Over the past 15 years living on the North Coast of California, I
haven worn out or destroyed close to a dozen weed wackers or brush
cutters. I have used Homelite, Weed Eater, Ryobi, Craftsman,and Dr.
All
of these worked fine when they were new although many of them had their
limitations being that they were all normal consumer models. When you
see the professionals out there that have to use these things for a
living you will see other brands like Husqvarna, Echo, Stihl,
Maruyama and Redmax.
For
the most part, consumer models are only warranted for up to 2 years by
these manufacturers. Husqvarna and Redmax do extend their warranties for
consumers but there is a catch. You have to buy their 2 stroke oil and
premix gas. You have to do this when you purchase the product and
include the receipts with your warranty registration card. That's not
necessarily a bad thing. It turns out that
all
2 stroke oil and gasoline is not the same. This is important to know.
For years I had been using the cheapest 2 stroke oil from Craftsman and
or Ace. Neither of these oils are rated and both come in a 3.2 oz.
bottle when many of the weed wackers need a mix from a 2.6 ox. bottle.
The idea behind the Craftsman and Ace size is that you can use it for
either the 50:1 mix or the 40:1 mix. The problem is getting the
measurements right. If you use the whole bottle 3.2 oz. for 1 gallon of
gas, you are at a 40:1 mix and most of these machines want a 50:1 mix.
Another
problem is the gas. These days ethanol is included with most of the gas
we buy. This is to supposedly reduce air pollution. It is also a bonus
to big agra that likes to grow acres and acres of one kind of
genetically modified corn which is manufactured into the ethanol that is
then added to our gasoline. While this does stretch the gasoline supply
in our country, it also burns hotter and goes bad faster. When gas goes
bad it gums up the carburetor and causes all sorts of problems. When
using gasoline with ethanol most manufacturers recommend using a mix no
stronger than E15 which is 15 % ethanol added to the gasoline. E10 which
is a mixture at 10% would be better. Also the octane should not be
lower than 85 in any case.
Gas
with ethanol should not be stored for longer than 30 days, so if you
are not using your equipment at a rate to use up the entire gallon of
mixed fuel, a fuel stabilizer should be added to the fuel or you can
purchase premixed fuel like TruFuel at your favorite outdoor equipment,
hardware or auto parts store. This premixed fuel comes in 1 quart jugs
and already has the perfect mix for your machine plus it has special
lubricants and stabilizers already added. It's a little more expensive
than mixing your own but if you are not going through more than a gallon
a month, it might be the best choice for your needs. Where I live we
can get unleaded gasoline at a few locations that does not contain
ethanol and if you are doing your own gas mix, I would recommend looking
for this. It is illegal to use in cars but at almost twice the price of
the gas at the pump with ethanol, it is baffling to me that anyone
would use it in their car anyway.
Had I known more
about the information above 15 years ago, my weed trimming and wacking
experiences may have been more positive. Who likes to continually yank
on the starter rope before you even start to work? Weed wacking can be
enough of a chore for most of us so unnecessary rope pulling exercises
should and can be avoided with a little knowledge about your machine.
Below
is a future project. To find the old parts car that I parked in my back
yard a couple of years ago. I can still see one of it's headlights
sticking out of the mass of blackberry brambles that have just about
strangled the poor little Samurai.
While
I now have the information to get a couple of my old weed wackers back
up an running properly, I am much more excited about the one that just
got delivered to me by
Maruyama-US.
This Japanese built trimmer is a super lightweight consumer model from
the company that still warrants their bigger models for use by
professionals.
This is a BT23L. While I could have
gotten a bigger unit to try out, I asked for something comparable with
what I had used before and a size the average home owner might purchase.
That's right, I am trying this out. Maruyama provided this little
blackberry bramble killer free of charge for me to assess and write
about. So for those of you that have followed my blog over the years,
this is my first paid endorsement. Not so much paid but heck, I got a
free weed wacker for the summer.
Based on the safety
requirements in the manual, I will probably need one of their brush
cutters to get to the old parts car as some of these blackberry brambles
are bigger in diameter than my thumb. This unit works great on smaller
blackberries but A simple trimmer isn't going to get through this
stuff. Maruyama does make brush cutters with
special attachments
for
their heads that can get this job done though. One of them looks like a
small round circular saw blade attachment. This thing looks a bit scary
but it also looks like what you need when you get into serious brush
and brambles.
We'll just see if they will let me try
one of these out later. For now I'm going with this light weight, super
charged ( lots of horse power), well balanced, consumer model weed
trimmer.
The first thing you notice when you fire it up
is the lack of shaking or excess vibration. I don't know if it's just a
lack of bearings in other models or just poor design but some of them
will shake and vibrate you so hard that you are worn out before you get
half the job done. Not this baby. It is well balanced and feels like a
precision instrument designed for extracting exactly what you want from
your yard and nothing else.
The
first time I ran out of trimmer line I went to the manual to see the
proper way to add more line. Oops, there is nothing in the manual that
shows this. Maybe Maruyama-US will add a one page supplement to the
information that comes with the trimmer that could include a couple of
simple diagrams of how this is properly done. For professionals, this
isn't a problem but for people using one of these for the first time, it
can be a bit of a challenge. I produced a short youtube video to show
you the basics of this which you can see below.
http://youtu.be/sW4Qe8OLIFQ
Just
as with any precision tool or instrument, when used properly, it just
makes the job that much easier. If you would like to use discretion in
what gets wacked and what doesn't, you need precision and this machine
delivers that along with ample power to get the job done.
So,
all in all I love this little trimmer and I think you will too. If you
follow the instructions in the manual and use a good premix fuel and
store the unit properly when not in use, I would suspect you would get
many years out of this well designed and superbly constructed machine.
Get yours
here!
Disclaimer: Maruyama-US has allowed me to use this weed trimmer at no cost to me for my opinion.
They
do not necessarily agree with or condone any of my past blogging or
opinions. In fact they may not even agree with everything that I have
shared with you up to this point on this post. I did furnish my own
fuel and will be returning the used equipment to Maruyama upon their
request this fall. I hope that they will consider allowing me to test
other quality products on my Northern California property. Specifically,
something to uncover that Samuari that has been eaten by large
blackberry brambles. Maybe something with a solid blade on it.
Either way they say they offer the industry's
longest and strongest commercial warranty at 5 years.
That means they don't make disposable stuff, they're in it for the long haul just like you and me.
Stay tuned, Maruyama says we will be hearing a lot more from them in the near future on the North Coast.
A rainbow shines over a row of portable toilets at the waste transfer station. 
Sunset in Trinidad tonight after the bulk of the rain moved through. The sun broke through on it's way to Asia to give us a fantastic show as it set against the Pacific Coast of California.
From coastal Scenic Drive just south of Trinidad the fog and spray blended into the sky just before sunset. Pilot Rock is in the distance. 
