My dad just bought a new Ryobi 4-cycle weed eater.What do you think of the 4-cycles and is there anything we should know about it?It seemed like it had a lot of torque and power.Thanks!!

The 4-cycles are heavier then the 2 cycles. I like my "feather lite" brand(or something like that) with 4 cycles you have to keep them fairly level or the oil system don't work, vs. 2 cycles where you mix the oil with the gas.

The fourstroke weed eater I was looking at mixed gas/oil for lube. Bottom end had roller bearings and used fuel/oil mist.
Popular with the model airplane flyers. They take just the engine, stick a prop on and bolt it to an airplane. No need for glowplugs/batterys, will idle slow for landing or standby without stalling from a cold glow plug and it flys twice as far on a tank of cheap gas/oil mix rather than on expensive methyl alcohol/caster oil/nitromethane.

Landscaper customer of mine bought 6 of the 4 strokes this summer,at the end of the season he had 1 left running. Seems there are trap doors inside the engine to keep the oil around the crank and they weren't quite working as designed and the engines tied up. Granted, these see hard service 6-8 hours a day, but the Stihl 2 strokes he replaced with these lasted him 3 full seasons.

if it's the same 4-stroke Ryobi i bought several years ago, your best use for it would be to take the motor off and use the rest to hold up a tomato plant in the garden. the motor doesn't even make all that good of a small anchor since it isn't very heavy.

i finally bought a Stihl, and there is no comparison. when it comes to chainsaws, weed eaters and trimmers, nothing beats a Stihl.

andy b.

I'll try to let you guys know how well it works when we start using it this spring.

I bought 2 of the Stihl 4 mix weed eaters late last summer. I usually use a gallon of 2 cycle gas a week in my weed eaters, as I do a lot of weed eating. I really like the 4 mix engines. You get power without having to rev the engines at a really high rpm. The units are a tad heavier then the old 2 cycle ones. Overall, I think they are an improvement. JIM

the two cycles are lighter, there fore probably making them easyer to carry around. around here we use weed eaters to chop down thistles.

I bought a Cub Cadet 4 stroke, and love it!! Yes, slightly heavier. I did remove the spark arrestor and diverter. Don't need those. Runs well, and sounds great!! Kudos to Cub Cadet!!!!

We have a Honda HHT31S powered by the GX31 4-stroke. Before this one we had a Weed Eater™ that was gutless and died after only a couple years. I borrowed my brother's Stihl before we got the Honda and I thought it was a good machine. Dad and my brothers swear by the dependability of Stihl chain saws. We're also sold on Honda power equipment, and I wanted to try a 4-stroke.

It is a little bit heavier than a 2-stroke. This model came with the brush handlebars standard, saw-type brush blade and a manual-feed 'heavy duty' trimmer head. I'll say right now that this particular manual string head doesn't impress me. The bump'n'go head on my brother's Stihl is much better. The other manual-feed string heads I've operated were easier to use when advancing the lines. This Honda head is simple and rugged, but a bear to get string out of. The salesman said this model package is marketed toward commercial/pro landscapers and those customers said they wanted the most durable, inexpensive trimmer head. However, I also selected a 4-edge (plus sign style) weed blade, which is what I use most of the time. Hands down, this trimmer crushes the performance of the others I've run because of the torque. I chopped down some 2"-3" trees with the Honda/brush saw and it never wanted to quit. I had the same type of brush kit on our Weed Eater™ and to cut the same sort of small trees with the saw blade required nibbling at the saplings in several stages. The Honda also bogs down a lot less when facing heavy weeds.

Negatives:
The extra weight can be uncomfortable after a while.
I think the 2-strokes vanquish more weeds per tank of fuel.
It will require some extra engine maintenance at certain long intervals, i.e. check the head and change the oil, but those aren't big jobs.
The 4-strokes are more expensive than many (most?) 2-cycle trimmers.

Positives:
Doesn't requires hearing protection when running. It's very quiet and sounds a lot like a Honda ATV at full throttle.
TORQUE!
Pour gas in the tank and go back to work -- never mix up gas/oil again.
It's a Honda, so it should run like a top for many, many years to come.

If I decided I didn't want the extra weight and cost of a 4-stroke, I'd most likely go with Stihl.