Blower Caution!!!!!!!!!

[Seascape]

You guys have probally seen my rant aand rave about Husquavarna Backpack blowers on here. I have always praised them as best bang for the buck.

Local guy here in this little "village" i live in,,, he has a real tiny operation. You might consider him a scrub but this guy is all heart,,, nice fella w/ all the best intention. He just drew a bad card ,,,, know what i mean? But we aint paying his way!!!!!!!!!!. Get it?

Comes to me last week,,, can i use a blower? Sure,,, grab one of those. Comes back this morning w/ my blower and a brand new one of his own. (gotta love his style),,, so im standing over his truck kicking it w/ him,,, i look at the straps attached to the bottom of the back pad on his new blower,,, and theyre clipped on a plastic tab. Ya i said plastic! I wouldnt recommend this new design to anyone ,,, when the plastic wears through your screwed,,, aint anywhere back there to even tie the strap on when it breaks. I suggested he take it back first thing in the morning,,, i hated to break his heart but put my blower back in his truck.


DO NOT BUY THIS NEW DESIGN.

[Scaper-S2k]

Seascape, I just made a post in another thread asking about which models you use.



Having said that, the Stihl back packs have the plastic clips. For what it's worth, some of mine date back about 8 years, none have had clips break. One fell off the truck while driving once also. And I also recall a new guy (that lasted 2 days) take one of his back and drop it from 4' up. No problems.



So, I would still be interested in that Husky blower, even though it has the plastic clips.


Of course, I don't know if the Husky clips are the same as the Stihl ones. Just saying that they are plastic as well.

[Seascape]

Theyre molded on the black plastic that the "padding" is attached to,,, and its a punched square with about 1/4 inch of plastic on the outside edge. The plastic punch out is thin as well. Go take a look,,, maybe im over reacting. Sharp metal clip,,,scraping around in side plastic punch out,, i dont know. All my blowers are metal clips attached to metal welded rings.

The clips themselves are still metal.

[hardboiled]

I have that set up on my husqy blower and I don't like it. The straps always hangs up with the metal clip pointing to the rear. I'm not worried about the plastic wearing through but it makes it a pain to put on, having to straighten the straps and untangle that clip each time. I've been wanting to put some heavy split rings on there.

[Scaper-S2k]

Okay, I think the clips on the Stihl are actually plastic as well as what they are attatched to.

I purchased the biggest Kawasaki blower about 1.5 years ago or so. It had those metal clips that would get tangled up like harboiled mentioned. I hated the ergonomics of that Kaw and got rid of it.

I'll have to go look at those Husky's.

[RRS]

I have a Husky 165 with the plastic hole and the metal clips. It's been used heavily for three leaf seasons and daily on a mowing crew. The plastic hasn't shown any signs of breaking, but the clips do get tangled as Hardboiled mentioned. The problem could be easily avoided by putting a swivel between the clip and the plastic, but it's really not that big of a deal.

The Husky still starts on the first pull with nothing more than basic maintenance. It's nowhere near as powerful as the Redmax 8000's, but then again look at the size difference.

[Seascape]

Ya im familiar w/ that tangle your talking about,,, but its usually freed by jiggleing the bottom of the strap. Even my old ones do it ,, and theyre metal clips w/ metal rings.

[Seascape]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...ng006Small.jpg

This is the ring i am more comfortable with.

[hardboiled]

It works fine now with a 1" split ring installed on the plastic frame. With the clips attached to the rings (and after a little dehorning of the frame around the attaching hole) there's no more hanging up.

[jimslawnservice1]

Those Stihl Blowers

You know I had one that jumped off the truck and went under the trailer.... thats when I had to get new straps