Mowing ..

[.:4:.]

Ive always wanted to buy a goat. It would be like weed and feed, and mow the lawn. I would call it butthead. Problem is the squares who work for the council want permits for farm animals.

[DFB FGXR6]

Out using the Mulchmaster this morning cutting 1 weeks worth of growth. The Mulchmaster is an ideal choice for this as its not trying to slash down too much growth and means that I'm not having to empty a catcher and dispose of clippings. This is beneficial for the health of the lawn as well, with this particular property not fertilized in over 5 years!



After being gifted a new drive belt and an adjustment, the Mulchy is running strong again. My BEST mower!

[roddy1960]

Originally Posted by DFB FGXR6

I have been really enjoying using this little Victa. Whilst it's lack of cutting width and small capacity catcher are draw backs for most situations, the light weight and narrow frame make it excellent for small and intricate areas.

I have been throwing it on the back of the ute most days and using it for cutting in and getting to those tricky spots that are cumbersome for the Rover or Mulchmaster. I also really appreciate how the little 2-Stroke will power up when it hits heavy growth by itself.

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Speaking of the Mulchmaster, had to put into the local shop for repairs today. I have noticed it getting a bit slow over last few weeks and today it started popping out of top gear. I pretty sure a new belt and a retention of the pulley system will put it right. I tend to send machines in for the experts to repair than burn my own time and earning ability fixing problems.

Honestly , that's a beaut looking mower...There's something about the old girls that we remember fondly . Even better is owning one .

[DFB FGXR6]

Originally Posted by roddy1960

Honestly , that's a beaut looking mower...There's something about the old girls that we remember fondly . Even better is owning one .

Had it out again this morning. Used it to suck up a heap of Lilly Pilly hedge clippings after having blown them onto to the lawn to save time. Champion of a thing knuckled down, revved its head off and got the job done! Cant do that with one of the clean, green fancy electric mowers (said tongue in cheek).

[roddy1960]

Originally Posted by DFB FGXR6

And for all the Honda fans..............

https://powerequipment.honda.com.au/...s_in_Australia

https://www.caradvice.com.au/722008/...ars-australia/

.................. Gold Honda's for all!

OMG...So cool ..or gold actually .

My Honda experience is using a four stroke brushcutter , also a dear old Buffalo mower at work ..Very old ..still goes well .
AND

my own 1985 Honda Accord LX ..Sweet little car I bought for a grand a couple of years ago.. I take it some crazy places and it has a really sweet little carby inducted 1800 and the 5 speed manual . All I've had to do to her is a new coil and new plugs and leads after she developed a miss that got really bad really quickly . Only 185,000 kms but the bloke I bought her off said the speedo cable broke once and he didn't fix it for ages so more likely well in excess of 200 K..

I'm old enough to recall the early 70's Honda Z's..Tiny little car back when Honda was a big deal in motor bikes but look what it led to . Obviously the Accord but also the Civic , Prelude , Integra , NSX of course and others .

On bikes and gold... Gold Wing...what a unique machine ...

Top notch quality whatever they make .

[roddy1960]

Originally Posted by DFB FGXR6

And for all the Honda fans..............

https://powerequipment.honda.com.au/...s_in_Australia

https://www.caradvice.com.au/722008/...ars-australia/

.................. Gold Honda's for all!

OMG...So cool ..or gold actually . Thanks for posting ...

My Honda experience is using a four stroke brushcutter , also a dear old Buffalo mower at work ..Very old ..still goes well .
AND

my own 1985 Honda Accord LX ..Sweet little car I bought for a grand a couple of years ago.. I take it some crazy places and it has a really sweet little carby inducted 1800 and the 5 speed manual . All I've had to do to her is a new coil and new plugs and leads after she developed a miss that got really bad really quickly . Only 185,000 kms but the bloke I bought her off said the speedo cable broke once and he didn't fix it for ages so more likely well in excess of 200 K..

I'm old enough to recall the early 70's Honda Z's..Tiny little car back when Honda was a big deal in motor bikes but look what it led to . Obviously the Accord but also the Civic , Prelude , Integra , NSX of course and others .

On bikes and gold... Gold Wing...what a unique machine ...

Top notch quality whatever they make .

What about this too ...WOW.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooXGgYi4XV0 ....

[Gambit]

So I’m not one that cares much for mowing & haven’t really liked our Honda hru19m1 since we got it. Had a few issues from day one that have now been sorted but still not a fan.

So anyway, I’d been looking at a few different battery options & was liking the ego or new? Husqvarna (bloody expensive). I’d spotted the aeg 58v a while ago & today at Bunnings I had a better look.

Turns out they had a mower skin on clearance for $200 from $399 so we grabbed it. Gonna grab the line trimmer kit next week which will give us the battery & charger. Both have a free battery via redemption so will end up with 3 shortly. Find out how it goes soon enough.

Hopefully the pics aren’t too big

[383hq]

Thats a cracker deal

I looked at the AEG seriously before buying a toro super recycler
Just something about mowing the lawns using power from the sun (via solar panels) that seemed right

If I'd have seen it for $200, I'd have jumped on it too. Particularly given I was going to buy a line trimmer. (ended up with the bosch 36v) its adequate i.e does what it needs to do.

Let us know how it goes with 4" wet grass eh ? Oh, and keep your eye out on gumtree - they had a free chainsaw giveaway to kick start sales of the AEG

[Gambit]

Originally Posted by 383hq

Thats a cracker deal

I looked at the AEG seriously before buying a toro super recycler
Just something about mowing the lawns using power from the sun (via solar panels) that seemed right

If I'd have seen it for $200, I'd have jumped on it too. Particularly given I was going to buy a line trimmer. (ended up with the bosch 36v) its adequate i.e does what it needs to do.

Let us know how it goes with 4" wet grass eh ? Oh, and keep your eye out on gumtree - they had a free chainsaw giveaway to kick start sales of the AEG

I guess most of the battery trimmers these days wouldn’t be too bad depending what you’re using them for. Can’t say I’ve ever looked at the Bosch stuff

My brother in law got the line trimmer a while ago & got the free chainsaw. He said it’s great to use (both of them). I had a look at it while we were there one day & it seemed a nice bit of gear.
We’re just about to move to a new place that has a fireplace so I guess it’ll be something to keep an eye out for.

I’m guessing it shouldn’t be too bad with the side chute but if I have any dramas I’ll let ya know mate

[roddy1960]

Originally Posted by Gambit

So I’m not one that cares much for mowing & haven’t really liked our Honda hru19m1 since we got it. Had a few issues from day one that have now been sorted but still not a fan.

So anyway, I’d been looking at a few different battery options & was liking the ego or new? Husqvarna (bloody expensive). I’d spotted the aeg 58v a while ago & today at Bunnings I had a better look.

Turns out they had a mower skin on clearance for $200 from $399 so we grabbed it. Gonna grab the line trimmer kit next week which will give us the battery & charger. Both have a free battery via redemption so will end up with 3 shortly. Find out how it goes soon enough.

Hopefully the pics aren’t too big

image
image

Now , that's nice ...Looks pretty robust too .. AEG if anything like their other stuff is well made and reliable . Your thoughts after a while on how you like it all would be awesome .

I've taken a step or two down the electric battery path by buying a little Rockwell line trimmer a few months ago .Too slow of course for bigger jobs and not meant for it anyway so I use my Jonsered and Husky for that (both brushcutters) . Around tight corners and gaps like behind sheds , trees , shrubs , flower beds, latticework etc. it's great . Cost me $109 at Mitre 10 . A couple of days ago I was again in Mitre 10 to get a third battery for my Makita and saw the Rockwell bonus battery and charger kit for the princely sum of $49 so I bought that too . I get about a good 40 minutes out of the little line trimmer but for not too much I have the option of a second battery now and a back up charger . On Rockwell , it's not too bad of stuff for what you pay but with my drill / driver , jigsaw , circular saw kit and five piece combo kit that lives in the car , none have ever let me down.

With battery powered garden gear it's getting a genuine option to fuel powered and in so many ways makes great sense . The prices now too are really great aka yours .. Thanks for posting .

[.:4:.]

Had a bit of a win today. The fuel line and return line on my whipper snipper perrished a while back. Working 6 days a week fixing that wasnt high on the priority list. But yesterday i picked up some 3mm hose (it says chemical rated, maybe not fuel rated) and swapped it out. There was some finangling as there was an inline fuel filter on the fuel line. Yes it was a pain in the hole but fishing a 0.75mm cable made it simple to pull the new hose to the desired position. The 0.75 cable fitted tight in the 3mm hose. The return line was easy. So that took all of 15 minutes. My 30cc 2 stroke snipper fired right up after priming it on the choke. I was a tad bit surprised. Dont get me wrong, it ran like crap off the choke, but it did that before. So i took a punt, 1 screw i know is the idle screw. The other 2 i guess 1 is for fuel for the carb and the other is something else. Anyhow i did the good old run the thing flat stick and tuned it by ear. The little 2 stroke revs to the moon and blows enough smoke so the thing is oiled up. The road test i did make a few adjustments, but my edges got done easy, no bogging under load.

[Fed]

One week in from the last mow, it stopped growing about two weeks ago.
Probably give it another cut in about 6 weeks then nothing until September.
Will do a weed & feed when the weeds pop up in Winter.

My trusty Ozito 240 Volt mower died from a broken belt a Month ago, I was about to look for a belt when I remembered it had a 3 Year warranty so off to Bunnings and the gave me a new one.

So far I'm still loving the Ozito mains powered gear, their edger is a dual cut beast & their whipper snipper never runs out of line.

[.:4:.]

When i got home from work i did a cold start on the snipper as my dunno what im doing tune was on a warm 2 stroke. She started easier then ever. So i was happy with that. The only science behind anything i did is like 2015 subaru wrxs (yep taking a shot at the service buliten for the car my ex wife bought cheap) is with something with a total loss oil system, they dont like running lean. So thats why how it revved and the lovely blue smoke were my factors. There'd be no way id take my snipper to the local lawn mower shop. Mine is a ryobi that was gifted (brand new almost, grandpa bought it 20 years ago, hated it after 1 use and ive had it for 5 years) and the local mower guy refuses to work on them. I only know this as ive had many beers at the local with him and he tells me bend it into a boomerang and hope it never comes back.

[danzvtil]

I’ve done 2 things machinery related this week, bought a new pull starter mechanism for my GCV160 Honda, the old one wouldn’t retract, bargain at $40 and it bolted straight on.
Tonight I bought a new ozito 18v hedge trimmer for ground level work and a 5.2ah battery to add to the collection. It weighs a third of my shindaiwa which is about to end up on gumtree......

[Gambit]

Bit of an update. Only had one day use of the mower. Got the line trimmer as a kit so we have a charger now & 2 batteries. Waiting on the 3rd to turn up.

Originally got the line trimmer in town at Bunnings but when I got it home I realised it was old stock. They’ve updated them with a smaller trimmer head & have a shoulder strap now (can tell by pic on the box has the strap). Ended up swapping it for the newer model. It’s a split shaft & apparently can use the Ryobi attachments but not sure I’ll bother. Pretty basic to put together.

I thought it was well weighted & minimal to no vibration. A lot quieter than our petrol but does make noise. It’s a lil weird having the noise from the trimmer head. No heat from a motor obviously. Plenty of go in it. Has 2 power settings but I only used the lowest. Might take a bit to get used to the trigger as it stops when let go instead of the petrol still runs. Very slight delay from pulling the trigger to it starting but no big issue. Mower is the same.

The mower went great. Hadn’t t been mowed in 2 weeks at least since we’d moved in. I just stuck it on a mid level height with the mulch plug in & it cut fine. Different grass to our old place but it didn’t leave strips the way the old Honda did when mulching.
Comparing it to the Honda was completely different. With that on grass the length we had & how thick it is I’d have had to go over it with the front lifted slightly then back & cut it again. With this battery one I just push & the motor revs harder when required instead of struggling like the petrol.

Noise is a heap quieter. I could nearly mow at night if I was keen.. The battery nearly got our backyard done. Ran out with a small patch left. Probably used 1.5 batteries over the whole block which I think is 885sq metres?

Has sold me on them anyway. Have to be now as we sold the Honda so it’s our only option now. Have no excuse of can’t do it either now since it’s just a battery to plug in instead of running out of fuel lol.

Now just gonna get the chainsaw & that’ll be it for the AEG year I think. Want a small hedge trimmer but I’ll go the Makita 18v since it’s lighter & matches the other tools I have

[DFB FGXR6]

Another toy!







Picked this up last week for a good price. It's about 10 years old and in pretty good condition. I did have to replace a seized throttle cable because of a lack of use over the last 2 years. New blades and it's ready for action.

[.:4:.]

Originally Posted by DFB FGXR6

Another toy!

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Picked this up last week for a good price. It's about 10 years old and in pretty good condition. I did have to replace a seized throttle cable because of a lack of use over the last 2 years. New blades and it's ready for action.

I want that. My driveway is 55m long and the centre is grass. Edging it with the shovel i sharpened up with a grinder isnt a 2minute job making 4 passes.

[roddy1960]

Originally Posted by DFB FGXR6

Another toy!

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Picked this up last week for a good price. It's about 10 years old and in pretty good condition. I did have to replace a seized throttle cable because of a lack of use over the last 2 years. New blades and it's ready for action.

literally 'cutting edge' technology...my new toy is a combo pack Rockwell blower via 18 volt battery and it came with a 18 volt drill and charger for the princely sum of $99 from Mitre 10..

Will take it to work .(.blower that is) and use it at work for the inevitable leaf build up in autumn around some steps to the school gym that is a nightmare to sweep ..One of my workmates does the same to save lots of sweeping ..Really compact with nozzle off so it'll fit in my knapsack..

[FoxtrotGolfXray 5.0]

I used to have a petrol weedeater edger that I absolutely loved. When the cord return stuffed up, it had to go unfortunately.

Some time prior to the edger dying, I had purchased a Ryobi 18V One+ battery drill, to replace my older battery drills that had the batteries fail on them. i bought the Ryobi because of the potential versatility of having many tools all running from the same battery system. My brother in law is an upholsterer and is very hard on his battery drills, and he found that the Ryobi One+ battery drills were very hardy for the price, compared to some other industrial brands (such as Makita, Milwauke etc) that he had used previously.

Fast forward to the petrol edger failing, and I decided to get a Ryobi edger skin to replace it. After doing a little bit of research on the internet, I found that most reviews of the edger were pretty positive. Thought I'd have nothing to lose by giving it a go, so Mum ended up getting it for me as a present.

Well, to say that I am impressed is an understatement. This thing is extremely easy to use, a lot less messy and noisy than the petrol version (as you would expect), is lightweight, does a great job and does not even use up a whole 2.5Ah battery.

Worth considering if you are in the market for something along those lines.

[roddy1960]

Originally Posted by psychobimbo

I used to have a petrol weedeater edger that I absolutely loved. When the cord return stuffed up, it had to go unfortunately.

Some time prior to the edger dying, I had purchased a Ryobi 18V One+ battery drill, to replace my older battery drills that had the batteries fail on them. i bought the Ryobi because of the potential versatility of having many tools all running from the same battery system. My brother in law is an upholsterer and is very hard on his battery drills, and he found that the Ryobi One+ battery drills were very hardy for the price, compared to some other industrial brands (such as Makita, Milwauke etc) that he had used previously.

Fast forward to the petrol edger failing, and I decided to get a Ryobi edger skin to replace it. After doing a little bit of research on the internet, I found that most reviews of the edger were pretty positive. Thought I'd have nothing to lose by giving it a go, so Mum ended up getting it for me as a present.

Well, to say that I am impressed is an understatement. This thing is extremely easy to use, a lot less messy and noisy than the petrol version (as you would expect), is lightweight, does a great job and does not even use up a whole 2.5Ah battery.

Worth considering if you are in the market for something along those lines.

image

Just like I punned with DFB FGXR6's new toy ...Cutting edge tech... The closest I've come to an edger is the ones with the sharp wheel that you push with your foot..Nah...I used to use my line trimmer but yours and DFB's look like the way to go..Can't beat the purpose built too meant for the job ..An 18 V battery one sounds like a tidy unit ..

[.:4:.]

For when my whipper snipper dies properly (fixed my 2 stroke and tuned the carb good, therefore im now an expert, done it once) id deffinately consider a makita battery skin as i roll with makita stuff for work and have 5 amp batteries on the go. For the mower, i think if my victa craps its dacks (not anytime soon, its a briggs and straton unit and runs great) id still sway towards a 4 stroke. Mainly because i have a lot of grass and dumping fuel into the tank takes less time then waiting for the batteries to cool off out of sympathy and charge time. Charge time is only 15 to 30 minutes with the newer stuff, but its still down time

[roddy1960]

I fitted a 'blower' on my XR6 this morning ..Planning on 'drilling' the opposition too !!!!...

Dangerous place is Mitre 10 for me ... Bought these two in a combo pack a couple of weeks ago and with a basic charger .

I already have the line trimmer with the same 18 V battery with 2 batteries and a spare full size charger for same ..

All up for the latest two Rockwell tools was $99..

GEDC0091 by Rodney McGiveron, on Flickr...

[cupic]

Originally Posted by roddy1960

Now for something a bit different

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeSGmiiPDmQ .. Ah , those were the days and who said you couldn't buy a brand new Mustang in this country before now eh ...

As a little tacker I can remember Dad's old wind up start mower with the ratchet and lever. We had that Victa for yonks and he ended up putting a chord on it when the starter failed . It'd rev it's ring off too and throw stones for miles . it was dark green ..

Indeed had the same on ...Pure Dinosaur

[pottery beige]

small leaf over and out

[roddy1960]

Originally Posted by pottery beige

small leaf over and out

image

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What position does your dog play ? Or is this security guard work .."Not on my lawn you're not walking "

That's a beaut muttley and a very nice lawn ..

[DFB FGXR6]

Latest addition.......







Having been won over by the performance of the battery powered Stihl hedge trimmer I bought last year, I have added a blower into the mix.

Whilst petrol powered machines are still what I mostly use, I love the quietness of electric tools and that you don't smell like a muffler at the end of using them.

The BGA 56 uses the same batteries as the hedge trimmer I have, however it does seem to use up the power quicker for some reason. I would also prefer a variable speed throttle as apposed to all or nothing. Another observation with these tools is that the weight of them is mostly in the batteries, especially with the high capacity one of the two I have.

That said its great to be able to pick up the tool and just use it. No fuss.

[danzvtil]

Originally Posted by DFB FGXR6

Latest addition.......

image

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image

Having been won over by the performance of the battery powered Stihl hedge trimmer I bought last year, I have added a blower into the mix.

Whilst petrol powered machines are still what I mostly use, I love the quietness of electric tools and that you don't smell like a muffler at the end of using them.

The BGA 56 uses the same batteries as the hedge trimmer I have, however it does seem to use up the power quicker for some reason. I would also prefer a variable speed throttle as apposed to all or nothing. Another observation with these tools is that the weight of them is mostly in the batteries, especially with the high capacity one of the two I have.

That said its great to be able to pick up the tool and just use it. No fuss.

That looks great, I’d love to know how much run time you get out of it.

[roddy1960]

Originally Posted by DFB FGXR6

Latest addition.......

image

image

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Having been won over by the performance of the battery powered Stihl hedge trimmer I bought last year, I have added a blower into the mix.

Whilst petrol powered machines are still what I mostly use, I love the quietness of electric tools and that you don't smell like a muffler at the end of using them.

The BGA 56 uses the same batteries as the hedge trimmer I have, however it does seem to use up the power quicker for some reason. I would also prefer a variable speed throttle as apposed to all or nothing. Another observation with these tools is that the weight of them is mostly in the batteries, especially with the high capacity one of the two I have.

That said its great to be able to pick up the tool and just use it. No fuss.

Nice....How physically long is it ? Can't go wrong with Stihl and it proves that with Stihl , Husky and so on going into all sorts battery power equipment , there is a big market for them . Technology no doubt , not least battery life will get better and better. I know with Makita they already make a whole system you can run on one series of batteries ..

Back in the day I bought a Ryobi 14.4 V cordless drill that lasted a couple of years , only came with one battery . I ended up buying a second Ryobi 14.4V
drill but the battery was totally different . In those days not many manufacturers offered a twin battery pack either . I later bought an Icon drill that did come with two batteries (still runs okay 10 years on) and since then a more pro one , also two batteries but are not interchangeable with the previous set .

Now I've gone to Makita the LTH series will allow me to buy other skins and run on the same 18 V battery system ..Cool...Hope your new blower goes great for a long time.

[roddy1960]

Forgot to mention ...My Rockwell stuff of course . Back in spring I bought a new Makita mower and added a Rockwell line trimmer to save using my brushcutter for $109 as well . Later on , as the trimmer only came with one 18 V 2Ah battery I decided to buy the extra battery with an extra charger . Cost me $49 .

A few weeks ago I was in Mitre 10 again and eyed off my first blower . It came with a drill as well . Total cost $99 . Blower only was $69 so I spent the extra $30 to get the drill .

All run on exactly the same battery so now I have , line trimmer , blower and drill , two full size chargers , four 18V 2Ah batteries and a mini charger that came in the combo kit . All interchangeable . Probably not the greatest longevity but for $267 all up it's not a huge investment for the minor stuff I do.

Here is it all laid out on the boot of my old Honda Accord ...

SDC10031 by Rodney McGiveron, on Flickr...

[DFB FGXR6]

Originally Posted by danzvtil

That looks great, I’d love to know how much run time you get out of it.

I hesitated answering this question because it can be hard to get an accurate run time with a tool like this owing to the stop/start nature of the task at hand.

Today I used it on in a situation where I would usually use a high powered 2-stroke machine due to the volume of material to move and the size of the job.

Started out with a full charge on an AK20 (mid capacity) battery and a spare AK10 (low capacity) battery as a back up.





These images only depict half of the length of this footpath and also include gutters. The blower had not trouble lifting these damp Manchurian Pear leaves.

Lots of leaves in those bags...........


Charge level afterwards on the AK20, didn't need the AK10 .....



I find these batteries recovery somewhat after a rest, gaining an extra bar of charge after about 15 minutes. That said, when they are flat, the simply stop rather than gradually getting slower and slower like a my Makita gear does.

Charge level at the end of the day after a couple of smaller jobs moving grass clippings from pavement.......



Certainly wont be able to use this on an ''all day'' basis, but I was very surprised today by its capability.