application.

 

[Shane Martin]

because dragging a cord is just a major pita. The maintenance work I do on my yardwork stuff is minimal at best. I'd much rather do that than have to worry about a cord. They aren't very convienent.

 

[Brandon_T]

Agreed, I spent the first year in my house with a corded trimmer. After the first year, I just couldn't handle dealing with the cord any longer. My electric just didn't seem to have the power either that my gas powered has. To each his own however, I won't critisize those that use electric, just wasn't for me.

 

[Mark Paquette]

I have a 4 cycle Troybuilt trimmer as well. Mine came with a conventional spool of string. It's 2 years old and I can't recall the model number. Anyway, it works great as a trimmer and since I purchased the edger attachment, it works great as an edger too. The thing I like the most about it over my old 2 cycle trimmer is that it doesn't smoke like a mosquito fogger while it's running. You can also add me the "not a fan of corded electric yard tools" camp.

 

[mylan]

I too suffered through the first couple years of home ownership with a corded trimmer, even if I wrapped the cord around the handle, it always came apart during use. My first gas model, a Ryobi, was a multi tool that had several attachments: blower, trimmer, brush cutter so when it died I opted for a 4 cycle Toro that used the same attachments. It is much quieter and like Mark says, no smoke. The only attachment I do not like is the edger, it doesn't seem like its got enough oomph to run it and it bogs the engine down so I have considered an electric Black and Decker Edge Hog. I've used my neighbors and it works great.

 

[Shane Martin]

Scott,
That same trimmer is the same one at Sears under their Craftsman name.

 

[Eric Kahn]

I also have a troybuilt 4 stroke trimmer, with the 2 line self feeding head and a blower attachment

works great and I do not have to have 2 different gas cans anymore

 

[Brian Perry]

I never understood the need for a separate edger or edger attachment...I always just tilt my string trimmer to cut perpendicular to the sidewalk. Is there an advantage to using a dedicated machine?

 

[mylan]

Yeah, it keeps from eating up so much string, keeps you from straining your back tilting the trimmer for so long and makes a straighter edge.

 

[Johnny Angell]

I use my echo to edge also turning it upside down. I also rotate the handle and its easy to hold why edging. True, I do have to pay attention to what I'm doing, but it works well.

My echo uses pre-cut pieces of line that you manually insert into the head when the line needs replacing. Its a pita, but you get used to it. It would not be acceptable to a pro doing lots of edging with it.

 

[Jeff_CusBlues]

I have a Ryobi 4 stroke. I also have the blower attachment. Both work just fine, but I will say that the 4 stroke does not have the torque of my old 2 stroke. It has enough torque for what I do, but I paid extra for a 4 stroke so if I had it to do over, I would buy the two stroke since I have to use a gas oil mix for my snow blower also. I tried my neighbors edger attachment and didn't like it at all. I have a Black and Decker electric, and it leaves a much cleaner/nicer edge.