Deck mounted weedeater

gates · Oct 12, 2005

JN4310,
Thats impressive, nothing like some home brew engineering.
I have ~3miles of vinyl 3 rail fence that is currently being maintained with hand held weed eaters. You know you did some weed eating when you go through 3 gallons of gas to trim the fence line! Your back really appreciates it as well!
For all of the above reasons I am in search of a better solution. I have looked into the tow behind 3 pt units. I need something more compact and easy to maneuver. That brought me to the Peco & 4M. Know, looking at your device, you got me thinking. I have a 175 Deere lawn tractor that I could convert. This would also not tie up the zero turn. I dont have a head unit though. I am going to look into that. Possibly purchase the head parts only.

How does your unit respond around the posts. I assume that the platic disk on top was a product of many revisions. What is the width of the cut or the lenght of string on the head.

Ron

LBrown59 · Oct 12, 2005

JN4310,
I dont have a head unit though. I am going to look into that. Possibly purchase the head parts only. 

Power the head with it's own engine and you can change it from tractor to tractor either as a tow behind or attached or back and forth from one or the other.
Have you thought of using a string trimmer head and motor and eliminating the long curved or straight shaft?

I have a plan in mind for building something like this that solves the shortcoming of having to short of a reach by using and expandable / adjustable longer arm rather that a fixed short one like this and all the other similar devices I've seen have.
It would be universal as it could be mounted to or towed by any tow or host vehicle.
You could even attach it to a FEL or back hoe bucket or MMM or most any other implement.
It could even be used as a tow behind; or as an offset towed or attached.
Like the others it would trim around things such as fences trees etc. But unlike the others it would also trim along and over ditches.

I'm not leaning towards something like a boom mower as the hydraulics required greatly limits the number of host vehicles it could be used on as well as the number of ways it could be attached and or towed.

Now if only I had a welder and could weld I'd make an attempt to implement the plan.

LBrown59 · Oct 12, 2005

( JN4310,
That looks like it would work great for me. I am looking for a trimmer for 3 rail fencing. Did you fabricate that entire asembly or did you piece meal it together. If the latter, if you do not mind, what parts did you use to build it.)
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FRONT WEED EATER

JN4310 · Oct 13, 2005

3 miles of fence!! I think I'd shoot myself first...although this thing would definately do it.

The Ariens head is 22" diameter. It uses two doubled .155" cutting strings, which gives four cutting ends. They last alot longer than the strings in the bump heads of smaller hand held units, even trimming against wooden fence posts and cutting thru fire ant hills. There is no spool, you just thread two 18" long pieces thru holes in the spindle. I carry a couple of spares in my pocket in case I need to change them. It really wouldn't be hard to make your own spindle. I used the Ariens since I already had it, but I didn't like using it on uneven ground.

The plastic disk is a sheet of HDPM plastic from a kitchen cutting board. I originally had a metal loop which deformed too easily. The plastic works very well.

My original iteration of this mounted it with its original engine off a 3 point hitch. That didn't work well at all because when you turned away from the fence, the trimmer swung into it. I am probably going to mount it to the front of my X595, but I really think the mid mount location is the easiest to use, and the visibility is great.

Good luck with your project. Let me know if there is any way I can help.

John

gates · Oct 16, 2005

Jn4310,
Is the plastic guide adjustable. What happens as the string wears down. The guide would keep the triming from being done at the preset distance because the string is shorter. Thanks for the info.

Ron

LBrown59 · Oct 16, 2005

( Jn4310,
Is the plastic guide adjustable.
 *** What happens as the string wears down. The guide would keep the triming from being done at the preset distance because the string is shorter. Thanks for the info.

Ron )

 *** I wouldn't think that would be any different than the Swisher and the other 4 commercial made fence trimmers.

JN4310 · Oct 18, 2005

The strings stick out about 1/2 inch past the plastic disk when they are new. They wear very slowly, but even when they are shorter than the edge of the disk, they still seem to trim flush against fence posts and the like. I'm not really sure why, but string wear hasn't been an issue. Maybe with four ends, they create enough wind to pull weeds away from the post??