New mower deck - broken

[jon.b]

Just bought a new mower a couple of weeks back, it’s a Hayter R53A – 21” cut, collects, side chute and mulching facility.
We’ve used it only twice now and at the weekend my wife was using it and she has run over something hard with it….not sure what maybe a stone, we can’t find what we hit?
There was a large bang and she stopped the mower straight away. I went over to have a look only to find that the alloy deck has a half inch gap in it! Whatever went under the mower has blown clean out the side of the alloy deck!
Now where it has blown out is directly below the hole in the deck to where you attach the side chute so the deck is only about 2” wide at this point. But that whole strip of alloy deck now has a half inch wide gap….
I’ve been using Hayter mowers for 20 years now and have never had such a problem and my initial thoughts are there is clearly a weak spot in this strip of alloy where the deck has a hole in it for the side chute but I’m sure when I return it to the shop the dealer and the manufacturer will probably say I mowed something hard and so it’s my problem!
The mower was £550 so it’s not really something I was expecting to have to repair after two weeks use and I do worry that if it is repaired it will only happen again if we hit something!
Of course I haven’t had a chance to get it back to the dealer yet so I can’t say for sure that’s what they will say!
Just wondered in the meantime though if this was a fairly common problem, has anyone had or heard of similar problems with the alloy deck of their mower?

[andy43]

jon.b said:

Just bought a new mower a couple of weeks back, it’s a Hayter R53A – 21” cut, collects, side chute and mulching facility.
We’ve used it only twice now and at the weekend my wife was using it and she has run over something hard with it….not sure what maybe a stone, we can’t find what we hit?
There was a large bang and she stopped the mower straight away. I went over to have a look only to find that the alloy deck has a half inch gap in it! Whatever went under the mower has blown clean out the side of the alloy deck!
Now where it has blown out is directly below the hole in the deck to where you attach the side chute so the deck is only about 2” wide at this point. But that whole strip of alloy deck now has a half inch wide gap….
I’ve been using Hayter mowers for 20 years now and have never had such a problem and my initial thoughts are there is clearly a weak spot in this strip of alloy where the deck has a hole in it for the side chute but I’m sure when I return it to the shop the dealer and the manufacturer will probably say I mowed something hard and so it’s my problem!
The mower was £550 so it’s not really something I was expecting to have to repair after two weeks use and I do worry that if it is repaired it will only happen again if we hit something!
Of course I haven’t had a chance to get it back to the dealer yet so I can’t say for sure that’s what they will say!
Just wondered in the meantime though if this was a fairly common problem, has anyone had or heard of similar problems with the alloy deck of their mower?

There's your problem.

[Dr_Rick]

I had simliar when half the blade sheared off a mower I was using for a weekend job as a student. Scared the c@@p out of me and could have been messy. Mind you steel vs alloy was never a fair fight when the steel was spinning on the end of a motor.

Dr Rick

[netherfield]

Which is why farmers use a heavy roller on grassland before mowing.
Could have a fight on your hands,I imagine the guarantee will have a clause about not mowing foreign objects.

Edited by netherfield on Wednesday 15th September 15:26

[mrmaggit]

I'd say that unless something has broken or come loose on the mower it's up to you to pay for the repair.

Certainly that would be what I would expect.

[jon.b]

mrmaggit said:

I'd say that unless something has broken or come loose on the mower it's up to you to pay for the repair.

Certainly that would be what I would expect.

Yeah that's what I fear they will say. I will argue though that the deck is weakened by having the hole in it for the side chute. It's worth a try, will update once i've spoken to the company I bought it from.