# String Trimmer Pros Use?



## Okie294life (Feb 23, 2020)

I have a Tanaka split boom with multiple attachments. It’s good for what it is, but at 25cc it doesn’t have enough grunt to hang in sometimes. I basically am forced to either waste time or run it like I hate it 100% of the time and it doesn’t keep up. Around here the pros all use stihl 4 mix, but I’m curious what else is out there that can hang in. I’ve worked on one and I’m not a huge fan.


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## Conquistador3 (Feb 23, 2020)

If I remember correctly in the US you cannot buy backpack brushcutters, ruling out a ton of good stuff and what most people run here for serious use.

Personally I really really like Honda four stroke. They may not make as much power as Stihl but the only way to kill them is to run them without oil. Easy to work on to boot and you can still get genuine spares for those made in the 90's. They now have a 50cc brushcutter engine out but I have no idea if there's a brushcutter using it yet. 
Shindaiwa are great, make plenty of power but the old ones have lots of idiosyncrasies. They do rev like maniacs and can run a widia circular saw no problem though. No idea about the new ones because here they cost more than Stihl so nobody is buying them.


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## CacaoBoy (Feb 23, 2020)

Conquistador3 said:


> Personally I really really like Honda four stroke.


Agreed. I have the Honda model HHT355UKA. Reliable, good power, a little quieter than a 2 stroke, and goes a long time on its small tank of gas.


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## Okie294life (Feb 23, 2020)

CacaoBoy said:


> Agreed. I have the Honda model HHT355UKA. Reliable, good power, a little quieter than a 2 stroke, and goes a long time on its small tank of gas.


I don’t mind the Honda, Husqvarna makes a model with the Honda engine but it’s heavy, and it’s a mid grade at best, not pro. I like the two strokes because of the weight difference and the ease of repair.


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## full chizel (Feb 23, 2020)

I have the Shindaiwa T262 and like it a lot. Its the red version of the Echo 2620. Echo also make a T version that doesn’t spin as fast but has more torque.


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## Haironyourchest (Feb 23, 2020)

Stihl FS 460 - 47cc autotune. Very low vibration at the grips.


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## 92utownxh (Feb 25, 2020)

I have a Shindaiwa T282. I love it! It's bit heavy for running through a yard for weekly trimming, but I do it. It's great for all around use. I use it to trim fence lines a few times a year. It will destroy vegetation on our dam that I trim a couple times a year. It always has the power to make quick work of things. I've ran a blade on it a few times to cut briars and saplings. I got it almost 10 years ago now from a local shop. At the time he was moving to mostly Echo, and the owner took $100 off of it. Had to get it.


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## CR888 (Feb 25, 2020)

40+cc's with a Mahle cylinder & your half way there.


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## John Lyngdal (Feb 25, 2020)

I run a FS250 with a fine tooth carbide blade, it's a terror on vine maple. 
1" in diameter it hardly knows it's there, 2" in diameter you have to work at it a bit.


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## alderman (Feb 26, 2020)

I have had good luck with Shindaiwa over the years. Spend many hours cutting brush. 
I would recommend at least 30cc for rubbing a blade. May not need that much power with a fresh sharp blade but as it dulls it will become a necessity to get anything done. 
I’ve opted to purchase used equipment saving a lot of money over the cost of new. 
I’ve had this old C35 for 36 years and it still runs well.










Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## backhoelover (Feb 26, 2020)

Echo 2620


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## catbuster (Feb 26, 2020)

Back in the day the cat’s ass for heavy work that didn’t really require a big clearing saw was a Stihl FS 250. Spooled up really fast, 40 cc, lots of power. Really too much for the Stihl guard, it kept the line too short. Shindaiwa was another thing, but the dealer network wasn’t as good and I never saw as many. The lawn guys ran Echo’s smaller trimmers and they work great for them. Stihl’s FS 85 was the go to for lawn guys who ran Stihl. Mind, the Stihl stuff cost a lot more than the competition. 

The FS 250 is NLA, and the FS 130 became the go to for that type of work. It was less zippy but still worked awesome. I haven’t bought a new one in a long time, but I think it’s been superseded by an FS 131. It’s probably a good machine. A lot of people worry about 4 Mix engines, but it seems like the landscape guys and farmers get great life out of them. I haven’t done anything with a trimmer other than the house in a long time.


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## sawfun (Feb 28, 2020)

I have an fs250r and an fs94r and much prefer the 94 for around the house string usage. The 250 gets the nod on blackberries with a shredder blade. That's about it's best use.


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## Brazos (Mar 22, 2020)

I have a 20 year old echo sum-2100 that still runs and does well. I found the need for a bigger trimmer so I bought an echo arm-410U (found on-line for $420). It came set up with a brush cutter blade but I bought a trimmer head for it. I researched quite a bit and this seemed like the biggest, heavy duty option. My new place has a decent sized sloped area I can’t use a mower on so I wanted as big a weed eater as I could get. I was about to buy a $650 Sthil but found a deal on the 410U. I got it all together and have been using it the past couple weeks and it will flat cut grass. It’s a bicycle handle type trimmer so you will need a harness. I have a Husqvarna harness that came with my Husqvarna 555fx brush cutter (the 410U came with a harness but it’s junk). Nice thing about the echo 410U is I have a second heavy duty brush cutter if needed. I like the 410U as it has a long shaft like a weeadeater but is heavy duty like a brushcutter. My 555fx has a short shaft and I consider it a dedicated brush cutter though I could put a trimmer head on it. Not sure what your needs are but this set up seems to fit the bill for what I needed.


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## Training Wheels (Mar 28, 2020)

sawfun said:


> I have an fs250r and an fs94r and much prefer the 94 for around the house string usage. The 250 gets the nod on blackberries with a shredder blade. That's about it's best use.


I'd second the 94 it's light and plenty powerful for weekly accounts and EOW....I also have a FS85 which weighs the same but has a little more power. They're(fs85's) pretty cheap to pick up these days and bombproof. For the serious stuff, I do use the 4-mix FS130 it's a torque monster.

Best,

~TW


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## Cris2727 (Apr 4, 2020)

Stihl FS 250r best one ever made, light and powerful 40.2 cc


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## sawfun (Apr 4, 2020)

Cris2727 said:


> Stihl FS 250r best one ever made, light and powerful 40.2 cc


I have a fs250r and found it best in certain applications. It's too much as a trimmer around my house and too little for deforesting as I've done both with mine. I found mine was best with a shredder blade against blackberries, where it is absolutely incredible. I do hate the vibes it has with any blade though. Around my house the fs94r is much better in every way.


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## Cris2727 (Apr 4, 2020)

I use the fs250r with huge mustard and tumbleweed, works great


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## Cris2727 (Apr 4, 2020)

I have three


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## chilipeppermaniac (Apr 28, 2020)

@ Backhoelover
Owner of J's Small Engine Repair!!!!
CAD- SMALL ENGINE TOOLS!!! SMALL ENGINE TOOLS!!! SMALL ENGINE TOOLS!!!

WANT TO BUY ALL OLDER STIHL TOOLS !!! ALSO LOOKING FOR WALBRO 500-24!!! WILL TRADE A STIHL AS CRANKCASE TOOL FOR 2 OF THE WALBRO 500-24 SCREWDRIVER. TOOL IS NEW 

I have a well made but currently not running Stihl FS90 AV Electronic String Trimmer. I will PM you.


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## chilipeppermaniac (May 1, 2020)

OK, I read the thread and wanted to add not only a few experiences but also my original trimmer vs. the latest trimmers I have acquired in the past 3 years or so.
I am not a pro, but do enough heavy clearing I might as well be.
Originally, my first trimmer is a 1994 Echo SRM 2110 with the U handle. This trimmer lasted me 22-24 years with the only thing I did to it being a carb rebuild kit and fuel lines and a 3 hole fuel tank grommet around the 20 year mark. At present, it sits semi retired, waiting on my to do a top end on it and see how it runs again . As it sits, I feel like the compression has gotten low enough to where the machine won't start. I know it is not the carb either, because I swapped carbs off it and onto my SRM 3100 which runs great with it or the original one off the 3100.

Since acquiring the 2100, I got the 3100 at auction, a Stihl FS90 AVE with U handle, and a SRM 210. Currently the 2 Echo's run.

As I had given the stepdaughter and her husband, her mom's Homelite Curved Shaft trimmer that lasted a year or 2 before the husband told me it got broken, I now went on the hunt for a cheap enough decent trimmer for them. In the end, I got like 4 Free Homelite, Toro type homeowner specials, and for $50 a nice running John Deere Straight shaft trimmer that the seller threw in an echo backpack blower in for me as a bonus.

Finally today I met a guy to check out his Echo SRM 230 he was letting go for $50 because he said it doesn't run. He also knew I was hunting more up and running units, so he brought along an SRM 2100. The 2100 totally reminds me of my 2110 but with a loop handle setup. Anyway, I really only wanted to spend the $50 but asked for a price for both and decided it was fair enough. SO glad to actually have grown from 1 dependable Echo, to now having at least 3 running Echos and the Stihl FS90AVE and Echo 2110 I hope to get running again.


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## chilipeppermaniac (May 1, 2020)

PS, I had a line on a few FS Stihls and a 2620 Pro T Echo, but knowing that the Echo came from history of landscape crew usage, I passed on it for the price and overall condition I saw in pics.


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## mexicanyella (May 20, 2020)

I had a 1990s Tanaka with a splined driveshaft in the tube for a long time and mostly used it with a newer Tanaka pole saw attachment because I didn’t like the auto-feed trimmer head. I amassed a bunch of consumer trimmers over the years by dumpster diving, basically, and would fix those for grass trimming.

Tanaka parts are kind of expensive and I had to drive an 80-mile round trip to get them, but since we had the nearly new pole saw I decided last year to get a new Tanaka. Walked into the dealer and all they had was one big bike-handled brush cutter and a light-duty homeowner-type trimmer, and they told me that since the Tanaka/Hitachi brand hoohah they were dropping that line of equipment.

Bummer! That pole saw attachment cost about $200. And Stihl and Husky use square driveshaft ends. Then one of the mechanics asked if I could bring the pole saw attachment in because it might fit the spline pattern used on Redmax trimmers. 

It worked. I now have a Redmax BCZ260TS, with a strato two-stroke engine, and it’s a screamer compared to the old Tanaka. There’s a little torx bolt on the trimmer gearbox that locates the gearbox insertion depth on the end of the drive tube, and I have stripped its hole from frequent changing back and forth from trimmer head to pole saw. I’ll have to helicoil that or drill and tap it one size bigger. But that’s my fault. It is a nice, powerful pro-grade trimmer and it cost me about $350 with an extra brush clearing blade thrown in last year. I would recommend it.


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