Anyone any comments on the available long reach hedge cutters? I currently have a fir hedge (fortunately not fast growing) which is a very square cut 3m tall and 2m wide, which I cut with a normal electric hedge trimmer whilst balancing on a step ladder (quite a stretch to do the top). Was watching a gardener with a long reach hedge trimmer doing someone's garden, and thinking to myself, that's definately the way to go. I would probably be after a mains electric one (installed outdoor sockets for cutting the hedge ages ago).
I have a similar height section of hedge, and use a trimmer on the end of a extension bar on the brush cutter. Doing the sides is easy enough - you can walk along it and reach most of it. My hedge is quite thick - about 5' probably. So I still need to use a step ladder for the top which is less than satisfactory - but I need the hedge trimmers reach to get the full depth. Using it like that is quite tiring since you are supporting and swinging a significant length of tool horizontally.
Stihl make an excellent 4stroke general purpose m/c with a long (very) 'pole' handle. Several models. It takes various attachments including a hedgecutter blade which can tilt some +90deg to - 45deg. You can cut the flat top of a >2m high just by walking along. Higher if you go for an angled top. Usual strimmer/brush cutter attachments + more.
Recommended with provisos - expensive (but quality high); weight is near the limit of what I am comfortable with for lengthy use (?5Kg); although 4 stroke it uses a 2 stroke mixture; can be more awkward to use than the normal style hedgecutter for a length of plain hedge but can deal with more awkward situations.
After reading specs, I decided to go for a Stihl HLE71K electric one. However, after contacting several of their resellers, Stihl seem to have pissed them all off so much they're all trying to push you other brands instead (Stihl won't let them sell on the Internet anymore).
Oh well, back to review specs of other makes instead.
I have been using the previous version of the longer (71 not 71K) trimmer for a few years and would not be without it. Took a bit of getting used to but it cut the time spent trimming our mixed and conifer hedging significantly. It is not happy with stuff >12mm thick so initially you may need to cut out anything of a larger size with loppers but then the trimmer will cope with the annual growth without any problems.
As the cutter bar on this and most long-reach kit is around 50cms you will not be able to reach the back of 2m wide hedge whilst standing at the base of a tall hedge.
I buy Stihl stuff from a local Stihl dealer who does not sell via the internet but who has always given me a better price than I could obtain online.
Yes, which means they have exactly the same problem. In the end, I ordered from a local stockist. However, since none of the local stokists actually stock anything, I've got to wait for it to arrive in stock.
Picked up the hedge trimmer. As to the bit about not being allowed to do mail order so the local stockists can assemble and teach you how to use the appliance, complete bollocks would be the most applicable phrase.
Assembly was reasonably straight forward, except just about every instruction was ambiguous, and with a diagram which in most cases was such a magnified view of some bit of the trimmer that it wasn't actually easy to see what bit of the trimmer you're supposed to be looking at. No picture at all of the whole thing assembled so you can see how the parts are supposed to be orientated (except for a tiny one on the front cover which is too small to see any detail).
I bought the shorter one, but even then, it's long and that takes some getting used to. After assembling on the dining room floor, I stood it up, and dinged a piece of plaster off the ceiling;-)
In use, it's a very smooth operator. Compared with my standard B&D trimmer, it's very quiet, very low vibration, and very powerful (in part due to new blades, no doubt), and much faster to use. However, it's also heavier of course, and it takes some getting used to handling the weight and length, and making it cut exactly where you want. I found myself getting out the old B&D trimmer for a few things -- the long reach can't cut close to you, and there were some places where I couldn't easily manouver it's length, and the standard B&D worked better.
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