because they are crazy? i'll never trim, or ask anyone to trim, without a guard

 

Why.......

 

Maby remove about 2 pounds or so, when you think about it. The guard dosent weight that much but when you put it so far out it gets heavy. Also alot better balance and you can see what your doing alot better. Expecially when edging, forsure. I got my guards removed on my FS85's and I will never put them back on. And the dealer dosent recommend it but when you got a field. Just load it up with about 2' of string and give it. But just give it a good cool down period after that and watch your elbo, it burns. Everyones got thier opinion but for the very few rock chips you will get on your legs I think its well worth it.

 

PROTECTION ; 4 : a protective or safety device; specifically : a device for protecting a machine part or the operator of a machine

 

Because you have to tap your line every 2 seconds with a guard, and you can cut much larger areas of grass with the string 18" long verses 6" or less. On top of that you can SEE what your line is doing rather than see it after it's been cut. Overall it is more productive, im sure plenty of people will want to argue over it but that's just my and 99% of lco in my area and alot of others.

The ONLY companies that use them around here are Brickman and ValleyCrest for Liability reasons im sure.

 

Shoot man with the guards on you will go thru a spool of string a day.

 

We used guards for a long time and when we went to buy our last trimmer our dealer didn't install the guard. After that we removed the guards on all of our trimmers we found it saved us a lot of line. The trimmer is also more balanced and there is no guard to clean.

 

The "guard" is no guard at all. All it is really for is cutting the string.

What does it Guard???

Anything that you hit with the string is out at very outside edge of the guard any way.

I took mine off for three reasons; 1) so you can trim around poles/trees without going all the way around the object, 2) to reduce weight, 3) I don't use a bump head.

I have tried it with and with out and get hit with the same amount of debris.

 

Quite simply you are more productive without them. You can conture your trimming to the terrain and use less line. If you are concerned about getting your legs hit without them in place then this is the wrong job for you. They do not protect your legs as much as you think.

 

o, is this practice, approved by osha?

 

Those were the answers I was looking for. But what about trying to keep dual line's at the same length. Is that much of a problem?

 

I ran with my guards on for years, finally wised up a few years ago and REMOVED them. Like others said, they GUARD you against nothing! I get the same amount of crap on me now as I did before. The pluses are that the stupid knife isn't wasting my trimmer line! If I bump out too much I can wear it off on something. 90% of the time I don't do that.

Many trimmer guards also come down too low in the back and get hung up on the grass.

Also it's so much easier to trim around poles and small trees. Just walk up and manuver the trimmer around it while standing in one spot. With the guard on you have to walk around it all the way to trim it.

 

I have been running my stihl with the guard on for a long time, I took it off around june for a week to see the difference. Results are in and I would much rather have the guard on. It does cut back on the amount of grass shavings you get on you and it DOES reduce the rocks/stones tossed at you. With it off you save about 2lbs but the trimmer becomes very unbalanced. 8lbs of motor and 4lbs of shaft/trimmer head. Also, to those of you who actually run 18'' of string, this is not good practice. It will increase the wear on your clutch as well as work the engine much harder. If you actually need 36'' of total trimming area, you need more schooling on how to mow. JMO, leave it on.

 

The "guard" is no guard at all. All it is really for is cutting the string.

What does it Guard???

That's right.

Worthless dead weight.
I can cut my own string thanks, and select what length I want to run.

 

We run our guards off also. Trust me that a guard is not going to save you from getting hit with something. Wearing the proper eye and face protection and well as the proper clothing will.

 

guards are primarily a liability issue.

They protect the manufacturer and potentially you in cases of suits.

as far as string control, any solid object or chainlink fence will shorten it right down for you.

 

Shoot man with the guards on you will go thru a spool of string a day.

Yeah, i have my one redmax with it on. But my echo 21ccs that i use daily ive taken them off, sooner or later you use up too much string, they jam up when cutting anything thick or heavy and cant move the cut weeds out of the way easily enough... hitting the gaurd vs shooting all in one direction after mowed down.

I also think it saves maybe a pound of weight, that far away from the handle is noticeable unless you workout on a daily basis too and have super huge shoulders and arm strength lol.

And you can see what your cutting easier and i can turn the trimmer any angle, not limited by where that guard is. Anything im cutting that can hurt the operator when its flung out i use the redmax with the gaurd on, its also 30cc though, makes the 21cc echos look like little toys and i use it as a brush cutter with blades too.

You can also feed out much longer line on big motored trimmers, my 21cc echo i think is a 17" and so is the monster 30cc redmax? the echo with TOO much line out say a total of 20" runs slower, the redmax runs easy with 20+ " width.

 

guards are primarily a liability issue.

They protect the manufacturer and potentially you in cases of suits.

as far as string control, any solid object or chainlink fence will shorten it right down for you.

I kept the guard on, but took off the knife. This way if there's ever a liability issue, for whatever the reason, the guard was in place.

I took the "knife" off, and now just do what Precision suggested, just used a solid object or chainlink works real well.

 

Regardless if you like them or not..your employee gets hurt by flying debri and you can sure bet your insurance won't cover and..workmans comp will make you pick up the tab when they ask the employee how he was injured and he tells them the guard was off on his trimmer suppied by the company who he works for.

 

The first i do when i get a new weed wacker is take off the guard . The main reason i do it is because it alot easier to edge the lawn and around beds with. You cant see your edge with the guard on

 

I can not imagine using a trimmer with a guard. I have been either working for someone else or myself and 15 years and have never used one. In Middle Tennessee their are hundreds of LC trucks running up and down the road and i never see guards in the trimmers. The dealer i use hands me the guard and shoulder strap when i leave and i toss it in the dumpster.

 

Running with the guards on will extend the life of your trimmer. Running stihl trimmers w/o the guard voids the warranty. Trimmers are not designed to run string longer than the guards allow. You can get used to running it either way. Stihl guards are much more protective than Redmax and Echo in my opinion because of their design.

 

Because you have to tap your line every 2 seconds with a guard

If you have to tap your line every 2 seconds, it might be because you are trying to cut more than grass with your trimmer. If you try to cut chain link, gravel, dirt and concrete, of course your line will wear down quickly. If you have enough control over your trimmer you shouldn't have to tap very often. I feel that the guard saves me time because if the line gets frayed, I just tap rather than having to shut it off and cut the line manually.

 

My first few seasons I ran my trimmers with the guards on. I finally tried using the trimmer without are guard and at first I didn't like it but after a couple days I was hooked. It is so much faster without the guard on. Edging is a breeze and you can see more of what you are doing. I will have to say I do understand about the safety risks but I tried last year for a day to put the guard back on and it only lasted for about 5 min. Once you trim for awhile with the guards off it is hard to go back.

 

I have no problems with the gaurds on my FS 110s.