The Mower Bench

[Bonefishblues]

You seem to have covered all the bases quite well. Any of the options will not let you down.

 

Personally, I would go with the KAAZ 48cm. The gearbox problem is nowhere near as bad as it is reported to be, just like anything else you only hear about the ones that have gone wrong. In any case, many other mowers will have had several gearboxes before a Kaaz one fails.

 

Gearboxes have been the Achilles heel of many roller mowers. JD, Hayter and Honda all suffer regular failure of their gearboxes when used heavily.

 

It was with this in mind that Mountfield have fitted a very heavy duty cone clutch in their SP505R V and SP555R V hybrid chassis roller mowers. Although these feature a galvanised steel deck as opposed to the aluminium Kaaz, they are pretty rugged machines and come much cheaper than the Kaaz. They also carry a fantastic 5year domestic warranty, so could well be worth a look.

 

You mentioned the lack of BBC on the Weibang, but in fact there is a Legacy 48 Pro BBC model. These are well built and carry a 5 yr domestic warranty (3yr PRO!!) but are incredibly weighty at 65.5kg.

 

John Deere did used to do a 47cm roller model but dropped it through lack of volume sales. We still sell their R43RVE and R43RS models which are incredibly good, but I keep clear of selling the weighty R54RKB into heavy users at the transmission just is not up to the job and repair costs can be high.

 

I replaced sales of the R47 and R54 models with Kaaz mowers which have proved fantastic.

 

I hope this may be of some help.

Thanks, that's helpful.

 

Any love for a Viking, which looks the lightest of a weighty bunch?

[GardenKit]

Thanks, that's helpful.

 

Any love for a Viking, which looks the lightest of a weighty bunch?

To be honest, even though we now service and repair nearly 1000 mowers each year, we have only seen one Viking in the last 10years!!

So really cannot comment.

[Bonefishblues]

Not sure exactly what that means tbh

 

So few around that they are like rocking horse manure, or maybe they are just the most reliable mowers in the world!

[Richard 1234]

Not sure exactly what that means tbh

 

 

 

So few around that they are like rocking horse manure, or maybe they are just the most reliable mowers in the world!

 

 

Good mowers all round from people I know who have them. Drive issues being the main problems as with most mowers.

 

 

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[IVECOKID]

Viking mowers are excellent and very user friendly, 6 Series 4 wheeler is the dogs bollocks for wet/winter mowing.

The roller mowers very much similar but if you come across a lot of deep Moss then the tiny rear roller does not cope well otherwise excellent.

Parts and repairs cheap has chips but stay away from second hand well used mowers .

 

 

Ste

[GardenKit]

To be quite honest there are several very good brands of mower and your local dealer will likely sell one or the other.

 

So it may be best in the long term to go with the one from your local dealer. Local service, local spares etc.

[Bonefishblues]

By coincidence I was at a local dealer this morning looking at Viking and Mountfield. I think that it's one of those two, but undecided as to which one, and the price doesn't help either as they are within a few quid of each other...

[Garfield]

I have a Honda Izzy 5.5hp which I bought new looking at the plate 2004.Ran fine for 3 years then started cutting out after 5mins use.Back in the shed it went and started using older mower Mounfield with Honda engine.GV100.Put a second hand ignition coil on couple of years ago to keep it running but it has died now.Back to the Honda izzy we went and started first pull.Used about three times and started chugging and then packed up.Plug all sooted up so cleaned it and off went.Ten minutes on cut out and all sooted up again.Messed with screws,new plug etc and started again and now chugging and big back firing shooting flames.Switched off and now any idea's would be very much appreciated.I was going to have the carb off next and give it a check over.Thanks for looking.

[lurkalot]

9 hours ago, Garfield said:

I have a Honda Izzy 5.5hp which I bought new looking at the plate 2004.Ran fine for 3 years then started cutting out after 5mins use.Back in the shed it went and started using older mower Mounfield with Honda engine.GV100.Put a second hand ignition coil on couple of years ago to keep it running but it has died now.Back to the Honda izzy we went and started first pull.Used about three times and started chugging and then packed up.Plug all sooted up so cleaned it and off went.Ten minutes on cut out and all sooted up again.Messed with screws,new plug etc and started again and now chugging and big back firing shooting flames.Switched off and now any idea's would be very much appreciated.I was going to have the carb off next and give it a check over.Thanks for looking.

Just curious.   Check the tappet cover on the front of the engine isn't dented in.  If it is, it can hold a valve open slightly, causing backfiring and difficult starting.  Obvious stuff re sooting up., blocked air filter, choke sticking, carb flooding.

[Garfield]

Thanks very much for your input,some good points to look for and will be looking at the weekend.Put a new air filter on last weekend but still played up.Ended up getting out the electric flymo which took ages and I hate messing around moving cables etc.