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I was just wondering...do you wear ear protection when you mow? I do! How about eye protection when you weedwack?

There are some times when I am REALLY glad I wear glasses...I wouldn't have 1 eye if I didn't! :laughing:

Yes, yes and yes. Ear protection, eye protection, skin protection, etc.

yes! I would rather look dumb than go def

We require every single employee to wear ear and eye protection at all times when using any equipment.

I WEAR SAFETY GLASSES, BUT NO EAR PLUGS---I WANT TO HEAR SOMETHING COMING UP BEHIND ME

FRANK

SUREYARDS---TENNESSEE

^with ear protection you can still hear conversations and talk right next to a screaming motor...strange but true.

REMEMBER, I'M 66

FRANK

SUREYARDS---TENNESSEE

SUREYARDS said:

I WEAR SAFETY GLASSES, BUT NO EAR PLUGS---I WANT TO HEAR SOMETHING COMING UP BEHIND ME

FRANK

SUREYARDS---TENNESSEE

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I'm with you Frank, the glasses are fine but i want to hear what's going on around me.

RIC

AMEN TO THAT---WHERE ARE YOU LOCATED IN FLORIDA

I HAD A GOOD FRIEND THAT WAS A COMMERCIAL PAINTER AND MOVED TO SARASOTA
IN 1980 AND MADE A FORTUNE PAINTING CONDOS.

HAPPY MOWING TO YOU

FRANK

SUREYARDS said:

RIC

AMEN TO THAT---WHERE ARE YOU LOCATED IN FLORIDA

I HAD A GOOD FRIEND THAT WAS A COMMERCIAL PAINTER AND MOVED TO SARASOTA
IN 1980 AND MADE A FORTUNE PAINTING CONDOS.

HAPPY MOWING TO YOU

FRANK

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I'm located in two different places, work week in Tampa and weekends and you probably never heard of it so I'll say Leesburg. If your friend is in Sarasota he had a lot of condos to paint. He should have moved to West Palm they went crazy with those things. :laughing:

YES---HE MADE OUT QUITE WELL--SO GOOD HE IS RETIRED AND ONLY 60

ONE QUICK QUESTION---HAVE YOU HAVE GOOD LUCK WITH THE CC ZFORCE MOWERS ?

THANKS

FRANK

SUREYARDS said:

YES---HE MADE OUT QUITE WELL--SO GOOD HE IS RETIRED AND ONLY 60

ONE QUICK QUESTION---HAVE YOU HAVE GOOD LUCK WITH THE CC ZFORCE MOWERS ?

THANKS

FRANK

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I've Had excellent luck with the Cub Cadet Z Force mowers. I sold my 44" ZF and my CC 36" G1336 WB when I purchased my Grandstand, had the 20hp Kohler on it and mowed like 50 lawns a week for three years and it never gave me a problem other than the typical maintenance. Also still have and occasionally run the 48" with the Kohler 22hp and have done same with it except I was doing like 70 lawns a week and at the present it's got like 700hrs on it in like 15 months and again never a problem. IMO for the money you can't beat the Cub Cadets.
The thing with me is I'm a bit of a fanatic on oil and filer changes, I change both oil and oil filters on all my mowers from 25 to 50 hrs depending on the conditions that I have.

THANK YOU RIC FOR THE INFO

I HAVE A 60 INCH BAD BOY THAT I HAVE RENAMED SAD BOY---THEY ARE NOT WHAT THEY ADVERTISE---I TRADED A 50 INCH CC ZFORE50 FOR IT AND WISH I HAD THE CC BACK--I AM LOOKING AT A 60 INCH ZFORCE---ANYTHING YOU CAN TELL ME ?

THANKS

FRANK

SUREYARDS said:

THANK YOU RIC FOR THE INFO

I HAVE A 60 INCH BAD BOY THAT I HAVE RENAMED SAD BOY---THEY ARE NOT WHAT THEY ADVERTISE---I TRADED A 50 INCH CC ZFORE50 FOR IT AND WISH I HAD THE CC BACK--I AM LOOKING AT A 60 INCH ZFORCE---ANYTHING YOU CAN TELL ME ?

THANKS

FRANK

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Yea the Bad Boy has turned into a sad boy. We've got a TSC here in town that sold the things and every one that they received to sell had to be taken to the lawn mower shop at the other end of town and be fixed before they could sell the things. I figured by now they would have the bugs worked out. As far as the ZF 60 goes there's not much I can tell you. If it were me I'd go with the 54" with the lap bars, there wouldn't be that much of a difference in productivity and it's probably a little cheaper. I don't know which mower you're buying but the 54" would be a commercial grade mower and be a better machine than that residential 60" Personally I hate a steering wheel on a lawn mower.:smile: Looks stupid but then again I'm old school.

THANK YOU FOR THE INFO, RIC

I WILL GO TO LOCAL CC DEALER AND CHECK OUT THE ZFORCE 54 WITH LAP BARS--I'M WITH YOU--IF I WANT A STEERING WHEEL I'LL DRIVE A TRUCK

FRANK

yes yes and yes,with earplugs i an hear the grass scream...who takes the guards off their trimmers?

tybilly said:

who takes the guards off their trimmers?

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Not me, the guard is there for a reason - safety. I'll ask it this way - who wants to compromise safety?

same here,but also ive heard that removing the guard will shorten the life of the engine,due to balance of the correct string length.

Yes, using string that is too long for the trimmer will shorten engine life because the engine does not get up to full R.P.M. which for most trimmers is between 8,000-9,500 R.P.M. Trimmers are designed to run wide open at full R.P.M. and the fan built into the flywheel will provide maximum cooling. When longer string is used the engine works harder and at a lower speed which can cause an overheat condition and too much heat is the enemy to small, air-cooled engines. As you know, most trimmer guards have a built in line cutter to limit the length of the line.

tybilly said:

yes yes and yes,with earplugs i an hear the grass scream...who takes the guards off their trimmers?

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I've heard the reasons for using the guards and they all make sense, but then why do I see so many of the businesses remove them. I don't think I can remember the last time I've seen a guard in use on a trimmer.

Ric said:

I've heard the reasons for using the guards and they all make sense, but then why do I see so many of the businesses remove them. I don't think I can remember the last time I've seen a guard in use on a trimmer.

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May I ask why you remove yours?

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Carscw said:

May I ask why you remove yours?

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Gosh I don't know what to say without

i dont understand why besides a safety issue? mine is 17'' isnt that enough? trying to mow a whole yard with it?

The reason to remove the guard is done by MOST because you can trim around a pole or a tree without walking around it
Now SOME remove because monkey see monkey do

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Interesting, You can weed eat around a pole in a half circle there is no need for a full circle. Personally the OEM length is a perfect length can easily get around all obstacles with one or two passes and is easy to control. I have seen a few companies around who do remove them.

I have the mentality that the engineers who designed the machine did everything for a reason.

exotion said:

Interesting, You can weed eat around a pole in a half circle there is no need for a full circle. Personally the OEM length is a perfect length can easily get around all obstacles with one or two passes and is easy to control. I have seen a few companies around who do remove them.

I have the mentality that the engineers who designed the machine did everything for a reason.

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What does the length have to do with the guard?

And why would you only trim around half the pole?

For 30 years that I know of this is why they have been removed.

I choose not to remove the guard.
If one of my workers get hurt because a safety device has been removed then I am in trouble
If I sling a Rock into a window with the guard removed I pay for it.

And like you said it is there for a reason.

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Carscw said:

What does the length have to do with the guard?

And why would you only trim around half the pole?

For 30 years that I know of this is why they have been removed.

I choose not to remove the guard.
If one of my workers get hurt because a safety device has been removed then I am in trouble
If I sling a Rock into a window with the guard removed I pay for it.

And like you said it is there for a reason.

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The guard keeps the length short and you can get all the way around a pole in just a half circle

So with your years of experience tell us why do MOST people take the guard off?

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I dont have Years of experience and I am explaining why I do not understand. It does not add any functionality to it.

Everyone that I have ever talked to that removes the guards all say it gets in the way.
But like I said I think some do it because monkey see monkey do

I have used a trimmer without a guard and it is easier to use. Just hurts if you wear shorts

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Wear ear muffs
no glasses
Why u asking?

I dont take the guards off,i used to be a tech,just curious as why ppl do myself,im thinking for convienence.i also wear an orange vest and gloves,when I trim trees I wear a hardhat too,dont want any widowmakers finding me..lol

exotion said:

I dont have Years of experience and I am explaining why I do not understand. It does not add any functionality to it.

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Exotion, you've got it about right. It does not add any functionality to it. The only thing I see that the guard does is get plugged up with grass and then the line cutter doesn't work but about half the time anyway and you carry all that with you for hours a day it gets old real quick.
The thing is you have guys buy one trimmer over another because one weighs 1lb less than the other does, do you really think that they're going to hesitate to to take off a guard that to them serves literally no purpose.
I've never understand why they even call them a guard. When you consider that the guard on the Echo maybe 6" across the back, the Stihl is 12" across the back and probably other makes measure different what's the purpose in having the thing, there's no standard.
If you want to run your trimmer with the guard on fine do it, nothing wrong with that, if you want to run without the guard fine take it off and throw it, nothing wrong with that it's you're choice. :thumbsup:

SLCCT said:

Wear ear muffs
no glasses
Why u asking?

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Just wondering......

SLCCT said:

Wear ear muffs
no glasses
Why u asking?

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Your crazy :/ Glasses always even when im not mowing I do not want to lose an eye

Carscw said:

Everyone that I have ever talked to that removes the guards all say it gets in the way.
But like I said I think some do it because monkey see monkey do

I have used a trimmer without a guard and it is easier to use. Just hurts if you wear shorts

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We take the guards off of all of our trimmers. I personally think they are useless.

MSlandscaping said:

We take the guards off of all of our trimmers. I personally think they are useless.

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They are useless if you don't care about getting rocks or mulch shot at your head! I have a little hole in my guard from a rock....that could have been my face!

lawn mower fanatic said:

They are useless if you don't care about getting rocks or mulch shot at your head! I have a little hole in my guard from a rock....that could have been my face!

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So obviously they dont work! Because you have your guard on and you still got shot in the face.

MSlandscaping said:

So obviously they dont work! Because you have your guard on and you still got shot in the face.

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No, it didn't hit me, but it probably would have it I didn't have my guard on.

MSlandscaping said:

We require every single employee to wear ear and eye protection at all times when using any equipment.

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What about the married ones, not required? :laughing::laughing:

My trimmer guard took a lot of abuse and broke off. I did not remove it on purpose but found out that I like it better that way and did not spend the money to replace it. I wear safety glasses most of the time if they are handy and rarely use earplugs. Saay what?

Up until the time I purchased my first new Trimmer anything I came up with was used or County junk and never had a guard so by the time I got a new trimmer I was so use to working without a guard I just continued without. They all just ended up in the circular file.

This is a picture of the headphones I wear while mowing & weedwacking.

I use the harbor freight cheap ones, i have a habit of breaking the expensive ones and the cheap ones do more than an adequate job.

I also bought a pair of headphones with the active noise reduction, where if it hears a certain frequency it will send out a frequency to quite it (or something like that). I didn't like them, because there was a slight noise in your ear all the time. They did just as good as the 3M headphones, but where like double the cost!

SUREYARDS said:

THANK YOU FOR THE INFO, RIC

I WILL GO TO LOCAL CC DEALER AND CHECK OUT THE ZFORCE 54 WITH LAP BARS--I'M WITH YOU--IF I WANT A STEERING WHEEL I'LL DRIVE A TRUCK

FRANK

Click to expand...

MAYBE IF U WORE HEARING PROTECTION. YOU WOULDN'T NEED TO TYPE IN ALL CAPS.

Pete

I HOPE YOU LIVE LONG ENOUGH TO REALIZE TYPING IN CAPS IS A SENIOR THING

FRANK---SUREYARDS

HI to you all.
Here is what I did many years ago to make my mower run as quiet as a sewing machine.The machine was a very old Hayterett with a 3 HP briggs and stratton engine.First I had to identify where the noise was coming from.Most of the noise was from the exhaust and the rest was general mechanical noise.Here is what I did.First I dismantled the engine and reprofiled the exhaust cam to give a much slower lift allowing the products of combustion to escape slower.I then connected the muffler outlet to discharge under the mower deck.Next was the problem of mechinical noise.There is a product on the market called Barofoam,this is a product to attenuate noise and is used in the Air conditioning industry to line the inside of ducting.With this product I lined the outside of the blower housing and the complete top of the mower deck and like I said it runs just like a sewing machine.No more ear plugs for me now.

Lawnranger said:

Yes, yes and yes. Ear protection, eye protection, skin protection, etc.

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Me too.....ear plugs, a good pair of goggles, sunscreen and a buggy top sun shade too. I had a melanoma successfully removed from my cheek 5 years ago. It cost $100,000.00 but I have good insurance. With Obama's healthcare, I would be dead now, as I would have been limited to $5000.00. The doctor said it was from sun damage when I was a kid.

MSlandscaping said:

We require every single employee to wear ear and eye protection at all times when using any equipment.

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What about the married ones?
:laughing:

SUREYARDS said:

REMEMBER, I'M 66
FRANK

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What's age 66 got to do with it? I am 76 and still do not want to lose the rest of my hearing. I lost about 20% in my left ear by driving a fire engine with no ear protection and the window down most of the time. All firefighters are required to wear ear protection while enroute now.

Eye protection- My rule is, If you, or anyone near you is running any machine, wear it.
Ear protection-Same as above.

Crawdad said:

Eye protection- My rule is, If you, or anyone near you is running any machine, wear it.
Ear protection-Same as above.

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Good rule! :thumbsup:

Carscw said:

So with your years of experience tell us why do MOST people take the guard off?

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You don't need years of experience to know the reason that so many take off there guards. It comes down to weight, less weight means less work to use the machine. Plus it makes the machine more maneuverable or easier to use if you prefer.

Ric said:

You don't need years of experience to know the reason that so many take off there guards. It comes down to weight, less weight means less work to use the machine. Plus it makes the machine more maneuverable or easier to use if you prefer.

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Personally I will never take the guard off. Once I had a rock hit the guard and make a small (few millimeter hole) in the guard. If tha guard wasn't there to slow down the rock, I might be reading this post with ONE eye!

lawn mower fanatic said:

Personally I will never take the guard off. Once I had a rock hit the guard and make a small (few millimeter hole) in the guard. If tha guard wasn't there to slow down the rock, I might be reading this post with ONE eye!

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Can i ask how you use your trimmer? to the front, the side or back?

Ric said:

Can i ask how you use your trimmer? to the front, the side or back?

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I stand on the left side.

mowermec said:

HI to you all.
Here is what I did many years ago to make my mower run as quiet as a sewing machine.The machine was a very old Hayterett with a 3 HP briggs and stratton engine.First I had to identify where the noise was coming from.Most of the noise was from the exhaust and the rest was general mechanical noise.Here is what I did.First I dismantled the engine and reprofiled the exhaust cam to give a much slower lift allowing the products of combustion to escape slower.I then connected the muffler outlet to discharge under the mower deck.Next was the problem of mechinical noise.There is a product on the market called Barofoam,this is a product to attenuate noise and is used in the Air conditioning industry to line the inside of ducting.With this product I lined the outside of the blower housing and the complete top of the mower deck and like I said it runs just like a sewing machine.No more ear plugs for me now.

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Mowermec, please post a video of your mower running in the thread Working Mowers Showcase if possible. I would love to hear or should I say not hear how quite it is. i am very interested in noise reduction. Thanks for your post.:thumbsup:

midnite rider said:

Mowermec, please post a video of your mower running in the thread Working Mowers Showcase if possible. I would love to hear or should I say not hear how quite it is. i am very interested in noise reduction. Thanks for your post.:thumbsup:

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Yeah, I would like to "hear" it also. Some people in our neighborhood have electric mowers and all you hear is the grass being cut or the leaves being cut up.....I wish they would make mowers that were that quite, had a good cut, and never ran out of battery! :laughing: