New Trimmer

[nwmo_aggie]

Looking for a new trimmer to add to the fleet here. Do some pretty heavy work, cleaning up fence rows and field work, either with heavy fixed .130 line head or brush blade.

Currently have a Stihl FS-130 and it’s fine, but need another machine.

Looking at adding a new 131, but not sure if there’s a better option across the brands that I need to consider along the way.

 

[ElevatorGuy]

Echo 3020 is what I’d buy.

 

[abs111999]

I'm looking for a brush rig too. Steel blade that can be sharpened. I looked at the FS 450 and saw the 1100$ price.
What a fkkn joke. Little German boys think their brush cutter is worth a grand...How much was trying to destroy the world 70 years ago worth??? Maybe Germany should just be our indentured servants for a hundred years. Some would say that's way too little.
Anyway I was thinking I could find something for 450$. Will the 131 run a metal cutter blade and how is it?? I need to cut 15 ac of sagebrush. I just cant chainsaw one more piece with the little 170.....

 

[nwmo_aggie]

Echo 3020 is what I’d buy.

I should have added to my original post. One of the things I’m most impressed with on the Stihl is the weed guard. I can mow a 1/2 mile of fence and not hardly have any junk on me. I have a echo pas trimmer, and after 10’, I’m coated from the knees down.
Hopefully the 3020 fixes that?

I have a lot of echo already, so this is a welcome answer, but really looking for the right machine regardless of brand.

 

[ElevatorGuy]

I should have added to my original post. One of the things I’m most impressed with on the Stihl is the weed guard. I can mow a 1/2 mile of fence and not hardly have any junk on me. I have a echo pas trimmer, and after 10’, I’m coated from the knees down.
Hopefully the 3020 fixes that?

I have a lot of echo already, so this is a welcome answer, but really looking for the right machine regardless of brand.

I’ve watched a few videos on it but haven’t ran one. I have a stihl fs56 that has run great for 10 years or so but I want that 3020. I also saw today they came out with a bigger blower, the 9010. I want that too, along with a ms462 lol it never ends. Want vs need in my case the trimmer is at the back of the list.

 

[nwmo_aggie]

Somewhat related. As I’m cleaning these fence rows, I’m running big string to be able to cut the weeds and occasional small sprout. However when they hit wire or post, it’s generally the end of the string.
How well do those plastic swinging blade heads handle that sort of treatment?

 

[triktor4411]

plastic blades won't help with obstacles I doubt, no lawn guy uses them. Just try not the go so deep into things like that and it'll just snip the end of the line and can bump out more instead of it breaking off flush with the head and having to take it apart.

I love 4 stroke stuff because it's cleaner and has a lot of torque, I have a 35cc 4 stroke Honda and it's a beast, it is heavy though.
It's not quite as powerful as the biggest 2 stroke trimmers as to be expected when comapring 2 to 4 cycle small engines and size and weight, and but does have an advantage in torque maybe useful if putting a brush cutter head on it but besides that it's still up there in power with the strongest 2 strokes I think.
I have the 25cc version honda 4 stroke engine in a husqvarna trimmer (all 4 stroke husqvarnas use Honda engines) that I use all the time and it's great. These 4 strokes have oil slinger patent that can be ran upside down for edging and they don't burn any oil unlike the cheaper ryobi etc 4 stroke trimmers I had put heavy use on before.

You can attach brush cutter heads to either of these 4 strokes.
For trimmer line I have tried all fancy twisted braided 'best ever' this and that, but found nothing works better than rino tuff I get from home depot, .095 or .105 it's basically diamond cross section.
Get a Speed Feed 450 (or 400) head, the Chinese ones on ebay I can vouch for are as good as the genuine echo and they are much cheaper and get a couple spare caps made to wear down, but come to think of it I have hundreds of hours on just one bump cap compared to the other types of bump heads I was replacing caps all the time and never bumped either on pavement. Speed Feed is soooo easy to load and doesn't jam often, and if snips off flush (that's what I was saying before about not going to close to obstacles but sometimes edging a sidewalk really deep or something it'll snip off flush, anyway it's not too hard to fix that just open it and unwind just a few inches to make it out the eye again and don't have to unwind the whole thing like some other bump heads.