Working with a long reach hedge trimmer

We've got this

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long reach hedge trimmer from Scr ewfix to overcome difficulties in reaching hard to access spots of our hedg e, and to replace the existing set of trimmers (whcih SWMBO had stripped th e gears on because she insists on trying to use the trimmers to get through tougher branches).

I've been really disappointed with how manoeverable it is. The shoulder st rap hitches just "up" of the switch / PSU and then part way along the tube.

This puts the switch way below the lower hinge point meaning you have to re ach beyond it to power the trimmer on. Consequently it feels like you're p ushing the trimmer "up" rather than allowing it to use the benefit of the s trap.

Have I got something wrong somewhere in my use of this, do you think? It's fine for reaching higher areas, but anything shallower than 45 degrees and it feels like you're battling to keep it stable and it wastes my arms quic kly.

It should be known I am a wimp in the arm department though.

Reply to
larkim
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larkim a écrit :

They are all surprisingly awkward to use, I have an even bigger/ much heavier two stroke powered one. It gets little use, but I ended up having to adapt the support strap.

Could you not use a normal reach one for the lower bits?

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield

I bought something similar a year or so ago. I've found it easier to ignore the shoulder strap and rock the trimmer back and forth by holding it at the grip points and treating my shoulders as the notional fulcrum point. I wear the shoulder strap to stop it falling to the ground should I accidentally drop it.

Nick

Reply to
Nick Odell

Whilst you may need to 'man up' (like our daughter who used a Stihl 2/ 'long-arm' regularly when working for a local Council ground maintenance team), those electric tools tend to have the motor at the head (making them top heavy, especially when working horizontally), compared with the petrol jobbies where the engine is at one end and just the 'action' (chainsaw, hedge trimmer, strimmer, prop of outboard motor ) at the other.

FWIW though (as she rarely uses electric tools) I'll ask her how 'they' get on with the harness for various jobs.

Cheers, T i m

p.s. We were given one of those 'Aligator / Crocodile?' safe / chainsaw things with an extension and in it's 'long' form it's very, very top heavy, to the point of being un useable for anything other than dead upright (and you might not want to be directly under something you were cutting down)!

Reply to
T i m

I have the same machine, and the same issues. I found the harness was in the wrong place.

In the end, I made the trimmer as short as possible, ie unextended it. Both ends. Suddenly, the harness was in the right place, and it was quite well balanced. Just rather short. :)

I have no idea why it has so many stars on the SF website. It's carp.

Reply to
GB

I have an electric long-reach Stihl, and the motor is at the opposite end from the cutter, and nicely balances it. It would be unusable if the motor was at the cutter end.

I never found the shoulder strap useful and quickly stopped using it.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

I have a Ryobi 4-stroke trimmer with extension. It's quite heavy, but like you, I never found the strap useful, more of an inconvenience, and soon took it off.

Reply to
Chris Hogg

I think the only time they (harnesses) are typically / regularly worn is with bigger strimmers and brushcutters.

With the blowers it goes from handheld to backpack and sprayers from backpack to quad based.

Cheers, T i m

Reply to
T i m

Alas ergonomics are not always high up the priority list on some of these tools - especially a the budget end of the market. You may be better of buying a decent full body harness of the type designed for strimmers etc, and find a way of attaching that

Reply to
John Rumm

Thanks all for replying. "Man up" is definitely sound and relevant advice!

But also good to hear I'm not the only one with such issues.

Will persevere. It's only a once every 6 months job anyway.

Reply to
larkim

It may help - general fitness makes many jobs less difficult. However I find as I get older its quite often the "easy" jobs that end up causing injury - usually stress type strains due to extended application of small to moderate forces, rather than heavy lifting etc. Makes me appreciate lighter and better designed tools!

Long reach things are quite difficult to handle at the best of times. Add to that a job that can take a fair amount of time to do and it makes it worse.

(last two daft injuries I had - one was from using a chainsaw - did 30 to 40 mins cutting logs, and managed to end up with a painful left arm as a result of the odd position you tend to hold it in supporting the saw, and then more recently knackering a shoulder by spending 30 mins up a ladder pushing a core drill at a wall!)

Which actually makes it worse - you have probably forgotten the good technique that worked last time, by the time you get to do it again ;-)

Reply to
John Rumm

Actually probably better to do it every thee months anyway as the growth won't be as strong so it will be far easier to trim.

Reply to
Mark Allread

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