Archived from the Tools In Action forum (Dewalt). This thread is read-only.
I’ve been inspired by AvE and have randomly been tearing in to the wear areas of various pieces of equipment to do a little QC to ensure longevity. I pulled the gearbox and motor assembly apart on my 40v string trimmer and I am extremely disappointed. The grease is cheap bulk grease (almost lard like). The amount of grease from the factory is so minuscule that the centrifugal forces have pushed the grease to the outside of the housing and the gears were bone dry. I’m going to give it a good cleaning and put some quality grease in a sufficient quantity that the gears will always have contact. I’m even brainstorming if I should put a zerk fitting on the housing to periodically grease. There isn’t a seal to seal in the grease in so it’s possible the grease has gradually worked its way out during heavy use and hot temps. But I doubt it due to the quality and viscosity of the grease at ambient temps.
Just a little heads up for OPE users.
Man that’s deep..talk about taking care of your tools? I’m impressed with your mechanical abilities. Is that 40v still better then the new 60v version?
Framer joe wrote:
Man that’s deep..talk about taking care of your tools? I’m impressed with your mechanical abilities. Is that 40v still better then the new 60v version?
I haven’t used the 60v yet. My brother has it. Maybe we’ll see how well they handle against each other.
Like I said, AvE inspired me and seeing the crap that he unveils, it appears to have become a necessity. Additionally, I picked up a second trimmer CHEAP. I’m going to see if I can’t make it a blade edger.
I had heard the string trimmers were a bit cheap even for DeWALT. I wonder how EGO or Makita fair.
Jronman wrote:
I had heard the string trimmers were a bit cheap even for DeWALT. I wonder how EGO or Makita fair.
I have the 12″ EGO and it’s nice. My only complaint is that it lacks variable speed and the motor seems to bog down with any real torque applications like heavy brush or hard edging.
If I can’t modify the DeWalt to accept a blade for blade edging, I am going to get the EGO powerhead system with blade edger attachment.
I have the 20v string trimmer, been using it all the time for about a year now and I love that thing
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I have the 20v ope stuff..it works fine, for not overgrown grass..but my ego ope is much much better …I don’t have the 40v pro line like @RickyMcGrath….I’m sure that is even better. ….i hear great things about the 40v line
Framer joe wrote:
I have the 20v ope stuff..it works fine, for not overgrown grass..but my ego ope is much much better …I don’t have the 40v pro line like [mention=49319]RickyMcGrath[/mention]….I’m sure that is even better. ….i hear great things about the 40v line
It’s a good line. I have 2 trimmers, 2 blowers, hedge trimmer and chainsaw. I’ve been pretty pleased overall.
Sweet set up Ricky……I may be a little jealous of that….that 6pack charger looks bad ass too..!
I tried out the 20volt. Was not impressed. The trimmers I use are both redmax bcz2660s. I know gas vs battery no comparison. I wanted to try it for comparison purposes, and if it was decent I would use it as a back up. Here is what I found… line was way to thin for me (.080). I run .095 Kevlar reinforced. Felt out of balance, and way too lite. As others have said it bogged in longer, thicker grass. Because it was so light I could not get a consistent height on the grass. Had to go back over it with my redmax. Overall not a bad producthing but just not for me at this time. It and the other ope that dewalt makes do have there place. I may try again in the future, but for now itso the beast called redmax that I will use.
Try ego and you’ll dump redmax…pro power…also the 20v line is nothing compared to the 40v line of Dewalt
The main reason I tried the dewalt vs other cordless is because I have a bunch of 20v batteries.
Farmer Joe… the biggest issue I have with cordless open is the run time. Here is what I mean… I’m out cutting 10-14 lawns after work on Thursday nite. All day Friday I cut about 15-20 more and still 3 more on Saturday. With gas I know I have it. But with the battery I don’t know when it’s going to die, and I can’t recharge in the truck. Most open only come with one battery, which I would need at least 3. At that point it’s just easier to use gas. Each product has there place in the market. All are good to some extent. Maybe one day when the redmax die I’ll venture more intof cordless open. But today I stay with gas.
Ya , I hear ya.. that’s not my world so I’m sure you know best….doesn’t sound like cordless ope is there yet for multiple jobs to do ,it’s still more a homeowner 1 lawn and done thing……companies do hype it up like it’s ready to take over gas tools…..someday ..
Jrhky36 wrote:
The main reason I tried the dewalt vs other cordless is because I have a bunch of 20v batteries.
Farmer Joe… the biggest issue I have with cordless open is the run time. Here is what I mean… I’m out cutting 10-14 lawns after work on Thursday nite. All day Friday I cut about 15-20 more and still 3 more on Saturday. With gas I know I have it. But with the battery I don’t know when it’s going to die, and I can’t recharge in the truck. Most open only come with one battery, which I would need at least 3. At that point it’s just easier to use gas. Each product has there place in the market. All are good to some extent. Maybe one day when the redmax die I’ll venture more intof cordless open. But today I stay with gas.
You could easily charge batteries in the truck. DeWalt offers a 20v vehicle Charger. I use it regularly for my batteries.
Ricky, i know about yhe dewalt 20v car charger. It would work. But the issuse for me is that the 20v just does not work for me. Nor does any cordless ope at this point in time. Until someone can replacate the run time of a gas engine ill stick with gas
Do not put too much grease in the gearbox. Too much is as bad as not enough. Plowing through quality grease at high speed will put undue stress on things and eat up power. Learned the hard way many years ago.
Jrhky36 wrote:
Ricky, i know about yhe dewalt 20v car charger. It would work. But the issuse for me is that the 20v just does not work for me. Nor does any cordless ope at this point in time. Until someone can replacate the run time of a gas engine ill stick with gas
The 40v has tremendous runtime. I use one battery to weed eat, trim and blow my whole yard. Corner lot with sidewalks. With the new Automotive Charger, 3 batteries should be more than enough.
Atlas2000 wrote:
Do not put too much grease in the gearbox. Too much is as bad as not enough. Plowing through quality grease at high speed will put undue stress on things and eat up power. Learned the hard way many years ago.
Yeah. I figured that. Just enough to make contact and friction and heat with take care of the rest during operation.
Jrhky36 wrote:
20 hours ago, Jrhky36 said:the biggest issue I have with cordless open is the run time.
Do you think in 10 years or so it will be equal or better than gas?
A little background here. I cut about 35ish lawns a week. So I have some idea of what works and doesn’t work with ope. All options are good options based on your needs.
I do not know any lawn contractors in my area using cordless.
The investment to go to cordless with the extra batteries, car charger is just too high. With the unknown if it will even work for me. I know gas and it works for me. As far as run
As far as if cordless will equal gas in terms of power and run time I’d like to think they will equal at some point. It may not even take 10 years.
What has not been said is the torque generated by the cordless. In my option they are lacking.
From what I’ve seen some cordless has the power but not the runtime. The Ego blowers for example have plenty of power except the runtime isn’t great. I haven’t tried higher demand tools like a trimmer or mower but I haven’t heard many say much bad about the power of the higher end brands like Ego, Makita (x2), and DeWALT (40v and 60v) either.
@RickyMcGrathWhich type of grease did you end up using as a replacement? Any tips regarding the disassembly and grease application process? Also, did you see a big difference in performance?
I have a dewalt 60v dcst972x1 and could not for the life of me in the Manual that you need to grease gear box and so I don’t even know what kind of grease to use and how often to refill help by the way it gets the job done