Battery Power for Lawn equipment -- is it time?

hey jerry yes its scary as hell lol......but sometimes scarier hiring someone find out there a lunatic and then watch them rope themselves up a 60 foot high tree.

I have alot of experience though. I also have alot of experience hiring lunatics.

have you ever watched Buckin' Billy Ray on youtube? He's a trip and a real expert on cutting tree's. he cuts down monsters. Very entertaining at least to me. I learned alot from his video's he's up in Canada and it is beautiful up there, Nothing but fir tree's by him. Cedar.

Best chainsaw sharpening video:

 

My father-in-law had a side business sharpening chains. He died about 10 years ago, but when we lived in Ohio we were about 75 miles apart. When we went to their house for a weekend, I usually spent part of a day helping him cut firewood. The property has about 20 acres of hardwoods. And sometimes bring home a trailer load for my stove. Good friendship-building times.

 

That sounds like alot of fun Jerry. Good memories.

 

Speaking of fire wood my neighbors new boy friend really likes fires.

He does not know what seasoned firewood means. He brings home fresh cut green logs splits them with a hatchet then throws them on a fire doused with lighter fluid in the back yard.

They sit in front of this really stinky smoke bomb for hours at night. Man does it stink. Florida neighbors right Jerry lol...

I looked up firewood on facebook and Craigslist and the going rate for seasoned firewood around here is $20 for a full wheelbarrow.

 

Exactly!

A few weeks ago, we were smelling smoke sometime after supper. I went out front and didn't see see or smell anything. I hunted all over the house and it was the same slight smell everywhere. Not super strong, but enough to be a little irritating and a lot concerning. I eventually decided it must be from outside even though I couldn't see it.

We went to bed. I couldn't sleep. I got back up after a while and went to the garage, got a ladder, and poked my head up the scuttle hole into the attic. It smelled the same there but, again, nothing visible. It was getting close to midnight and the smell was dissipating, so I finally got some sleep.

The next morning, I was out for my walk and bumped into the neighbor who lives behind the guy next door to us. She asked if I had smelled smoke the previous night. She said the guy behind her and next to us was burning something in his back yard. It was driving them nuts.

When I got home, I looked between our house and the one next door and there was a gray cloud of smoke coming from a fire pit in the guy's back yard, hugging the ground and climbing up and over the 6' wooden fence between our yards, and then rolling through my back yard.

A couple things in his defense. First, he was dealing with a massive cleanup. He'd just bought the place, a former rental, and the two tenants before him had let the back yard return to near jungle conditions. And being young and having lived in the country without close neighbors before moving here, he didn't realize how much the smoke would bother people. When I told him how close I was to calling 911, he was shocked. He apologized all over the place and promised to not do that again. He's actually the best neighbor we've had in that house for the last several years.

 

I feel your pain.....

I have a big back yard all fenced in and every time there's a fire next door the smoke fills my yard gets trapped in there and then gets into my garage too. I forgot the best part of my neighbor dude. In order for him to split the green logs he was swinging a hatchet into the log then lifting the log over his head and one hand holding the hatchet was smashing in down on the ground in hopes the little hatchet split the log.
So for a few days we had to listen to really loud boom boom boom like incoming artillery. I finally told him to knock that off.....he was doing this at night too. Just idiots.

Its a zero lot line life. In Clearwater you cant have any fire within 500 feet of a structure much less burn trash but nobody now seems to give a sh*t about anyone else.

 

The standard where I grew up as to debris burning:

Ah, I edited out the details. They were illegal, very, very dangerous and horrible for the environment.

But, yes, stack debris, toss on a fusee and grab a book and a beer and watch it burn with a fully charged water hose, shovel and fire extinguisher at your side.

It might be smokey, but closest neighbor was at least a third of a mile away.
kris

 

We have had a burn ban here for a couple weeks. We're classified as "severe." Only ones worse are "extreme" and "exceptional."

 

Yeah sure has been dry here…quite a drought this year….we were teased we may get rain today but nope

Could be worse I guess Fort Lauderdale got a 1 in 1000 years rain yesterday dropped 26 inches of rain in one 8 hour period. 26 inches. Pictures of hundreds of cars swamped. Soon to be the new norm I’m afraid.

If only we were warned about global warming if only we were warned….

 

The evening news showed some unusual rain recently in Florida. It skipped you?

Bob Wilson

 

We have had a burn ban here for a couple decades, as part of air quality control in the urban growth area. Our first year here, I did get a burn permit for some yard and orchard waste and construction debris not fully cleaned up by the previous owner / builder. That is no longer possible.

Campfires and barbecues are still allowed, when no fire safety or air quality restrictions are in effect.

You must have lived closer to town than me. Our closest neighbor was 3/4ths of a mile away and hidden behind a ridge. Next closest, over a mile though visible. The horribly smokey wood furnace didn't bother dad, other than the hassle of needing to drop a weighted chain down the chimney about every other day during prime heating season to prevent chimney fires or creosote blockages. But the rest of us suffered. At least no neighbors were close enough to also suffer.

For brush clearing, the only standard back then was to not start a forest fire. Dad came astoundingly close on that a couple times.

 

We got a thunderstorm like that about 10-15 years ago when we lived in Roatan. It was impressive. Not as impressive as the ten feet that hurricane Mitch dumped on mainland Honduras in 1998. Wiped out pretty nearly every bridge in the country.

It spit a few drops that day while I was out for a walk. Not enough to get anything wet. The east and west coasts tend to have almost the opposite weather when it comes to rain.

 

The rain lately has been really teasing us. It shows huge amount of rain 25 miles out in the Gulf headed our way. By the time it reaches us it just evaporates into nothing. Very very dry here right now.

Going to be a wicked active Hurricane season In Florida I'm afraid but we have nothing to worry about here as I am completely ready lol.... The more prepared I am the less chance of a hurricane in my county lol....

We just visited some friends in Punta Gorda. Still alot of blue tarps on the roofs and big piles of debris here and there. They got there butts kicked with Ian. But I think I'll take a hurricane over a tornado any day. We never ever see tornado's around me.

My little doggy was an Alabama hurricane refugee. About 12 years ago Alabama got hit really hard many people died. The local Humane Society went up there and brought back 50 dogs from that area. We were on the hunt for a doggie and walked into there kennel about 15 minutes after they brought him in. Sold. He's still freaked out by storms 12 years later. We can tell if a storm is coming he gets up and goes into his little storm shelter under my desk. Fantastic dog half jack half chihuahua.

Here he is behind the wheel of his car:

 

I've finally given up on my DeWalt 40v electric weed whacker. It'll get a cheap price at the neighborhood yard sale.

I ordered a Greenworks 40v replacement earlier today. We already have a fleet of batteries and chargers that fit. Amazon had them going for about $125 which was about $60 less than the last time I looked.

It's the kind with the motor in the top end like a gas rig, with a flexible cable drive that allows for interchangeable tool heads at the bottom. In theory I can convert it to a polesaw or a hedge chopper.

The DeWalt had lovely balance and power, but the bump-feed system wasn't great and they eventually disavowed the design.

Meanwhile our Greenworks tools have been fantastic, some of them now 7 years old.

 

So much for my less than 3 years old cheap Harbor Freight Portland power washer. It started leaking from the nozzle. I probably left water still in the hose and let it sit in the freezing storage winter long. I thought I could use the hose and nozzle from my 15+ years old Ridgid powerwasher, but it didn't fit.



Well, the Ridgid gas power washer still had gas in the tank... more than 10 years old regular 10% ethanol-containing gas, that is. Still, the Subaru engine started after a few pulls. No problem running duration of time to finish underbody wash on our car. Nice to have 3000psi, 2.6gpm power at my disposal compared to Portland electric washer with a puny 1750psi, 1.3gpm motor. Unless I can find a more rigid and powerful electric power washer for a similar price as I paid for this gas power washer, I may have to stick with the old gasser for now.

 

picked up an ego 21" self propelled mower at our local garden center a couple weeks ago and sold the toro gas powered mower because i can no longer pull the starter.
very happy with the ego so far

 

So, you're letting your ego get the better of you?

 

My Toro power head gave up the ghost (won't start) so I:

1. Bought a Makita 36V power head with 2 5 AH batteries and their string trimmer attachment It did well
2. Bought a corded SunJoe 13.5 amp tiller to replace the trimmer attachment for the Toro. My garden is now tilled.
3. I am back using my B&D corded trimmer as my Trimmer attachment for the Toro is unavailable now.

JeffD

 

As much as I hate to agree with Bisco....

I also have issues with starting gas equipment, thanks to an impaired driver.

So, love the electric power. Much love for easy start electric.
Kris