On Thu, 31 May 2018 12:24:47 +0100, Stephen wrote:

Hello,

Every year I say I am going to get a new mower but never get round to
it, but I feel the time has come!

I currently have a Bosch electric mower that I have had since 2001. It
says it has an induction motor and I don't know if that's the problem.
Are these the wrong type of motors for mowers? It means it is quieter
than other mowers but it is always stalling.

The blade curves up at the end and is supposed to eject the cuttings
into a box but this never works. I thought it was because the grass was
damp that it stuck together but even now when we have had all this
sunshine, the mower clogs and the motor stalls.

Would a petrol mower be less likely to stall or clog? I've never had one
before. I like the freedom of not having any wires.

I have a front garden that does not have a lawn yet but I'm not sure
what else to do with it so it may get turfed! It is roughly 10'6" x
14'8" or 3.2m x 4.5m

The main use however would be for the back garden 18' x 41' or 5.5m x
12m approx. Though I will probably put raised beds, greenhouse, etc onto
some of this in the future.

I know Honda is well thought of for small petrol engines. I see they do
two "Izy" models: one is 16" and the other 18". From what I can tell,
they use the same engine. I was looking at ones that propelled
themselves to make it easier for me. It looks as though they only have
one speed: is that an issue? The larger mower is slightly slower but I'm
guessing that is because it weighs slightly more.

The larger mower costs £100 more. Is it really worth it for an extra two
inches? If I have done my sums right, for my garden I would have to go
up it 13 times with the 16" and 12 times with the 18", so it wouldn't
save me much time. Perhaps I should save money and buy the smaller
model? Either one is wider than my current electric one.

Thanks,
Stephen.

We have a Bosch Rotak and it seems to be fine, although we currently only
have a small lawn. I don't know if you just had a bad example.

Best mower we have had was a Harry (no longer made) which had an alloy
deck and a Briggs & Stratton engine. Generally abused and ignored and it
always seemed to start and cut well.

I have found the electric mower to be much easier than petrol, though.

Cheers



Dave R
--
AMD FX-6300 in GA-990X-Gaming SLI-CF running Windows 7 Pro x64

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On 31/05/2018 17:40, David wrote:
On Thu, 31 May 2018 12:24:47 +0100, Stephen wrote:

Hello,

Every year I say I am going to get a new mower but never get round to
it, but I feel the time has come!

I currently have a Bosch electric mower that I have had since 2001. It
says it has an induction motor and I don't know if that's the problem.
Are these the wrong type of motors for mowers? It means it is quieter
than other mowers but it is always stalling.

Odd. I have used both sorts and never had an electric one stall on me.

The blade curves up at the end and is supposed to eject the cuttings
into a box but this never works. I thought it was because the grass was
damp that it stuck together but even now when we have had all this
sunshine, the mower clogs and the motor stalls.

How strange. the air flow should be sufficient to blow stuff into the
bag or whatever collection method it uses. Have you tried cleaning the
bag that the grass cuttings go into? If air can't get out then there
will not be enough air flow to carry the grass cuttings along.

Would a petrol mower be less likely to stall or clog? I've never had one
before. I like the freedom of not having any wires.

Mine is a Mountfield 18" petrol with 135cc Honda engine. It is my second
in three decades used to cut about 1/3 acre all summer long. Its
predecessor fell apart after 20 years due to petrol spills and general
wear and tear. It has only stalled on me when I tried to cut a flagstone
or edging with it and even then it sometimes cut a piece off.

I have a front garden that does not have a lawn yet but I'm not sure
what else to do with it so it may get turfed! It is roughly 10'6" x
14'8" or 3.2m x 4.5m

The main use however would be for the back garden 18' x 41' or 5.5m x
12m approx. Though I will probably put raised beds, greenhouse, etc onto
some of this in the future.

That is probably a bit small to be worth the effort of a petrol mower.
You should be able to get an electric one that works OK.

I know Honda is well thought of for small petrol engines. I see they do
two "Izy" models: one is 16" and the other 18". From what I can tell,
they use the same engine. I was looking at ones that propelled
themselves to make it easier for me. It looks as though they only have
one speed: is that an issue? The larger mower is slightly slower but I'm
guessing that is because it weighs slightly more.

The larger mower costs £100 more. Is it really worth it for an extra two
inches? If I have done my sums right, for my garden I would have to go
up it 13 times with the 16" and 12 times with the 18", so it wouldn't
save me much time. Perhaps I should save money and buy the smaller
model? Either one is wider than my current electric one.

The 18" is my choice for a moderately large set of lawns with one of
them on a fairly aggressive slope where the self propelled feature is
helpful. On the flat I don't find it all that important. YMMV

It only has one speed - sort of slow walking.

We have a Bosch Rotak and it seems to be fine, although we currently only
have a small lawn. I don't know if you just had a bad example.

Best mower we have had was a Harry (no longer made) which had an alloy
deck and a Briggs & Stratton engine. Generally abused and ignored and it
always seemed to start and cut well.

I have found the electric mower to be much easier than petrol, though.

I think it depends a lot on how you get on with things mechanical. They
are fairly simple engines and quite easy to maintain and service but if
you are having to pay someone to do that work they can become expensive.

Electric is by comparison plug and play. Try giving the grass box on
your existing one a really good spring clean and you may be surprising
at how much performance improves. Something is wrong if it jams.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

Martin Brown was thinking very hard :
Odd. I have used both sorts and never had an electric one stall on me.


Every mower, electric hover (the early orange hover machine), rotary
engined and even the current tractor and its immediate predecessor have
suffered stalls. More so in the first cuts of the season, but better as
the weather warmed up and the grass became drier. I had to be ready to
lift the hover off the grass, when I heard it labouring too much.

All those which collected grass, have suffered frequent choking with
cuttings too. Today the grass was warm and it was fairly dry - using a
14HHP tractor/mower as usual without any grass collection, it managed
to choke up it's duct around 5 times, to the point where I had to stop
and poke the duct clear with a stick. I have tried running without the
duct, but that blows the cuttings onto the drive pulleys and eventually
jams the drive system at the back axle/ diff.

On 31/05/2018 19:37, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
Martin Brown was thinking very hard :
Odd. I have used both sorts and never had an electric one stall on me.


Every mower, electric hover (the early orange hover machine), rotary
engined and even the current tractor and its immediate predecessor have
suffered stalls. More so in the first cuts of the season, but better as
the weather warmed up and the grass became drier. I had to be ready to
lift the hover off the grass, when I heard it labouring too much.

All those which collected grass, have suffered frequent choking with
cuttings too. Today the grass was warm and it was fairly dry - using a
14HHP tractor/mower as usual without any grass collection, it managed to
choke up it's duct around 5 times, to the point where I had to stop and
poke the duct clear with a stick. I have tried running without the duct,
but that blows the cuttings onto the drive pulleys and eventually jams
the drive system at the back axle/ diff.


I'm going to look at this from a very different angle.
I suspect you don't cut your grass often enough so you are cutting
longer grass.
One of the best lawns I knew was from an elderly chap who used a push
mower without a box to cut his grass. He did it every day without fail,
even if it was raining, as there was only a little growth he could just
walk the mower, no going back and forth to get it through the grass.
If you cut a couple of times a week or even more then you would find it
much easier and as you would be taking off a lot less grass every time
it would be an easy walk for both you and your mower.
Also have a look at the underside, is it clean or has it got grass built
up there which will imped the flow of air and clippings.
You are only cutting a small area and will be walking (if you cut a 12"
strip each time) less than 300 yds, so doing that 2 or 3 times a week
will only take you minutes each time and as the grass will be shorter
then you wont have to empty the box often, and you will end up with a
much better lawn.

David pretended :
You are only cutting a small area and will be walking (if you cut a 12" strip
each time) less than 300 yds, so doing that 2 or 3 times a week will only
take you minutes each time and as the grass will be shorter then you wont
have to empty the box often, and you will end up with a much better lawn.

It is usually cut around twice per week, on two consecutive days. It is
far too uneven and large to even contemplate a push mower, or really
anything less than a tractor. I went through a series of different
mower types, before arriving at a tractor. All the others simply
couldn't cope with the size of the job, it would take forever and none
survived very long. The tractor whips round so quickly, it actually
does the job with less fuel than other types I have tried. It is also
much easier on me, just driving it around.

When I first moved here, the garden was buried under bramble. I tried
electric hover, petrol hover, petrol cylinder, electric cylinder - the
size and the time needed beat them all.

On 31/05/2018 19:37, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
Martin Brown was thinking very hard :
Odd. I have used both sorts and never had an electric one stall on me.


Every mower, electric hover (the early orange hover machine), rotary
engined and even the current tractor and its immediate predecessor have
suffered stalls. More so in the first cuts of the season, but better as
the weather warmed up and the grass became drier. I had to be ready to
lift the hover off the grass, when I heard it labouring too much.

If you wait until the grass is ridiculously long before cutting it or
try to cut it when it is far too wet then yes you probably can.

All those which collected grass, have suffered frequent choking with
cuttings too. Today the grass was warm and it was fairly dry - using a
14HHP tractor/mower as usual without any grass collection, it managed to
choke up it's duct around 5 times, to the point where I had to stop and
poke the duct clear with a stick. I have tried running without the duct,
but that blows the cuttings onto the drive pulleys and eventually jams
the drive system at the back axle/ diff.

Something doesn't sound right. I sometimes have to free the grass exit
if I try to cut one more stripe than I should have done but you can hear
the tone of the motor change and see bits of grass dropping out the back
when the collection chamber is nearly full. I tend to push it a bit
close since I prefer to be at the end nearest the heap when I stop.

I blame lack of mechanical sympathy for your woes.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

After serious thinking Martin Brown wrote :
I blame lack of mechanical sympathy for your woes.

Or it could just be very tough grass and never throughly dries out. We
have a few inches of soil, under which is very heavy clay. It used to
flood in heavy rain, but I put in lots of drainage to try to help
prevent it. It usually needs a week of dry warm weather, even in the
summer, before it is fit to try to cut it - so sometimes it just has to
be left uncut. The first cut of 2018 was very delayed by the wet
weather.

Harry Bloomfield used his keyboard to write :
Or it could just be very tough grass and never throughly dries out. We have a
few inches of soil, under which is very heavy clay. It used to flood in heavy
rain, but I put in lots of drainage to try to help prevent it. It usually
needs a week of dry warm weather, even in the summer, before it is fit to try
to cut it - so sometimes it just has to be left uncut. The first cut of 2018
was very delayed by the wet weather.

...and just to confirm it is not just me...

We are away in the caravan in a three acre field. When we arrived the
farmer had just given up on trying to mow it, because his full size
tractor / mower was constantly choking up with cuttings.

Harry Bloomfield Wrote in message:
Harry Bloomfield used his keyboard to write :
Or it could just be very tough grass and never throughly dries out. We have a
few inches of soil, under which is very heavy clay. It used to flood in heavy
rain, but I put in lots of drainage to try to help prevent it. It usually
needs a week of dry warm weather, even in the summer, before it is fit to try
to cut it - so sometimes it just has to be left uncut. The first cut of 2018
was very delayed by the wet weather.

..and just to confirm it is not just me...

We are away in the caravan in a three acre field. When we arrived the
farmer had just given up on trying to mow it, because his full size
tractor / mower was constantly choking up with cuttings.


If it meant more money he'd find a way to make it work ;-)
--
Jim K


----Android NewsGroup Reader----
http://usenet.sinaapp.com/

Jim K presented the following explanation :
If it meant more money he'd find a way to make it work ;-)

I found a way to make it work - get off, stop the PTO and poke it clear
with a long stick lol

It is tedious doing mine that way, but I can understand it becoming a
real chore with 3 acres to cut.

On 31/05/2018 17:40, David wrote:


I have found the electric mower to be much easier than petrol, though.

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





--
mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

On Thu, 31 May 2018 18:23:49 +0100, Martin Brown wrote:

Mine is a Mountfield 18" petrol with 135cc Honda engine.

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-)

It has only stalled on me when I tried to cut a flagstone or edging with
it and even then it sometimes cut a piece off.

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.

The 18" is my choice for a moderately large set of lawns with one of
them on a fairly aggressive slope where the self propelled feature is
helpful. On the flat I don't find it all that important. YMMV

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.

It only has one speed - sort of slow walking.

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...
--
Cheers
Dave.

On 02/06/2018 11:18, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
Harry Bloomfield used his keyboard to write :

Or it could just be very tough grass and never throughly dries out. We
have a few inches of soil, under which is very heavy clay. It used to
flood in heavy rain, but I put in lots of drainage to try to help
prevent it. It usually needs a week of dry warm weather, even in the
summer, before it is fit to try to cut it - so sometimes it just has
to be left uncut. The first cut of 2018 was very delayed by the wet
weather.

..and just to confirm it is not just me...

We are away in the caravan in a three acre field. When we arrived the
farmer had just given up on trying to mow it, because his full size
tractor / mower was constantly choking up with cuttings.

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.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

On 31 May 2018 16:40:04 GMT, David wrote:

We have a Bosch Rotak and it seems to be fine, although we currently only
have a small lawn. I don't know if you just had a bad example.

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

Best mower we have had was a Harry (no longer made) which had an alloy
deck

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.

On Thu, 31 May 2018 18:23:49 +0100, Martin Brown
wrote:

How strange. the air flow should be sufficient to blow stuff into the
bag or whatever collection method it uses. Have you tried cleaning the
bag that the grass cuttings go into? If air can't get out then there
will not be enough air flow to carry the grass cuttings along.

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

That is probably a bit small to be worth the effort of a petrol mower.
You should be able to get an electric one that works OK.

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.