Our mower died - what's people's experience with mulching mowers?

if your yard is a sloped fairly steep.....you will need to get a two-stroke.....

if you use a four stroke on hills it kills them prematurely as the oil runs to the side of the sump and doesnt do its job.......
untill the mower is level again......

I receintly purchased one of the new Victa Razor 'mulch or catch' series with the victa 2 stroke motor... and the fancy handle. I am very impressed!! I was looking at the Honda's but avoided because of the price tag. As for mulching I can hardly notice without the catcher as it works so well.

I have noticed between mine and my old man's 20 yo victa 2 stroke is it seems to have some load sensing rpm on it. IE As the load or grass is longer it automatically adjusts the rpm to suit.

I have 1/2 acre to mow and it does it fine.

Cheers Rob

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Originally Posted by DEFENDERZOOK

if your yard is a sloped fairly steep.....you will need to get a two-stroke.....

if you use a four stroke on hills it kills them prematurely as the oil runs to the side of the sump and doesnt do its job.......
untill the mower is level again......

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Not if your motor has an oil pump which pressure feeds the vitals, like the Tecumseh OHV, Regards Frank.

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Originally Posted by mcrover

Buy the way the Tecumseh engine is a copy of the honda engine as far as Honda is concerned (a mate of mine works for Honda small engines and outbourd motor R&D) and from what Ive seen i'd agree but I wouldn't stake a bet on it.

I see these things everyday and have for 11 years, motors on pumps, mowers, line trimmers, chainsaws and edgers.

Anything that cuts trims or moves is used on golf courses and the thing that people don't think about is that they need to be serviced every 50 hours of use minimum and if you don't use it that much then even if you don't use it you have to run it at least every couple of months to keep every thing lubed and service at least once a year even if it hasn't done 50 hours.

Anything good you will have fork out plenty for and anything cheap will not last very long and unless you know the history don't buy a second hand one unless it's really cheap like free and you don't care if it only does a few cuts.

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I had a Tecumseh OHV engine years before honda had one on the market,
UncleHo is spot on, Hondas are overpriced crap, Regards Frank.

My experience of Hondas is with cars and bikes and I wouldn't buy either. Grossly overpriced parts, cheaply and nastily made under a pretty exterior, like Jaguars.Had two Rover mowers with Industrial B&S over the last 32 years. Most of this time they did three largish lawns, and a netball court on a regular basis.A netball court for those unfamiliar with size, is the equivalent of the average suburban block without a house, garage and paths. Never ever had to top up oil between changes in the Briggses. Only problem encountered was with the obsolete diaphragm carburettor in the earlier one. The later one (14 years old) has a float bowl carb. Wholeheartily recommend them to anyone.

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Originally Posted by DarrenR

If you have a look around on building sites (housing industry Perth WA) you will see more often than not, Honda generators, cement mixers. Robin motors also seem to have a good run.

We also used to use Honda generators on the FFR Land Rovers.
Farmers would be another good example of people that need small motors to run trouble free, any farmers here?

I've always found Honda's start/run well, parts easy to get and reasonably cheap and more tollerant if you do have to do a bodge job repair.

My mower is about 7-8 years old, my generator is 11 years old, both still start first time and don't stop until I am finished, I'd hardley call that throw away.

Best regards
DarrenR

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Darren, I used to have a few Water Tanker trucks with 3 Honda motors running pumps on each one, 1st problem with the Side Valve models was that the Valves were always sticking open, which meant no compression for starting, always had to squirt WD40 into them to get the valves unstuck. 2nd at rebuild time parts were so expensive, late 70's was cheaper to buy a Robin or Tecumseh engine to replace, 3rd the conrod (alloy) runs direct on the crankshaft, no bearing inserts and cost $90 back then the cost of rebuild was a joke, and when parked on an angle crank would run dry and stuff motor. Honda copied Tecumseh with their OHV models and didn't have the sticky valve problem anymore, dont know if OHV Hondas have Oil Pump to feed Crank like Tecumseh, your paying through the nose for the Honda name

Ah! Mowing... ;) I have a firefighting pump with a Honda motor that I've had for about a year now and I'm very impressed with the way it starts - virtually first pull after a winter in storage. But then I also have a mower with a B&S motor which I found on the property, an abandoned heap of rust, that turned out to have a smashed con-rod. Took it all apart, replaced the con-rod, did what little I could for the rest of it and it mowed my place for the next three years without problems. Probably would still be doing it now if I hadn't got lazy and bought a Victa ride-on mulch/mower with a 5HP B&S motor.
Mulching is the way to go - bugger this emptying the catcher business! - just go slow in the long bits to give it time to chew through.

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Originally Posted by Robocop

I receintly purchased one of the new Victa Razor 'mulch or catch' series with the victa 2 stroke motor... and the fancy handle. I am very impressed!! I was looking at the Honda's but avoided because of the price tag. As for mulching I can hardly notice without the catcher as it works so well.



Cheers Rob

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got one too....i will second what he says........it even has a hose attachment where you just plug in the hose to clean it when the jobs done.......

Honda, I've had a self propelled version for maybe 4 years, never misses a beat - but it doesn't like wet grass - clogs the exit chute to the catcher.

GQ

I bought a Masport mulching mower a few years ago. I was in need of a replacement mower & had just laid Sir Walter buffalo.
The Masport mulcher came top in the Choice magazine test of the mulching mowers.

It works brilliantly on dry grass but not too good when damp (like most mowers).

The only problem with using a mulching mower all the time is that the clippings don't have time to fully decompose into the lawn. If you have a very neat lawn, it will soon look scruffy.

I managed to pick up a near new regular catcher mower very cheaply & now use my mulching mower every 3rd or 4th cut.

There were combination catcher/mulcher mowers available but at the time I bought my mulcher mower, the combination types weren't rated too highly. Check them out, maybe they've improved over the last few years.