I currently use a bump feed head made by Gardener's Gear. I am not unhappy with them, just thought there could be something better. I just ordered a bump feed pro head from J Thomas. Seems like all the heads that come with the machines are a PTIA.
I just picked up a shindaiwa t230 and purchased a "speed feed" head to go with it. I'm very pleased with it so far. Its very responsive, and hasn't tangled up once yet. Re-spooling this head is a piece of cake.
I've been wondering about the speed feed head. I've read where some people love it and some people think it's a POS. What is the price on it?
In my opinion, Redmax makes the best trimmer head that can be had. Whether or not it qualifies as "after market", I dont know. I have purchased them separately and installed them on Echo trimmers.
I like the heads that Echo puts on most of their trimmers. I get them aftermarket and use them on all of our other brands. Stihl, Tanaka, etc.. You can get them from the Rotary Corp online.
I picked up a speed feed head back in early march when I bought my first Shindaiwa T231. What a total piece of crap! It did not even last 2 weeks before the bottom fell out of it. I took it back to the dealer and demanded they replace it with the stock head, which I really do like. At the time I only had about 30 accounts per week, and it still didn't hold up. Total gimmick IMO just like their crappy silent twist trimmer line. Who the hell cares if your trimmer line is aerodynamic and makes less noise, especially with a rippin' 2 stroke behind it? I also have upgraded to 261's since and will be selling the 231. :blob3:
the best thing is the echo head and buy extra spools we have 2 spools per trimmer al prewound. only way to go never run out. best I have found yet. we trim alot we care for multiple cemetaries.
I also love the echo head, holds lots of string and easy to load. Saw that speed head the other day interesting cocept, maybe it will be made more durable soon. The nice thing about the echo head is you can get extra spools, dont have to replace the hole head and you can keep an extra loaded with you for a quick change out....I have noticed I use a bit more string with them, but hey that may add up to an extra 4-5 bucks a season lol.
