Would I be better off with a Ride On Mower?

[Deleted User]

Would you think I would be better off with a Ride On Mower to do this rear garden it's very long and I only have a electric mower at the moment. If so can anyone recommend one which they have experience off, I have seen some on eBay for around £400 upwards but I have no experience or knowledge of these type of mowers.
Or would I be better off with sticking with my mower or maybe getting a petrol mower?

peter_the_piper

Depends whether you like a lot of exercise. If not a ride on may well be a good choice for you. You could well consider a good quality (not cheapo shed one) walking mower, petrol not electric). Whichever you decide on I would suggest buying from a reputable dealer, some do sell second hand and it should have been checked for faults and you would be less likely to get a lemon. If you do get one from ebay, get it checked/serviced before use.

I_have_spoken

Ride-on is well OTT for a lawn that size IMHO. A petrol rotary will have it done in a jiffy

lostinrates

I use a ride on lawn mower.

The first thing I'd say is I think it very likely ( I only have experience of two mowers, a John Deere and a Westwood) you are going to get a better finish in the price bracket with a push mower.

If a very, very neat finish is important ( bowling green rather than just Neat, push mower is going to be better,

Not least because your turning circle at either end isn't that massive and you'll get lots of tracks or spend the time reversing for nice straight lines that would have you a third of the way round again with a petrol push mower.

The turning would be frustrating, ( unless there is a round route I cannot see:). )



Of the two I have had experience of ( west wood was MANY , many years ago) I preferred the west wood. My second hand John Deere spends as much time being repaired as working.

DaftyDuck

That's not a big lawn, in my opinion, and a ride-on would be massive overkill for that. Where are you going to store it? Service costs triple (needs trailer or home service). My lawn is at least ten times that size, and a ride-on would be unwarranted for it. The cut qualityof a ride-on is often poor, it won't cope well with the corners and edges. Buy a simple petrol self propelled.

Ectophile

Admit it - you're just looking for an excuse to buy a new toy to play with!:rotfl:

lostinrates

DaftyDuck wrote: »

That's not a big lawn, in my opinion, and a ride-on would be massive overkill for that. Where are you going to store it? Service costs triple (needs trailer or home service). My lawn is at least ten times that size, and a ride-on would be unwarranted for it. The cut qualityof a ride-on is often poor, it won't cope well with the corners and edges. Buy a simple petrol self propelled.

I have to admit, I was looking at the beautifully crisp edges and thinking.....at least relaxed works for us!:).

I agree with this.

Would add though, IME people who service these things come and take them away, you don't have to trailer them in. I get mine in early end of season if I can.....we get a discount. But it spends half its life going in to be fixed. :mad:

[Deleted User]

Thanks for the advice all, I'm going to look at a petrol lawn mower instead, my little electric bosche will be too small for this garden...

BlondeHeadOn

We have a ride-on mower, and would say that another thing to consider is how wet your lawn gets. The ride-on can be pretty heavy, which means that often at the beginning and end of the mowing season (Spring and Autumn) the ground is too soft if there's been a lot of rain. The mower can end up leaving ridges in soft ground, which is not a good look!


We mostly use a petrol mower now, with the ride-on only in the drier months.