Stihl hedge trimmer heads

[jameshs22]

Hi guys,

What's people's experience with the newer type of adjustable heads for the long reach trimmers?? I've heard some people say that the metal is very weak and breaks easily? 

I've found a few second hand older style ones on eBay (more of grey metal rather than newer white ones) but still going to paying near £200 for one.

 

Am I better off just buying a new trimmer?? I've used an echo long reach and was impressed with it, especially how sharp the blades stay!!!

[Husqvarna King]

The older ones are much stronger, they have separate blades to the gearbox with roller bearings the newer ones have the cam on the end of the blade itself and no roller bearings. The gearbox’s don’t seem to last long. But I also noticed that the last of the older style never seemed to last as long and I was always pretty good with greasing and sharpening etc

[spudulike]

I would be very careful when purchasing secondhand trimmer gearboxes as they are relatively complex, not many can rebuild them correctly and replacement parts are very expensive. 

The main issue is that owners ignore the "grease every 25 hrs" spec and replace it with..."grease it when it makes strange noises or the head becomes slow".

The normal components to fail are: -

1) The con rods shedding their very small rollers,

2) The pinion bearing in the bottom housing failing

3) The input bearings failing

4) The gears and/or inner bearing failing

If you have the unit on your bench, you can get a good feel of how decent the gearbox is by pushing a suitable flat head screwdriver in to the square drive union and then move it slowly clockwise and anti clockwise to feel the amount of backlash in the gearbox. This is a bit subjective but suited me to carry out for a very quick health check on these heads.

Unless the owner has checked all the above, I would treat the purchase with extreme caution.

[jameshs22]

Thanks Spud, that's a great help.👍🏼

Do you have any experience with the newer heads?? I don't mind buying brand new if its up to the job and lasts 

[Alan Smith]

I have had a fair bit of experience with both the old and new versions and have repaired and rebuilt both for customers. The older ones are more robust but not without their problems and I would be wary of buying second hand without a basic strip down and test before parting with cash. I had one guy bought three of the older Stihl cutter heads from different sources on Ebay because he thought this was the way to go, all three were wrecked and worthless. The parts for these are expensive.

 

 You are right, the Echo cutters are scary sharp and stay sharp but the gearboxes are delicate and won't stand a lot of punishment.  Based on a sample of one, the long reach cutter I've been most impressed by in recent times was a Maruyama. Very robust. 

[pleasant]

1 hour ago, spudulike said:

I would be very careful when purchasing secondhand trimmer gearboxes as they are relatively complex, not many can rebuild them correctly and replacement parts are very expensive. 

The main issue is that owners ignore the "grease every 25 hrs" spec and replace it with..."grease it when it makes strange noises or the head becomes slow".

The normal components to fail are: -

1) The con rods shedding their very small rollers,

2) The pinion bearing in the bottom housing failing

3) The input bearings failing

4) The gears and/or inner bearing failing

If you have the unit on your bench, you can get a good feel of how decent the gearbox is by pushing a suitable flat head screwdriver in to the square drive union and then move it slowly clockwise and anti clockwise to feel the amount of backlash in the gearbox. This is a bit subjective but suited me to carry out for a very quick health check on these heads.

Unless the owner has checked all the above, I would treat the purchase with extreme caution.

I would also add. Operators not tightening the long bolt between the two halves of the articulating head with wear. The distance between the mating bevel gears then increases to a point whereby they barely mesh and only mesh on the weakest point of the gear, which are the tips, then they just shear off and you get loss of, or poor drive.

 

A lot of operators think because the securing nut is really tight, it cannot be tightened any more, but the nut is there simply to stop the bolt unwinding. The bolt itself is threaded into the right hand half (as you look at it from an operators view) so you slacken the nut, then tighten the bolt, then re-tighten the nut. You should feel some resistance whilst adjusting at differing angles, but not so much that you struggle to move it, and not so loose the head just flops around.

[spudulike]

3 hours ago, jameshs22 said:

Thanks Spud, that's a great help.👍🏼

Do you have any experience with the newer heads?? I don't mind buying brand new if its up to the job and lasts 

I have done a few. Most fail due to the white alloy top support breaking or the long screw that goes through both halves of the gearbox breaking....it is held in place with a very small lock screw so never force it.

I have found the internals to be relatively robust, I never did like those fiddly con rods in the early units, the hardened con rods are better in my opinion as the rollers have the habit of coming out and even rotating lengthways in their runner causing wear.

As I said before...grease the things regularly. A couple of squeezes from a grease gun per 2 days heavy use will keep it fresh. As before...a re-grease every 25 hrs is the spec and not doing this makes the things fail in the main.

[rapalaman]

I’ve got to the stage now with the new ones of selling them on once out of warranty- had several rebuilt and they had been greased regularly.

they get used a lot so I budget for a couple a year - the used ones can still make decent money back if in working order