Ride-On Mowers. What Do I Need To Know?

[CharlesdeGaulle]

Chaps, I'm after some lawnmower advice please.

Having recently moved, I now have a garden of about an acre. Most of it is lawn, but I'll be adding some complexity with vegetable and soft fruit plots. It's mainly flat but there is a gentle left-right slope at the far end. It's surrounded by trees too so the machine will have to do leaf clearing at the end of the season.

I'm pretty certain that it's beyond the abilities of my current self-propelled mower, so a sit-on mower or garden tractor seems to be the logical choice; the question is which one? Budget isn't fixed yet but I'm not aiming at oligarch-levels of cost.

Any thoughts on what to seek out or avoid? New versus second hand? Auto versus manual? Also, in general, do the people that service them come and collect?

Searching previous threads reveals comment about mulching rather than collecting - does that leave much mess to get trodden into the house by the dog? If yes, I know that won't be popular.

I'm in East Somerset if anyone has particular recommendations on retailers or knows of anything for sale.

[CharlesdeGaulle]

The remote ones are an interesting suggestion but I rather enjoy cutting the grass. The only thing I don't like is the grass-box emptying which is a bit of a pain with the amount I have now. I gather that some ride-ons have a tipping grass box which sounds useful.

Comments noted about the front-mounted cutters - good point. I don't have much I need to skirt around but probably enough to make that a consideration.

[CharlesdeGaulle]

Bump for the weekend crowd.

Any thoughts or recommendations on ride-on mowers please anybody? I'd value some real-world owner experiences if there are any.

[CharlesdeGaulle]

Thanks for the recent posts chaps; food for thought and some excellent tips.

[CharlesdeGaulle]

sparkythecat said:

That really won't work. Their suicidal tendencies would see that step into the mill race and get washed away.

[CharlesdeGaulle]

I haven't been to the machinery specialist yet, but the local Mole Valley shop has these two on offer.

This at £2200
http://www.molevalleyfarmers.com/mvf/store/product...


and this at £1500
http://www.molevalleyfarmers.com/mvf/store/product...


Any thoughts on these? Are they VFM? Is Mountfield a well-regarded make?

[CharlesdeGaulle]

V40TC said:

very much Budget range

Ah, thanks. That's useful to know.