Bought a petrol Ryobi brushcutter yesterday. I was under the impression that once the motor was fired up, the cutting head would spin all be it slowly If I pull the trigger and the revs go up considerably, the head will spin but as soon as I introduce it to the heavy overgrowth it stops spinning. Its not until I have it revved up to the full amount (or at least it seems that way) that it will spin and cut without problem Is this correct?
Thanks
Steven.
My strimmer does.
I use the throttle on mine more or less as switch either idle or flat out. There is a centrifugal clutch in there. Is this a new or second hand machine? Maybe that is a bit stiff, not bedded in if new, full of crud if old...
I think so. That's exactly what my Ryobi brushcutter does.
Yes, & the instructions probably say as much.
Certainly its possible to stall the head..mine did that..until I reassembled it to reduce the spaces into which nettle fibres were drawn..someone should make rope out of nettles..its extremely tough.
But you can hear it labouring..
Its probably not good to have the clutch slipping though. Maybe you have burned yours out already.
It should spin freely once the motor cuts back to idle I think. So if you rev and then stop, the head should stay spinning a while.
Check for binding everywhere esp. if you have been at the nettles.
First place I looked, nothing in there.
Thanks all. Yes it was bought brand new. The cutter cuts no problem when the throttle is near full on. I just wasn't sure if the head should be spinning as soon as it fires up. Seems like its working the way it should.
Thanks again
Steven.
Our McCulloch strimmer has a tendency when cutting longer grass to wrap a load of vegetation around the spindle at the business end and jam things up so it doesn't spin as easily. You need to take the spool off to really clean things out if this happens.
I have had 2 differing makes of petrol brush cutters. Both, when new and used a while do not spin at idle revs, I assume this is a safety device. For cutting tougher material I have a disk that can be fitted in place of the strim head, the machines behave exactly the same with those.
It's normal for them to not spin at idle, but I'm surprised you get nothing at part-throttle; it almost sounds like the throttle's not working properly (which might be down to other things - incorrect choke setting, blocked intake, incorrect fuel/oil mix etc.)
cheers
Jules
There is a clutch - so at idle it should not spin.
The Ryobi seems to need a fair amount of throttle to get it cutting well though.
Steven Campbell laid this down on his screen :
They have a centrifugal clutch at the output shaft just beneath the engine. It only starts to engage as you open the throttle, so a light throttle opening will not fully engage it and it will stop under load.
You shouldn't use any throttle setting but full and tick over.
Just checked mine (Ryobi Expand-It) & it says in big bold letters near the start of the 'Operating the Trimmer' section: 'Always operate trimmer at full throttle'.
Oddly enough I just did some strimming, and basically its dosn't really work at anything BUT full throttle. Buggers run out of nylon cord too. fun time winding more more on tomorrow, not!
I have just bought a new Stihl FS130, which is more of a semi-professional machine, with one of the new-fancgled-2-stroke-but-isn't motors on it.
Anyhow, rather peeved me to notice that Stihl now bundles the standard head with totally pointless and eco-green-coloured, "low noise" & crap 1.0mm line, that rattles around in the metal gromits... It is about as useless as spaggetti for cutting with. Breaks when you show it some dense vegetation, usually within the spool inside the head. Much cursing!
1.6mm square section line now installed and a different machine altogether, a total animal.Tim.
I have a Ryobi brushcutter.
Just to avoid missunderstanding; yours has a, basically square, cutting disc with crescent moon shaped bites out of all four sides?
This is what mine has and nothing short of jamming it against a sapling that is too thick to cut stops the full throttle rotation. At idle the centrifugal clutch drags just enough for the disc to turn unless it is resting against something.
It's very much an off or on operation and is a pain until the motor has warmed fully.
HTH
Richard
Square section line is a fantastic, but little known, tweak to such things.
Great on wet grass.
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