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Buying of ride-on mowers; UK or France?


Gudkarma
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[quote user="hoverfrog"]I remember reading that in gardening terms the french are a nation of plonkers... they have a large area of lawn and they plonk plants all over it! [/quote]

OMG that is so true - we are gradually digging up randomly planted shrubs...

Kathie

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So are Tecumseh rubbish and should I avoid them?  My immediate thought was that if it is rated at 18hp it should be fairly understressed.

I know everyone says Briggs and Stratton are okay - I've got a Mr Bricolage autotractée with a B&G engine - mind, the engine did have to go back under guarantee last year due to a carb fault!

Kathie - I have spent today chopping down a massive pampas grass in the wrong place.  I want it out.  I have it down to 30cm high and a metre plus across.  But digging it out is proving impossible.  I have a can of petrol, however.

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[quote user="Cassis"]So are Tecumseh rubbish and should I avoid them?  My immediate thought was that if it is rated at 18hp it should be fairly understressed.

I know everyone says Briggs and Stratton are okay - I've got a Mr Bricolage autotractée with a B&G engine - mind, the engine did have to go back under guarantee last year due to a carb fault!

Kathie - I have spent today chopping down a massive pampas grass in the wrong place.  I want it out.  I have it down to 30cm high and a metre plus across.  But digging it out is proving impossible.  I have a can of petrol, however.

[/quote]

Pampas grass, ugh, I think it will come back even if you use the petrol!  They're buggers to get shut of.  Seriously, never ever use petrol to light a bonfire (use diesel) - but you already know that I guess Cass?

Avoid Tecumseh engines is the general consensus of opinion whenever I make enquiries like this.  The B&S commercial range is excellent, also Honda is well spoken off, but I dont know if they have domestic / commercial ranges, I guess they must do??  But it will come down to how much you want to use the thing.  No point buying and paying way too much for something that will run all day under full load every day, if all you want to do is cut the grass once a week in the summer in 1 hr sessions.

Lawnboy is another name used to market these American made belt drive sit-ons.  I think the main company is something like AYP - American Yard Products, but Electrolux also has a big stake in there somehow.  That said, the basic design is excellent, and the built quality v.good.  I have a Roper, still going strong (just in the process of rebuilding the cutting deck) and it was made in 1989!

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Cheers, PC.  Yes, the petrol comment was a throw-away. [:)]

I'm coming round to a B&S (there isn't a lot of Honda powered machinery on offer around here).  I'm not a landscape gardener, I just want something to cut about 5000sqm once a week/fortnight so I guess you're right, there's no point getting something way beyond the job in hand.

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cassis

may i ask how much?  if you don't want to say, that's ok.  not being rude or nosey but we are moving next month and i know our land will be like a wilderness.  if you prefer to pm, that will also be appreciated

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cassis

thank you muchly!  have made a note of the model, etc.  when i told my husband you were picking yours up today, he said, "ask him how heavy it is!"  sorry, i don't think his humour is ever much above primary school grade!

but thanks for your trouble

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He may have a point [:)]

I've just borrowed the trailer from the council workshops as I wasn't sure about the width and length for fitting the mower in ours - it looked massive in the shop.

Maybe I'll have to drive it home. [:D]

PS  If you're planning on getting the same model from the same place, it's model number BM 155 H 107 EJA

Shop Code 63851598.

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cassis

i think your shop is too many miles away for us to contemplate driving it home!  but will go to the bricomarche nearer to us and, hopefully, they will order one for us if they don't have it in stock

let us know how you get on with it, won't you?  and watch that you don't tilt it more than 10 degrees, ok, because i wouldn't like to think of you under that great big machine and waving your sausagey legs in the air and unable to get up!

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I spent an hour and a half this afternoon getting to grips with the new mower.

The back meadow, which is THICK grass that we used to dread, was not a pleasure to cut - too bumpy, on a slope - but it was done in 20 minutes, used to be awful to do before and took for ever. 

I reckon we can get the total cutting time down from 8

hours with the 48cm tractée (a job we used to spread over a few days) to 1.5 hours once I get the hang of the best line to take (our

grass is not exactly in one piece - bits here and there, hedges, trees,

flower beds ... I am a convert.

Glad I borrowed the atelier remorque - it would never have fitted in ours (only 1.20 by 2.00m).  With the blades disengaged, full throttle and full forward on the autostick, however, the mower flies!  I reckon I could have driven it home after all! [:D]

It is noisier than I thought it would be, though - so thoughts of sneaking a bit of mowing in on a Sunday have been shelved.

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"It is noisier than I thought it would be, though - so thoughts of sneaking a bit of mowing in on a Sunday have been shelved."

has anyone ever had problems with this law?

Here in rural Limousin they don't seem to take a lot of notice, same for the bonfires, but I tend to be careful anyway! I have been known to cut grass on a sunday though :)

One of our neighbours works long hours mon-sat, so if he couldn't make a racket on a sunday he would never get anything done!
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