mowandgo

I have two Honda mowers. I have been told to only use genuine honda oil. Iam not sure why any branded quality semi/fully synthetic SAE 30 would hurt. Also you can only buy it in 600ml, far more economical to buy in 5l I would have thought.

Happens all the time but thats business. I put on of my mowing jobs price up this year and was told a bloke down the road can do it cheaper. Hes welcome to it. Its a 4 hour job. I know what my van, mower & insurance cost me a year and what he was getting paid would not cover it. Theres allways some one round the corner that will do it cheaper. When I employee tradsmen I allways go for middle quote or of course word of mouth. I do not want to be paying to much also do not want a poor job or them to start cutting corners cause there rushing to finish so they make money . If people go for the cheapest they do not deserve a good job let the market deal the cards this customer deserves he will get a poor job. Never back down on price if its fair theres plenty of customers wanting great workmanship & willing to pay.

I like day rate because customers can ask for little jobs to be done here and there. I would find it hard to give prices for every little job I do. Alot of jobs I do on a price If I can eye the total work involved as mowing.

Realy? You must dig fast real fast like a badger on nitrous I could cut them and load them in that time however I doubt I could dig them.

I keep hereing of vans being broken into builders & landscapers etc. For me the only advantage of a van is security so is a pick up beter? I have always had vans I do like them. Never had a pick up and would like to here from people who have had both. Pros & Cons skys the limit ona pick up!

I like to work to a price if I can look at a job and know what time frame I can do it in. If I simply can not evaluate time acruatly I go day rate and explain the varibles I then say how many days I should think I complete the work. I work as general garden maintenance contractor on some large properties on day rate. I could be doing Trees, Gates, Fencing, Hedge Cutting, Mowing evern Jet washing. Working day rate they know if they ask ' could you just dig this holly tree out ' they are going to have a fair price for the work. There is allways a risk on your first day of work as you might sleep in the van all day or you a cowboy and customer gets a bum deal. But thats a risk when a customer employs any tradesman price or day rate. After customer has seen your a hard productive worker & there garden taking great shape there happy for you to keep coming back at a knowen cost. I was asked to remove 12 6' leylandi hedge plants with a good deal of die back plus roots & replant with lorrel. To chop with saw & load in van was easy to price. however to remove the stumps rotovate & compost for replanting is a little harder to be honest I have no F*****g idear what it will take if the grounds hard & roots are a b***h who knows. Iam still thinking what to put on it now I might say 3 days but might be done in 2. That means my price could be out by a 3rd or 33.33333% lol.

I run a Peugeot 2.2hdi lwb cause its fwd I get around 33mpg which is great for a big one. I do not carry an awful lot of weight just mowers, hand tools, and hedge cutters strimmers ect. lots of little tools. What I would be interested to know is mapping worth doing its around £350 I wonder if you get any factual improvement in mpg? I also run on v power or ultimate which my computer tells me mpg increases 2-3mpg. I think the computers fairly accurate from my own maths in the past.

I have allways wonderd about oil. I was told big difference between mineral & semi synthetic. The difference between semi & full synthetic is not so great. I have ran lots of oils & seen in side a few 2 stroke engines. I have not much to report to be honest. I use oregon semi synthetic or stihl super. I rate them both highly. I do not think red stihl mineral oil is as good as super green. Its fine for home gardening. But for thrashing hard all day long you need semi. I have never had a problem with coke build up and only run 50-1. I have never tried Stihl ultra cause of the price. you can only buy it in 1 litre tubs too.

All the computers what put me off modern vehicles. I fancy an old 2wd pick up. Its distinctive for sing writing. An old VW transporter or somthing. I do ask the question how many mornings a year would I be late due too break downs. Fair play to you boys for running older motors I like to see older motors being worked on the road : )

Heard alot bad about new vehicles being over complex with electrics high tolerences to achive higher mpg. Going bang and over running garages with mechanics hunting down never ending electrical faults. Also black boxes to monitor dangerous driving & location on some vehicles. The above puts me off a new one. I realy like the simplicity of old vehicles. Rust worries me the most with older motors. The look beter & drive beter as you feel closer the elements Imo. Does any one on here work an older motor every day? Be great to here from your experinces : )

I have a 2007 Peugeot Boxer I bought it. I own it I can leave the dog in the van all day, crash into gate posts, rack it out, sign write it, paint it, cut holes in it, chip engine, fill it with grass, old fence panels & wire, I can ram my mates at traffic lights, drive it miles and miles. Cause its mine. Ok its done 190,000 miles and 8 years old. I keep it looking smart mechanics bills are lower than lease price a year and I paid penuts for it so theres not depresiasion. Its dam reliable more so than most vehicles I have had. I drives like new and mostly done motorway miles before i owned it. you could not guess it done so many miles. I have heard lots of horrier stories about lease vehicles getting big bills through being worked as in people going over milage & scratches on body work. When my van dies some one will buy it of ebay for spares & repairs & will get another newish high milage van. A lease van is around £250 month or £3,000 a year thats £15,000 in 5 years. My van lasts 2 years I have allready saved a fourtune. The only disadvantage I have to drive an older vehicle as long as its smart & clean It does not mater to me! Not for everyone but the way I have allways done it. : )

I have always liked front wheel drive vans. I have a Peugeot Boxer LWB and I love it. Loads of space good mpg easy to drive & park, low floor, i use it for my everday wheels and its good on motorway. A rear wheel drive pick up is great for towing chippers and loading chip & brush, logs, tree stumps. However I do more general garden maintenance & find I need ground work tools, mowers, brush cutter, hedge cutters ladders and hand tools. So a pick up ant for me! I also find evern with modern electric over run computer control modern 4x4 still have crap mpg & all the 4x4 I have seen apart from unimogs have very small loading space. There is more space in my cab than you get in the back of a landrover defender or hilux. I find vivaro or t5 size to small too. Its gotta be boxer, master, sprinter, iveco or ( old transit ) for me.

I used to have a Victa 2 stroke mower with swing blades. It made an awsome sound, went through any thing you through at it. however it was very thirsty & had no self drive. I did like it & with a bit of modern development it would be great also Iam a big 2 stroke fan! On the 537 it has a rubber matt that drags behind this makes a slight strip. Its never going to be as good as a roller turing over the grass & dissplacing most of mower wieght on the ground. Regards mulching I have only had 537 this season and recently learnt one reason why its so good at mulching the hydro drive alows it to move at any sleep so you can mover very slowly over thick grass and it has time to chop it to almost nothing. Speed it up it chokes and gets messy. I think hydro drive is amazing for mulching you have complete control over cut quality & speed & shes 6.5hp so its got some grunt! The more i use it the more i like it!

I think £80 a day is good with zero overheads however with travelling & saw sulpied & running all day that price can drop low. In my experience knowledge is the most valuble thing you can take from a days work and it takes years to build up. If your learning alot its worth taking a hit. If your not learning I would say your wasting your time. With knowledge & experince you will devolp great skills and be worth alot as an employee word will get round too. Clearly speed is a big factor with production you should be safe & productive. Keep learning & working it will come. Arb talk is great source of knowledge too lol.

I have a Honda HRX 537 HY. I think its great at mulching and it has a gate you can open and close for collecting or muclhing! I had a stiga for a short while and it was not much good and put me off mulching. I find mulching only works in dry short grass and you can adjust hydro lever for wheel speed which you can slow down & mulch to a good quality cut or speed up for collecting and it does go very fast with retaing cut quality! I like it and would recomend!

I bought the strimmer version in November 2014. I use it for strimming, Hedge Cutting & Polesawing. I love it all the diss advantages of the 4 mix have gone. It revs lovely, easy to start, very light & no valves. I have done a fair bit of work with it but think I should wait a years service before I coment about reliability. It has not missed a beat yet great machine. lots of power economical as any small engine. I never use the throtle stop wheel thing as I just simply pull trigger to desired revs for job in hand. I thinks its there to show the E.U. that they have thought about emision control. I would buy another one tomorrow its very simalar to husqvarna 327 ldx. Differences are higher vibs feels a little more robust than husqy beter dealer back up with the stihl. However husqy still very good and makes 4 mix seem medievil!

Here is my Makita DCS 520. 18 inch bar. I realy like it. Seems very powerful for a 50cc 18 inch bar. You can tell its well made its built with to suvive a nuclear bomb. It is on the heavy side of life you do not want to go fast snedding with it. For felling & fire wood ect. Its great very torque motor. The sprocket on the clutch end is pretty worn where does one go for makita or dolmar parts?

Hi guys heres my facebook pagehttps://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=412843375459197 Mow & Go Garden Maintenance Contractors. Based in East Sussex.

I do need some one good with words & spelling Iam awful at such things deffently retarded with academics! Iam going to get text re written too. Very imporrant to have good site thesse days!

Mines just been refreshed! by a mate who does web sites & computer stuff for a living. Mow & Go Gardening Services Needs abit of tweeking but mostly there!

I use a tirfor winch, axe & labourer. I have been picking up more stump removals the biggest problem is you have a big heavy stump to get rid of. Maybe should start looking for a grinder. I am still saving for a chipper. All depends what jobs come in I guess! A Green Mech CS100 would be going out all the time. A grinder once a month or less!

I strimmed a dead rabbit once. First I tasted fur then it stank I reached. I found the customers hose which was miles away then I had a clean up. I did not feel right until I had a shower later that evening. That cant be helped dog crap can. I never have strimmed paint i bet its funny

I was on a hedge cutting/clearing job recently and there was dog feaces all over the show on paths on lawn ect. I decided to clear it up because if not it gets on your boot goes up and down ladder rungs all over builders bags. The property was in a nice part of town. Its all part of the job but I think the customer should clear it up. They should not expect some one to work in dog feaces and take more care with there garden. I come across it alot mowing and strimming it is far the most terrible experince I have had as a gardener. Do you guys have any dog feaces policys?

The closest nieghbor I do there hedges and lawn I let them park there trailer in the field and get on resonably well with them and feel they would ask me to calm down the fire if they got anoyed with it. The other property is 300 yards away and they have loads of junk laying about and have fires themselfs. I simply do not know who it was I would allways perfer them to ask me first to calm fire down rather than straight to the council I am very aproachable and polite and would always listen. I only burn around once a month ocasonaly twice maybe. I might knock the fires on the head keep every one happy time for me to buy a CS 100.

Thanks for the input guys. I did not think I was doing anything particuly bad as alot of fencing/landscapers/builders yards around my way have fires and somtimes with awful black smoke. I allways thought burning cuttings was c02 netrul forest fires happend way before man invented fire and the planet ways fine before that happend. I allways try to burn hot and dry fires to reduce smoke it is more challenging this time of year. Also my nearest composting site is around 10-15 miles away. The diesel burnt travelling there would be more harmful than burning a leaf and a twig. Allso the composting site uses a machine to chip the waste this would burn more diesel. The ash whats left I use as potash.