Battery vs petrol.

[Muddy42]

1 hour ago, openspaceman said:

Whereas fitting a pushalong  ex battery electric deck with a motor from a rusted out Honda was straightforward, 3 bolts with holes aligned.

 

Oh the irony - failed electric motor and survivor petrol engine!

[openspaceman]

1 hour ago, Muddy42 said:

 

Oh the irony - failed electric motor and survivor petrol engine!

Worse than that, motor good, battery good but control unit banjaxed and not available, all for the sake of a 10 quid control board.

 

I may make a generator from the motor from one of the many mowers I have.

 

Cells from the battery to be repurposed as a starter pack when I get revved up to do it.

[Trailoftears]

10 hours ago, pleasant said:

....and buy a spares 400 quid gearbox for it, as thats models achilles heel is drive failure on the roller models. Notoriously difficult and expensive to repair.

 

You want a mower to last 50 years with little to go wrong and build like a barn dood.....find a decent used Hayterette. Ok he will have to push it and rake up the cuttings,  but only mower i have ever dealt with that i guarantee will last that long....even when abused

I agree re: the rear roller models,but have never considered one-more weight and as you rightly point out,all too regular horribly expensive failures.Tbh,unless you are maintaining (preferably) completely level golfing greens,crown ball bowling greens etc, They're a bad buy.I notice most manufacturers recommend you push them to start the self-propulsion process!

[Trailoftears]

The kaaz/sarp decks deffo dont degrade as far as I can see,having bought a fair few 2nd hand ones going back to the legendary honda hr194,they occaisonally lose a lower deck edge piece due to  stones hitting them repeatedly over years of use which doesnt hugely affect their utility tbh+when I've bought some of these and tidied them up,they are probably 3/4/5th hand and close to 30+years old,so its to be expected really.Generally speaking,all you have to do with these extremely old honda 4 wheel mowers is replace one or 2 cables,possibly fit a new pair of clutch plates,chuck a new generic blade in+the usual service stuff-and even now,they can STILL provide good value!Oh and avoid any that have a welded repair near the deck on the bottom handles.

[Trailoftears]

Re my last post,the old honda versions-hr194's,need their drive inspected too-the rubber boots should be intact/non-split too.The advantage of the kaaz/sarp mowers seems to be a v.solid hexagonal drive shaft as opposed to the slightly more fragile honda multi splined version,also,the old hr194 engine is surprisingly small given the heavy lump its pushing along-4/4.5 hp?

[Trailoftears]

11 hours ago, Stere said:

Alu decks but they still corrode?

 

There is a italian company  that makes  mowers with stainnless steel decks or thoose honda composite ones supposedly last unless they crack?

 

[Trailoftears]

Just now, Trailoftears said:

 

Funnily enough, being younger and more optimistic than I am now-many years ago!I bought a husky 'pro' mower with an alu deck and ticked a lot of boxes re:pro use.(I can hear the forum members laughter at my stupidity from here).Now that was well weird,the shiny orange underdeck paint flaked off extremely quickly at the least attempt of cleaning.More alarmingly,the underlying surface seemed completely dusty/crumbly and you could just tell instinctively it simply had no long-term future-at all.