Not another chainsaw thread... mowers this time!

[5teve]

HI Guys

As Rachaels business is getting busier and busier we see ourselves doing more and more garden tidy-ups.. our old electric mower has died... and we need to replace it.. petrol seems to be the way forward with it.. as some houses we visit have no power due to being cut off.

I have been looking at bunnings (yes i mentioned that word again) and victa and rover seem to be the fairly standard brand... but i know nothing!

Can anyone recommend a mower to go for that wont break the bank but will be fairly reliable.. and has a decent cut width.. 4 stroke would be ideal..

Thanks

Steve

[d2dave]

Steve,
You can't go past the Honda Buffalo. I own a caravan park so my mowers get a hiding and the Honda has what it takes.

Don't think that because a victa has a Honda motor it is as good. Honda make a light duty and a heavy duty engine, the light duty going on the Victa.

You will also find that the Buffalo is the mower of choice for most professional lawn mowers/gardiners.

Dave.

[austastar]

Hi,
make sure you get ball bearing wheels, not the plastic wheels running on a steel axle.
cheers

[D I]

Honda....Honda.....Honda.

I own an equipment repair business. Our bread and butter is mowers and their kin.

Yes, Honda's are very expensive....BUT...ask yourself how much money you will be making if your mower is in the shop broken.....or you are continually replacing $500 specials.

A commercial push mower in the honda range is a grand.....but look after it, you will get many many faithful years of service from it.

Feel free to PM me if you want more details.

Yes, I am a Honda dealer.... but you only have to have a look at any professional outfit in your field, and Honda's are the norm.

Rover are all manufactured in China now.....we actually closed our Rover account because of this. Victa.....well, to buy a decent Victa these days, you are still spending $700 - $800.....and it's just a domestic mower.

Make the investment now.....you wont look back.

[austastar]

Hi, (again)
When my old mower (fixed up from the tip) terminally died, I was broke and sick of having to use a crappy mower.
I was lucky having two good neighbours, one who's mower was just about dead, and the other who was sick of carting his mower backwards and forwards to the shack.
Two of us have larger lawns than the third.
The arrangement we came to was:
We go 1/3 shares each in a good professional mower.
I service it and keep it in running order.
The other chap with a large lawn pays for all the parts.
The chap with the smaller lawn stores it in his shed.
We all check oil before starting and refuel and hose down after use.

A win win win deal!

cheers

[5teve]

Hi Guys

Thanks for the replies and opinions so far..

Regarding the business Rach primarily does vacate cleaning of properties, and we get asked (more and more frequently) to sort out rough foreclosures (rubbish removal, cleaning and gardening) The gardening side isnt frequent, maybe 2 a month.. but they are quite hard gardens. Most garden based people wont touch them as they seem to want to just mow lawns and the banks dont want to pay for landscapers which is where we come in.

I would go for a honda if it was the right price but a commercial one would probably be 'too good' if there is such a thing.. with maybe 2 jobs a month (and yes it may get to more) it would take a while to justify it... but its certainly something i'll have a long hard think about.. maybe a higher end honda but not a commercial one would suit if they do such a thing?

Of the more budget versions what are the picks?

Rover is chinese now.. but with a b&S engine am i assuming the engine is also chinese under license?

Victa you still need to spend good $$ on

What about Masport also?

Sorry just trying to get enough info to get a decent informed decision made

Thanks

Steve

[5teve]

Hi, (again)
When my old mower (fixed up from the tip) terminally died, I was broke and sick of having to use a crappy mower.
I was lucky having two good neighbours, one who's mower was just about dead, and the other who was sick of carting his mower backwards and forwards to the shack.
Two of us have larger lawns than the third.
The arrangement we came to was:
We go 1/3 shares each in a good professional mower.
I service it and keep it in running order.
The other chap with a large lawn pays for all the parts.
The chap with the smaller lawn stores it in his shed.
We all check oil before starting and refuel and hose down after use.

A win win win deal!

cheers

cant do that with a business asset...

but you cant beat good neighbours.. ours are great and i'm sure would do similar.. makes living in an area so much nicer..

Steve

[Quarks]

I'll tell you about a few of the mowers I know!

21-yr old Victa 2 stroke, went ok for 17 years, then great for 4, now kaput (ignition I think, never got round to sorting it). It was replaced with a new Victa 4 stroke. It runs well, but is nowhere near as comfortable as the old one, especially at poking in & around trees, and on slopes. Between the old & new Victas, borrowed a Masport. It went ok, but I got really annoyed at the blades being a good 10mm above the bottom of the chassis - it was awful to try and push through long grass.

On the other hand, my church has "the paddock", about the size of a suburban block which is on a mowing roster. The mower there used to be a Rover 4 stroke, which, admittedly, wasn't new when it went into the shed, but rapidly deteriorated - to the point of using the oil in the sump as fast as the petrol from the tank. It's now been replaced with a second-hand commercial Honda. It would have done somewhere between 5-10 times the amount of work the Rover ever did and still just works.

[sschmez]

5teve,
a couple of tough lawns a month is more than I do and a couple of years ago I lashed out on a honda. Was a lot of money for me at the time but every time I mow now I'm glad I did it.

Took me a while to make the decision and all the time I was looking into trailers on the road to see what the mowing blokes were using ... can't remember if I actually saw anything other than a honda.

The local hire place hires out the same model as what I was thinking about buying so I spoke to them and then hired their machine for a day. It was easy to start, hot or cold .... didn't get bogged down in the rough stuff here .... and left a nice cut. Even Annette can start it easily so theres a few times that I get out of doing the grass.

Still glad I got it.

Stevo

[Ace]

Hi Guys

Thanks for the replies and opinions so far..

Regarding the business Rach primarily does vacate cleaning of properties, and we get asked (more and more frequently) to sort out rough foreclosures (rubbish removal, cleaning and gardening) The gardening side isnt frequent, maybe 2 a month.. but they are quite hard gardens. Most garden based people wont touch them as they seem to want to just mow lawns and the banks dont want to pay for landscapers which is where we come in.

I would go for a honda if it was the right price but a commercial one would probably be 'too good' if there is such a thing.. with maybe 2 jobs a month (and yes it may get to more) it would take a while to justify it... but its certainly something i'll have a long hard think about.. maybe a higher end honda but not a commercial one would suit if they do such a thing?

Of the more budget versions what are the picks?

Rover is chinese now.. but with a b&S engine am i assuming the engine is also chinese under license?

Victa you still need to spend good $$ on

What about Masport also?

Sorry just trying to get enough info to get a decent informed decision made

Thanks

Steve

Hi Steve, when i worked at M10 in Wagga during uni i was flogging everyone Masport mowers over the top of victa mowers. In the end my victa died so i put my money where my mouth is and bought a massport mower. Nearly 10yrs and many lawns later it still fires up first time and the chassis is showing know signs of wear, and its still on its original set of wheels. It has a 5hp briggs and stratton motor which is excellent, and I bought the model that has a chute in the top of it to shove branches in and chip them up.

Couldnt be happier with it.

Matt