Rocket wrote:
Hi group,

Does anyone here rate Mountfield rotary mowers with the rear roller, either
push or self-propelled for professional use or should I be looking at Honda
or Hayter?

I have a Mountfield M3 rear roller about 4 years old, and I wouldn't buy
another. It's one of the worst pieces of engineering I have ever had the
misfortune to come across. An example, to tighten the handle fixing bolts
at the base end of the handle: There is an allen key bolt head outside the
handle, bolt through the handle, through the chassis and a nut on the other
side. To get to the nut you have to remove a pop-riveted on baseplate and
probably the entire rear roller mechanism. The nut should be captive, then
all you'd have to do is tighten the bolt, but it ain't, so if the bolt is
loose the nut spins round and round behind all the gubbins. That's just an
example of the lack of forethought in the engineering of the thing.

It was advertised as the first Mountfield mower to be designed using
computer aided design techniques, and it was new out at the time. My
theory is that the old guy who used to design their mowers retired and
they got some come-uppity oik straight out of University in to replace
him. Of course, engineering's not a high point of modern university
engineering courses, but he will have been taught how to use a CAD
package, and so that's how he did it. Consequently, it's a disaster.

The motor is good, though, never had any problems with it... but then
it's a B&S bolt-on.

Rant off.

Trev.

PS - you wanna buy it off me?