Weed eater question....

Anonymous Poster · Jun 9, 2003

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 · Jun 9, 2003

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 · Jun 9, 2003

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 · Jun 9, 2003

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 · Jun 9, 2003

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 · Jun 9, 2003

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 · Jun 9, 2003

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 · Jun 9, 2003

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 · Jun 10, 2003

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 · Jun 10, 2003

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

SLOBuds · Jun 10, 2003

Hey Cindi,

I've been going through the same types of weed wacker maintenance tasks recently. Against all types of wires, TPosts, hiding things deep down, water sources, etc. Those lines do break!

Here are some things I did to cut down on the breaks.

I stepped up to the largest diameter lines that the weed eater would take. It gave me a much stronger line and much less breaks immediately.

I slowed down the RPMs. This let me cut almost all of the weeds and it also kind of bounced off of the wires. Also, with the lines going slower, I was able to release the RPM faster if the line got caught around something. Then when I released the RPM I could pull away before damage was done.

I wacked the large weeds down in steps by kind of 'fanning' against them progressively. This gave me a better view of where the wire was, and let me stay farther away from those landmines.

I still broke plenty of lines. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif) After spending hours on weed wacking, my arms will get tired and I don't have the ability to control the machine as well as when fresh. Then my line breakage goes up.

MarkV · Jun 10, 2003

I've been using the line head the Mr. Dourobob linked with the octagon cutting line and have been very happy with it. I am not sure of the gage of the line and don't have the package at this house but it is red and a real hoss. You pre-cut the line to length and when you need to replace it just slips into the head. We use it around many rocks with an Echo commercial trimmer.

MarkV

smilingreen · Jun 10, 2003

Here is a device I can attach to my Stihl FS85's. Works like a charm on any length of weeds or size of weeds around fences and ditches.

Anonymous Poster · Jun 11, 2003

I guess so! Looks like one of those old....sickle thingies. I'm on my way to town this p.m., think I'll look for the stronger line first. I just bought whatever looked like it was economical when I got the other and I guess you get what you pay for. Thanks for the tips everybody.

Chief · Jun 12, 2003

Heavy weed eating I put a line trimmer head on my Stihl FS450K that uses .105 line. Even this will break if you get to aggressive with it. Like the previous post said, take it gradual, keep the rpms down to only what you need, and cut into the heavier stuff gradually. For real heavy brush I use a steel brush clearing knife blade, and a brush clearing saw blade for saplings upto 4 inches. Mind you both of these blades are EXTREMELY dangerous if you are not VERY careful. They can "kick out" (very similar to chain saw kick back) and cut an ankle or leg real fast. Try the .105 line first if your trimmer head can accomodate it. You may have to get a larger trimmer head to do this which can lead to other problems if your trimmer was not designed for the heavier load. Stihl make a good all round use trimmer that just came out called the FS 110 and the FS110 RX. They are 4 stroke, very light, and use .105 line as well as being able to accept cutter blades.

Anonymous Poster · Jun 12, 2003

Martin, I tried lowering the RPMs as you suggested and for the time being that is helping a lot. Many of our 'weeds' out here actually have wooden stems, real tuff boogers, but I can get the rest by slowing down a bit. Thanks. More permanent soultion after pay day. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

SLOBuds · Jun 12, 2003

That's good.

I bought my weed whacker over the internet, having never used one before in my life! I couldn't even figure out how to make added line feed out of the 'gadget on the end of the pole' when I first used it. (Of course, being male, I had that genetic deficiency of not wanting to speak to ANY live voice regarding directions.)

The big stuff might be able to cut also if you go slowly enough. It took me awhile to figure out that it is less work to go slowly as opposed to having to stop every 5 minutes and feed more line.

One other thing I didn't mention before: I started keeping track of the direction of the wires I was cutting around. If I was trimming around barbed wire that runs parallel to the ground, I would run the trimming string on the same plane as the wire. Of course!!! If you run that trimming wire perpendicular to the barbed wire, there is a larger chance of that string wrapping around the wire and then breaking.

I have done a lot of stuff wrong on our new 10-acre farm that we bought in January. Next year I am going to put weed killer under all of the fence lines which will clean up those areas and should save us a lot of hassles when the county folks come by asking us to remove brush!

Low RPM: it reduces string breakage, uses less gas, cuts down on noise, etc. But my arms and hands get tired after 3-5 hours of trimming. So I have a harder time keeping the RPMs consistently low. No big deal.

By the way - do you have weed-stuff ALL OVER YOU at the end of your whacking sessions? I do, head to foot ... certainly a good short story topic. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif)

fractal · Jun 13, 2003

Have you tried one of the wheeled string trimmers? I picked up a 4 hp wheeled string trimmer at sears a couple years ago for less than the price of a really good hand held trimmer. Certainly quieter (I wear hearing protection anyway), faster and easier on the back. Works pretty good on hills too. Not quite as good as a hand held trimmer for around fence poles so I find myself making one pass with the wheeled one not worrying too much about getting right up to the poles. This helps save the string on it as well. Second pass is usually with a hand held unit. It is easier to get close without breaking the string when I can see what I am doing having taken out most of the stuff around the pole on the first pass.