Mower recommendation?

[The Natural Philosopher]

By keeping a copy of my bank statement handy.

[The Natural Philosopher]

As I said, that's why i chose a Deere. It was less fancy and more expensive, but in the end, repairable.

You can weld a steel deck, not a mezak or plastic one.

L350 is a pretty decent machine.

[Andy Dingley]

I forget the details (try wiki, I recall a good article), but domestic petrol mowers are now all (for practical values of "all") from just two makers, who sell under a range of merged brands. One is Chinese, the other American and Chinese-made. Everything else (including Hayter and Lawnflite) is just a badge.

[MuddyMike]

I had to replace the transaxle on my Hayter ride on three years ago. The new one was labelled Murray/Tecumseh and had a Countax part number cross reference!

Mike

[Dave Liquorice]

The italian plant has closed then?

[GB]

I think I'll go for the £6.99 one :)

[GB]

To put this in perspective, our lawn is around 50-60 ft square, ie less than

1/10th of an acre. That's still 50-60 stripes with a 1ft wide mower.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Atco-Qualcast is part of Bosch now, hence German.

-------------------------------------------------- John Deere is American. Agriculture and Turf ? John Deere is the world's leading manufacturer of farm equipment. The company also produces and markets North America's broadest line of lawn and garden tractors, mowers, golf course equipment, and other outdoor power products. John Deere Landscapes provides irrigation equipment and nursery supplies to landscape-service professionals across the United States.

--------------------------------------------------------------------- "Since 2005 Hayter has been owned by The Toro Company based in Minneapolis, USA. Toro is a leading global manufacturer of high quality grass cutting equipment for golf courses, landscape contractors and homeowners. Since acquiring Hayter, Toro has invested significant funds...."

Toro are actually decent.

--------------------------------------------------------------------- Lawnflite is a trading name of E P Barrus Ltd, a Great British Company founded in 1917. Barrus has an unrivalled reputation for marketing and manufacturing quality machinery for a wide range of markets.

E P Barrus Ltd is a family Company co-owned with MTD Products Inc., who have grown to become one of the largest producers of outdoor power equipment in the world, with manufacturing operations in the USA, Canada and throughout Europe.

------------------------------------------------------------------------- Westwood claims to be British manufacturers, but in great British tradition their website is so broken I cant even extract an email from them to tell them.

------------------------------------------------------------------------- McCulloch sold its European stuff to Husqvarna. Swedish registered company.

The brands in Forestry and Lawn and garden are Husqvarna, Gardena, McCulloch, Jonsered, Flymo, Partner, Poulan, Poulan Pro and WeedEater. The major brands in Construction are Husqvarna and Diamant Boart.

------------------------------------------------------------------- Honda is ..Honda. Japanese company. Do they make stuff in China? possibly, but is still Honda.,

----------------------------------------------------------------=- I could go on, but the point is made. You are talking bollocks. What appears in the sheds may overwhelmingly be cheap chinese crap, rebadged this way and that, but the real stuff is anything but.

As far as WIKI goes, why I read an article in there that claimed that windpower would totally dominate the market, save the planet and reduce fossil fuel consumption to zero It was so embarrassingly laughable I didn't even bother to object.

[Steve Firth]

No, it still seems to be going making "Sovereign" mowers and shredders.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Hayter ispart of the Toro group. Decent kit mainly. Countax appears to be the same as westwood, leastways their website is broken in exactly the same way.

Tecumseh seems to be more a parts supplier

More like Gertrag, who make gearboxes for a zillion car brands, often with common parts.

That doesnt make the car manufacturers the same, any more than Dell Sony and Apple are the same cos they use Intel processors.

[MuddyMike]

Seems they all use the same Tecumseh trans/axle. Perhaps Murray / Tecumseh are the same company as the unit was jointly named. My old Hayter 18/42 was identical under the bodywork in every way to a neighbours Countax machine, so they must have both been made in the same factory at some point.

Mike

[Andy Dingley]

Toro was one of the ones I was thinking of. MTD are now very closely linked to them, although they're still privately owned. The ranges are pretty much merged - MTD make the cheap stuff, Toro the bigger stuff, but they sell each one's products under each one's brands and there's component swap over in the middle. Between this conglomerate and the other one, the two have some huge fraction of the US & Aus markets, which is a huge fraction of the world market. John Deere, although big in tractors, are nowhere in comparison for walk-behinds. Husqvarna are big in Europe, but not in the USA, and that's just a bigger market.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I would get a leccy for that frankly. Mains one.need about 2Kw to mow a decent 12" strip.

Heck you could cut that one with an electric razor on one charge.. :-)

Or a pair of scissors.

I use the pushalong Hayter for a raised section of that size. But only because I already have it.

And I cant be arsed to get the ride on out if that's all that needs doing.

[MM]

Stones!!! No lawn should have stones. ;)

MM

[MM]

With cable-free mowing my brain has plenty of spare capacity, thanks all the same. *ALL* cables are a friggin' nightmare. Hoover, iron, power drill -- you name it, the cable is always a PITA.

MM

[MuddyMike]

That must be from someone without kids or dogs :-)

Mike

[MM]

>>>>> Is that a sensible buy, or is there something much better out there? Also,

If one has the space, why not? Good idea.

MM

[John Rumm]

The 41cm ones are actually quite light and easy to shift about - no difficulty pushing one handed etc if needs be. A bigger one would benefit from power though.

If going for mulching, make sure to go for one with loads of power. The little 3.5hp B&S on my Hayter can't mulch. Even the 13hp in the ride on has to work hard if its at all long or wet when mulching.

Pretty much what my Hayter gets used for now - under trees, small patches of lawn without turning space etc. (another reason why the lack of self propulsion does not really matter for this kind of work)

[The Natural Philosopher]

>>>>>>>>> Is that a sensible buy, or is there something much better out there? >>>>> Also,

Or gravel paths, moles or rain..which has a tendency to wash soil down past stones in dug over flower beds..

[The Natural Philosopher]

True. I now throw it all out the side till its under control, wait two weeks and do the same again. THEN I can mulch what the worms haven't eaten.

well SWMBO insisted on making te grass patches between the raised vegetable beds too narrow for the ride on.

'I'll cut it myself, don't worry'. Fat chance.

Picturesque it may be, but at the moment its cut with a strimmer. its

100 yards away from the little mower. and is aa brute to drag it all that wau, and worse to drag it back up again afterwards.