The Great Big Lawnmower Thread

Apologies if this was asked already but my XDC150HD came with a battery charger, (Basically not unlike the old style phone charger) and already has a socket just under the "bonnet" where you plug it in. I store mine in the shed all year round and never had cause to charge it (until I got water in the petrol). After last service the choke positions were changed a tiny bit. Starts even easier than before now.

You can buy the original Castlegarden charger from Genuine Castelgarden Battery Charger Kit 12V 1A - 182180190/0 €75.00 | Price includes Vat and Delivery, in Stock | Order Online Ride on Batteries / Chargers Batteries (lawnmowerpartsonline.ie)

Left my ride-on in a shed without a charger, being there untouched for 5ish months. Started no problem at all. Just saying. :-)

I am wondering if ride on is over kill for what I need. Should I be looking at robots? The bulk of my lawn is at the back with a 800m2 or so in it and I could stick a robot in there I suppose and just cut the front with my walk behind mower.

I'm not gifted with a huge amount of space for dumping clippings either, so the robot might suit better in that way. Any thoughts?

Thanks.

That's kind of true, but it ends up being the same amount of grass, whither lots of small bags or a couple of large. Its easier to spread the walk behind bag in the base of shrubs or hedging though. Going with a robot is similar to getting a mulcher, either will shred the grass into smaller pieces to leave on the ground, but I doubt the robot could cope with overgrown grass after a long break in mowing due to a long spell of bad weather or holidays, and when grass gets that long it might be preferable to bag it first cut, then return to mulching.

I've no experience of them other than spotting them at work. I pass a house where a largish Husqvarna does be out doing its thing, including the verges next to a busy road, I hope it doesn't have a wobbler and turn out in front of a car. Its a bit like the family dog wandering around. It must have the embedded cable limiters or even GPS for the road. I guess you would need to mow frequently in order not to overload it, and to make finer cuttings as it's not being picked up. It would definitely spend more time in action than a ride-on or a wide walk behind, but its all electric so no petrol/oil issues. Batteries probably good for 5+ years, but it would be interesting to check replacement battery cost, I'd say the ones for the larger robots are half the price of it.

Fair price for a 16" self propelled. If you're in the Cork/Limerick area, similar size mower is only €249, or for the larger 46cm/18" cut it's €299, Webb brand. https://www.coopsuperstores.ie/Garden/Lawnmowers/Petrol-Lawnmowers/Classic-41cm-16-Self-Propelled-Petrol-Rotary-Lawnmower-1776952

Yep been there, Honda's do seem a bit precious about the quality of petrol. One local garage sells petrol that I can't use in my Honda 2417 interestingly its the garage that has for years been the cheapest in the area. Mower mechanic says its a common problem, he even told me which garage I used. Spending a few cents extra per litre fixes the problem.

To clean out the tank if you have the problem then I find a couple of litres of Aspen fuel helps clean the carburettor out.

Edit> Just to clarify its not a problem I get from using just say 5 litres of petrol its an issue that slowly builds up over a season of using "cheap" petrol.

Hi,

A newbie to ride on lawnmowers here!!

Have a Castelgarden XDC150HD and I just bought a mulching kit for it recently. When I went to remove the original blades to replace with the mulching ones, a piece fell out onto the ground from somewhere around the spindle. For the life of me I couldn't find out where it came from - anyone know what it is? Its a semi circular shaped metal piece (see photo attached).

Also, the mulching kit came with an instruction sheet (as per the other attached photo). But I cannot understand what the bracket is for or how/where to fit it? Anyone have any ideas what this is for - or have you fitted this piece before?

Re the Woodruff key - the spare bit. Its important to stop the blade moving around the shaft. It fits in a milled out space on the blade shaft so it sticks out and the other end holds the blade boss in place.

Its a very common arrangement but this is the best diagram I could find - obviously not your mower

It will spin but will move around the shaft when there is some resistance. If there is a timing belt on the deck thats important as you'll hear the blades colliding soon enough. Even if the blades can never touch each other due to deck design you don't want the blade moving as it will wear the drive shaft the boss won't fit properly.

That mulch kit installation looks like something you add to prevent the deck from moving too far up or down (not sure which). So I guess there is an ideal deck height range for mulching and that clamp and bolt helps maintain that range. - Just a guess from the diagram.

The shaft bolt will loosen, and the blade could become detached at speed.

Yeah, that makes sense now on the deck height, ill pop that bracket on and see how it fits then! Thanks

Let us know how you get on. Would be nice to have it online for others wtf those bits actually do?

Thats your self drive gearbox. Doesn't look good. Seems to coming out of the left rear wheel drive shaft, probably a seal gone, or a cracked in the casing. These units are rarely serviceable, very expensive as a spare, but there are aliexpress copies for €100 or so. What model Honda?

If that's the hydrostatic transmission, seriously expensive, €650. Part no. 20001-VE5-A00 . The fact its oil filled and running slow suggests it is the hydro box. There are transmission variants of the HRX537, fixed speed, hydrostatic and select, possible belt pulley variaror, but the shaft gear, clutch and pinion part of these tends to be a simpler grease filled unit, whole transmission maybe in the order of €260. There's probably another few characters on the model name somewhere, i.e. HRX537-HYE which might assist in identifying the transmission type, but it does look like a hydro from the oil leak.