qualcast/atco mowers

[scott78]

morning all, its time to let my old petrol rotary mower die. Due to its ability to scalp the grass i have decided to get a petrol cylinder mower. from what i can see used qualcast/atco mowers are the best for the price i want to pay. the only thing i cant find out is how compact they fold away , as ebay is all buyer collects i need to know if i can fit one in the boot of a ford focus. anyone got one and know? thanks in advance scott

[Aberdeenplotter]

yups buyer collects is a bit of a pain isn't it especially for the likes of me living miles and miles away .
Don't get too hung up on the make of mower you intend to buy. Provided the mower has a good make of engine -i.e. Briggs and Stratton, Honda, or Tecumseh, you won't go far wrong. These engines are all very reliable and it is relatively easy to get parts for them unlike the cloned versions coming in from China.

As to your question, if the handles can be separated at deck level, take them off and if need be take the control cables off the handles. You will then get most mowers into a fairly small space.

[sewer rat]

Depends on the model. I use an Atco at my Thursday Garden and it's a beast! Wouln't fit in my Volvo never mind a Focus!
One word of caution on cylinder mowers. In my experience they will choke if the greass is slightly damp and they are not very good on longer grass, so unless you can keep your lawn manicured on a regular basis, I would get a rotary.
The Atco I use has to be stopped, turned off, and then the cylinders manually rotated backwards to free the lodged grass cuttings on every run if it's been wet and hasn't been cut for a fortnight - this is a real bug bear and although it makes a lovely finished job, there are so many other things I could be doing with the time I spend unblocking/ unchoking the cylinder

[cptncrackoff]

I agree with both of them ^^^^^^

Very good quality mowers.

Bosch ( parent co. of atco, qualcast, suffolk) have now decided to cease production of all cylinder mowers, i'm sure they will get highly sought after very quickly!

They can go on for years, with a little tlc, a sharpen every now and then.

Some of the really old ones (really old) have they're own engines fitted -parts for these are very limited.

As above briggs and stratton, honda would be good, alot of the final ones have kawasaki engines fitted which are also fairly easy to source parts.
Tecumseh may be a little harder to get hold of parts for, although there is now a UK importer and distributor.
Bosch put Tecumseh engines on the cylinder mowers until around 4 years ago when the European agent for Tecumseh (Aspera Technomotor) went bust.

[scott78]

thanks all for the good advice and info. most helpful as always