Scott B

First, I love my Z6. Its the best investment I've made in a while. At the rate of innovation that EGO has demonstrated, It was only a matter of time before they delivered on a 4 wheel steering zero turn platform. Cub Cadet has already delivered on the whole steering wheel zero turn thing. And not surprisingly, Cub Cadet's steering wheel zero turn is as ugly as EGOs. I'll be blunt, this steering wheel not only looks stupid, the idea of ditching lap bars for a wheel is a non starter. Especially when compared to zero turn sticks and how well they operate for speed, direction and forward/reverse motion. Give us 4 wheel steering, yes. But do it with lap bars, not a steering wheel. Here's hoping that EGO will be porting this technology to their lap bar zero turn model. It would be the world's first lap bar zero turn with 4 wheel steering. Anyway, what do you guys speculate as to how they are controlling the front caster steering? From the pics we've seen, it doesn't appear that the casters have any external parts that are different from the current Z6. If that holds, the best guess I can come up with is that they have embedded a small, high torque DC motor into the caster fork spindle shroud and mated it directly to the caster fork. In terms of control, it would appear that each spindle motor has a potentiometer that is used to set and report its position back to the main controller circuit. The same controller circuit already reads the lap bar position in order to control the speed and direction of the rear wheels. Adding the front caster DC motors to this circuit should be trivial for the EGO engineers. I bet they have been sitting on this tech for a while. Seems like a no brainer - but ditch that ugly steering wheel! Thoughts?

Newbie Z6 owner here, I checked the user manual but couldn't find anything on this. When I'm done mowing for the day (I've cut the lawn twice so far, lol), I park the mower in my garage in such a way that I need to push it into its designated place (pic below). However, after shutting everything down, the little "gear" icon on the LCD panel keeps flashing for about 5 minutes and as long as its flashing the mower cannot be pushed and will not move. Once it stops flashing, I can freely push the mower around. Does anyone know why this happens, the purpose of this and can it be manually overridden or shut off in order to be able to push the mower freely?

I just noticed than there are 4 bolts holding the seat cushion to the metal seat shell. After removing those screws I could see how its possible to shim the seat to create a better recline angle without affecting the seat rails at all. As a first attempt, I decided to try some thick rubber washers I found at Lowes for less than $2. Adding them to the front left and right bolts holding the cushion to the shell yields about 3 degrees of incline without much effort at all. Pics follow:

My new EGO Z6 is fairly comfortable but the seat is dead flat. I'd like to try to set it up to have a little bit of a recline angle like I'm used to in my SUV - not to that extent but atleast not dead flat so I feel like I could slide forward off the seat. I've taken the seat off the base and I can see how I may be able to do it but I'm not sure how the seat slide would be affected with the offset angle. Best case would be to tilt the suspension base a tiny bit to give the seat a better angle of recline. I'm checking the teardown videos now but curious if anyone has tried anything.

Just brought a Z6 home myself. Preowned, so I'm definitely taking a chance without warranty, but I have never had an issue with any of my Ego products. Having never driven a ZTR before, Its definitely going to take some getting used to, especially on my sloped lot. I have very little flat ground, so probably not the best candidate for a ZTR but I got a killer deal from a local guy so I went for it.

Does this mean EGO has licensed away their option to produce a Reel/Cartridge based mower? That's a damn shame since this one is nearly $2K - <<< update: I was way off, apparently it cost double that!

Yes, its currently set for release in the UK any day now and coming to the US "this year" according to the EGO brand manager:

I've only ever seen it with the backpack unit. I can't say for certain but since its made for commercial users, meant for all day use, I'd say its optimized for the backpack unit.

Similar to this > https://www.allett.co.uk/mowers/homeowner-mower-range/liberty-35/

To my knowledge, you can't currently purchase a cordless electric de-thatcher in the US. Amazon has tons of electric ones though. It would seem a perfect fit for EGO's tech. There is only one cordless reel mower that I'm aware of and its an overpriced, underpowered 15 minute runtime toy (see below). One thing I'd like to see and would definitely be first in line to buy, would be an combo EGO self-propelled reel mower that has a removable blade cartridge so you could purchase additional cartridges like a plug aerator, scarifier, de-thatcher and lawn sweeper (with a collection container that throws clippings into a standard plastic trash bag). Something a bit beefier than this overpriced toy and with maybe a 30 inch cutting swath (this 15 inch is a joke for this price):

Resurrecting an old thread I contributed to a couple years ago! Ego has made some significant moves since then but we still are not seeing the full range of products available outside the US. However, they are expected here this year. The new commercial line that is, which includes a beast of a brushcutter with bike handles, a 26 amp hour backpack battery (9 hours runtime) and some crazy strong 650 CFM blowers:

If I had to guess, I'd say this: https://egopowerplus.co.uk/products/commercial Confirmed from EGO rep, these are coming to the US this year. A 26 amp hour battery that lasts 9 hours on a single charge. Charges in 3.5 hours. A bike handle brush cutter: A brush cutter attachment for power head system: A new line of commercial pro grade trimmers and brushcutters including this beast:

Initial impressions on actual usage I had a few minutes today to test the CORE trimmer out today. I only spent about 15 minutes with it in parts of my front and back yard. First I tested it on the high speed setting with some bushy privet in the back yard. Surprisingly, it did just as well as my 31cc gas powered trimmer on the privet. It was able to cut it down almost to the ground. I'm using the factory line, appears to be .080 Due to the fact that there is no noise and no vibration, the trimmer gives a false impression of its power. I'm used to my 31cc's feel and on that machine, when you rev the engine, you definitely feel like you can dig into some serious overgrowth. On this machine, you do not get the same feeling, but its just as effective. Pretty cool, but definitely something you have to experience to believe. This thing has some serious torque. Interestingly, initially is seems just as effective on the slower 5000rpm setting as on the 7000 rpm setting. The latter definitely feels and sounds faster, but the lower setting appeared to cut through things effortlessly as well. The weeds don't seem to slow it down at all. I need to experiment with some thicker line to see if there's a different feel at all. Bottom line, everything I threw at it in this small test, it handled pretty much effortlessly and the motor didn't feel hot to the touch afterwards, only slightly warm. I'm anxious to get some more time behind this to really get an overall impression of gasless power vs gas, but at first pass, I'm definitely impressed thus far.

The last few pics where you can see closeups of the male/female electrical coupling that CORE power has developed. I believe there are currently only a handful of companies currently offering attachment capability for cordless trimmers and CORE appears to be the ONLY one that is doing it without a drive cable through the shaft. it will be interesting to see what follows in this regard. Here is a unit from a EcoPro that features a removable shaft similar to the Ryobi 40v cordless system: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01D1663IC/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3B43ZE3AGB7LE&coliid=I2OKRR1EDWS0Z6

Some pics of the Trimmer body and charger....

I just received the CORE "PowerLok" 14" string trimmer I bought off Woot.com on Saturday evening. The trimmer arrived early this morning. Very surprised at the shipping speed! The battery was pretty much fully drained so its on the 3 hr charger now. I just got to spin it a few times before it quit. Its super quiet. I didn't get a chance to access power or performance but I did remove the bump head to take a look at the mechanism. I'm interested to see if its possible to attach an aftermarket brushcutter head or blade. It does appear that it would support screw on type bump head replacements, but it does not have a raised ring guide in order to hold a bare brushcutter blade.

That makes more sense now. As I recall now, the bumps in the washer were nearly perfectly symmetrical. Its interesting to see the differences between this trimmer and the one I just received that it was spawned from (the CorePower PowerLok 18v version). I'm about to post some pics of my unboxing and some closeups of the motor and head design. Definitely looks similar but minor differences in favor of the TroyBilt over the original.

Some observations I made while checking out the TB4200... Its pretty heavy. About the heaviest machine there, gas or electric. I think its specified at 14.6 pounds with battery and it definitely feels it. In comparison, a nearby display unit Husqvarna 322l 2 cycle felt like a feather. The power head cuts in a counter-clockwise direction as one might expect from a higher end straight shaft trimmer. Oddly, the Ego units spin clockwise. Not sure what that's about. Despite the weight, the trimmer does feel balanced, but you would definitely need a strap or harness for extended use. Its a beast. The handle is not quick release. There is a single bolt that connects it to the shaft. I'd prefer to see more quick release handles for when multiple people are working. For example, my son and I both share our trimmer and we have different settings we prefer. A quick release, similar to the 15" Ego brushless units that are sold outside the US would be ideal. The electronics look pretty cool. It has a high/lo speed indicator and a battery status indicator on the trigger handle and there's also a multi-stage power meter LED indicator on the back of the battery. Everything looks polished and futuristic. They just need to find a way to get the weight down. It will be interesting to see the unit in actual field use. Maybe we'll start seeing demos soon.

One of the local Lowes stores just got their first shipment of the Troy-Bilt TB4200 "Powered By Core" 40v string trimmers in stock and I stopped by today to have a closer look. I took some pics if anyone is interested in seeing a bit more of this motor design. First pic shows the TB4200 alongside a DeWalt 40v and a Kobalt 80v unit. These Kobalt units kinda seem like odd ducks to me for some reason. The Kobalt 80v unit scored dead last out of 11 cordless string trimmers in the ProTool Reviews "Best Battery Powered String Trimmer Roundup > http://www.protoolreviews.com/tools/outdoor-equipment/best-battery-powered-string-trimmer-shootout/21505/ First pic below, the Troy-Bilt TB4200 40v is in the center. Note the length is comparable to the DeWalt 40v which is about an inch longer. From the pic above, you can see the red line cartridge head on the TB4200 is really large. The top half is just a spacer ring that covers the gap between the motor and the cartridge (I'm guessing to prevent weed wrap that would occur if the gap was not covered). In the pics below, I've removed the cartridge and the spacer... The pic below shows the spacer cartridge. This is the part that attaches to the motor shaft. The motor shaft has a notched section that this fits onto that allows it to spin without touching the motor mount plate. This pic shows the other side of the cartridge spacer. The little washer goes between the plastic and the shaft. It doesn't appear to fit very well and is warped. The pic below shows the line cartridge itself. It holds about 20 feet of .095 trimmer line. Closeup of the cartridge screw hole

Thanks again Dwain. Really appreciate your insights and perspective. While I have your ear, perhaps the next time you have a chance to speak to your Ego contacts in Australia, ask them about this soft start "feature" that they speak of in their marketing material. Most reviewers ding them for this and most users want instant feedback from the trigger, not delayed power runup. But they are touting it as an intentional feature. What is the cause of it?

Yep. Pretty incredible that they can get 7000 RPM out of such a compact motor design. Really cool innovation. I'm anxious to get mine in house and try it out. They claim this motor produces 25% more torque than a 25cc 2 stroke engine! I had read a bit about the CORE technology before - it stands for Conductor Optimized Rotary Energy. Something about opposable magnets separated by a printed circular circuit board leveraging the lorentz force right hand rule. Beyond my brain how such a seemingly simple system can generate so much power. However, I suppose due to the fact that the company is so small and has no marketing budget when compared to the major players in the cordless OPE market, their stuff doesn't get reviewed much or show up in many discussions of the leading products in this category, so I left it at that - a really cool motor design. When I saw their OPE line come up on the Woot sale, for half price of what they cost on Amazon, it became pretty much a no brainer decision to give it a shot. I still need a brush cutter solution, but I may be able to get my old Ryobi 31cc running just for that for now. I'm hoping that Ego finally brings their handlebar brushcutter/trimmer to the US market soon - or at least a brushcutter head option for their 15" brushless string trimmer. That would be my choice due to their superior battery technology and speed charging system and general affordability. But who knows, if the CORE trimmer lives up to what I'm seeing in demos, I may just not need another trimmer for a while. And I can finally tame the beast that is my back yard.

Who knows? That video might have landed him the Ego job, lol. I liked his reviews with the ToolSelect channel though. He appears to be a natural at what he does. I'd bet they didn't have a problem drawing a crowd to the booth that day. The back of the shirt is clever too.

This product looks interesting. Not in its current form as the outer ring prevents it from doing anything well. I wonder if it would be possible a manufacturer to offer a similar product without the outer ring and be a universal brush cutter attachment. WeedShark http://weedsharks.com/weedshark-pro/ The second product below, is more like it for professional grade brush cutting. From the tool's performance in the demo video below, its appropriately named. Not for the timid. Mask Up!

They've been acquired by MTD. The CORE technology has been incorporated into the Troy-Bilt cordless platform. They have some impressive looking 40v OPE that are built around CORE. http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/acquisitions-poise-mtd-to-shape-future-of-outdoor-power-equipment-industry-300026985.html For $150, I'm not expecting much, but the Amazon reviews look pretty impressive. I'm sure MTD wants to liquidate as many of these non MTD branded CORE tools as possible to consolidate the brand. The Woot sale makes sense in that regard. I almost bought a second one just for security. Would have been another $89 bucks for a second power head, battery and charger. By the time I decided to do it, the sale ended. The 5 year warranty may/should be handled by MTD I would expect.

Has anyone used any of the CORE based OPE? The company that developed the motor technology is from Montana. They were acquired by MTD who has released an impressive looking line of cordless OPE for their Troy Bilt and Cub Cadet brands. Check the video below. The mower looks crazy cool..