Lawnmower advice needed

[bennylaird]

How does a mulcher work on the dog mines? Not the easy to shovel up ones, the ones they love to embed into the grass?

[MICKYG]

Using and old victa without the catcher and have done for 30 plus years. The trick is not to let it get to six or eight inches. Its really good and saves wasting energy, our own form of fertilizer.

Regards Mike.

[Shedhand]

How does a mulcher work on the dog mines? Not the easy to shovel up ones, the ones they love to embed into the grass?

Who cares .. I'm watching someone called Nigella on ABC tv cooking. She is a goddess...what a body....

[bennylaird]

I've sometimes noticed the stuff she cooks isn't bad either???????

[Iain]

Used to have a Bolens dedicated mulching mower that worked well, got a (forgot name, red thing) 3 in 1 which was nowhere near as good, now we just let the horses in, pity about the exhaust though.
Got a Viking ride on with a mulching plate but never get to use it so can't comment on that.

[Shedhand]

Mine's a Honda 4 stroke mulch/mower. Had it 3 years, starts 1st time everytime (even for SWMBO). Wouldn't have anything else. Vroooommmm!!

[Shannon]

OK, so I wasn't at work today so I thought I'd check it all out. I have decided on a mulch n catch type mower as you get the best of both worlds as some have said - if I let the lawn get too long, just put the catcher on.

This morning it was a choice between a rover and a victa.
This arvo it looks like a masport.
I will tell you tomorrow the outcome as I will not procrastinate over this decision....... but let me just think about that

The honda's are a nice bit of gear, but I am strecting the budget at $600 and the hondas are a couple of hundred past this point, so I won't go the extra mile for them.
Masport seems good though, 6HP, alloy chasis, metal catch flap, mag wheels, lowered, spoilers yada yada yada

thankyou all for the food for thought and opinions it helped a lot.

[Daddles]

Masport seems good though, 6HP, alloy chasis, metal catch flap, mag wheels, lowered, spoilers yada yada yada
.

Ahh, but do they have twin overhead reverse cam foxtails?

Richard

[Shannon]

You wouldn't believe it, I went ahead and bought the Masport, opened the box and the foxtail was only a SINGLE overhead cam .... needless to say I took the whole thing back for a refund

First impressions are good, couldn't use the mulch function as the grass was a bit out of control, I get to try that out this weekend.
Pretty heavy machine though, stepping up to 6hp from 3 and a bit means quite a bit of weight, but hopefully with the mulch function means no weight of catcher and grass clippings and this will even it out a little.

Cheerio.

[womble]

You wouldn't believe it, I went ahead and bought the Masport, opened the box and the foxtail was only a SINGLE overhead cam .... needless to say I took the whole thing back for a refund

First impressions are good, couldn't use the mulch function as the grass was a bit out of control, I get to try that out this weekend.
Pretty heavy machine though, stepping up to 6hp from 3 and a bit means quite a bit of weight, but hopefully with the mulch function means no weight of catcher and grass clippings and this will even it out a little.

Cheerio.

whats a bit of weight ya wuss! I miss the good old days of dragging the old mulcher up and down very steep banks to give them a cleaner cut than the whipper snipper...builds the forearms, biceps, shoulders and back!

[davo]

I went ahead and bought the Masport,...

Which model did you buy Shannon? ... and how's it going?

I've got to buy a new mower next week and am having trouble deciding ... Honda, Masport, Rover... :confused:

Does your Masport have the feature called "Smart Chute" where it sprays it out the side?

I really want a self propelled model - it's a hilly block and knocks the s*** out of me every time I mow the lawn. But the SP models seem too heavy - there's lot of trees to manoevre around - and they lack features like mulching... :confused:

Davo

[ptc]

Over here the grass grows through your boots while your
stood there
John Dere. powerfull.
but do not hit a bit of railway line like the wife did !!!!
they take a bit of getting used to.
only one speed no throttle.

[Shannon]

G'day there Davo,

I have found the Masport to be quite good. Much bigger fuel tank than the old Rover, it has a primer button which you give 3 squirts and one pull of the cord and away she goes, mulches well, good wheels.Not having to throw bucket loads of clippings away each week is high on my bonus list. This was the big advantage of a mulch n catch style mower, mulch for the most part to put the nutrients back in the ground, not having to increase landfill all the time, but on the occasions where you let the grass get out of hand, or if it has been too wet, you can throw the catcher on and still mow.
The masport does not have the side shoot though. I know that some did but from memory they were a bit more expnsive and usually did not have a "catch" option (I could be wrong though)

On the down side - It has as much vibration as my 15 y.o. Rover, being double the horsepower it is a little on the heavy side (that is in comparison to the 3hp rover though, I think most of the 5 - 6 h.p mowers are much the same). I guess for me the biggest down side has been that the cutting diameter is not in line with the wheels - meaning that when mowing to retainer walls (which I have a lot of) the cut is a wheel width away from the edge - this was my error in not seeing before I bought, and it is only a minor thing as are all of the negatives here. I also have a feeling that to buy a motor that had a cutting diameter the same width as the outside of the wheels, I would have been jumping up a fair bit in price and I was on my limit as it was. It might be something to look out for as it would be fairly handy not having to get the whipper snipper out every time you mow.

On the whole try to go to a mower place where you don't get the feeling they are peddling a certain brand, and also that they seem as though they know what they are talking about. I does make a difference. If you ask a question and they go to the mower and read the answer off the swing tag, think twice before trusting (the fact is you could have done that, and chances are you have done some prelim work like asking around on a forum, and know the basics, what you need is some knowledge that doesn't come from the box, you need experience from someone who has sold hundreds of these suckers and has had feedback, good or bad)

Brand wise - well you've read the thread, if you have the cash, I don't think anyone would disagree with me saying that Honda is the way to go, but it is quite the jump in price, my near top of the range Masport, did not even get me to entry level in Honda. You will need to look at 2 or 4 stroke, as well as 2 or 4 blade. Both personal choices, I went 4 stroke as I didn't want to stuff around with mixing oil and fuel (and also I woulld for sure mix up the 2 and 4 stroke fules and add 4 stroke to the lawnmower one day ) also 2 stroke does not have as much speed variation (basically, idle or full noise). 2 or 4 blade - I went 4 blade and I think most mulch mowers are the same as they need to be able to chop the grass finely.

Man I can ramble when I want to. This has got too be my longest post yet

Ramble off - hope it helped though, let us know on the decision.

[davo]

Thanks for the detailed comments Shannon - very useful first-hand info - hard to come by.

We have 3 mower shops in the town where I live - only one sells all the main brands Honda, Masport, Victa, Rover, MTD etc. Top of my list (based on specs) was the Masport self propelled model. When I got there, he didn't have a single Masport in stock. Said they only get them in by special order as they'd had a few problems with the blade bar. He showed me the bar which is about 18" long and goes right across the cutting deck. In the middle there's a special alloy connecting piece which is designed to break if you hit a rock so the motor isn't damaged. He said not all Masports use this design and that it does work well on smooth lawns. But they'd had a few problems with customers hitting rocks.

I live on a gravel road and rocks get thrown onto the grass all the time. I didn't know what type of blade design the Masport self propelled model uses but I didn't want any dramas. So that left the Hondas. I chose a 19" one with the GSV190 motor (6.5hp). They make the same model with the GXV160 motor (5.5hp) - a legendary motor apparently.

But I took my bathroom scales and weighed the two and the 5.5hp was 3kg heavier - that's the weight of the catcher with a bit of grass in it. As I couldn't have a self propelled model, I went for the lighter machine in a mulch version so I can mow catcherless and save pushing that extra weight up the hills. (The self propelled Honda is a dream machine - 3 speed gearbox - but it's big and heavy - would sink like a stone on my sandy soil.)

Getting back to your Masport, I wonder whether yours has the blade bar design and whether it could be contributing to the vibration you've noticed? It's a substantial piece of steel spinning on the motor - if it was out of balance, it might add a bit of vibration? Maybe it could be balanced with a few finely drilled holes?

Re the problem of not cutting close to walls, I was reading in the Masport manual that one side is designed to cut close to walls - don't remember which side it was, but you'd soon find out if you mowed in the other direction.

Anyway, I'm yet to give this new Honda a run. I'm going to let the grass grow a bit and try to find the upper limit of where this mulching thing works - ie the maximum time I can let the lawn go and not have to use the catcher.

[davo]

Thanks for the detailed comments Shannon - this first-hand kind of info is hard to come by.

We have 3 mower shops in the town where I live - only one sells all the main brands Honda, Masport, Victa, Rover, MTD etc. Top of my list (based on specs) was the Masport self propelled model. When I got there, he didn't have a single Masport in stock. Said they only get them in by special order as they'd had a few problems with the blade bar. He showed me the bar which is about 18" long and goes right across the cutting deck. In the middle there's a special alloy connecting piece which is designed to break if you hit a rock so the motor isn't damaged. He said not all Masports use this design and that it does work well on smooth lawns. But they'd had a few problems with customers hitting rocks.

I live on a gravel road and rocks get thrown onto the grass all the time. I didn't know what type of blade design the Masport self propelled model uses but I didn't want any dramas. So that left the Hondas. I chose a 19" one with the GSV190 motor (6.5hp). They make the same model with the GXV160 motor (5.5hp) - a legendary motor apparently.

But I took my bathroom scales and weighed the two and the 5.5hp was 3kg heavier - that's the weight of the catcher with a bit of grass in it. As I couldn't have a self propelled model, I went for the lighter machine in a mulch version so I can mow catcherless and save pushing that extra weight up the hills. (The self propelled Honda is a dream machine - 3 speed gearbox - but it's big and heavy - would sink like a stone on my sandy soil.)

Getting back to your Masport, I wonder whether yours has the blade bar design and whether it could be contributing to the vibration you've noticed? It's a substantial piece of steel spinning on the motor - if it was out of balance, it might add a bit of vibration? Maybe it could be balanced with a few finely drilled holes?

Re the problem of not cutting close to walls, I was reading in the Masport manual that one side is designed to cut close to walls - don't remember which side it was, but you'd soon find out if you mowed in the other direction.

Anyway, I'm yet to give this new Honda a run but I'm looking forward to not doing heavy exercise in the middle of a cloud of two stroke fumes! I'm going to let the grass grow a bit and try to find the upper limit of where this mulching thing works - ie the maximum time I can let the lawn go and not have to use the catcher.