The Great Big Lawnmower Thread

My previous recommendation for the Stihl still stands (!), it has an integral tow hitch, but in terms of mixed mulching and collection, the Honda HF2417hme would be hard to beat, with a user operated mulch lever, no need to insert and remove mulch plugs. Currently €4800 from McHaleAgri,

https://www.mchaleagri.ie/shop/ride-on-lawnmowers/honda-hf-2417-hme/

Towing hitch is optional accessory, can be got here for €80, or the dealer might throw it in if you haggle.

A caveat about towing with hydrostatic drive mowers, the torque available to the wheels may be limited, and the mower may not be able to pull a heavily loaded trailer up a very steep slope. Manual geared mowers were better able for this, but ran the risk of flipping over if the clutch was chucked on a steep uphill. The hydrostatic drive just 'slips' or the wheels may spin if you overload it. Discuss this with the sales people.

I've been looking at these two Deezell. Am I right in saying the only difference between the 6112 and 5112 is that the first one has cruise control?

Here's the user manual for 5097. 5112,6112 and 6127

5112 doesn't have the digital display, cruise control, blade engagement button etc. It has a blade engagement switch. It doesn't have a beeps and warning sounds of the electronic dash on the 6112. It has smaller tyres than the 6112, which has the bigger balloon type tyres like the 6127. Otherwise identical.

need to find out the model number of my mccullough self propelled lawn mower , the only id on it is this ,it starts and cuts out straight away , it probably needs a new gasket but I need to know what to look for first .

thanks for that , the boss(wife) bought it a couple of years ago and she went for that one despite the fact that they had one with a honda engine for more or less the same money , anyway its probably the carb all right , I cleaned out the bowl , it was full of muck , but it probably need a full strip down and clean out , i might chance it now that i have the exploded diagram , thanks for the quick help .

Hey folks,

Ive a large garden, about 2/3rds of an acre to mow. Relatively flat, just a slight incline on one side. My current ride on is a husqvarna cth172 which I bought if the old owner of the house when we bought it. I've replaced belts, blades, carb, full bag switch, repaired deck and replaced some pulleys and done a full service but it's still a bit contrary from time to time but overall a good mower. It has a kohler courage engine which I believe is 17hp

Anyways I'm thinking of buying a new mower, don't want an automower so was looking in particular at the stiga range. Either a 2084h or 3084h - don't want a geared tractor it has to be hydrostatic that's my main thing

Has anyone any info on the mowers or any recommendations? Even better anyone sell them and take trade ins lol

Thanks,

Yeah its a good mower in fairness, the only reason I want to go for a new one is simply because it'll be mine from the word go and I can be sure all maintenance will be done properly and on time. But since getting the Husqvarna I've done alot with it, the old owner had it wrecked. Nothing wrong with it now other than a small hole on the lid of the rear collector

The woodies is a generic Hyundai mower afaik, similar to this blue Hyundai HYM510SPE which used to be in a few hardware stores like goodwins, though I've not seen it for a while.

The woodies one won't break the bank, and as long as you keep the battery charged it should function without issue, but if the electrics give issues your stuck if there's no pull cord. It's quite a heavy mower also so quite a bit of effort required when lugging it around corners and obstacles.

This aluminium deck electric start Cobra uses the Briggs and Stratton Instant electric starter with the detachable power tool type battery. https://www.lawnmowerworld.ie/product/premium-grade-cobra-mx515spbi-20-aluminium-deck-with-briggs-stratton-instart-engine/

It's much more dependable than older fixed battery systems, bring the battery in and stick it on the charger. A bit over your budget though, as is this Stiga electric start with the same B&S engine. https://www.stiga.ie/products/stiga-twinclip-55-seqb-instant-battery-start-twinclip-55seqb.html

These mowers are all too much for a small garden, the ideal solution is surely one of the better cordless mowers on the market, there are some robust models here starting at €399 for 16" cut.

https://www.lawnmowerworld.ie/product-category/battery-lawnmowers/

I see a few people using agrieuro.co.uk or .com preferrably in this thread. Is there a general consensus that these are ok to use? i.e. goods undamaged, delivered relatively quickly, easy to deal with if problems etc.

Poor pickup is most likely down to cutting too low when the lawn is overgrown. This is likely to happen if you have to borrow, as you will wait till it's quite high. When you have your own mower, you will be able to mow more frequently, but if it gets overgrown due to bad weather, away on holidays etc, you'll need to mow once at a higher setting to take it down, then go around it again at your preferred height. Tedious enough if your 2000m2/ half acre is all grass. In that respect I'd suggest a wider cut than the 19" 650v, you need a 655c model, or any larger 21 " cut self propelled. The shaft drive Weibang sounds attractive, as some mower self propelled mechanisms, especially with variable speed, are not particularly long lived. This is less an issue on a plain flat unobstructed site. I've had to repair/rebuild replace even the power drive of every mower I've ever owned, usually after only 3 + years of ownership, due to lots if start stop, slopes, trees, beds etc. Shaft drive sounds like a lifetime job.

Consider the models you've viewed, plus the top Stiga 55 svh and mid range Honda models also.

This Honda is in range of your budget, an extremely robust and reliable mower. Probably it's only shortcoming is the individual wheel height adjustment instead of single lever, but this does have the advantage that the mower stays perfectly flat as the years go by, some single lever systems wear and introduce tilt as they get old. It has a mulch lever, allowing you to quickly change from bagging on light growth to get the benefit of self fertilisation on poorer growing patches.

https://monaghanhire.com/products/honda-izy-hrg-536c9-vkeh

On a PC;

To measure an area on Google Maps, right-click on the map at your starting point and choose the Measure distance option. Add points around the location's boundary. Once you close the shape by clicking on the starting point, the Google Maps area calculator will automatically process the area of your shape.

That's about .9 of an acre. If you want a collector mower rather than a commercial zero turn, you won't do better than this top sized Stihl 6127 zl , huge 49" cut, powerful and quiet V twin engine. This mower was formerly the Viking 6127, very robust build quality, large tyres, it used to sell at over €6k, so this price here, €4950 brand new, is a great deal.

Stihl RT 6127 ZL 49" Ride On Mower https://g.co/kgs/HFmzvv

or here in Cavan, €5k

https://donegan.ie/product/stihl-rt-6127-zl

Both engines are produced in China, there's a good chance that most of the parts are pattern or generic, so easily obtained. Loncin (aka LongXin) are a vast Chinese automotive manufacturer, (Is there any other kind?). Emac are a Chinese import export conglomerate, engines could be made anywhere, with any amount of clones. Read their website caption below without laughing. I plomise you won't contain yourself.

Like anything, it's the last stage manufacturer (Weibang etc,) who impose the quality control to their standards for their mowers. Same engine with less tolerance might appear on a cheapo mower in big box shops. Apple make some of their iPhones in India, in what looks little better than female refugee camps, country of origin doesn't dictate quality, only price and profit.

You can adjust the length of the steering rod that goes to the left hand kingpin crank lever, so that when both wheels are directly forward, the steering wheel is in the centre. However, if you have severe play, you also need to check for play in the 4 small ball joints, two each end of the steering rod and two more each end of the track rod between the wheel kingpins.

Another source of play is the kingpins themselves, especially if the mower has struck a solid surface occasionally. The front axle kingpin bushings and the pressed steel housing can crack and cause the bushings to move out and get loose.

Another source of severe play due to wear is the front axle pivot bolt pin under the engine. The axle steel rotates on this without the benefit of a solid bushing, eventually the axle holes enlarge and the pin gets heavily grooved.

Grab the axle either side and rock it left right. Also grab the front wheel axles and push and pull them fore and aft, see does the wheel move back and forward relative to the chassis. You may have to buy a complete front axle, bolt and spacer, and 4 track rod balljoints, to restore that new feeling. I had to do this a long time ago after the mower was 'joyridden' by a careless young operator, hit a few trees. I got fed up welding the cracks ,they just kept reappearing, and the centre pivot was very worn. This is the best price I can find, about €107 including delivery.

https://eurosmallengineparts.ie/castelgarden-mountfield-stiga-alpina-102-122-front-axle-382034001-3

This Honda engined Castelgarden variable speed on sale at €710 will eat the rough stuff,

https://www.toolfix.ie/p/castelgarden-xs55hvw4-21-cut-self-drive-lawnmower/xs55hvw4

then haggle with your remaining €800 for a good robotic machine for the inner circle. You'll never be stuck with both, and if you tame the outer area with the CG, you could let the robot loose on it when its short, light and dry.

It would be perfect, it's recommended area is 2000m2, roughly a half acre, so your grass area is what's left after house and drive of 320m2 are subtracted. It has three features that will help cope with rougher areas, a decent top cut height of 8.5 cm, variable speed to take it slower, and that Honda GCVx 170 engine. My previous gaff was a standard bungalow bliss on a half acre, the Stiga55, an early variant of this mower with a B&S engine was ideal size, good exercise. You'll walk over 3km to mow 1600m2 with a .53m cut. If you want a bigger cut, there are a few 55cm out there, and the huge twin bladed Toro timemaster, but you're better with more power and walking speed to get the job done quicker. You can easily spend 1000-1500 on some heavier semi commercial machines, or premium brand names such as Honda, Stihl, Husqvarna, Weibang etc.

Apologies, one last query are Weibang any good, only reason i ask is the local town has a place that specialize in them. They also sell the robotic mowers, so i was thinking i could get a deal if they were anyway decent.

I have a weibang 537 shaft drive mower and have only good things to say about it, its an excellent machine for cutting in regular conditions but I bought it as I have a large area where I let the grass grow long and last year only cut this area twice. The weibang was faultless, plenty of engine power to cut the long grass and power the shaft drive never once did it struggle but I did cut the long grass when dry and use the side chute to disperse it. Its a brilliant machine, very well built, excellent value for money etc but its a very heavy mower i think about 50kgs so its a 2 man lift if ever you need to transport it.

I asked into that when I bought mine and all parts were available off the shelf, the guy showed me into the workshop and it looked to me like everything needed was readily available

the only problem with my weibang shaft drive mower is the paint peeling on the underside of the deck and the speed controller mechanism seizing just needs some wd40 after a cut otherwise it's been great .

Hi. Anyone know where this cable is meant to be connected? The black cable at the top? Ride on mower laying up for few years noticed cable loose

There are two black cables in your photo, one connected to the green multiplug, the other one on the bottom of the image just runs off the frame. Where is the wire you refer to on the top of the picture? Make of the mower also might help, image of dashboard, but its likely a black wire would be going to a chassis terminal, or providing battery negative to a switch or device, perhaps an electric clutch pull switch. Or the starter solenoid

Hi, yea it's the black wire at the top connected to green switch, it's just laying loose on engine bay, it's an older cstlegarden twin plus cut ride on mower. The loose end of the cable is grey colour

That looks like a bit of home brew wiring going on from the connector, I see what looks like a length of mains brown and blue flex in a white outer leaving it. That grey cable could be the pair up to the front headlamps? Or possibly from the rectifier ( these mowers charge the battery from a pickup coil). The headlight cable is very insecure on those mowers, always hanging off.