Weed eater question....

[Anonymous Poster]

I was weeding around the electric fence yesterday for the umpteenth time. The weeder line kept breaking. The question is, is it dangerous or potentially harmful to the weed eater to replace the line with an eight-ten inch piece of say 16 ga wire? Or is there some stronger type of line to use against johnson grass?

 

[dmccarty]

Cindi,

Depending on the weed wacker you might be able to get a
new head that uses solid plastic cutters instead of string. I
got tired of messing with string on my Stihl so I bought a new
head that uses plastic cutters. The cutters wear out but
they are much easier and faster to replace than the string.

Hope this helps...
Dan McCarty

 

[dourobob]

Hi Cindi

Check out this site - might be what you need.

I would not recommend wire - lots of safely horror stories around about pieces breaking off and being imbedded in who knows what (like an ankle or ??)

I have used the plastic cutters and they aren't bad but I prefer more width to my cuts. An older product used chains but I believe I heard about some safety lawsuits on this as well because the pin wasn't strong enough to hold the chains when it is spinning a max speed.

my $0.02 Cdn /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Bob

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Thanks for the info, I never thought about the metal breaking off and getting imbedded.....oohhh....bad idea.

I'll check out the trimmer heads mcarty and the site you recommmended douro.....thanks.

 

[popeye]

If the line in the head gets tangled it will break if it is the bump type. Depending on the size of the weedeater get bigger line, .095 or .105. I don't remember what the largest is but your weedeater may not be able to handle bigger than .105. I do think they have line up to .155. I use the .95 for shaving it gives a finer cut and not so hard on the chin and it sort of tickles my nose.
Mike

 

[Inspector507]

Too heavy of a line will over heat the drive parts.......be careful just increasing the size of the line. Ask me how I know... /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

 

[RobertN]

You can try bigger line, but as previously mentioned, don't get line too big for your machine...

I am using .105 kevlar reinforced line now. It is a bit more expensive, but it holds up better than standard line.

What size weedeater are you using? Is it a bump head string release, or how does string feed?

I also have a wet grass blade for my Husky weedeater/brush cutter. Aint seen a weed that would stand up to that yet. It plays heck on fences though...

 

[ScottAR]

Somthing else to consider is the brand of line. If your buying it at walmart or whatever it's gonna break pretty often. I use stihl "orange" line in my trimmer, even when I didn't have a stihl trimmer. Lasts much longer than the generic clear. I thought the sales guy was putting one on me until I used it.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

The weed eater itself is a gerneric thing. I have a really good one that needs a primer bubble, and I just haven't gotten around to having it fixed. Maybe that's what I need to do. The one missing the primer bubble is a big dog commercial type.

And yes I'm buying the line at walmart, some of that 'guaranteed to fit all weed eaters' stuff.

 

[dourobob]

I am interested in who makes the Kevlar reinforced line. I have used Stihl .95 and it works fine (wire fences will chew it up but I suspect that is true of all lines) I just bought some 105 line at the Makita dealers that is octagon (I think they called it "star") shaped rather than round. Price was comparable but saleman says the edges cut better than the round stuff and it last longer because there is less resistence.

Cindi, sound like the best idea is to get the "real" trimmer fixed and use high quality line.

FYI here is a recall notice for the chain trimmer heads.

Happy trimming

Bob