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Just bought my second FS 50 C trimmer (extended curved shaft) after my first died after many years. I had an aftermarket head from HD that I fed pre-cut string into and it worked great. The OEM bump head on my new one is terrible. Anybody know of a good bump or manual head that will fit this thing? I can't seem to find anything online that will work. On a whim I even bought an Echo Speed Feed 400 and attempted to make it work, but it's not even close. Any thoughts are appreciated.

Go to Stens, Oregon, Prime Line & Rotary web catalogues and enter FS 50 in each search box
That should bring up everything they sell that will fit your trimer which will include heads that may or may not have a mounting kit as well
I fit a lot of Dragon Fly heads down here but apparently they are not popular in the USA
The next post popular is the Tanaka head which looks like an ash tray and stores the line inside the head so you have to manually flip the head over to wind out more line.

I don't know if any aftermarket companies make that head, usually best to get it from the dealer. Usually about the same cost when shipping costs are added, and they should have it on the shelf.

All OEM heads for this model have terrible reviews, so that's out.

I followed up per Bert's recommendations, but not good so far. The 50C has an 8mm x 1.25 thread, RH. Almost nothing out there for it, and the nice lady at Jack's Small Engines spent time with me and found nothing. Ugh. Thanks for the advice so far, guys.

This is what you are looking for

Stens 385-922
So it uses your original nut / bolt
I am not familiar with your particular trimmer but usually they have an arbour that screws off the end of the gear box and fits into the head then is secured by the end nut
So you remove the arbour and replace it with a standard bolt
8 x 1,25 metric will be easy to find
Some of the kits come with a bucket fill of adapters
Search Arbours 8 x 1.25
And note I said to search Stens, Oregon, Prime Line & Rotary, not Jacks Small Engines
You will get a different result

And here is the Pivotrim universal head that comes with an 8 x 1.25 RH arbor Pivo trim​

I like the head I put up the ipl for.
There are other heads that they made for the same model, but they never stocked those around here.
The head needs to fit on an end like this, so that excludes most of the aftermarket choices.

This is the other style put out by Stihl, I have seen them, but never used one. I see their aftermarket versions on E-Bay.

Fish nailed it. That's what I'm dealing with.

The C52 is what's on there now, but it nearly takes a body slam to get the head to feed string. I'm experimenting by cutting one coil off the spring to hopefully make it easier to bump. Too bad the shaft design changed, because my 6 year old FS50 had a shaft that accepted most common trimmer heads. Not sure why Stihl decided to change it...

fullboogie said:

Fish nailed it. That's what I'm dealing with.

The C52 is what's on there now, but it nearly takes a body slam to get the head to feed string. I'm experimenting by cutting one coil off the spring to hopefully make it easier to bump. Too bad the shaft design changed, because my 6 year old FS50 had a shaft that accepted most common trimmer heads. Not sure why Stihl decided to change it...

Click to expand...

I am not sure they carry the fs50 around here, it is pretty much the same as the fs40. I use the head that comes on the fs38 around here, and it works pretty good. Good quality trimmer line is a must on any of them.

Thanks Fish, I'll look into the FS38 head. I use the FS50 because it's an extended shaft, which I need. The 38 and 40 are too short for me - I have to bend at the waist to trim my yard (the 38 was the first Stihl trimmer I owned).

fullboogie said:

Fish nailed it. That's what I'm dealing with.

The C52 is what's on there now, but it nearly takes a body slam to get the head to feed string. I'm experimenting by cutting one coil off the spring to hopefully make it easier to bump. Too bad the shaft design changed, because my 6 year old FS50 had a shaft that accepted most common trimmer heads. Not sure why Stihl decided to change it...

Click to expand...

I am not sure they carry the fs50 around here, it is pretty much the same as the fs40. I use the head that comes on the fs38 around here, and it works pretty good. Good quality trimmer line is a must on any of them.

fullboogie said:

Thanks Fish, I'll look into the FS38 head. I use the FS50 because it's an extended shaft, which I need. The 38 and 40 are too short for me - I have to bend at the waist to trim my yard (the 38 was the first Stihl trimmer I owned).

Click to expand...

Just for a fun experiment, I slapped my FS38 powerhead on my old FS90 shaft with the triblade and it works great. I'll try my chainsaw head for fun as well. I wasn't sure how it would handle the straight steel shaft.

To follow up - cutting 1 coil off the internal spring helped a good bit on the force needed to bump more string out. I may try another 1/2 coil next weekend...