Thoughts on small width ride on mowers

[mowandgo]

Hi I am looking for a small width ride on mower I have lots of mowing to do next season. I love the manourverabilty and quality of cut my walk behind Honda 536 but its weaknes is its to small for some of the big 1.5 acre lawns I cut I seem to be emptying my grass box more often than im actually mowing. I have looked at etesia and snapper both are around 32 inches which is small enough for garden gates manourverabilty and loading also have over 200 litre grass boxes which is far larger than 75 litres on my Honda. I have owned and worked some terible ride on mowers before I found them to be unreliable unmanouverable and poor quality of cut. I would like to hear your experinces of rideons and find out if the snapper or etesia would be better than a Honda 536.......?

[blades]

I have a Grillo FX20 zero turn mower.... it gets into the tightest of places and has a super multching facility. I have an area of near bowling green quality lawn and this machine does a perfect job on it.... no signs of any grass left on top.

[NI Tree]

if there is one mower that has stood the test of time it is the snapper re rider ours is over is 30 years old and has stood the test of time its had a new deck and a short block, and a few other bits over time.

 

when i was 9 i hit a big stone with it the pully broke but that was all that was damadged i have seen mower with more damage hitting smaller things a 2" stick would not worry it

they simple and built like a brick, and easy to use i was driving it when i was 8 lol

 

look at you tube how manny old lawn mowers do you see still working not manny lol, let a lone one that are still made to this day over 35 years later.

[mowandgo]

I have bad experience with mulching I find leaves a mess clumps of awful grass epecaly with long grass its very hard work for me and the mower worse if grass damp and it seems to make the grass grow quicker which makes it even harder on the next visit. Also you cant cut it any shorter than 3 inches unless you cut it twice a week so I stick with collection. Maybe the grilo system is better than my experiences.

[Mortimer Firewood]

Etesia hydro 80 best small sit on mower ever made:thumbup:

[mowandgo]

Whys That? There spec is very good but untill you go to work with one you never know what a machines like. Also how much are they new I have looked on google and cant find a price for new.

[difflock]

I bough an Etesia Bahia, due to misuse and consequent damage it became unpopular, I liked it though if it was used for the type of grass it was designed to cut.

We also run 355 John Deeres, with metre wide rear discharge/mulching decks.

Small enough to be practical, as tough as old boots despite sounding like a bag of bottles.

A fabulous finish from the two blade timing belt driven deck

BUT the timing belts are the expensive weak link, very easily stripped and bloody expensive to replace.

I however cannot find a more suitable mower for our particular requirments, so despite them being an obsolete model I intend to continue running until a replacment is found.

I also bought probably one of the first FD1500 Grillo mowers in the Province, they have evolved considerably since then it appears.

Edited November 15, 2012 by difflock

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

keep it off the roots eah! thats my thoughts!

[Mortimer Firewood]

I bough an Etesia Bahia, due to misuse and consequent damage it became unpopular, I liked it though if it was used for the type of grass it was designed to cut.

We also run 355 John Deeres, with metre wide rear discharge/mulching decks.

Small enough to be practical, as tough as old boots despite sounding like a bag of bottles.

A fabulous finish from the two blade timing belt driven deck

BUT the timing belts are the expensive weak link, very easily stripped and bloody expensive to replace.

I however cannot find a more suitable mower for our particular requirments, so despite them being an obsolete model I intend to continue running until a replacment is found.

I also bought probably one of the first FD1500 Grillo mowers in the Province, they have evolved considerably since then it appears.

 

The bahia is the home owners version of the hydro 80 and there is a lot of differences. I put about 180 hours on our 80 each season and we have had it two and a half seasons all its cost extra is two blades one bent and one worn down. We get a lot of work as it all go through a garden gate and has a very tight turning circle so it does the work of three pedestrian mowers so i win a lot of work with it. Ive cut grass with the side discharge that would make our iseki struggle and it will collect very well indeed. In short it eats deers for breakfast

[Mortimer Firewood]

Whys That? There spec is very good but untill you go to work with one you never know what a machines like. Also how much are they new I have looked on google and cant find a price for new.

 

I gave 5k for ours but you can pick imports up off ebay for 4450. Ive used a lot of mowers and rate it very highly . I think with a small pedestrian a hydro 80 and hydo 100/ iseki sxg 19 you can tackle any grass in any weather. Speak to your local agent and they will give you a demo one.