Ride on lawnmowers

[Mark A]

Hi chaps,

Our Flymo broke last week, and then over the weekend our trusty Snapper ride on mower decided it didn't like its con rod very much, so that's broken too. I made some enquiries and it will be more cost effective to swap the engine than repair, but only if I can get hold of an engine for a good price locally, which I can't.

Snapper's now for sale and I need a another mower.

We have over an acre of lawn but some of that is steep hill, so realistically the area any ride on mower can cover is just under an acre.

Iit was up to me I would go for something like a good used Kubota, but sadly the powers that be are reluctant to spend anything approaching that kind of money.

Therefore I would like suggestions for a decent, reliable ride on mower which is neither too big or too small, has enough traction and power to handle slopes and most importantly, doesn't cost much

Over to you!

Mark





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[paulm]

Sounds like you need a couple of goats !

 

[Sawdust Sam]

I've had a simplicity Baron for about 8 years from new and have a similar garden, it's never missed a beat. However the simplicity and the snapper and the same animal, how old is your snapper ?

 

[Mark A]

paulm - I did seriously consider asking our local farmer if we could borrow some of his sheep, but they would need to be fenced in.

Sawdust Sam - our Snapper looks like this:

It's about 17 years old. Bought for £300 last year, selling to someone on Friday for £200 spares or repair.

 

[Mark A]

A bit of long shot, but I'll ask anyway...

I'm driving to Slough and back on Thursday. If anyone who reads this has a ride on mower going spare and is thinking about selling it I could be interested!

Worth a try

 

[AJB Temple]

I have a similar amount of lawn and quite a few trees. I use a Stiga. This articulates in the middle and has a wide 3 blade front deck, so you can turn a circle of less than a metre around a tree. It mulches (very effectively) rather than collects. Electric blade height adjustment and deck is very easy to tip up for cleaning and blade sharpening. If you have sloping banks or cut wet grass then a 4WD is best.

I highly recommend the Stiga. I have had John Deer and Kubota mid deck tractor mowers, but as a mower this outperforms them hands down.

 

[paulm]

Iit was up to me I would go for something like a good used Kubota, but sadly the powers that be are reluctant to spend anything approaching that kind of money.

Send the boss out to do it with a cheap push along, she will soon change her mind !

 

[MrTeroo]

I have a lawnmower covered in cobwebs





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[Random Orbital Bob]

I thoroughly recommend Toro. I've had one for 11 years now with little to no problems and my father in law recently acquired an immaculate one from e bay for £1000 with a new price of £5000 so bargains are out there. Mine has a 48" deck.

 

[Mark A]

AJB Temple - Your comments re the Stiga is very interesting because I contacted a local garden machinery supplier today who have a used Stiga Primo for £675 inc. vat. I Googled it and the reviews are unanimously terrible!

Paulm - after both the ride on and Flymo went kaput the little 38cm Mountfield push mower was brought out of retirement. 5 1/2 hours and four tonne bags full of grass cuttings later the lawn was mowed, though I don't think the machine appreciated it very much.

I'm not really concerned about performance; I only want a machine which works when we need it to.




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[bugbear]

We have over an acre of lawn but some of that is steep hill, so realistically the area any ride on mower can cover is just under an acre.

Holy pasture, Batman! An acre of grass is one thing, but an acre of lawn!?

Wow. :shock:

800 m² is enough for me to worry about (around 30m x 30m)

BugBear

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

Nice criss-cross there BB....I can almost smell the cut grass....English summer days....ahhhhhhhh

 

[deema]

I would highly recommend a John Deere X range tractor. I have almost 2 acre of lawn some of which is very steep which is all mown with the tractor. I would recommend a side discharge / mulcher rather than a collector, the reason being that yes, it can look untidy if the lawn grows too long before you cut it, however I've found that when this incurs given 48 hours the loose grass has 'disappeared'. I use side discharge with appropriate lifting blades to keep the cuttings loose.

 

[Sawdust=manglitter]

We bought a 10+yr old Lawnflite 703 from the previous owners of our smallholding when we moved here 2yrs ago, and its been great. We did take it for a full service to start with, but had no problems with it. We have about 1 acre of garden which i use it on - the OH has horses for the rest!

 

[doctor Bob]

I have a John Deere for an acre of lawn, 42" cut, should have gone bigger. Takes me 40 mins but have quite a few trees I have to spin around.

 

[Harbo]

Convert to a wild flower garden

Rod

 

[bugbear]

I have a John Deere for an acre of lawn, 42" cut, should have gone bigger. Takes me 40 mins but have quite a few trees I have to spin around.

An acre is 4047 sq metres, and your cut is very close to 1 m; you take 2400 seconds to cut your grass.

area cut = cutting speed x width x time
4047 = sp x 1 x 2400
=1.68 m/s = 3.7 miles per hour.

Now, that's an average speed, and is no more than a decent hiking pace. So I suspect you're losing a lot of time to turning round, emptying, and spinning round trees. Since it's the overhead, not the actual cutting rate, that's the limiting factor, I don't think a wider cut would help much.

BugBear

 

[squib]

I am a stigma fan,
Triple mulch cut, electric height adjustable.....not cheap but makes cutting the lawn easy,quick and even has a beer can holder...job done!

 

[clanger]

As Bugbear says, you will spend a lot of the time turning when going around trees etc. The other option to getting a wider deck (which has it's own problems of manoeuvrability, access etc.) that I have is a Zero Turn. When you get the hang of them (about 15 minutes) you will find yourself flying along. I have a second-hand Toro Timecutter and wouldn't go back to a "normal" steering-wheeled mower.

Chris

 

[whiskywill]

Sounds like you need a couple of goats !

Unfortunately, goats are not great grazers. They prefer the leaves and bark of your favourite shrubs and trees.