strimmer heads

[richard p]

whats the best type of head to use on a petrol strimmer for a mix of tall grass, nettles and coarse weeds with the odd bramble.

most strimmers come with a twin line head thats supposed to feed line out when it bumps the ground... they seem to hardly ever work, the string tangles itself , they are a pig to reassemble with wet hands... and the screw on knob that holds it all together is too small to grip easily.
the old manual feed heads seem to work but you have to stop to feed out new wire . but probably less frustrating to use than the bump head.
cut line heads that take a short length of string.... fine in theory but you end op throwing away a foot of string for every 2 inches you actually wear away..
metal blades... i just dont like the idea of an essentially ungarded metal blede whizzing round near stones or whatever.
ive seen a head that takes 3 small plastic blades... are these any good?

at the moment im undecided as to whether to buy one of the old manual feed string heads which i know will work within its design limits, or to try one of the plastic blade heads.

[Geoff]

I'm afraid I haven't got an answer for you. I share your frustration with under performing strimmers. I nearly binned mine last week as it wouldn't rev properly and jammed even more often than usual, which I put down in part to the poor speed. I re-read the other thread about 2-strokes and gave the exhaust area a good clean, got the speed back and reduced the number of times it got so wrapped up with grass it almost stopped. That still left me with the non-feeding bump feed that you are struggling with. Mine is a cheap Homelite with a head that is barely fit for purpose, I complained and asked if it was possible to retro-fit a better one and they sent me an foc replacement the same as, and as bad as, the original!
I have wondered if the heads on more expensive models like Stihl or, even more interestingly, the 4-stroke Hondas work any better. Any experience anybody?
The thought has crossed my mind to see if the fixings are the same for some of these other models and fit a better head to my cheap engine and shaft. Again, any thoughts?
I have used the metal disk for brambles and rushes but it is a bit slow and dangerous for grass between trees and bushes.

[John]

Hello RP
I have a medium sized Stihl and for the tougher stuff will use the head that takes 3 plastic blades. These work very well and last a long time. The only problem with them is that if you hit something solid they are likely to snap. So near walls and so on I switch to a line head.
I do have some metal blades but am wary of using them. They pretty well destroy anything and everything and if you accidently hit something hard the machine kicks sideways very violently.

John

[robo]

hi, in spain I have a stihl strimmer, this year our field was near 6 feet high with every type of weed you could think of some 40mm thick near the ground and as hard as timber, I have the usual strimmer wire and a metal blade the wire was useless every 2 minutes I had to pull more out of the head the blade worked well but slow and as I have 4 and a half acres to do it was taking to long, I was talking to one of the locals who put me onto a head designed to take 3.5mm plastic rope (for want of a better word) what a difference I use to change the plastic twice a day its cut into 25 c.m. lengths and fits in a X shape and held in with a wide bolt tightened down with an Allan key, I don't know if they are available in this country as I don't need a strimmer for our lawn apart from a small lecy one but any body with a decent lathe could make one

[FelixLeiter]

I have wondered if the heads on more expensive models like Stihl or, even more interestingly, the 4-stroke Hondas work any better. Any experience anybody?

I own a large Stihl, with cowhorn handles and bump feed. The head works really well, seldom jamming and with a big capacity, so it rarely needs reloading. I use twine with a diamond-shaped section, which copes with more fibrous weeds such as nettles. I've also used a Honda four-stroke. It's super quiet, for which everyone is grateful, and has a fair bit of torque.

[Ricard with an H]

Hi Richard.

I know exactly what you need but the head that I recommend will need a fairly powerful engine.

It's the type of head already recommended by robo and you need to use a new type of heavy line that doesn't break. I doubt you'll find this kit in DIY stores.

The line I refer to is black and has a sort-of saw-tooth finish, the head I refer to has holes for either one or two pieces and up to four pieces, it has a screw-down collar and is made by Portek, the line is also by Portek.

I tried the blade type by Portek, it didn't last five minutes and they didn't replace it under warranty.

I don't think anything less than a 40cc engine will cope with this excellent Portek head, it's a good investment if you have the engine size. I ended up buying two machines because I didn't want to have the weight of the big brushcutter for the normal domestic grasses.

I use 25cc for grasses and 48cc for the sort of stuff you're dealing with.

[Geoff]

So who makes the best head for standard string, I'm currently using 2.4mm, for reliable bump feeding and not jamming?

[Ricard with an H]

The best I had is the Kawasaki standard but thats not to say other quality heads aren't as good. Just avoid cheap ones, they don't work and/or keep breaking the lines because the bush where the line comes out of the head isn't properly engineered.

I have included a photo of the Portek head i've used for ten years. I suppose it may work on a lighter machine if you only use one length of cutting cord.

I've just done half an hour on some heavy green stuff with what you see in the photo, the going was tough for a 48cc quality machine. Portek say their head will work with machines over and including 18cc. I say rubbish. They are just trying to widen the market for what is an excellent product, it's typical USA marketing and you'll get a blank from the distributer/wholesalers is you wreck your machine.

[richard p]

i "found" 9 large blackcurrent bushes amongst waist high grass and nettles yesterday using the metal blade on my 30cc ryobi... it does the job , but is relitavly slow cos of the small diameter.
ive tried a cut line head in the past, maybe i was using cheap line but i found once an inch has quickly worn off the end youre down to reduced diameter and reduced tip speed so it dont cut as wide or as well.
think ive found the problem with the latest bump head... the direction arrow for winding the line on is the wrong way round....hence it worked ok from new with the preloaded string but has been useless since.....the cap clips on with two lugs rather than a tiny center knob so it may be worth persevering with

i guess when youre only paying 80 odd quid for a strimmer corners are cut somewhere..an extra 20 for a plastic blade head might be a good investment.
whatever if using string on anything other than lawn edging its got to be a premium brand string , the cheap unbranded stuff off fleabay aint worth having.

[Ricard with an H]

its got to be a premium brand string , the cheap unbranded stuff off fleabay aint worth having.

I ran the gauntlet of cheap tools until we moved here and I realised I needed professional tools. The line i'm using wears about half an inch after an hour if i'm cutting green stuff, if theres any brown/hard stuff it breaks and the best is that black saw-tooth stuff I referred to, It's expensive but it doesn't break nor wear unless you start hitting stone.

For ordinary grass I use 2.4 on a bump feed driven by the 25cc machine, the 25cc machine and 2.4 won't cut what I dealt with this morning using that yellow 4mm on the 48cc.

[robo]

the Portek head is similar to what I have in spain but mine is all aluminum, I use it with 3.5mm plastic its brilliant when the going is tough

[Geoff]

Went searching for Portek kit after your posts and found they are only 20 miles away but not retail. Sent enquiry form about stockists and they asked me to call; I did and they said I could call in with my strimmer and they would advise/supply so I might do that.
I see they stock a bump head type, I wonder if it works?
http://www.portek.co.uk/GrassGator_Chrome.html
The line I use usually works if only it would feed and not jam, if you see what I mean.

[Ricard with an H]

It is quality kit Geoff, the bush's where the line comes out are really important and even in their photo those bush's look good.

A friend has a Kawasaki copy, made in China and looks the same. He spends more time faffing with this machine than he does using it. Mostly it's the head, and whilst we all come up against two-stroke black-magic this is to do with parts failing.

Before I upgraded to pro kit I had various machines supported by the Massive Electrolux empire, spare were easy to get but I did spend a lot of time mending those machines.

I still don't know why my machines wouldn't start earlier this year and I don't know what I did that makes them start first pull now. Black magic ?

[richard p]

spent an hour or two finding my father's fruit bushes yesterday afternoon...the ryobi head with the string wound in the opposite direction to the arrow embossed on it worked perfectly.

[Geoff]

Have I missed something? My Homelite is a re-badged Ryobi. The embossing and the manual say load the line anti-clockwise. The locking bolt is left hand thread (unscrews clockwise) showing which direction it rotates. So is that the same as yours and are you now loading line clockwise and getting a better result?