Need a harness for my trimmer and maybe a blade

[cobra grover]

I'm just getting into the world of decent equipment. After buying 5 acres of woods that I'm planning on building on I have purchased a Stihl farm boss and a Stihl FS90 trimmer. These are not for every day professional use I just knew I wanted something other than the throw away equipment at the big box stores.
Anyway what I'm looking for now is a harness for my trimmer. All that came with it is the cheap strap. It's not very comfortable for use any longer than 10-15 minutes. What kind of harness do you recommend and where to buy. I've been looking online and have seen Husqvarna's standard harness which is about $40-45 dollars but it does not look too impressive. Their Balance XT Pro harness looks pretty nice and is about $70. I'm open to any brand and I don't want to spend any more than necessary but I want something comfortable.

As far as blades I have been using Stihls 3 tooth blade on some heavy briars. I have been reading about some of the blades that have a turned down curve on the ends that do some mulching as well as cutting. Any others you might recommend?

Where do you buy from? Do you stick with one online retailer or do you spread your money around?

 

[Fred482]

I purchased the HD Stihl harness from my local Stihl dealer. I use it for my FS250 bicycle bar weed wacker as well as my Husky pole saw. It works great for both. Everything is adjustable, I can move the hooks & straps to suit the movement of the tool. The padding is great, I can use the tools for several hours without feeling the cutting & pinching that the old strap caused. If my trimming task is quick & easy, I still use the strap for the pole saw, because it does allow more movement & range of motion than the harness.

My older JD BP-50 backpack blower has a very nice padded harness, much the same as the Stihl, except that it's attached to the blower, so I couldn't make it useable for the other tools. It broke a strap & buckle once, so I ordered the replacement from Deere. Later, I found replacement buckle parts using an online search...

 

[ncpete]

If you have a military surplus store nearby, you may consider picking up a sling for the M60. Very adjustable, and designed to carry a 23 pound machine gun plus ammo.

That is what I had on my trimmer for quite some time. I could carry my '60 on long patrols comfortably, and when working on the yard, or doing Post Clean-up activities (Live off post, have a big storm? ignore the mess in your own neighborhood and clean up the housing areas on post, instead.) for hours on end, I barely felt the trimmer.

 

[Frank Boyer]

The Stihl padded harness works very well. I got mine with a used fs550. It works well with my Honda and fs250. Much better than the stock Honda harness.