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Thread: Totally electric commercial contractor

  1. #76
    Senior Member Scooby Steve's Avatar
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    Default Re: Totally electric commercial contractor

    Good posts Conrad would love to start using electric gear to get away from the fumes of our current gear but most of the stuff available just isn't up to commercial work at this stage. Keep us posted of any decent gear that comes up along the way, cheers.

  2. #77
    Member of forum Stump's Avatar
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    Default Re: Totally electric commercial contractor

    I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my Grandfather.....not screaming in terror like the passengers in his car!!!

  3. #78
    Senior Member BSD's Avatar
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    Default Re: Totally electric commercial contractor

    $499 USD. Up to 40 mins run time.
    Quote Originally Posted by Stump View Post

  4. #79
    Senior Member Bluey's Avatar
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    Default Re: Totally electric commercial contractor

    Quote Originally Posted by BSD View Post
    $499 USD. Up to 40 mins run time.

    Yeah but there is a little star behind that quote on their site which means probably under perfect conditions no load or something like that. How long to recharge. How expensive are the batteries and how long do they last
    Cheers

    Bluey
    Adelaide Home & Garden Solutions
    http://www.ahgs.com.au


    "Success occurs when no one is looking, failure occurs when everyone is watching."

  5. #80
    Senior Member conrad's Avatar
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    Default Re: Totally electric commercial contractor

    I think the Echo would be my choice out of the more "consumer" grade electric mowers currently available. 40 minute run time - I would bet that's pretty accurate on regularly maintained lawns. There are some head to head tests from U.S. websites/magazines that compare all those mowers if you're really interested... Google can find them for you!

    My thoughts on using something like that for a mowing contractor - you'd really need to have in-vehicle charging setup. Which could just be a very simple setup like an alternator charger so you keep charging batteries as you're driving between jobs. Better to go that way than over capitalise on batteries. They state a 1 hour recharge time from empty, so you'd just need to balance your number of batteries against your charging capacity and daily drive times etc. At a guess the batteries would be around $3-400 each. How long do they last in overall useful life? Long enough! And when you factor in that you have zero servicing costs and don't have to buy fuel etc. the math definitely works out. It's do-able, but still in early stages really. Battery technology needs the next big step to make electric outdoor equipment a properly attractive option. But it will happen - Stihl reckon that by I think 2017 or 2018 about 80% of what they sell will be electric.

    I saw a council crew doing gutter leaf cleanup in one of the upmarket Brisbane suburbs just last week - they had guys going along with handheld blowers to get leaves out of tight spots, then a truck with a big vacuum setup picking up the leaves. Interestingly the hand held blowers were Stihl electric units...

  6. #81
    Member of forum Stump's Avatar
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    Default Re: Totally electric commercial contractor

    I am about to buy the Stihl Hedgy. I note though that the American battery is lighter than what is available here. Seems Australia is the dumping ground for old stock. They have an ap200 battery wich is the equivelent to the ap180 here. The latter is almost half a kilo heavier.
    I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my Grandfather.....not screaming in terror like the passengers in his car!!!

  7. #82
    Senior Member steveo's Avatar
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    Default Re: Totally electric commercial contractor

    Quote Originally Posted by Stump View Post
    I am about to buy the Stihl Hedgy. I note though that the American battery is lighter than what is available here. Seems Australia is the dumping ground for old stock. They have an ap200 battery wich is the equivelent to the ap180 here. The latter is almost half a kilo heavier.
    My HSA86 and HLA65 are still going strong. The AP180 battery has never let me down yet. I'm still surprised by how quickly it recharges and i only have the cheapest slowest charger. The cordless arborist saw is a ripper too. Now where is my endorsement fee from Sthil? Mind you have to pick your jobs with cordless gear, still need petrol for certain jobs. If conrad is reading this, how is the Husky electric gear going? Anyone else got husky cordless tools and how do they go?

  8. #83
    Member of forum Stump's Avatar
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    Default Re: Totally electric commercial contractor

    [QUOTE=steveo;148716]My HSA86 and HLA65 are still going strong. The AP180 battery has never let me down yet. I'm still surprised by how quickly it recharges and i only have the cheapest slowest charger. The cordless arborist saw is a ripper too. Now where is my endorsement fee from Sthil? Mind you have to pick your jobs with cordless gear, still need petrol for certain jobs. If conrad is reading this, how is the Husky electric gear going? Anyone else got husky cordless tools and how do they go?[/QUOTE

    I have completed a number of hedges with my HSA86 now, and I am really impressed with its performance. I done a decent sized hedge today, around 100m long, and 3m high. I only used half of the power of the ap180. I have the quick charger, and it only took 5 minutes to recharge while I was doing the cleanup. The longer blade has made a huge difference to the finish time. I also purchased a can of the Stihl blade spray. Has a built in resin solvent and also lubes. The blades are still clean and resin free . Was about 13 bucks a can.
    I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my Grandfather.....not screaming in terror like the passengers in his car!!!

  9. #84
    Senior Member edbeek's Avatar
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    Default Re: Totally electric commercial contractor

    I'm taking a HLA65 extended hedger out for a demo tomorrow.
    Just from my limited research, I think the Husqvarna technology might be a bit more advanced, but the prices reflect that too. And Husky don't offer an extended hedger yet.

  10. #85
    Senior Member steveo's Avatar
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    Default Re: Totally electric commercial contractor

    Quote Originally Posted by edbeek View Post
    I'm taking a HLA65 extended hedger out for a demo tomorrow.
    Just from my limited research, I think the Husqvarna technology might be a bit more advanced, but the prices reflect that too. And Husky don't offer an extended hedger yet.
    Do you have the HSA86? I don't think there is much to them as far as technology goes. What you want is something reliable and does a reasonable job. I mostly use the HSA86. Being lighter than a petrol equivalent you can reach higher with it and reach further out with it. A tripod ladder and a HSA86 would cover most situations. As a result my HLA65 does not get used as much as my old makita petrol hedger attachment used too. The HLA65 could be better balanced and I don't like the way you adjust the angle of the head either but it makes up for it with lightness. It becomes a better tool if used alongside the HSA86 if that makes sense. If you owned just the HLA65 it is harder to justify. Being able to pull that battery out of the hand held hedger then whack it in either the extension hedger or the arborist chainsaw or the pole saw is pretty neat.

  11. #86
    Senior Member edbeek's Avatar
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    Default Re: Totally electric commercial contractor

    No Steveo, at present I only have the Kombi attachment and a HS45. The kombi is a better hedger so I use it on 90% of jobs- tall or short. I think I'd get more use out of the HLA65 but no doubt, if it works ok, I'd get the HSA86 later on.(or maybe the Husky)
    Do you know if the HLA65 and the HSA86 have the same motor?

  12. #87
    MEMBER Fred's mowing's Avatar
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    Default Re: Totally electric commercial contractor

    Im still hoping they will be a viable option.
    Not prepared to fork out yet, if they have confidence in their product, they'll allow me to test it out, Id be quite willing to hire it off them for a day.
    When you see them in hire yards, I reckon they've come of age!
    Cheers Fred.

  13. #88
    Senior Member steveo's Avatar
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    Default Re: Totally electric commercial contractor

    Quote Originally Posted by edbeek View Post
    No Steveo, at present I only have the Kombi attachment and a HS45. The kombi is a better hedger so I use it on 90% of jobs- tall or short. I think I'd get more use out of the HLA65 but no doubt, if it works ok, I'd get the HSA86 later on.(or maybe the Husky)
    Do you know if the HLA65 and the HSA86 have the same motor?
    Not sure if they have the same motor but its likely. There is no gearbox in the HLA65, the motor is mounted in a similar fashion to the HSA86 and they both feel the same power wise. If you already have an extension hedger on the kombi and you like it I'd suggest trying sussing out the hsa86 first if you can and use it as a replacement for the hs45 but depends on the reason you want it for.
    I think it is more viable if you go either husky or sthil because there is a fair bit to shell out for the battery and the charger if you buy both.

  14. #89
    Senior Member steveo's Avatar
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    Default Re: Totally electric commercial contractor

    Quote Originally Posted by Fred's mowing View Post
    Im still hoping they will be a viable option.
    Not prepared to fork out yet, if they have confidence in their product, they'll allow me to test it out, Id be quite willing to hire it off them for a day.
    When you see them in hire yards, I reckon they've come of age!
    Cheers Fred.
    For me the cordless hedgers and the little arborist saw are definetly viable. My petrol hedger has not been touched since I bought electric. There is still a need for the petrol chainsaws for bigger stuff/firewood though and don't even think about the whippies. I don't have it but I reckon the sthil cordless pole pruner would be viable to. Only reason i don't have it is that I already forked out on a petrol one. Mind you I'm on my own, if you have employees it might be a different story as the tools would get used a lot more. Also I'm a bit more confident I know I have petrol tools at home to back me up if needed but petrol machines need backups also. The hire places would be a bit worried hiring out the cordless arborist saw. It is extremely light and quite with no on off switch. It looks and feels like a kids toy but it does the job nicely. Same with the cordless hedgers. at least with petrol you need to have some feel for the machine and the starting procedure and noise can weed out the people likely to injure themselves but with cordless someone could get overconfident and cut an artery with them. Not saying that this is the reason they are not hired.

  15. #90
    Senior Member edbeek's Avatar
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    Default Re: Totally electric commercial contractor

    Pretty lucky here as the shop owner has most of the cordless tools himself and is happy to let me demo any of them. With any luck he might bring in the handheld hedger as well as the extended one tomorrow.

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