GardenKit

Firstly remove the spark arrestor, it's almost certainly the problem. 2 little screws an 2 minutes work

Could it not be as simple that the blade bolt was not sufficiently tightened on PDI by the dealer. The blade then started to spin on the bolt as can be seen from the witness marks on the blade, boss and bolt. This wore the original 10mm hole to 20mm during the 30 minutes of use. ( I have seen this on various mowers)

A new blade bar 196809 should cure the problem if I am right.

Good luck.

On 05/09/2021 at 20:17, Gav73 said:

The warranty starts the second you buy it - so if you get it at the end of season, you’re “wasting” a big chunk of the warranty. Also heard of people who bought mowers out of season and when they came to use them they wouldn’t start. Dealers were saying it was user error as they left them full of fuel over winter and the damage was not covered.

 

The Mountfield comes with a 3 year  warranty for domestic users, It really does not matter what time of year you buy one the warranty still covers 3 seasons, so no warranty is ever wasted. (sorry, just noticed that someone has already said this!)

I see James Nesbitt got just recognition for his part as Thurlow

I definately got a bit worried when I realised I definately fitted the profile for 'H'.

I would personally not be selling a 10 year old Park Compact 16 4wd for that money without a new deck, unless the original was exceptionally good. There are the odd machine that has only been used in the dry and been cleaned before garaging, but most are not and a 10 year old deck is likely to be very thin from rust. Best check it out thoroughly or you may be needing a £629 95 combi deck quite soon. Job to see from the image quality but it looks a little tatty.

9 hours ago, DevonWoodlands said:

Just to update this thread, for anyone looking for something similar in future....

 

I can't thanks Barrie (GardenKit) enough for all of his advice, and coming out to demo a mulching machine as well. In my case, with so many leaves, mulching just isn't right for me, so collecting is the way to go. Stiga didn't quite have the right machine for me this time.

 

I ended up managing to demo an Iseki 216 in my garden, and going to see a used Kubota GR1600. For me between those 2, in terms of build quality etc, the Iseki would be my choice, it really is a superb machine. It is so well built, and great features. As for its use in my garden, that's another matter however.... Not all of my leaves were collected last year, after my little Honda died, so the Iseki was tested on what I really it need it do - collect leaves, cut grass and trim wild flowers etc. Great cut on the grass and wild flowers, and it did 100% collect all the leaves, unfortunately it does such a good job at vacuuming them up, after just driving no more than 30yds, it was full!! Instead of chopping the leaves, it simply sucks them up, so the leaf mulch wasn't reduced in size one single bit. That left a real quandary as the sheer amount of leaf debris, if not reduced in size, is far too much to store. Also, the time spent emptying it so many times wouldn't work for me.

 

So that led me back to looking at other models. I came across a Husqvarna RC320Ts, which uses an auger to collect everything (and compact it all as well, so they claim). This is a domestic machine, although some do use it commercially, but getting a demo proved almost impossible. Also, at over £7k new, and no used ones out there that I could find, it was looking too pricey. The same dealer recommended I try an Alko T20 instead. Again, a domestic machine, but I know a few people using them commercially too, all very happy with it. Managed to see some incredible Youtube and FB videos of it in action also. Then went to a demo (with the dealer's parents, who have had one for 5 years on, similar acreage to mine) and brought 2 huge sacks of wet and dry leaves with me. It did a great cut on the grass, is really quite powerful for a petrol domestic mower, chopped up and collected every single leaf, and will happily mow long grass too!

 

It ticked every single box, non-timed 42" deck, cast iron front axle, tow hitch, rear deflector (optional) if I want to do 2 passes, cut and collected every single thing I needed, so deposit went down that day, delivery hopefully this week to put it to work.

 

I always knew it would be hard to find one machine to do everything I needed for my particular requirements, but this does 95%+, so I'm extremely happy. I just want to thank you all for your help and advice, it was invaluable, and I definitely recommend GardenKit for anyone in East Devon, even though he didn't have the right machine for me this time, for any other gardening needs I have, I'll be dropping him a line!

 

Thanks everyone!

Thanks for the chance to come out and demonstrate the Stiga Park machine Devon Woodlands, it was great to visit your woodland and lawns again after all these years (you will recall that I had serviced machinery for a previous owner)
I am sorry you did not feel that mulching was not right for you and I do respect your opinion that it would not leave the finish you desired.
Your massive amount of leaves is certainly a problem that many mowers will not cope with.

I do feel that a Stiga Estate collector machine would have coped very well with the leaves, but my concern was for the damage that could be caused to the timed deck when mowing the paths which were strewn with exposed roots. It would only be a matter of time before a blade chopped into a root and snapped the timing belt. The untimed decks will not suffer this damage, but I would still be very careful not to catch a root as the decks themselves can distort around the blade bearing housing making the blades cut irregularly.
It really was a pleasure meeting you and I look forward to doing some sort of business with you one day soon.
 

So... some primers have no hole, such as the ones on Briggs Sprint engines. They work by squirting the petrol in the bulb into the manifold when the primer is pushed. It refills when released and sucks fuel up. 
Some other Briggs engines, and most Chinese engines that have primers as opposed to chokes, use a primer with a hole. These work by pushing extra air pressure into the carb bowl which pushes the fuel down and up through the jets into the carb throat. They only work when your finger is over the hole, the rest of the time the hole vents the bowl. There is no way that these leak fuel unless the carb needle is jammed and the carb is flooding (as Chris said)
Some primers with holes are connected to the carb by a pipe, but others transfer air via drillings in the air filter cover.

2 hours ago, DevonWoodlands said:

Thanks so much Gardenkit, I'll add the 5092 onto my list of possibles. And great tip wrt timed decks and avoiding them.

 

Mulching - my work schedule simply doesn't allow more regular cuts, hence why I'm committed to collecting.

 

I think I'll try to give you a call over the weekend to discuss the options, thanks!

Pity about not wanting to mulch, it would save you so much time. And the Park is an incredibly well built machine. I have sold hundreds since 1989, many of which are still going strong. Hardly ever had a loose bolt, yet alone had one shake to bits. I would not use anything else.
Give me a call, I will be in the shop most of tomorrow, and even on Sunday!

Hi DevonWoodlands, welcome to the forum. And a thank you for the 'shout out' from @harvey b davison.
Firstly, to put things into perspective, the Honda HF1211 which has given you such great service was actually produced by Stiga for Honda and fitted with a Honda engine. I have just this evening delivered a new Stiga version, the 2072H.
The fact that yours has done so much work is testament to the quality of Stiga machines and as it is one of the cheapest at £1799, and one of the smallest, you can be assured that bigger and more expensive Stiga models will be better still.

You are correct that Stiga do not offer the larger and heavier duty Diesel machines such as the Iseki and Kubota, but based on the service your Stiga built Honda has given you something like the Italian built  92cm Stiga Estate 5092HW at £2799 will give you sterling service and with the 290litre collector will go further between emptying than the 170litre box on your Honda.

The 92 cm machine has a V belt drive to the blades unlike the 42" and 48" versions which have a timed deck, and with your tree roots I would keep clear of timed decks as you will inevitably have timing belt failure. So if you would prefer to only spend £2799 one of these would do the job fine.

Stiga Estate 5092 HW

But to be honest I would not contemplate cutting the amount you do with a collection mower. I would go for the super high quality Stiga Park 740PWX with 110 Combi Pro deck.

  Stiga Park 740 PWX

I know its a mulcher, but its a joy to drive and excellent around trees and paths. It leaves an excellent mulch finish although it has to be said that the best finish will be had on more frequent cuts so you may want to do your fine lawns areas a little more regularly in the fastest growing season. Your wooded areas will grow slowly and so will be fine fortnightly.
I am confident that with the increase in size and power, and without the need to stop and empty,  you could cut your mowing time to about 3 hrs a fortnight  allowing you to maybe cut a little more often in high season.

Please feel free to give me a call if you wish to discuss further

6 minutes ago, adw said:

So is it true?

If you mean your bold statement the I sincerely doubt it. If I see the spec sheets I may change my mind. It's all about the science rather than " i have it on good authority ".

1 hour ago, adw said:

I have it on good authority that the Husqvarna fuel is much purer than Aspen, I believe Aspen is made from different blends, we used Aspen until the Husqvarna fuel was made available, I am convinced there were quality issue where certain containers of Aspen would not work properly, machine hard to start and general poor running.

Wow, very bold claims ADW. I would love to see some spec sheets on the Huskie stuff.

36 minutes ago, butters said:

My blower was brand new first fuel it ever had through it was aspen. Dealer tuned it there but never seemed right. Then one day ran out of aspen so put pump petrol in and ran so much better. More power and more responsive.

I’m not a hater of aspen as I really wanted to like it as I would of swapped top handles and hedge trimmers to aspen but this has put me off slightly.

There again, it could just be an issue of tuning, even though it has been tuned it may not have been tuned quite right. Just a fraction of a turn on the screw can make all the difference.

1 minute ago, gary112 said:

I dont use Aspen,never have so don,t know about it but looking on at this thread it seems like everyone is keen to blame the machines for all the problems,now i,m not saying it,s not that, but brand new Husky machines that ran alright before he put Aspen in,now that doesn,t sound like faulty machines to me 

Fair point, but as I have said before, some machines will need a slight retune to run  well on Aspen. This is well known and well accepted.
I have been supplying new machines set up to run on Aspen for a decade with very few issues like the ones reported by the OP, but the few that have initially been a bit temperamental have all been remedied. It has been the machines that have been wrong initially, not the fuel.
I have to admit though that I do not sell Huskie and have not set up new Huskies for many years, but will be amazed if they wont run on Aspen.

2 hours ago, adw said:

I think its very likely, try the Husqvarna fuel i am sure it will run better.

Interested to know what makes the Husqvarna fuel better ADW. Can you link me in to spec sheets so that I can compare?

 

28 minutes ago, Paddy1000111 said:

Well the two options are: There's issue with the kit or its a bad batch of aspen. I don't know how big a single batch of aspen is but I would guess it's a few thousand litres. If the dealership was given a dodgy batch then loads of people would be returning it and it would be flagged with aspen by now. I would go to the dealer you got it from 

Its very unlikely that there could be a bad batch of Aspen. The quality control in the Aspen plant at Hindas is second to none and they are absolute experts in the production of Alkylate fuel.  Its what they do, they are fuel specialists.
But they don't rest on their laurels (whatever that means) and every batch is carefully labelled (coded cans) and a sample from every batch ever produced is stored so that it could be analysed in the future if required.
As you say, a dodgy batch, if there were such a thing would be quickly spotted in the dealer trade and reported.

28 minutes ago, gary112 said:

Well he already said the hedge cutters were working fine before he put Aspen in,so that makes Aspen the problem,just saying,

To be honest, although the OP thinks the hedgecutters were fine before he put Aspen in, it could be that they were actually only adequate and could have been improved by a good PDI, which, if it made them a bit richer may have enabled them to run on Aspen.
Many new machines need a bit of tuning 'out of the box' to achieve best performance .

9 hours ago, miker said:

thats what i have, stuff the aspen, im going back to regular 2 stroke, never had any problems in 30 years with pump fuel

By all means go back to pump fuel, its a viable alternative to Aspen but does need better 'fuel management', something easily achieved by using common sense.
That said, your machines are both quite capable of being run on Aspen once the problems with the machines have been identified and sorted. The problems will without doubt lie with the machine rather than the fuel and it would be rather nice to get to the bottom of this.

Whereabouts in the country are you?

39 minutes ago, spudulike said:

I did warn you!!

Terriers never let go!

36 minutes ago, adw said:

Where in the operators manual does it say you must use Aspen or your machine machine will not last, your carb is going to block your diaphragms are not going to last? how many manufactures recommend the use of Aspen fuel? Husqvarna?Stihl? no because they produce there own fuel that they know the oil in it is what there machine requires, then we get onto the price of this stuff, it is completely beyond me how any person using a saw for a living could justify the cost, ive heard all the crap about working it into the price of the job, ridiculous, as for having to adjust the carb to run on it, what about emissions? you hammer on about how good it is for the environment but recommend richen the carb, higher fuel consumption higher emissions, as for any machine will run fine on it not true, we had plenty of Briggs engines and Honda engines that did not run well on it, we had 550xp seize on it and all you get is it cant be the fuel must be the saw and all the excuses that go with it.

On a side note what you did to Gary was shit. Over and out, don't want to comment on this again.

There are two sides to every story, but the10's of thousands of Aspen users who would never go back to using pump fuel, despite the price must surely represent the other side of the argument.
These are people with actual experience of the benefits.
And as for adjusting the carb, as I have said many times before, it does not always have to be done, and when it does need it, its only a slight tweak on the L screw. Even after this the emissions are still much, much less than petrol.
I have never had a Honda or Briggs that will not run on Aspen, and I am talking about thousands of machines.
Just putting the other side of the story ADW, no need for comment.

1 hour ago, spudulike said:

Take my advice and not get in to this one! 

Just take it as another opinion!

Where is the fun in that Steve🤣

There is absolutely no reason for any machine not to run on Aspen. But, to be honest there is a very slight difference in density and volatility between petrol and alkylate fuels ( Huskie fuel is also an alkylate). 
Because of this slight difference some machines will need slight retuning to make them run nicely on Aspen (or Huskie fuel).
This adjustment is very simple and can easily be done by anyone in the know.
It does concern me however that these hedgecutters are running so badly on Aspen and I doubt they are running quite properly on petrol either. Many machines need slight adjustment to the carbs on dealer PDI even to run properly on petrol.

I would pop this machine back to your dealer for a tune.

20 hours ago, harvey b davison said:

21 hours ago, GardenKit said:

To be honest, although Stiga is an Italian company the saws are made in China. Now, that's not a bad thing as although the Chinese can produce bad rubbish in one end of a factory,  they can produce well engineered stuff at the other end which is where they produce the saws for Stiga.
One difference between the Stiga saws and many of the other cheaper brands made in China is that Stiga oversee the quality control and influence the build quality, so the saws are actually very good.
Another, major difference is that the saws are sold through the Stiga network of specialist dealers who have access to every spare part, which are held in the UK at Plympton.
If anything should go wrong with the saw it can be quickly repaired and Stiga's approach to warranty is second to none.
As has been said, the quality and fit of the plastics is excellent, and all saws have Oregon cutting gear and Walbro carbs.
I will not sell rubbish or problematic kit, but happily sell these saws. I think I have sold about 60 of the SP386 with very few comebacks.
The SP386 with a 14" bar sells at just £149
I hope this helps.
 
edit. Oh, and they have steel dogs, bolted to an aluminium crankcase.
 

Read more  

Cheers Barry, do stiga do a battery range ?

Stiga have a wide range of battery kit, from light domestic to heavy duty electric. 100, 500, 700 and 900 series.

Only one serious battery saw though, in the 500 series range. It's a great little saw and will outcut something like an MS181 easily.

57 minutes ago, harvey b davison said:

I've noticed recently that quite a few people are recommending stiga chainsaws. Arnt they Italian made, so I wouldn't know what spares are like. Maybe Barry at@Gardenkit could have an input.

To be honest, although Stiga is an Italian company the saws are made in China. Now, that's not a bad thing as although the Chinese can produce bad rubbish in one end of a factory,  they can produce well engineered stuff at the other end which is where they produce the saws for Stiga.
One difference between the Stiga saws and many of the other cheaper brands made in China is that Stiga oversee the quality control and influence the build quality, so the saws are actually very good.

Another, major difference is that the saws are sold through the Stiga network of specialist dealers who have access to every spare part, which are held in the UK at Plympton.
If anything should go wrong with the saw it can be quickly repaired and Stiga's approach to warranty is second to none.
As has been said, the quality and fit of the plastics is excellent, and all saws have Oregon cutting gear and Walbro carbs.
I will not sell rubbish or problematic kit, but happily sell these saws. I think I have sold about 60 of the SP386 with very few comebacks.

The SP386 with a 14" bar sells at just £149

I hope this helps.

edit. Oh, and they have steel dogs, bolted to an aluminium crankcase.

Try this link to find out more about Aspen fuel

Aspen Fuel