GardenKit

Our last incoming pallet of the year arrived at 7.15am, bringing this years sales to 1500 cans (28 pallets). But we can still get deliveries to you before Christmas if you order today. Happy Christmas to all our customers, we thank you for past your custom and look forward to being able to serve your needs in 2016. We are always happy offer advice on Aspen related issues. Barrie and Lyn.

Yes, it was working and in daily use. It only came in for a service because the guy had a couple of days off and could spare it. He had not noticed that the power was down and the thing was only revving at about 6500 revs rather than best part of 10000. He noticed the difference when it went back though!

The OP might just find a 16" mower bit slow on 1.2acres:001_smile:

Not sponsored by them, but a firm believer in the product. I almost certainly sell more Aspen than any other individual in the UK and its a very important part of my business, both sales and service. And to answer another question posted earlier, the RRP in the UK for 5 litres of Aspen 2 is £18.98 inc vat.

It does look new, but it is genuinely 2 years old and used by the full time gardener at a large property on the banks of the Exe. He estimates 40 or 50 hours use from new. If it had been on pump fuel it would be quite black, but what you see is typical of machines run on Aspen from new.

Rich, if your machines are running fine then don't mess with them, but if they have very dirty exhausts and/or are struggling to get their revs then there is a fair chance the exhaust port needs cleaning, and possible the exhaust itself. If the exhaust gases are flowing freely you will feel the sharp blast from the pipe, but if blocked the gases will feel very 'fluffy'.

The bad one has in fact had a lot of use, and a lot of fuel through it in its 2 year life. It belongs to a one man band commercial gardener and is in fact a long reach hedge cutter. The deposits are partly from the oil and partly from the fuel itself. The build ups are particularly common in machines which are seldom used on WOT (wide open throttle) in tasks such as hedge trimming and strimming round lawn edges as the exhaust gas temperature is low and also the gas velocity. Its the same deposits that block spark arrestors very quickly for the same reasons. I used to see a lot of these, but now that a late percentage of my customers are using Aspen I see nowhere near as many.

I showed an exhaust port a few weeks ago from a machine run on Aspen. I have now found a picture of another machine of a similar age and usage run on std petrol/oil mix. It may well be that the oil was of inadequate quality or excessive quantity, but the result is still quite typical on engines using a pump fuel mix and not working flat out. The clean one is of course the one on Aspen FRT.

TBH, the £650 budget will probably only pick up a Jap engine in the form of a Honda GCV, which is quite honestly no better than any Briggs and Stratton. Most of us in the trade will rate the Briggs engines above the Honda GCV. Honda GX and Kawasaki engine are however pretty good, but so are the bigger Briggs.

No prizes though!

Good guess.......in fact a perfect guess.. Correct! Well that quiz was quickly over.

Good guess........wrong!

Something just a little different on my bench today. Any ideas?

Rowena used to be a well kept secret......Hmmm

I used to sell Thomas Skidsteers around the turn of the century (the dim and distant past!) and one thing I learned is that a skiddie in good hands will far outperform any other loader in confined areas. Even I could get a fair output, but suffered a fair bit of whiplash in the process, and demolished a few walls:blushing: I reckon it would be ideal for the OP except for that step up onto the cubicle beds, that going to be difficult with a short skiddie, possible but likely to lose the load when the whole thing rocks around falling off the step.

I think you must have misread the decimal point in the 'sub £650' Seriously though, whilst £650 will buy a mower, anything in that price will be designed for domestic use rather than commercial, so don't expect too much for too long. If you require technical backup, spares backup, or both then visit your local dealer and buy a product from his chosen range. It will pay dividends in the long run.

Nice reply TGB, and one that I will try to remember in the future! But in this case I doubt it was running as well as it was when last used, the petrol was rank! But the customer was having none of that when he brought it in, insisting on the oil pump only, which is in some ways fair enough, it is his choice. Even though I had made it clear that it looked like it needed more work. The thing is that I really wanted to dive on in and sort it out, but I have done this sort of thing so many times in the past for no thanks. If I fix something I was not asked to fix, then I cant expect payment. I really don't mind going the extra mile for people that I know will happily pay, and when I know this I often don't charge them anyway for little extras. But for the guy who wants to keep his cost down and only insists on a part job then that's all he gets, otherwise he will get to know that he can pay for a repair and I will be daft enough to give him a full service. Luckily most customers ask us to do everything necessary and we can turn out work we are proud of, so its not really an issue.

I hear this from many Aspen converts Tim, I'd say its most defineately down to the absence of pump petrol.

That's part of the problem, the next thing is he is likely to be back saying "this is not running right, and you have only just serviced it"!

How I hate doing part jobs. Customer comes in last week with an 011AV which looks like it had not been used in years. "could ya just get the oiler working? everything else is fine" So I say "are you sure?, it looks like it has not been used in years" He says "absolutely nothing else, it was running fine when last used, a year or so ago, so it will be fine now" So I confirm " OK, as long as it will start I will check and repair the oiler, nothing else, but if it has not been used for a year there is a fair chance it will need a bit more work", to which he replies "NO, its running fine" Today, with the oiler repaired and tested, with the engine spluttering and exhaust stinking, the "could ya just" job is done. When the customer picks it up he says "good as new now, is it? Ready to use?" To which I reply "the oiler is good as new, the saw really needs a service and a sharpen before you can use it properly" "Oh, I need to use it, not much good to me if it does not run properly is it?" GRrrr!

Remember this? http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/general-chat/93121-winters-not-looking-so-hot.html

TBH Marko, the pick up hose does not tear easily, unless it has degraded, so I reckon yours had degraded and its a fair bet there was already a split partway down which allowed it to suck air when the fuel level dropped. I'll bet the new pipe will sort it out nicely and cheaply. Good luck.

The technical explanation for why the L screw may need tweaking a little richer. At idle the flow through the carburetor is low. Some of the fuel is evaporated and some remains liquid at the bottom of the intake pipe. Suddenly opening the throttle will give an immediate air flow increase to the cylinder. The evaporated fuel follows the air flow, but the liquid fuel takes longer to increase its speed. This means that the first second after opening the throttle, the engine will get a lot of air but very little fuel and the response is bad. This is normally compensated for by an acceleration pump in the carburetor. With alkylate fuel only 15 % is evaporated at 70°C compared to 30 % for normal fuel. This can be compensated for, by opening the “L” screw 1⁄4 turn.

Don't get too carried away with this retuning thing, in the majority of cases machines will run fine just as they are. So try them first, then only retune if needed. No different to changing from different makes of petrol really. Edit, sorry Spud, did not see your post before i posted, you have it well covered.

Jon, why not make it easy on yourself and pay it 'online' whilst sitting by the fire with a calming glass of cider? Then move on to your next adventure.