petrol lawn mower recommendations?

[alan_m]

For me its the reverse.

60 foot garden with no wires to trail around and the petrol cuts wet longish grass with ease.

[Martin]

I've never had any regrets moving from petrol to electric. :-)

[Dave Liquorice]

That's a petrol mower in dire need of some TLC. The only time mine stalls is when rerouting a path through the normally un-mown area and encounter a solid tussock of grass. Other wise it just slows a little and deepens its exhaust note when it encounters a denser/longer area of grass. We are talking 6+" long being taken down to < 3" or so. The grass box will be full after one 30 m (very lose guess... never counted the paces) full width cut.

[Dave Liquorice]

Clogged outlet on mine just means it turns into mulching mower for a bit or leaves a trail of cut grass.

[Dave Liquorice]

Briggs & Stratten on my 18" self propelled Mountfield. 20 odd years old, Steel deck that is corroding but no holes or seriously thin bits yet. Replaced the propulsion drive cover, which had cracked and had holes punched in it from stones (moles and snow blower deposits). Which makes me wonder if a plastic deck would last long, steel just shrugs off a stone...

Have a new clutch cable for when the old one that I bodged to make work last year finally breaks. It had almost snapped and the free ends of wire where jaming in the cover. trimed them back wrapped in a thin layer of self amalgamting tape to control them, well greased, works a charm on the remaining 3 strands. B-)

Ah reminds me caught something imoveable, stalled and bent the crank shaft at the point it exited the bottom of the engine. New crankshaft required, the vibration from the imbalance was intolerable.

Self propelled is essential here, flat doesn't exist and we cut at the highest setting so there is always a fair bit of grass to push through.

Mine had a vari-speed but as I only ever use it flat out when the throttle cable end broke off I just removed it.

I guess I ought to change the oil some time, I've done it once in 20 years...

[Dave Liquorice]

A gentle leisurly pull pull restarts mine when it's anything above warm.

Mine automatically opens it's throttle to up the power it may slow down a little.

Hum, maybe I will change the oil, it's been done once in 20 years.

Mine started on fourth pull after being left in the garage for 6 months. Float chamber empty, as it showed no sign of life on the first 3 pulls and prime cycles. The just went on the fourth. The two stroke strimmer might be more interesting, thats probably been idle for 9 months.

That I will agree with. People who get in a mess with a cable aren't thinking.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Same here. I had a 3HP B&S petrol mower which was bought from Sears in the US in 1966. I used it for the last 15 years of its life, and it mostly worked fine, except the bodywork was rusting away. I had to do an engine service probably twice - mostly the carburetor needed cleaning, and once the rubber gasket needed replacing (which was still available as a spare). The silencer had long since rusted and gone, so ear protection was advisable. I liked the easy spin starting (winding up a spring, which you release to start the engine). The final end was failure of the bodywork where it supported the engine, and I had visions of the thing coming off at full power.

I was put off electric mowers because I had fixed a lot of other peoples' and knew they were crap, but this turned out to be because they mostly bought cheap flymos with short lives. The other thing was none were anything like 3HP. Went to a lawnmower centre where the guy really new his stuff, and introduced me to induction motor mowers, which don't need to be anywhere near same power as either petrol mowers or regular universal motor mowers for same cutting power. Never looked back.

[Tim+]

And is your induction motor mower cordless? I put a high value on cordlessness.

I?m sure that a decent electric mower will do a fine job, I just don?t care for the hassle of trailing cables & extensions around my garden. I?m sure someone will sing the virtues of their cordless electric mower now, but I bet they can?t recharge it as quickly as mine. ;-)

Tim

[Steve Walker]

The cheapo Champion 45 cm mower, with a 2.5HP engine, that I've just been given didn't miss a beat driving straight through patches of 12 to

15" grass, while set to cut to 2" yesterday - I couldn't raise it higher as one adjuster needs fixing.

SteveW

[Jimmy Wilkinson Knife]

Every one I've used or seen someone using requires the strength of a wei= ghtlifter to get them going in one go.

Sounds like you have a rather expensive mower.

Why do I see so many people with them in pieces cursing at them?

In the above paragraph you've demonstrated knowledge of the internal wor= kings of the engine, I've never even heard of a "float chamber". I don'= t need that for my electric mower. 240V goes in one end, blades rotate = at the other. No understanding of the motor or maintainence required at= all.

I accept it can be difficult if you have a large lawn with flowerbeds do= tted around the middle. Then plants get decapitated by the flex. In th= at case I'd get a battery mower, my friend tells me the new ones are pre= tty good.

-- =

What is it when a man talks nasty to a woman? Sexual Harassment. What is it when a woman talks nasty to a man? =A33.99 a minute.

[Martin Brown]

Strange - the farmer who has the fields adjacent to my garden has no such difficultly cutting many tens of acres. First silage cut was last week on long grass left to dry for a couple of days and when the moisture content was right baled and wrapped into silage.

Perhaps the difference is in knowing *when* and *how* to cut the grass and the right tools and height settings to use.

[Dave Liquorice]

SWMBO'd manages ours with no problem.

Nope bog standard "Mountfield" 18" self propelled rotary with Briggs & Stratton engine. AFAIK all petrol mowers have this abilty to maintain engine speed as set by the manual speed control. All done with an air vane, linkages and springs. Load goes up, engine speed drops, airflow drops, spring on vane makes it move, linkage from vane to throttle opens throttle, engine speed increases, air flow increases, vane moves against spring back into balance.

You don't need that knowledge for a petrol mower. I just happen to know it and that being the reason it didn't go the first time.

[Halmyre]

ou just ease off the work it has to do if it begins to slow down. An elect ric motor by it's very nature gives out more power when it runs slower. Oh and you don't have to maintain the bloody engine! I do love watching peop le having trouble getting them to start - they're not like cars with 4 or m ore cylinders. They have one cylinder, which means they never bloody star t. And AFAIK they use carburettors instead of injection like modern cars. If you're old enough to remember carburettors in cars, you'll know why the se should be avoided at all costs. They're like women, they get all fluste red easily and flood the engine. The only advantage people claim for petro l mowers is there's no cord to get in the way. Well that isn't a problem i f you have the slightest bit of common sense. You plug the mower in at the edge of the lawn (say your garage or house or whatever), then simply mow u p and down the lawn

at no point do you ever have to shift the cord out of the way.

Mine never fails to start, never stalls and just works. Starts with one pul l, and I'm hardly anyone's definition of Mr Universe. Maintenance; what's t hat?

[Stephen]

That was my logic too.

Daft question perhaps, but I've never had a self-propelled mower. Can it be used in non-self-propelled mode for the fiddly bits?

[Stephen]

Mine is a Bosch ARM so perhaps mine's an even older model?

Yes, I see that the new ones are steel and I've read here that people don't like them because they rust. It does seem a backward step.

[Stephen]

That's a good idea, I shall try that, thanks.

Another pet hate is that the cable is a few inches too short and always seems to be in the way, so I like the idea of a petrol one being tangle-free.

[Steve Walker]

Yes.

With mine, there are two full-width controls, which pull to the handle, so that you can grip the handle and the control together. The top one needs to be held continuously and cuts the engine if you let go. The bottom one engages drive when pulled up and disengages when released. When drive is disengaged, the mower can be pushed and pulled freely. The blade spins continuously.

SteveW

[Stephen]

You guessed right. I suppose when it's wet I put off cutting it for a dry day, so it just grows longer before I get round to it.

[Graeme]

My Honda is identical. No throttle, choke etc., just the two controls as above. Starts easily, runs well and just does the job. My wife can, and does, start it and use it, and she is a pensioner and far from 'butch'.

[Tim+]

When did a nanny state ?dead man?s handle? become the norm on mowers? So glad mine doesn?t have one. Fecking irritating things.

Tim