LIVING THE DREAM FOR A DOLLAR AN ACRE
(Page 5 of 9)
A power head on a long shaft is an excellent idea —
if it carries a quiet, clean-burning engine and offers a
variety of attachments that benefit from being handheld at
the end of a long shaft, such as a tree-trimmer or
snow-remover.
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We discovered just such a machine being made, mostly in
America, by Ryobi Outdoor Products of Chandler, Arizona.
Their Trimmer Plus features a small but powerful four-cycle
engine with a separate oil sump and low-pitched exhaust. It
runs cleanly and quietly enough to satisfy all clean-air
regulations. This unique product has been available since
1994. A new commercial line will be introduced in 1998, but
hasn't been as widely publicized as it deserves. We
discovered factory-reconditioned units being sold at a
discount at our favorite tools discounter, Harbor Freight,
of San Francisco. We ordered the reconditioned power head
and a string-trimmer attachment for $100 and change. At
Sears, we found a $30 blower attachment to get fall leaves
to the compost pile and blow dry snow off the walk We also
sent for a $109 snow blower, to remove dense snow from
small areas, direct from Ryobi. A rotary-disk garden
cultivator, hedge trimmer, and other accessories are
available at a fraction of the cost of units with dedicated
engines.
We can't think of a better suite of outdoor power tools for
someone living on a small, mobile-home-sized property
— with too much lawn and garden to do by hand, but
too little to justify a full-sized mower, tiller, and snow
blower. We found that the Ryobi four-cycle engine starts
easily, runs economically with a lean exhaust, and produces
a purr rather than a two-cycle yowl. The attachments
perform more capably than their small size would suggest,
and the whole rig can be hung in a closet. Be sure the fuel
is emptied back into your gas can and the engine is run dry
before storing indoors.
The only feature that concerned us is the most common weak
point of garden tractors, tillers, and other home-grade
power heads with multiple power-driven attachments: the
connector that joins the engine-drive and accessories.
Ryobi's split drive shaft is a long one. It makes the
connection by inserting a two-inch-long, square-edged,
hardened-steel jack on the power end into a mirror-image
sleeve on the accessory shaft. If the parts are kept
lightly greased and the connection is made as instructed,
with an extra 90° twist, the joint will be tight and
strong. They have redesigned, simplified, and strengthened
the cylindrical clamp that surrounds and secures the joint
around its outside, where the outer shaft-housings connect.
If the attachments are affixed according to the
instructions, the tools should serve for many years. If you
try to rush, and the outer housings are misaligned or the
power-shaft jack is only partly inserted into the
accessory-shaft socket, your machine, at best, could end up
in the factory reconditioning shop. You'll have your money
back, but you'll be out another modern example of
appropriate technology.
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