The Great Big Lawnmower Thread

celticmicky

Lawntractor wrote: »

Its probably the thermosat in the readystart system, the readystart controls the choke with a bimetal thermostat it may need replaceing or adjustment also make sure your fuel is fresh modern petrol starts to degrade after 1 month

Martin
The Husqvarna Centre Mallow

Beat me to it

Manuel

Hi All,
Just wondering if you might have some tips for a bit of amateur maintenance of my ride-on mower. I have an AMA 15.5 HP hydrostatic mower.

Lately, the blades are disengaging themselves for no apparent reason. It's as if I've flicked the switch except I haven't ... then I flick the switch to "stop the blades" (which have stopped already) and flick it again to engage them, then it cuts away for another short while and then they stop again ....

The mower isn't under any pressure at the time. It's cutting high, it's not clogged, and the collector is not full.

Hope you can help.

/M.

Poulgorm

Poulgorm wrote: »

Anybody hear of starting problems with Briggs & Stratton engines ? Bought a Hayter R53, series 675 engine, (electric start) a few months ago: very difficult to start, particularly when it gets hot. Battery wouldn't do it - nearly damaged my shoulder trying to get it to start.

Brought it back to the dealer: he told me that a lot of recent B & S engines were difficult to start: he said he has replaced coils and some electronics on a lot of them. Anyway, it is under guarantee, so all is well.

Anybody else with a similar experience?

Got the lawnmower back from the dealer today. New coil fitted. Slightest turn of the key now and it fires up. So, if you have a new Briggs & Stratton engined lawnmower and it is difficult to start, demand a new coil and your problem will (very likely) be solved.

Just to confirm, it is the ready start engine.

roman0red

Evenin All

About to pull the trigger and buy a Husqvarna PR17 AWD - Havent been able to find to many negative reviews. Decided to giv "boards" a final lash before imparting with my hard earned cash. Hav done a good bit of research and I think this might be the one - I have about an acre to mow with lots of slopes and tress so the manouverability is important


Thanks in advace for any advice

unimog1968

Hi to all, I have recently bought an Iseki sg15 with very low hours (300) it did about 30 hours a year for 10 years. But the cutting deck is kaput, totally knackered. Does anyone know where I could buy one? a cutting deck? preferably about 36-48inches stripped (as I want to galvanize it)
Many thanks,

unimog1968

Question! is galvanising a cutting deck a good idea? most things with exposed metal benefit from it. (Trailers and suchlike) Will it preserve the cutting deck from the ravages of cut grass?
Cheers.

sheelbee

Poulgorm wrote: »

Anybody hear of starting problems with Briggs & Stratton engines ? Bought a Hayter R53, series 675 engine, (electric start) a few months ago: very difficult to start, particularly when it gets hot. Battery wouldn't do it - nearly damaged my shoulder trying to get it to start.

Brought it back to the dealer: he told me that a lot of recent B & S engines were difficult to start: he said he has replaced coils and some electronics on a lot of them. Anyway, it is under guarantee, so all is well.

Anybody else with a similar experience?

This is a common fault with the 675 Series engine, any competent (Briggs) trained person would know. Replace the fancy spark plug cap with a rubber one and your sorted.

sheelbee

roman0red wrote: »

Evenin All

About to pull the trigger and buy a Husqvarna PR17 AWD - Havent been able to find to many negative reviews. Decided to giv "boards" a final lash before imparting with my hard earned cash. Hav done a good bit of research and I think this might be the one - I have about an acre to mow with lots of slopes and tress so the manouverability is important


Thanks in advace for any advice

Before you buy, establish what is the safe working angle to operate on your slopes. Most lawn tractors are between 12 and 15 degrees.
http://westcorktimes.com/home/?p=8745

sheelbee

Interesting week, my local dealer suggested I try a Zero turn and said he would do me a great deal trading in my Snapper. As I have just 2 acres to cut the prospect of reducing my work time appealed to me. Last Saturday morning my dealer dropped off a Ferris IS1500Z for demo and said he would collect it after lunch. Well, to start with there was an egg cup full of petrol in the machine !! I put 5ltrs in one of the tanks (enough for my Snapper) and proceeded to have a play, after cutting about half an acre the machine died (out of juice) That big V-Twin Kawasaki is a thirsty beast. Suffice to say I got all my lawn cut with a saving in time of 20 minutes (with more experience I could improve on that figure) but at what price ..........Close to €30 versus €8 for my Snapper. With an average of 20 cuts pa that's a whopping €440 extra. I did notice the added comfort of the ride (Suspension fitted) but with these moving parts there are no grease nipples and we all know that dust and dirt on bare metal means premature wear (more expense) I think I will stick with my Snapper....:)

unimog1968

sheelbee wrote: »

Interesting week, my local dealer suggested I try a Zero turn and said he would do me a great deal trading in my Snapper. As I have just 2 acres to cut the prospect of reducing my work time appealed to me. Last Saturday morning my dealer dropped off a Ferris IS1500Z for demo and said he would collect it after lunch. Well, to start with there was an egg cup full of petrol in the machine !! I put 5ltrs in one of the tanks (enough for my Snapper) and proceeded to have a play, after cutting about half an acre the machine died (out of juice) That big V-Twin Kawasaki is a thirsty beast. Suffice to say I got all my lawn cut with a saving in time of 20 minutes (with more experience I could improve on that figure) but at what price ..........Close to €30 versus €8 for my Snapper. With an average of 20 cuts pa that's a whopping €440 extra. I did notice the added comfort of the ride (Suspension fitted) but with these moving parts there are no grease nipples and we all know that dust and dirt on bare metal means premature wear (more expense) I think I will stick with my Snapper....:)

That sounds more like you need a diesel.

sheelbee

unimog1968 wrote: »

That sounds more like you need a diesel.

Thought about it but €11,000.00. is a little out of my league !!!

Farls

Honda 2417 is what you should look at...I can't recommend them enough and their easy enough on juice.

unimog1968

sheelbee wrote: »

Thought about it but €11,000.00. is a little out of my league !!!

Would you not be better off with a s/h diesel. I think there is/was a 2300 Iseki out front machine on Gumtree for less than £3k 4ft. cut 23hp probably no harder to run than your snapper but would run over an acre in half the time.

unimog1968

Is nobody going to say, yknow, its funny you should say that, but I just happen to have a PTO driven deck in my garage, it was freshly rebuilt years ago but never used, you can have it for cost price £100. I thought 'I have lucked in' when I found this site.

sheelbee

unimog1968 wrote: »

Would you not be better off with a s/h diesel. I think there is/was a 2300 Iseki out front machine on Gumtree for less than £3k 4ft. cut 23hp probably no harder to run than your snapper but would run over an acre in half the time.

Iseki !!! You would wait a lifetime for parts, if you could afford them.......No thanks.

unimog1968

Oh well! Just a thought.

Newgrange Warrior

I'm looking to buy and self propelled mower at present.

Any opinions on the Castelgarden XC53BSW4 mower?
-Briggs & Stratton 650 series engine
-self drive transmission
-Steel deck, large rear wheels
-53cm cutting ceck
-4in1 cutting system- mulch, collect, rear and side discharge
-60L grassbox
-Centralised height adjustments, 5 positions

http://www.croomcycles.com/content/castelgarden-xc53bsw4

Any other self propelled mower recommendations? Budget max 500.

lawn mower man

Hi Newgrange Warrior
Yes it would be a good lawnmower, i have sold a few of them this year so far no problems,
this is a new model out this year from castelgarden, and being castelgarden you will always get spare for it in years to come, and buying from a dealer you will get a very good back up service...

WHU

Hi all,
I'm in the process of looking at a new ride on. Has anyone had any recent expierence with the Partner range?

I've been looking at the P155107HRB it's on sale at the moment for €1950 http://www.partner.biz/int/products/tractors/p155107hrb/?print=true

Any thoughts on it or suggestions of something in that price range,

thanks in advance.

unimog1968

Rightoh! I have just bought a PTO driven 48in deck from ebay with the intention of fitting it to my Iseki. The Iseki deck was complete but knackered. I have had it stripped but the spindles were welded to the pulleys etc. and it has been well patched. So, onwards and upwards, the new deck is a John Deere one, it looks substantial and is PTO driven so hopefully I can make one out of the two of them. :rolleyes: However, a few things to be done before then!

slappyjoe

fryup wrote: »

its very similar to this model

Was working fine today and then all of a sudden i couldn't start it, the battery is fine, the engine on light comes on but nothing dead as a doddo

is there a starter motor for these?

Try changing the spark plug remove bonnet a
nd should be at bottom or somewhere

slappyjoe

fryup wrote: »

its very similar to this model

Was working fine today and then all of a sudden i couldn't start it, the battery is fine, the engine on light comes on but nothing dead as a doddo

is there a starter motor for these?

try replace spark plug

Looking for a petrol lawnmower for a relatively small garden. I'm setting budget at €500 max, preferably lower, but would like to buy something that will last 10+ years. Recommendations?

Newgrange Warrior

I picked up the self propelled Castelgarden XC53BSW4 mower the other week. Great at mulching.

sheelbee

Sacramento wrote: »

Looking for a petrol lawnmower for a relatively small garden. I'm setting budget at €500 max, preferably lower, but would like to buy something that will last 10+ years. Recommendations?

Try the Snapper ESPV21675.....3 in 1. Great value.

Enzo1

Hi,

Anyone else out there at their wit's end with a Husqvarna R145SV mower? Bought brand new some years ago, ~€500, and has been troublesome from day 1. Enormously difficult to start, and then impossible to re-start when hot. Brought it back to Husqvarna dealer, who told me of the 'design issues' with the Briggs & Stratton engine – dealer replaced the spark plug and lead, but the problem continues on. Carb cleaned etc., but still constant difficulty in starting. Has gotten to the stage where when you do get it going, you leave it going when emptying the grass bag, or even worse - when clearing the wet grass from the chute! Needless to say my wife can't start it - not ideal for sharing the grass-cutting load. What are my options - I've lost complete faith in it - any ideas of how to approach Husqvarna on it? Any other suggestions to fix the problem, or is it just an issue with this one?

Thanks

Enzo

Melanoma

Enzo1 wrote: »

Hi,

Anyone else out there at their wit's end with a Husqvarna R145SV mower? Bought brand new some years ago, ~€500, and has been troublesome from day 1. Enormously difficult to start, and then impossible to re-start when hot. Brought it back to Husqvarna dealer, who told me of the 'design issues' with the Briggs & Stratton engine – dealer replaced the spark plug and lead, but the problem continues on. Carb cleaned etc., but still constant difficulty in starting. Has gotten to the stage where when you do get it going, you leave it going when emptying the grass bag, or even worse - when clearing the wet grass from the chute! Needless to say my wife can't start it - not ideal for sharing the grass-cutting load. What are my options - I've lost complete faith in it - any ideas of how to approach Husqvarna on it? Any other suggestions to fix the problem, or is it just an issue with this one?

Thanks

Enzo

That is unacceptable. They should give a full refund or a 50% refund in any case. Big makers like this should value their name. I was warned on off these ones so I got a honda. It is possible to leave the engine on and have the cutting stop, so its easy to clear up. That said I got a smaller version and it has problems being a 19 inch. I have to cut at the top setting and it handles tight dense grass poor enough. It always starts first time and overall I like it but wish I'd had the money for a bigger one , 21 inch, as it makes a difference to the size of the shoot at the back allowing easier grass passage flow. BTW the engine is not the problem most like but the integration of the parts as a whole.

sheelbee

Enzo1 wrote: »

Hi,

Anyone else out there at their wit's end with a Husqvarna R145SV mower? Bought brand new some years ago, ~€500, and has been troublesome from day 1. Enormously difficult to start, and then impossible to re-start when hot. Brought it back to Husqvarna dealer, who told me of the 'design issues' with the Briggs & Stratton engine – dealer replaced the spark plug and lead, but the problem continues on. Carb cleaned etc., but still constant difficulty in starting. Has gotten to the stage where when you do get it going, you leave it going when emptying the grass bag, or even worse - when clearing the wet grass from the chute! Needless to say my wife can't start it - not ideal for sharing the grass-cutting load. What are my options - I've lost complete faith in it - any ideas of how to approach Husqvarna on it? Any other suggestions to fix the problem, or is it just an issue with this one?

Thanks

Enzo

Hi Enzo, sorry to hear you are having issues with your mower, this machine in my opinion should never have been sold in Ireland, the chute coming up from the side of the mower is never going to work in "our" conditions, ok if you are cutting dry grass but not wet. Some Briggs engines were having warm start problems but this was sorted by B&S, ask your dealer did he get a service bulletin ? If he didn't bring it to a B&S trained service dealer. By the way be very careful if unblocking the chute with the motor running (DEADLY). Best of luck and lets know how you got on..

Turnip Fish

Hi,

I've been looking for a mower for a few weeks now I've been struggling to find a well priced honda powered model.

Found this Weibang

Pros seem to be : 6HP Honda GXV engine, Aluminium deck & decent wheels.
Cons : Weibang, never heard of them

Does anyone have an opinion on this mower or brand?

Thanks,
TF.

tred

Folks, anything to watch out for in a second hand countax mower. I like the brush collector for leaves as well as if i want to cut the grass if its a bit wetter......there damn expensive new.