Over wintering petrol garden tools advice sought
 

Hello,

We have both a 4 stroke ride-on mower, and. 2 stroke combination strimmer and hedge trimmer.

What is the best thing to do with them before they are left over winter.

Drain fuel, then run until they stop? Is there any else that can be done to help?

Best regards,

Mark

Over wintering petrol garden tools advice sought
 

Mark Heptonstal wrote:
Hello,

We have both a 4 stroke ride-on mower, and. 2 stroke combination
strimmer and hedge trimmer.

What is the best thing to do with them before they are left over
winter.

Drain fuel, then run until they stop? Is there any else that can be
done to help?


Drain them, then run them as dry as possible, using the choke or primer to get
that last few gasps of fuel burned as the fuel runs out. Then crank them a few
extra times just to be sure.

Over wintering petrol garden tools advice sought
 

On 10/20/2012 6:05 PM, Bob F wrote:
Mark Heptonstal wrote:
Hello,

We have both a 4 stroke ride-on mower, and. 2 stroke combination
strimmer and hedge trimmer.

What is the best thing to do with them before they are left over
winter.

Drain fuel, then run until they stop? Is there any else that can be
done to help?


Drain them, then run them as dry as possible, using the choke or primer to get
that last few gasps of fuel burned as the fuel runs out. Then crank them a few
extra times just to be sure.



That would be my advice too. Sometimes you can add stabilizer to the
fuel or do nothing but I find best to run dry. I have a snow thrower
that says either or but leaving fuel in caused a trip to the shop. A
mechanic I know says sometimes evaporation in the carburetor may gum it
up.

My Honda mower has a shut off valve on the fuel tank which allows me to
just turn it off and run dry. All manufacturers should do this.

Some people will remove the spark plug and add a little oil to the
cylinder and crank to keep protected with a film of oil.

Over wintering petrol garden tools advice sought
 

On Saturday, October 20, 2012 10:05:18 AM UTC-6, Mark Heptonstal wrote:
Hello,



We have both a 4 stroke ride-on mower, and. 2 stroke combination

strimmer and hedge trimmer.



What is the best thing to do with them before they are left over

winter.



Drain fuel, then run until they stop? Is there any else that can be

done to help?



Best regards,



Mark


This is more important for the 4 stroke engines. The two stoke have some oil coating the parts. Definitely run the 4 stroke dry of fuel. I had the valve stick on my snow blower because of not running it dry. Not a huge fix, but a pain either way. Run the engine dry and then crank it several times to clear the air.

Dale