Brushcutters

[oldclaypaws]

Not sure how with the strengthening of the £ versus the Euro Husqvarna can explain a general increase in prices, but thats what seems to have happened over the last few months. When I got mine from Willetts they price matched or beat Radmore and Tucker by a few quid, but Radmores price is now £420, an increase of some £30. FRJones are always very keen on price, and they are also showing £420.

Willetts were very helpful and will pricematch, so I'd use the world of power price as a benchmark and either get it from them or Willetts. I liked Willetts service.

If its any consolation, I reckon its a great value brushcutter and you'd have to pay £500+ to get anything else near it.

[smojo]

Not sure how with the strengthening of the £ versus the Euro Husqvarna can explain a general increase in prices, but thats what seems to have happened over the last few months. When I got mine from Willetts they price matched or beat Radmore and Tucker by a few quid, but Radmores price is now £420, an increase of some £30. FRJones are always very keen on price, and they are also showing £420.

Willetts were very helpful and will pricematch, so I'd use the world of power price as a benchmark and either get it from them or Willetts. I liked Willetts service.

If its any consolation, I reckon its a great value brushcutter and you'd have to pay £500+ to get anything else near it.

Did you get anything else from them at the same time - oils, face mask PPE etc?

I was going to wait till autumn/winter to start shredding so I can see what' beneath. I've cut a few paths by hand but I'm fired up now and there's so much to do. I can start on some easy bits where I know there's nothing lurking underneath.

[oldclaypaws]

Did you get anything else from them at the same time - oils, face mask PPE etc?

I already had all that, but heartily recommend a mulching blade, 25mm centre hole.

http://www.thegreenreaper.co.uk/Parts/Brush_Cutter_Blades__and_Spools/Brush_Cutter_Blades/garden-power-mulching-300mm-brush-cutter-blade.html?cm_mmc=ShoppingSite-_-GoogleShop-_-null-_-null&gclid=Cj0KEQjwgryfBRDn7cvY-pOit4cBEiQAB3nTbr_H_qRPWoCeYDvqcByajto1vfHeHEg8cA2juQcyTa0aAlHI8P8HAQ

If you started now, and used the technique of higher to lower sweeps, once you've vapourised the leaves on the top, you'll see whats underneath anyway. Any saplings should be pushing above the brambles, other plants will be on the ground. Most stuff will come back anyway, brambles included. An advantage of doing it now is the brambles would start to regrow with fresh green shoots, so you could see where the roots are and pull them. If it looks a bit bare after brushcutting, don't be guilty, give it another few months and loads of new stuff will be coming up, and if you did it now you've get loads of spring flowers. If you expose a young 1" sapling like an Ash, worth putting a tree guard round it to keep off the deer. They strip the bark off the bottom 3 ft. Wear a mask /ear defenders, and take bottled water, its hot work. Bet once you've started you won't be able to stop, give you a week and you'll have cleared down the side of the M1 to Watford.

[smojo]

Ta. The nice thing about doing the paths by hand so far, is I have a pretty good idea of what's growing around that area so can take care to avoid shredding those. There are deer about. Haven't seen them myself but seen the nibbled elder shoots and bark in my patch so yes, looking for some tree guards too. Found a few old spare ones to get me started.

[smojo]

Been comparing models on husky site and the 525 RX and RXT seem to have good attributes, a few features that the 143 R11 doesn't have - auto return stop switch (not a big dea), low vibe dampers and balance 55 ergonomic harness (big pluses in my book) and it's cheaper. The downside is that it is lower powered at 25.4cc and 1kW as opposed to 41.5 and 1.5kW.

So the questions now are whether the lower power is sufficient for my useage and would it take the mulching blade for brambles.

[oldclaypaws]

A 25cc motor is quite small, probably designed for occasional garden use, not long term use on large rough areas like what you av, and not up to a mulching blade. Husky mention its for use on grass. You don't need girly switches and fancy ergo harnesses for brambles and mulching blades, you need raw grunt and rugged design. You're murdering acres of b****d woody thick brambles, not trimming daisies on the patio.

Smaller cc models often have flexible driveshafts and aren't designed to do large areas and stand the sort of abuse a woodland owner will chuck at it. Hit a branch and a flexible shaft will snap. I did lots of research, talked to the distributors like Radmores (very helpful) and was told you need a fixed shaft and at least 40cc's. The 143 RII is the best option I found, not the only one, but good value for the spec and up to the job. Why not ask a leading distributor of both chainsaws and brushcutters and they can answer all your questions backed up by years of experience and technical knowledge. Its what they do.

http://www.radmoretucker.co.uk/

[Dexter's Shed]

take my advice smojo and get a decent chinese import, 52cc of raw power still going strong, so good I bought two,

http://youtu.be/q4NcvGFs7-E


https://www.facebook.com/37821346886112 ... =1&theater

[oldclaypaws]

My Chinky has now been recycled into something more useful, like dogfood tins, after a 'life' of about three hours. I suspect Dexter really works for the Peoples Republic's Product Propaganda Ministry.

You've perhaps been unusually lucky in your cheap Chinky purchases Dexteratty, each to his own, in my case once bitten, twice shy. OK, half the worlds stuff is now made in downtown Shanghai, including this very reliable laptop, but when it comes to powerful machines which can fall apart and cause major injuries, critical quality components aren't worth compromising on and an awful lot of cheap imports seem to be deemed 'unsafe' by Trading Standards with basic problems. Its a big current issue.

Have we had this discussion before?

[Daniel]

Shall we start a 143 RII Owners group?

I too own a Husqvarna 143 RII, all I have to compare it to is the Honda brush cutter that my folks use. The plastics and finish feel a little cheap, though I notice it says 'Made in PRC' so it appears that although I bought a borderline professional brushcutter, this wasn't reason enough for Husqvarna to go to the expense of manufacturing it in Sweden.

If I buy any more Husqvarna products in future, I'll go to the effort to make sure I know where the items are made before I go through with a purchase.

[davetb]

Aargh,
Finally will have to through the flail chain away.
It's disintegrating in the centre.
Starting to sound 'dangerous', vibrating and grinds.
I've had it 6 or 7 years and it's been fab on brambles / bracken.
I need to find something else, now....