Ref. the drive belts my mower is a twin head 42" Columbia so the belts are probably different but have a look at https://www.cromwell.co.uk/branches/portsmouth As soon as I get a squeal I back off as that was always the precursor to a snap. I missed the rear of the property on the last cut and when I went round yesterday the grass was lush and quite long in comparison to the arid stuff at the front, which is in full sunlight all day, the back isn't. First squeal and up came the blades and I then did it in about four passes to get it back down.
Vic, no jokes about squealing and backing off as it may upset the ladies who have wisely stayed clear of this so far!! lol
No rocks under my hedges as they were planted in the lawn to hide the horse paddocks fences with enough room behind them to pass the mower. I don't bother about driving on roads either. I always drive around the house via the road from my barn to the lawn at the rear as it's the most direct & flat route.
The Flymo was suggested to me by a Scot friend with golf course maintenance experience. The problem is that my hillsides have very irregular terrain surfaces and lots of ronce. The Flymo would not get the job done. Where the going gets rough and the brush has grown tough, replacing the Honda strimmer string with a blade is the only option that works.
2 years ago, for just under €2000 I bought a MTD ride-on (branded Colombia, but a standard MTD series) with a centre cutter and a B & S engine. It also has a rear grassbox.
The engine has been faultless, but since purchase I have had to replace the cutter drive belt 3 times and the cutter engagement cable also 3 times. Spares are quite expensive! I have had to remove the protective metal safety boxing around the lower front and side edges as they always vibrate terribly, shed their bolts, and even sheared off two welded-on bolting struts.
The tube from cutter deck to grassbox is constantly blocking up, so I end up using it without the grass box, which does not leave a tidy-looking lawn.
Previously I had a Husqvarna ride-on with a front cutter deck which was much better quality but cost nearly 3 times the price. Even that would break cutter drive belts at least once a year (and one year it snapped 3 of them), but overall it cut better than the MTD.
My neighbour has a little Club Cadet which never seems to give any trouble and mulches well, leaving a nice-looking lawn. But he has a lot less grass to cut than I do...
I don't really know what the budget-price answer is!
I have learned from experience not to go to close to the hedges as behind are stone walls which in places have partly collapsed leaving bloody great rocks hidden in the Grass. As for road legal i asked the salesman who also drove it around before he realised there was a road past the top of the field, his opinion yes its ok as everyone here does it as long as i dont use it to go shopping down in the town,see they do have a sense of humour. Proof of the pudding coming back earlier this year from cutting the field entering the village which is about 12 houses, more of a hamlet, who should be coming towards me but a damn police car i nearly peed my pants but they never gave me a second look, at times there are more mowers and goats on the road than cars around here, no doubt one day i will meet the jobs worth but as we aren't on a through road to anywhere its rare anyone drives through
I had a very steep garden in the UK, which the normal 4 stroke engine mower could not cope with so I bought a 2 stroke Honda engined Flymo, which I could walk down the hill swinging from side to side or tie a rope to it and let it float down then haul it up and let it go again. As this was back in the 70's I don't even know if you could get such a thing as a strimmer so this was the best way forward at the time. My Best Green petrol strimmer is not 'Best' by any stretch of the imagination and is basically crap and we have resorted to electric units. Inconvenient with the cable but at least they carry out the work they were designed for.
I have a Columbia ride on mower here but when I kept snapping belts at 27€ a go I was getting desperate as it could not cope with long and damp grass. We are near a service entrance to the autoroute and the wife managed to stop one of the grass cutting crews in our lane coming back who chopped the worst of it down for a bottle of wine and 12€, which is all we had in cash. They seemed well pleased. Bought a scythe at a Brocante with hay rake for 20€. Never used the scythe but the hay rake has been used many times as the Columbia has no grass collector. I now keep the weeds and the bit of grass mixed in with them very short, scalped in places but it will come back, and touch wood no snapping belts as in days gone by. I located a company in the UK who do the belts for half the price of here and that is Cromwell in Portsmouth https://www.cromwell.co.uk/branches/portsmouth the last two I picked up on the way from the ferry and one of those is on the mower now (all of this year) and the other is waiting in the wings to do its duty.
Worst bit is the joggling up and down as the field is bumpy and mole hilled. They seem to have cleared off since the installation of the last ultra sound device. The previous one surrendered itself to the mower blades in a quite spectacular manner. I thought I had dodged around it but failed therefore I now feel a trip to Specsavers may now be in order. Being whipped by the conifers and stung on the calfs by the nettles and brambles I have now got used to however I wish I was of a religious bent so I could enjoy the scourging but I am not and I don't.
I would take Honda over a B & S and indeed have done on many occasions when engines needed to be changed - Honda was usually the more expensive option but the machines, greens mowers & bunker rakes etc spent less time in the workshop...
When the deck goes it is not worth replacing. I just heave mine up and put a log under the back wheel to clean the deck. When I no longer have the strength it will be time to give up gardening....
Me comment? I did the lifting platform bit with mid mounted deck machines but have consigned it to the barn now. The Stiga deck is easy to clean & sharpen. 20 seconds needed to flip off the belt, pull out two clips & lift the deck vertical. Piece of the proverbial to work on. The B & S engine needless to say never needs attention ;-) Oh & I forgot to say :- for those of you in colder climes the deck comes off & can be replaced with a snow blower thing. BEAT THAT THEN !!!
You're two very sad old men! S'pose you'd be commenting on me green 'Muck Boots' on a yellow mower if I posted a pic. ;-) PS, I'll email Granddaughter with your comments. Hopefully she'll be mortified :-)
I bought a Sworn from Leclerc 17 years ago, €900 and am just scrapping it, B&S engine still going strong but the cutting deck needs welding up. OK, I spent a bit on spares, blades and belts mostly but with rigorous servicing (please, no comment from you, Vic!) the motor lasts.
No one seems to have mentioned what I think is an essential bit of kit, a Honda lifting platform that you drive over then crank up to tilt the mower and clean it properly, available everywhere, €110 odd. My replacement John Deere is hydrostatic, a vast improvement.
I agree that Honda small engines are superior, but at a price.
Very pretty John but like all mowers with mid mounted cutters you've still got to drive over & flatten the grass before the cutter reaches it & you can't mow under hedges without knocking yer wig off. My frontal cutting Stiga wins hands down in all respects. ( only my opinion of course, Cue John W ;-)) By The By, Is it road legal John 'cos if not.... Naughty , Naughty !
How much better than 'always starts, never lets me down & never breaks' do you want? Actually John, My 1981 Honda CB 750 bike has a , guess what, ... Honda engine ,which has also never had a spanner on it. I didn't choose B&S engines for my stuff, they just happened to have been born with 'em (put yer tongue back in, it's not becoming ;-) )