Ride on mower for 1.6 acre paddock - any recommendations?

[bearded bloke]

It''s not so bad, the puppies can still find stuff to sniff at

[Stan79]

Yey! Picked up a non-running MTD Yardman off eBay cheap on Monday night.
This pic shows a shiny, new one. Mine's nowhere as neat as that! And I don't have a grass catcher.

Didn't have much time yesterday but:
- managed to get the body work off to access the engine and pull the spark plug out to know what to buy as a replacement.
- drain the old fuel from the pipes, filter and tank.
- discover that one of the fuel pipes had perished so removed it and the filter to get replacements today.

Today:
- charged the battery up
- Picked up some fuel hose
- picked up a spark plug
- persuaded my neighbour to give me a hand

And he got it running with the smallest bit of grease monkey labouring on my part. He's a genius with engines! Really, really chuffed and it cuts the grass in the paddock brilliantly.

I had looked at gang mowers but couldn't justify the cost as a first foray into paddock management!

[scarey55]

Brilliant! well done Stan and friend

Perhaps this could be a new side venture for you - buying, repairing and selling mowers

[Stan79]

Brilliant! well done Stan and friend

Perhaps this could be a new side venture for you - buying, repairing and selling mowers

Sorry! Only just saw your message! I think if i bought them, he repaired them and i sold them, it could work... There's lots of things like that on ebay that i'm sure could add up to a reasonable income... buying something, tarting it up a bit (often quite simply) and flogging it on. Sometimes, just having a decent description and some quiality pictures can add ££'s.

Not sure it would add up to our combined salaries though so don't think we could make it full time!

I'm currently stuck up a mountain in Austria with work so haven't been able to do any serious grass cutting with i yet but i have found a German-based company to buy some spare parts off who are A) cheaper and B) in euros and C) have shipped them to me in Austria all for roughly a thrid of what i would have paid in the UK!!!

[Stan79]

Right, I had a day and a half at home so, I changed the oil and fitted a new genuine cutting belt (£30) as the old one was past it's best. It stopped the shrieking sound the mower made when cutting some of the longer grass so that was good.

I cut over half of the field no problems. Was going fairly slow and being a bit lazy so i ploughed on through some 4 foot high nettles with no problems. Really chuffed!

Then i had to go away with work again so let my parents use it. Bang! Clatter! and they shredded the new belt!!! Thankfully it's nothing major but a bit annoying. Anyhow, ordered a new belt (non-genuine made by Pix for £12) that arrived last night and Dad has fitted it and i've just had a text from him saying that he's finished cutting the field and the new belt looks better than the genuine item so i've just ordered another one as a spare!

Can't wait to get home again to have another go on it! Think i'll take the blade off and give it a sharpen, give it another oil change and change the filter this time too!

[janzbro]

your paddock must be nice and level as we have a ride on and it just get caught up in the shallows and on divots as at max height it only cuts 3.5 inches high.

Dont let it get to high or it will be a night mare to get on top of again!

[Stan79]

Well, the ride-on has been a great hit with visitors. It's amazing how many of my mates have cut the field as they've had a go on the mower and just carried on until the whole field is cut!!!

It still takes a couple of hours so a mate has suggested I strap a couple of cheap push mowers on the back, just wider than the ride-on so I can cut a wider strip in one pass. I picked the first mower up this weekend for £25 so will start to rig something up!