Straight Shaft Trimmers

Straight shaft trimmer go straight all the way down to the head or gearbox. Some are built with solid rod drive shafts while lighter brands are made with the same coil spring (flexible) shafts as the curved shafts.

The solid steel rod drive shaft on most straight shaft trimmers allow the machine to handle heavier or bigger heads however, the capacity of handling heavier heads also rest on the engine size. Smaller engines (25cc or less) should use the same lighter heads recommended for curved shafts.

Most straight shaft trimmers are on a reverse thread (counter-clockwise) and tend to be more heavy duty than the curved shafts. We include reverse (left hand) threaded nuts in the kit.

Recommended Heads

We recommend the following heads for most straight shaft trimmers (see exceptions below):

3600, 4600, 4620, 4680, 3630, 7800, 4750, 5600, 5620 or 8010.

Curved shafts Echo, Stihl and Tanaka can use these heads too. Click on each brand for more information about the recommended GrassGator products.

Straight shaft Homelite, Weedeater and Bolens can't use all of the replacement heads listed above. These brands are limited to using: 3600, 5600, 5620 or 8010. Please go to the Curved Shaft section or click on each brand for more information.

Installation Instructions

Most straight shafts follow these instructions.

Some curved shafts like Weedeater, Echo, Stihl, Husqvarna and newer models of Homelite like the XT260 that have a clip instead of a threaded bump knob also follow the straight shaft instructions.

Older Homelite follow the curved shaft instructions even if the model is straight a shaft.