Thread: Ride on mowers - advice needed

another vote for john deere ive got a x540 and its the bomb. cost me a pretty penny but i got it to aid with my disabilities as i cant use a quad (since worked out if id moved a thumb throttle id have been ok) trust billygoat the mower has been my partner in crime for a few years now! power steering, cruise control! vtwin. only thing it lacks is a bucket LOL! but ive also dragged none running cars around with it. it pulled my broken down patrol up a gravel driveway one of those times. drag a poo scooper with it around paddocks, mows, pushed cars around with it, done tip runs with a sizable trailer on the back. normally use it morning and night to feed the horses, i jut cant get it out of the shed here and i dont have the matching trailer now its never broken down not once, well once but that was dirt in the fuel, just cleaned it out and its fine. it was a lot of dirt! silly servo! had to clean the cars tank out too! worth their weight in gold thats for sure. its well over due for a service too poor mower. next on the list!
i had a rover rancher once, brakes failed on me and i crashed into a fence. it was really, really old so did not work right at all!

Thanks Shane.
I have dibs on a Rover Rancher from the farm, a good solid mower that has been remotored so should last forever. Only problem is that it is on the farm in NSW and I live in WA. I am weighing up freighting it over vs buying something over here.

Cheers,

Originally Posted by DoubleChevron

Wow so much advice

If you keep your grass bowling green long and cut it weekly (liek some in my street) anything will do ... even a bunnings mower. The crappy American imports that have bar blades and no chassis will even be ok.

Now if your like me, and tend to have to first knock the bonnet height grass down first before you can drive over it The only thing to get it a proper aussie made mower. ie: A Cox or a Greenfield. Big single deck doesn't clog. Twin/triple decks are great for destroying cutting belts, crawling along, belts screaming, deck clogged motor stalling..... I can't be bothered with them.

Mines the last of the Aussie Made Rover Ranchers. My father bought it new... It's never even needed the cutter belt changed. The drive belts I've changed once (it has a greenfield friction disc drive .... Only it's better 'cos it's all hidden away insdie the mower so you don't wear out chains/sproclets). No diff means it won't turn for ****. I mostly turn going backwards. Diff mowers are hopeless though, you'll be forever pushing the bloody things. Don't rush out an buy a Rover though ... last time I saw one at a mower shop it was an american made piece of crap from what I could see. If you buy an aussie one, they have a design flaw, the front of the cutter deck needs an inch cut out of it before it'll cut grass properly (yeah it took me a while to clue onto that). About $30bucks for a full set of 4blades too (replaced often 'cos my "yard" has a lot of stones, sticks ......... bloody bricks last time ... brand new blades and I go out and drive straight over house bricks ... sigh ...).

seeya,
Shane L.

Originally Posted by cjc_td5

Thanks Shane.
I have dibs on a Rover Rancher from the farm, a good solid mower that has been remotored so should last forever. Only problem is that it is on the farm in NSW and I live in WA. I am weighing up freighting it over vs buying something over here.

Cheers,

They don't seem to be worth anything 2nd hand... Keep your eye out for one locally. The friction drive ones like mine probably aren't about ( How did Rover get away with that, it's almost a direct copy of the greenfield ?). Remember though, if it's one of the last of them, it'll need an inch cut out of the leading edge of the cutting deck, otherwise it "kinda" hacks the grass up rather than cut it. I have no idea why they stupidly built the deck like that ( australian safety laws at the time ?? the blade couldn't sit lower than the deck edge ?).

I'm on 4acres, much of it's very rough, but the Rover bounces (quite literally) over it no problems. I reckon I"d destroy a crappy american mower with no chassis and bar blades in no time cutting the ground here.

seeya,
Shane L.

For fun…get one of these.
Slattery Auctions - Queensland - Deutscher / / Standard Ride On - AuctionStock.com.au

They won't turn if you're going downhill or on wet grass.
Terrible cut, temperamental.

Fun though.

Spent hours on one as a kid on the farm.

Originally Posted by carjunkieanon

For fun…get one of these.
Slattery Auctions - Queensland - Deutscher / / Standard Ride On - AuctionStock.com.au

They won't turn if you're going downhill or on wet grass.
Terrible cut, temperamental.

Fun though.

Spent hours on one as a kid on the farm.

Huh ?? Anything with the Deutscher name written on it will be exceptional.... Those suckers are made in Ballarat after all. If I could find one of there walk behind slashers cheaply I'd buy it in a heartbeat. That one shown above should do an excellent job at cutting grass if the blades are good. Why did yours cut terribly Nothing should cut better than one of those pre-regulation "open front" cutter decks

seeya,
Shane L.

Originally Posted by Epic_Dragon

another vote for john deere ive got a x540 and its the bomb.

I'd highly recommend John Deere also and just about everybody in the area where I live use them too. Very powerful, long lived and robust. They all cop a flogging with rough ground and phallerus lawns. I have the X340 which had 25hp and a 54" triple blade cutting deck. I've got better things to do than sit on a single blade narrow deck all day.

Originally Posted by Slunnie

I'd highly recommend John Deere also and just about everybody in the area where I live use them too. Very powerful, long lived and robust. They all cop a flogging with rough ground and phallerus lawns. I have the X340 which had 25hp and a 54" triple blade cutting deck. I've got better things to do than sit on a single blade narrow deck all day.

umm... that's hardly your average ride on mower .... it's tractor size LOL.

yeah haha they are big mowers i squeeze mine in a lot of small places and can get around a small yard still. when i do the poo picking in the paddocks, i take the blade deck off as then ive got heaps of ground clearance. will have a poo vac to use with it before too long, so that will be another experiment haha.

i think you can get service kits for them too online? hope so, though gilbert motors in strath are always wonderful and look after their customers

you can get enclosed cabins for them too :O haha! i wonder the north/south pole could be crossed by john deere ride on mower