Overview of common bump-feed heads and troubleshooting a broken SpeedFeed Trimmer head
Вставка
- Опубліковано 20 вер 2024
- Quick comparison of three common bump-feed trimmer heads, plus diagnosing what caused my current head to break
Echo Speed-Feed 400 - This is my head of choice. Its the easiest unit to load line onto and is very high quality.
Stihl AutoCut EasySpool. Similar to the Echo in that you can load line without disassembling the head. Unlike the echo the design of the winding mechanism makes it hard to grab and turn.
Troubleshooting a broken head. My SpeedFeed stopped advancing line. This could be caused by dirt and debris getting stuck between the spool and the "top-hat (technically its called the knob)", but a quick disassembly and cleaning did not help matters. It turns out the hub had mushroomed out significantly, to the point that it had to be hammered out of the housing.
Root cause of the issue was 100% my fault; i neglected to periodically grease the trimmer head, worn out greases cuased the unit to run hot which transfered through the attaching nut and into the hub which then at speed mushroomed out a few thousands of an inch.
Hopefully caught it in time to be able to re-grease the gear-box and be good to go. Lesson learned though; I had the gear box off a few weeks back and thought the grease looked good (plenty of it and not dried up).
Dude!!! You're my new hero. I've been looking for a vid like this for a while now. Man I have like 3-speed feed heads that don't bump feed. Thank you.
it's been ages since I posted that video; for the speed feed head, I ended up replacing the sealed bushings on my Stihl trimmer head. Despite being told they don't go bad and getting funny looks at my mower shop, that has resolved the issue of melting that plastic bushing the speed feed headed uses. First attempt was re-greasing the trimmer head, but that did not work. new bushings did the trick. Ran my unit hard this year with 0 issues.
Can you do a video on the sealed bushings?
Does it make a difference what direction you twist the head?
With Speed-Feed heads with the black core (clockwise rotation), you need to have the L on the spool facing out or it will not feed line when you bump.
I grease mine every year at least once. Mine mushroomed over too. I chocked mine on my buffer wheel shaft and used a bastard file to cut it flat then hit it with some 2000 grit and carnauba wax.
Up and running.