"Howard Neil" hneil@REMOVE TO REPLY.co.uk wrote in message
...
Just be thankful it was not the space shuttle, I recommend Stihl as my
little pup is now up and running trouble free after a little TLC.

Chris,

"Strimmer"?, "little pup"? The FS400 is classified as a "clearing saw".

I mention this because, as you bought it second hand, you may not be aware
of its full capabilities. Although you can use it with a strimming head
and
a brushcutter head, you can also use it with a clearing saw head for the
really big stuff (felling small trees). Just to give you an idea of the
potential power, I use my FS400 with a brushcutter head almost
exclusively.
I have a number of fields with a problem with blackthorn etc at the edges.
The brushcutter head copes perfectly with blackthorn up to about 1inch in
one cut but I have cut blackthorn up to 3 or 4 inches thick with three or
four "chops". The engine does not have any problem with this sort of
abuse.
I am quite sure you will soon learn to love your FS400.

Regards

Howard Neil


Thats some power Howard, grrr grrr, I'm lovin it, lovin it, lovin it more
every day, it makes sushi out of thick scrub using the strimmer head, I have
ordered a brush cutting blade as back up in case I meet any heavy gorse
material, it purs like a kitten in idle and roars like a lion when its
cranked up, I like it so much that I am almost tempted to go out right now
at 12.45 am to give it a little run but my neighbours might go ballistic.

I probably bought the wrong one, the head I ordered has 4 points, is that
the right head for heavy material? The bloke in the shop said the head
covers all types of material that I am likely to meet, theres also a head
with 3 points and one almost like a circular saw blade which I assume is for
heavy bramble type tree material.