I'm looking for a good used 2-stroke hover mower to cope with a steep grassed bank, but I can't find anything that lists and describes the old Flymo models. The models that I've seen on fleabay are L38, L300 and L470, and I'm guessing that the "L" denotes 2-stroke and that the number denotes cutting width. Are there any other models/manufacturers I should be considering?
They used to be the main players for hover. The Tecumseh two stroke engine is crude but bomb-proof, although it needs oil at 25:1.
More modern ones (also branded Huskvarna?) have Honda 4 stroke engines which are much nicer, but cost an arm and a leg.
There seems to be a cheaper clone, branded Cobra, with B&S engines (I guess from China).
The 4-stroke hover mowers seem to be for max slopes of 45 degrees, whereas I've got a couple of slopes that are slightly more - hence the hunt for a 2 stroke.
Some 4-stroke engines have no such limitation, I have a 4-stroke strimmer which you can point in just about any direction except totally inverted when the oil drowns the plug.
Good point. I guess that relates to the possibility of the oil pump pickup running dry, or perhaps oil sloshing around valve stems. I've probably mowed slopes up to 50 or 55 degrees with a two stroke (using a rope, from a level path at the top), but it gets fairly tricky at that point. Since you only mow steep slopes with the handle uppermost, you can design the oil sump accordingly. I suspect there is a bit of margin beyond 45 degrees, but of course you don't want to get it wrong.
The Flymo website no longer shows the Flymo hover mower I bought with a Honda 4 stroke motor. Husqvarna appear to sell an identical product. Strange! Apparently they will work on a 45 degree slop, not that I have tried.
There are 4/ tools out there now that are 'dry sump' so although they use valves (like a 4/) they get their (upper cylinder particularly) lubrication from the fuel, like a 2/.
Whilst that may go some way towards the efficiency (less over-scavenging), they are still burning oil?
Cheers, T i m
They will certainly have roller bearings for mains and big ends (like a
2 stroke) so only need a whiff of oil. I still find the lack of bore wear in modern engines astonishing having been brought up in the days when you regularly had to re-bore bikes and even cars.
So not like my old British Seagull outboard motor then (with it's 10:1 fuel/oil mix). ;-)
Funny you should mention that. Daughters 2001 1.2 Corsa brought up the EML and she used one of my BT OBS dongles and Torque app on her phone to read then reset the codes. One came back, misfire on Cyl4.
A compression test showed Cyl4 very low but was brought back in like with the others with a drop of engine oil.
I'm guessing it may be a broken ring, rather than a worn bore?
Still, it has done over 205,000 miles now ... ;-)
Cheers, T i m
My Ryobi 4-stroke power head (for strimmer, brush-cutter, hedge trimmer, pruner, etc.) seems just to rely on splash lubrication. You just put oil in the 'sump' (i.e. the bottom of the casing) up to a (very indterminate) sort of level and that's it. There doesn't seem to be any sort of pump or oil ways, it must just splash around.
Nearly all modern engines seem almost everlasting. We have a Citroen C5 and a C6 at present, both have something like 170k miles on the clock and no sign of any issues with either engine. Previous Citroens (a C5 and several XMs) were much the same, nothing ever went wrong with the engines, just required suspension maintenance and stuff like that. Modern Citroen electrics seem not too bad!
If its anything like the one I had, it won't run well/reliably in a number of orientations...
Many do that's for sure, or something else (like the electronics) write the vehicle off before the engine stops being viable to repair.
And in theory, with modern lubricants, computerised balancing and monitoring during construction and superfine tolerances (meaning a new engine hardly needs any 'breaking in'), good metallurgy / materials and reasonable treatment, nothing really *should* go wrong. ;-)
It's good when you find a engine that doesn't seem to have any flaws, that is fairly efficient (comparatively) and is easy to do the auxiliary bits on (belts, pumps, alternators and thermostats etc) and performs well.
The old 2L Pinto ticked some of those boxes (easy to work on, a 'safe engine' etc) but wasn't very economical and I think could have lubrication issues meaning it could wear out cams (like the Vauxhall Caviler engine)?
Yeah and if it was std coil springs or complex air / oil based jobbies. ;-)
I remember looking at my mates Citroen Pallas, it looked like both an electricians and plumbers nightmare! ;-)
For me the biggest negative with most cars of those days was rust and why we built the kitcar. ;-)
Cheers, T i m
Three of us were discussing them over a long and well lubricated lunch today. The guy born in 1940 started with Traction Avants and still reckons his favourite car was an SM, even though it was off the road more than it was on. I had a couple of CXs, occasionally repairs were delayed when the local specialist was called away to the local millionaire's SM. My other mate only had BXs (he has had a number of more modern vans). I never had too much problem with electrics. As you say suspension maintenance was required regularly, the other problem was rust. The engines and gearboxes always seemed bomb proof (although you might only get 200 miles out of the 65 litre tank on the petrol models).
I had one as a lend out saw/hedgecutter/strimmer and it worked well until someone melted the plastic cam.
I have a couple still and they run at 50:1 on Stihl ultra. The Husqvarna saws I had from that era originally specified 25:1.
I'll have to look but I think the l47 has a techumseh and the other an aspera.
I bought one for contract work on embankments but then the 87 storm changed the direction of business so it only came out to do five minutes on my lawn now and then.
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