Tanaka

Was curious if anyone here with a lawn care business used any Tanaka equipement, particularly their string trimmers? I remember my dad having one of their brush cutters every since I was a little boy, and he had it for about 30yrs up until he passed away. It was stubborn to get started the first time he used it every spring, but I can't remember him every doing much in the way of maintnance on it, especially using stabalizor in the fuel when storing it. But I remember him telling me how the guys at the repair shop he used, where he purchased it all those years ago would chuckle when he brought it in cause they rarely ever saw any equipment come in there that old. Anyways, I just wondered if anyone used their stuff, particularly for commercial work as I don't see them get mentioned much on any of the forums.

I think they are maybe underrated? My friend's dad had a Tanaka trimmer and loved it. It must be atleast 10-15 years old. I personnaly don't use them, because no one sells them.

I wondered if that was some of it. I can only think of two dealers near me that sell them, and both are at least 30mins from me in either direction. Seems their dealer network is lacking.

Tanaka makes a very good piece of equipment. Long lasting and great quality. Problem as you stated, not many dealers around, which means tougher time getting support if you don't live near one. They are also getting beaten in the price wars by Stihl and Echo, who also make equally good equipment.

Dealers and service centers are numerous around here. Lowes sells them as well. Hitachi is the same thing and is sold in Lowes as well. Tanaka has a warranty that is hard to beat.

That was part of my intrest in them, their consumer warranty is hard to beat. That and the history my dad had with their products. I didn't realize that the Hitachi stuff was the same thing though.

LOL.. The last post on this thread was 2015. HA.


Anywho, I just picked up a used Tanaka. After a tiny bit of external carb work, cleaning the dobbers out from around the fly wheel and a few other minors, she's running like a champ. Darn thing, according to my compression tester, had about 140lbs of compression. The cylinder looks good.
Think I'll try to flip this for $100.
I almost wanna keep it. It seems to keep of with the stihl we use around here.