Christmas came early

When I got into the office this morning there was wooden box sitting on my desk from Oregon, the company not the state. It’s rare that I receive mail to my desk besides some industry magazines so finding an artfully craft box was like Christmas came early.

Inside of the box is an example of the Gator SpeedLoad Cutting System that Oregon introduced at the GIE+Expo in Louisville, Ky., in October.

When I slid open the lid there was an example of “traditional” trimmer line and next to it was the new line system (pictured to the right.) The patented system prevents the user from having to wind, spool or cut a new line because it comes as pre-wound in self-contained disks. The folks at Oregon call it their most durable line yet.

After checking out the disk, I lifted up the styrofoam holding the disk to reveal the solid-body piece trimmer head (pictured left.) The trimmer head comes in three different sizes, 4.25″ head for straight- and curved-shaft trimmers, and 5″ head for commercial straight-shaft trimmers. Oregon says they will fit more than 95 percent of gas-powered trimmers.

(Top) Trimmer head with the line disk inserted. (Bottom) Final product when all pieces of the Oregon Gator SpeedLoad Cutting System are put together.

Oregon is promoting that the Gator SpeedLoad Cutting System is going to save professionals time and frustration when it comes to loading new line into the trimmer head. To be honest with everyone, I may have used a trimmer one time before and I definitely have never had to wind new line onto a trimmer head.

With that in mind, I thought I would give it a try to see how long it would take me to load the disk at my desk. With the stopwatch app on my iPhone, I started the timer and went about putting all of the pieces together. When I pushed stop on the timer my iPhone showed that it took me 15 seconds.

Now that I figured that part out all I need to do is buy the rest of a trimmer, and I can start taking down the brush behind my apartment.

Photos: Golfdom