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

Thanks for all the feedback guys, it was all very helpful

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.

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

It's called a govenor Rob...

Sounds like a good mower I'd buy that one.

No use getting into the who copied who argument but it was my mate at honda who told me that so it could be a company line I don't know and Ive already said that.

As for an oil pump, only the commercial Buffalos have them and can be used on nearly any angle and I know 3 Jims mowing blokes who have had them for more than 5 years 2 of which I have serviced since out of warrenty.

It was an old one which one of these guys got me to rebuild the other week which he picked up for a spare and it would be nearly 7 or 8 years old and done countless hours of work and just needed rings, piston and gudgeon pin and also runs beariings on both crank and gudgeon on the conrod.

The side valve engines of any brand will jam valves due to carbon build up on the exaust valve and that is due to not decoking regularly which is sometimes as simple as spraying decoke spray down the carbi every couple of hundred hours while the engine is running or removing the head and cleaning the valves y lapping them in.

Spraying WD40 in the engine doesn't provide lube it just allows the carbon to lap away valve guide and creat a problem which cant be fixed cheaply.

If you have a good lawn like sir walter or couch or ever kyke then a cylinder mower would be much better for appearance as rotory mowers tend to twist the grass as it cuts and makes it cuts un even SOME TIMES (depending on cutting hight).

As far as the clip no breaking down, it takes several months for clip to break down and then causes what is called black layer or in other words a layer that can be near impeneterable to water unless treated with aerating and applying wetting agents to break the surface tension.

I agree that the victor sounds great and would be a great buy for an average lawn.

I think Ive gone on enough.

l have a gardner called Mark who comes to my place the first week of the month and cuts my lawn for me for $35 whilst l am at work.

Originally Posted by cartm58

l have a gardner called Mark who comes to my place the first week of the month and cuts my lawn for me for $35 whilst l am at work.

Last time we paid someone to do that they ended up damaging the side-walls of the tyres on my Defender with their whipper snipper. After we gave them a lipful I swore I'd never do that again - let alone the hassle of locking up the dogs for the day.

we have a vertical shaft honda on an old victa chassis - the motor is about 25 years old - its a jem!

Originally Posted by cartm58

l have a gardner called Mark who comes to my place the first week of the month and cuts my lawn for me for $35 whilst l am at work.

I am with you all the way. If you take into account the rate you are paid at your job during the week plus the expenses of running a mower and the loss of leisure time plus stress, it just aint worth it.
Find someone good to do it every 3-4 weeks and enjoy your weekends.

Had a bloke cut my ex mother in laws lawns for her and our car was parked out the front.
He had his mower going flat out over the gravel driveway and it through a stone through the rear quater window in the Laser.
$180 later for the window and he tried to argue that it wasn't him, I threatened legal action and he paid up and then sent a bill for $220 for cutting 2/3s of the front lawn with a note at the bottom that legal action will be taken if not paid in 30 days.
We still haven't paid it about 11 years later.

I'll never get anyone else to cut my lawn again.