The Great Big Lawnmower Thread

# bronkobilly is spot on. The steel fabricated boss has two punched through dimples with just enough profile to engage the blade holes, but weak enough to shear on impact. Alloy boss is rigid so a solid moulded pin would have roughly the same breaking point. And you can clearly see the pressed steel dimple circle in the blade holes, so there's nothing wrong with the Webb design, just a little cheaper maybe. A steel boss could bend from an impact, resulting in an unlevel blade. This happened my very first super cheap Murray mower I owned in 1980, I bent the boss and flattened the 'pins' when I hit a rock.

Nearly all those carbs have a float chamber with either a bolt in the bottom of it or a fuel cut off valve screwed in in place of the bolt. Take that out and the float chamber comes off and you can tip out the water then wipe out the inside of the float bowl.

Edit> when replacing float bowl check the gasket is seated correctly and do not over tighten the nut, if you do you can crush the seal and bend the bowl so it leaks fuel.

I have an old Partner 12597 ride on mower. The pulley belt has come off and I'm wondering if I can refit it without having to take off the lower deck. In other words if I tip the mower on its side can I fit it that way.

Probably 102cm cut, AGS or Seku brand maybe. 102cm were about €4500 new, 8-9 year old might be worth 1500. If its younger, worked a modest sized garden, and has no rust it would be worth it. It looks recent enough, bit of damage visible on the grass box. I assume house owner has been using it to keep the grass cut, and doesn't want the hassle of trying to sell it during a house move. If its less than 6-7 years old, its a good buy.

I got a three year old Castelgarden 102 and a pristine three piece suite for a ir£ grand (€1270) when I moved to my current abode 22 years ago. Saved the seller a lot of hassle. I used the mower for 17 years, sold it 2018 for €400, so its hard to go wrong if you get relatively good mower and a few other bits for small money. (Suite armchairs still in use elsewhere).

Is it the drive or blade belt? This diagram shows the drive belt path. If it came off the rear gearbox pulley, you should be able to drop the back cover if there's one, or lift the seat and rear wheel guards. It's not a bagger mower so should be easy. The front pulley and the tensioner/jockey pulleys at the front should be easy to get at

Thank you very much!

I was thinking it was a decent deal alright. Oh the extra stuff is not the main suite, unfortunately, but a threadmill, mahogany sleigh bed, a few drawers.

Here's the blade belt diagram. Check the length of the belt for a missing chunk of vee rubber, that's a main cause of belts leaving pulleys.

Should be possible without dropping deck, putting wheels on a few low blocks might let the deck drop lower by an extra crucial inch or so. There's sometimes retention bolts very close to the pulley which trap the belt on the blade pulleys to prevent them throwing, I can't make them out in the diagram, but these also prevent easy replacement of a belt, they have to be loosed to allow the belt between them and the edge of the pulley. Could be on the engine pulley also, they were a pain on Castelgarden ride on. After all the work you might want to use a new belt, if the old one is scarred.

Hi all. Looking for a lawnmower that will do a ~55m2 lawn. There’s a slight slope in one corner so self-propelled may be handy. Budget of about ~€300 maybe? Under if possible, but can stretch if not.

Scrolled back through this thread but unsure whether electric or petrol would be better for my use-case.

TIA!

Thanks for that @deezell , appreciate the input! I might be able to work a corded electric either. Would that increase my options?

ETA: <= 34cm should be fine also. The garden may be smaller than 55; that’s just a ballpark. Would something like this Karcher do? Or are there better alternatives in the same price range?

Ah ok, will stay away from cabled ones in that case. I update my previous post with a link to a potential cordless, but it’s a good shout to look at mower + strimmer combos.

I’ll have a look on the sites you recommended. Thanks again, appreciate it!

Can anyone recommend a petrol walk behind lawnmower for a large garden? I can`t afford a ride-on or robot so was wondering would it be a good alternative to get a large walk behind instead.

With a ride on and standard blades is there any advantage to using a deflector over a mulching plug if not collecting the grass?

Would you be able to "mulch" (not collect) slightly longer grass with the deflector and have it spread over slightly larger area?

Brilliant. Thanks for that. Makes sense.

Doing a bit work so no really space to dump the collected grass at the moment so was looking at all options.

The current weather isn't making frequent mulching cuts easy!

I'm not sure why you're quoting a post from 19 months ago for a mower that's not available from Doyles and elsewhere anymore, so should be easily avoided. Furthermore, the mower in that post had the Stiga 'own brand' (Loncin) ST170 engine, not the 675Exi, which was available with that Stiga at some earlier stage.

I know the Loncin ran at 2900 rpm in this Stiga, which rpm would have been on the downward slope of the 675 torque curve. At 2900 the 675 would have produced 3.8hp, at a more credible mid point of 2600, it would output 3.7 hp, so you're not far off quoting 3hp if yours ran at lower rpm. That's real hp, not the nutty peak figures seen in ads. You can look up the Loncin performance if you wish, its a decent economy workhorse. Perhaps for cost or other reasons Stiga stopped using 675. The B&S bankruptcy hiatus in 2020 and subsequent rescue wouldn't have helped, I've heard that some B&S engines now issuing from Pakistan are practically throwaway. Heres the torque/rpm curve for the

675Exi. Multiply Torque (ft lb) by rpm÷5252 for Hp. Multiply Hp by .746 for Kwh output.