Mower recommendation?

We've got rather more than "medium sized" and a Hayter a model or two up from that (electric start). It's OK. I prefered the Lawnflite before it to be honest.

I never use the electric start. Crap keyswitch, and I find it quicker to pull start it than to do all the key wiggling needed to make it work.

It's far too light on the rear roller to stripe it. Probably a good thing too, as it's a bit flimsy around the rear roller and enough weight to stripe it would probably break it. If I want stripes, I'd use the 1950s (and built like a Vincent) Jaguar push mower with the geared rear rollers.

Generally though, it works and copes with a big lawn. It will even cut it over-long or wet, just not both together. Starts easily, hot or cold.Obviously it enjoys fresh petrol, but it's far from fussy.

It came from Redblade mowers near Southport. Very good people for spares and servicing.

I have a much older version of the Hayter Hunter 41 - which is similar but with 4 wheels and no roller. I bought it in the early 90's. I have a love hate relationship with it though. I suspect the modern version will fix most of the problems mine has.

On the plus side, its reliable, very easy to start (does not care if its last years petrol etc), just push the priming tit a few times more than it says on the side, pull and it starts from cold every time. Starts easily when hot or warm as well. It cuts nicely, and the height adjustment is quick and easy.

On the down side, my one blocks easily if the grass is at all damp (current reviews suggest they may have fixed that). I found I can mitigate it a bit by tweaking the carb to up the revs a bit to get some more airflow though it. The undertray is plastic, and every few years it breaks near where the back wheels attach and they fall off! Costs about £25 for the new undertray to fix it each time, again probably not a problem on current ones.

The width of cut is only tad over a foot, and the grass collection capacity is not huge, so I would not want to do a large lawn with it, but 1/4 acre or so ought to be ok.

I have a 16 year old Hayter Harrier 56, which looks basically the same as that, but probably bit bigger. It has been abused all its life but still starts easily and cuts well leaving a nice stripe on the lawn. So yes I would say that is a sensible buy.

Mike

I only like cylinder mowers. Unfortunately they are so expensive I can't afford one. My mum used to have one like this

The Amazon price for the 14 inch is a whacking £578 plus £65 delivery (sixty-five quid!!)

I reckon an entrepreneur could bring the price down considerably. Almost 600 quid for a ruddy mower! Someone is making massive profit here. What is a mower? An engine, a cylinder, a frame in which to mount them. Pretty much it, really. Don't get me started on electric mowers. The cable is a real PITA.

MM

That's incredible. I bought a new Suffolk Punch shortly after I got married and I am sure the whole thing cost about £65. It was not a good machine, catch a stone (or a stick even) and the cylinder blade bent!

Mike

IME the best place to buy is a specialist garden machinery supplier. They know the products extremely well and can recommend a model that will do exactly what you want.

Colin Bignell

=A3600 is a bit pricey but there is also and element of "you get what you pay for".

Top of the range Honda with cast iron block or chinese clone with unlined aluminium block?

Made from stamped thin sheet or decent thickness cut steel?

Again pressed from thin sheet or cast frames bolted together?

Only if you don't engage brain about how to handle it both in storage and use. See recent thread on extension cable coiling and when mowing have the cable only over the cut area and work away from the supply point.

Great places to buy if you enjoy the sensation of money being sucked out of your wallet.

The £159 mower I bought from Makro refuses to die ten years after I bought it. That's good enough for me.

Mine actually dissuaded me from buying the more expensive one I went in to buy and sold me one that was cheaper than anything in the garden centres at the time. It is still going strong a dozen years later.

Colin Bignell

Rotaries give reasonable stripey effects. With or without the rollers. Its a functon of which way the grass gets ent by the cuters.

a GOOD hayter - and they are nowhere near as good as they were, is a damned good machine. Avoid plastic bodies if possible.

My only beef with that one at a casual is that its not self propelled, and pushing a mower is hard work.

But the self props start around £450 in Hayter badges IIRC.

wait till you get a ride on. £1500 at least. For anything that lasts.

I got a Hayter R53A a year ago, for about £550. This is a self-prop petrol rotary, electric starter, and is fairly wide which with half an acre of grass to mow is important. Ally body and a Briggs & Stratton engine.

Since it mulches I don't bother with the grass bag, just shoot the cuttings out and they disappear quickly enough. Takes about 2 hours here to cut the lot.

Cutting width is 53cm, the one the OP was looking at is 41cm. Need to judge whether that matters or not.

Garden centres are profit centres in all but name..

The steel strip hoops and netting we made from steel and agricutral netting cost about 10% of the flimsy crap that the garden centre had on offer.

My ride on comes from the local John Deere center. The forecourt is full of 1000bhp earth moving and plough dragging kit. I feel almost embarrassed going to the desk for a set of cutter blades..

It's not too bad a brute really.

yeah, I am looking at that one for the 'places the ride on (48") cant reach"..

SWMBO has a chance of being able to start it.

We have 1.5 acres more or less.

my Hayterette is around 1987 vintage IIRC. BUT its a bugger to push.

How do you ever manage to walk past all those toys in the forecourt?

Colin Bignell

Notcutts have it for around a hundred quid less:

By all accounts, even the brands that were once good are pretty much junk these days and relying just on their good name to get them by - and that's not going to last forever. I went the other route and picked up an ancient s/h tractor because I knew where there was an identical one languishing as a source of spares - so every time something major breaks I've got a supply of parts on tap (and the local farm supply place still sells consumables such as blades, belts, pulleys and bearings)

Our neighbour has something that's halfway between a lawn tractor and a regular farm tractor; it's not nearly as large, but has a proper drivetrain and set of implements - I'm thinking that might be the way to go once our existing lawn tractor finally becomes unrepairable, as it lacks all the plastic-fantastic muck-metal meccano parts that seem to infest the lawn tractor end of the market.

cheers

Jules