Which mower should I buy?

A few weeks ago our aging Wheelhorse ride on mower/tractor broke down. I’m going to fix it, but right now it’s engine is in bits in the workshop awaiting parts, it’s a 1971 model and the Kohler engine spares are hard to come by.


In the meantime my lawn is out of control and I am seriously considering buying a small mower to keep on top of it.


I thought I would be able to get a little Honda engined number but the one I liked the look of in the shop was 1900 euros. I was hoping for something in the sub 400 range!


What do you have and can you recommend it?


Time for your medication James.....

Most mower salesmen are a lawn unto themselves....

I mean..it is a French, all British, FM... I might try Super-U's free ads....

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Now selling for £82 delivered in the UK. Shipping costs could be prohibitive. Try selling locally to someone with a lawn.

Plus..the river dumps a new lot of stones and junk each flood time...yup..Sheep could work...BUT..replacing/repairing mechanical bits..is a bit less likely to put me in the workhouse..than vets bills for liver fluke and foot rot..Nah,I'll just stick with the electric strimmer..Its a heavy duty one..so it can take 4 strands of steel wire..instead of that plastic thread rubbish that lasts minutes. But still..anyone out there for a nice shiny, all British (??) FLYMO TURBO.. Cheap-ish. Used once.

True but don't tell the elf and insanity inspectors ;-)

Sheep "You know what" is a lot nicer than cow or goose "You know what!"

Nor are stones. They all come pre-packed, washed and sterilised untouched by infant hands! As for sheep, well I would recommend them any day, trouble is they do you know what on the grass that we must not mention and the children might step on it, well that is if they leave their games on their tablets long enough to get outside...

Jeanette,
You need sheep - only sheep can do what you are asking for!
In the old days, they used to get the children to pick stones out of the fields and eventually they would be enough to build dry stone walls. This took several generations. These days people are in too much of a hurry and children aren't what they used to be..........

I would expect the mower not to start if -

It is not in neutral.
The deck is not fully raised.
The brake is not on,
You are not sitting on the seat.

So it is likely that there is more than one switch and they all have to be working. Quite complicated to work on if you don't have a wiring diagram. Depending on how much you value your time, it might be worth asking your local repair man.

Our friendly garage man in Wales hated it when people asked him to fix their mowers. They are definitely a job for a specialist.

Done, thanks chaps. New switch ordered too, for safety's sake.

If you have no diagram then the easiest way is by trial and error probably.Why four connectors ?

It's a case of tracing the wire and bypassing the faulty switch with a simple wire - or simply put a 'loop' around the switch, it's not pretty or profesional but it should work !

Can you not see the switch itself? The contacts & circuits are normally marked on the switch. Try to take it out of the housing & have a look. It might then be obvious.

I've cleaned the connections, I'm pretty sure the switch is knackered. I will replace it once I have determined it to be the fault, just not sure how to bypass it as it has four terminals!

It's easy enough to bypass any safety feature, just bypass it !

Bear in mind tho' that it is supposed to be a safety feature which probably has a good reason for it's existence so would it be wise to bypass it ?

Probably stating the obvious but maybe a drop of WD40 or similar woud do the trick ?

I bought the Bernhad Loisir (American Yard Products) ride on for 400, the sodding thing won't start (intermittent). I think this switch is faulty, it stops you starting it if the brake is not on or it's in gear or something like that. Anyway how do I jumper the connector so that I can dispense with it? It has 4 connections.

Apropos of nuthin...I bought a shiny new FlyMo turbo...
Last year...gotta sell.!!!!..I have no idea at all..why I imagined
it would fly ...or mo... over the bumps and rocks of my island...
It doesn't.
Anyone interested ..? Message me?
Sorry James...hope OK to butt in...

Use whatever word you want matey. Nobody ever accused me of being PC. so it sure wasn't me who complained. I actually thought the whole JC/Slope thing was funny & couldn't understand why anyone would make a fuss about it, unless of course it was to gain publicity for the complainant.