I bought one of these 25 years ago, for our large garden in the UK, for exactly the same reason as you describe. I persevered with it for 4 days and then took it back to the shop.
Conceptually there is nothing wrong with it, but in practice it was awkward to use and manoeuvre, terrifying on a bank or if you hit a hidden boulder the whole unit would vibrate and jump and if you clipped a small stone it would fly off like a bullet. I swapped it for a brush cutter mower. A powered, walk behind open fronted lawn mower with flail-like teeth, rather than blades. Brambles went in the front and wood chipping came out the back. 3 times the price of the unit you are looking at , but did a fabulous job.
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I thought the same . But it’s not a good idea. I went for a cheap one , it blew up first run and I could not get a repair or replacement as the vendors guarantee was a sham. The machine has to be returned to Italy at my expense . I got it working after a fashion but never as intended. Get a top 4 stroke debrussier with a proper harness IMHO
We had that. We’re too old. Don’t have the strength any more.
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I was just looking at mowers for slopes and came across this which looks as if it could be helpful for your garden slope…… About us – Grator Slope Mowers
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I bought a 4 stroke strimmer and it simply wasn’t as good as any of the 2 stroke ones that I’ve owned in the past. I haven’t used it since getting a reasonably powerful electric one which is really good. And very quiet.
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Stuart has a new toy! It’s one of these -
It is very well made - the materials used are excellent, the welds are perfect and he said he cannot fault how it has been manufactured. It is sturdy and well balanced. Today he used it for the first cut of the season in one of the big paddocks - the grass was about a metre high in places! It made light work of it and the engine didn’t grunt or splutter throughout the process.
It isn’t the cheapest on the market but he would argue that it is the best you can buy in that price range. And the bonus for him is that is has a Honda GCV200 engine. Having done many hours of research it seems that we could not have bought a better machine.
So if any of you are considering purchasing one of these brushcutters, please look at the Dormak SP65H. You will not be disappointed.
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A fearsome looking steam punk machine - like something from World War I!
Could it cope with brambles?
Looks like it could cope with anything less than a tank trap or drone…
Possibly not, I was looking for something similar but I no longer need it.
Yes Sue, it definitely could cope with brambles. I deliberately ran over some to see how it went and it made short work of them. I don’t think there is anything it can’t cope with. Because the paddock was so overgrown, I had it on the highest setting and it did everything I asked of it - with ease. It suits me down to the ground (sorry about the pun!).
My plan is that because the paddocks are so overgrown I will give them a go with the Dormak first and then use my ride-on for the rest of the season. The smaller areas of grass we call the garden have already been mown - they don’t need any special treatment. - Stuart
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Thanks for the info Stuart. That’s what we’re looking for. The John Deere is very good and can cope with a surprising amount but there are areas that are very overgrown with brambles. If we get a local company in to do it for us with all their kit the price of the Dormak is basically no more than a day and a half of their time!
Hi Sue
Did you buy a debroussailleuse or have you employed a man with a machine to get rid of your overgrown areas?
And how are you getting on with your robot mower?
Hi Rachel, things are moving at a snail’s pace at the moment. The debroussailleuse is the next on the list. The robot mower is down at the cottage/gite waiting to be programmed. I’ve only just got the internet back down there so will return to the mower once our guests have arrived - I’ve got too much else to do. I think they will be quite intrigued, so am happy to do it while they are here - they’ve been before so know us well.
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Looks half Elon M’s creation and half old washing machines 
Just found this. Needless to say this summer whole months went by without needing to use the mower. I love it! It’s so sweet seeing it trundling around doing its own thing. Since it started to rain last week I’ve used it a couple of times. First cut I set at 55mm which is too high, but was a useful rough tidy up. A few days later and with more rain the grass greened up again and the weeds are growing like fury, so I took the cut down to 35mm and already it is looking better. I have four different “lawns” around the cottage and I set the mower accordingly. One of the “lawns” is where some guests park their car and where the washingline is so I take the grass down as low as possible - 20mm scalps it quite nicely. I have horse chestnuts all over a couple of the lawns and the mower goes over them easily. I do bag up the chestnuts that are still in their outer covering as they can get caught in the wheels.
It’s going so well that OH has asked me to get him one for the lawns in front of our house. He can then concentrate on the big areas in the field. Success 
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So you’ll have a ‘his’ and ‘hers’ then Sue. Glad you’re getting the most out of the robot.
Regarding the brushcutter, Stuart has used ours at various times this summer and it’s done a wonderful job in getting the brambles and really rough grass down to a level where we can use the ride-on. Most of our fields/paddocks started their life as crop fields and the ground is anything but level. The grass used to be grown for silage so it’s not exactly ‘lawn’ grass.
But with ‘his’ robot, at least you’ll know how to set it up. Good luck. Best regards Rachel 
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Are you sure you know Sue’s OH well enough to call him that?
BTW, it has taken me ages to post the above, it isn’t quite the same as the original but my answer kept migrating to the quote and the site refused to let me make an ‘empty’ post. I notice @Lily had a similar problem earlier. All this effort for such a weak piece of humour. 