how clean is your water? You may consider flushing the line. Another thing is does the sprinkler have enough thrust in between the trippers to activate the next cycle?

Thanks for the response.

I have culinary water, so it's clear. I don't think the line needs to be flushed, because our water pressure has gone down in general, inside as well as out. What's involved in flushing the lines? I may consider giving it a shot. I'm a little reluctant, if it's expensive, though, because the grass I'm planting is a native grass mixture and my plan is that I'll get a lawn that is so drought tolerant that it won't need to be watered even though it's desert conditions here.

I don't understand what you mean by enough thrust between the trippers to activate the next cycle. The sprinkler system is run by an electrical timer, so the next cycle is done by a timer. If you're asking whether it flips the little switch that makes it change direction, that happens on one side but not the other. I replaced the head in the same place last year and it lasted less than a year. That's why I'm starting to think I don't have enough pressure at that location.

Are there heads that turn more easily?

I did a little reading on gear driven sprinkler heads and decided to try one of those. I wish I hadn't let the guy at HD talk me out of them when I was there on Saturday. It worked very well and is much quieter, as well. I'll keep the mini paw I pulled out and use it to replace the next one to go, but after this, I'm using nothing but gear driven heads.