Mountfield mower speed

Wanton

Hello,

I've recently been bought a Mountfield petrol lawnmower that has a speed lever on it with the following symbols - choke, hare and tortoise.

At the moment I start it up using the choke then put it straight to the hare symbol, I've tried moving it to the tortoise but it sounds like it's going to cut out.

Does anybody have any advice about using the different speeds?

Thanks,
Rob

Davesnave

It takes a few minutes for 4 stroke engines to reach normal operating temperature, so you might not be able to go tortoise straight from choke.

But if you can't get it to run at that pace after 5 minutes or so, something needs adjusting

Wanton

Thanks for the response. So once it's been running five minutes or so, the normal operating speed should be tortoise?

Davesnave

Wanton wrote: »

Thanks for the response. So once it's been running five minutes or so, the normal operating speed should be tortoise?

The normal operating speed should be what you are comfortable with following, if it's self-propelled. If it's not, then you should reduce high revving so long as it doesn't affect the cutting.

My grass is usually long and so I usually run my Honda at almost full throttle because it stalls at lower revs. It's just a question of coping with the conditions.

Wanton

Thanks again. My old garden was quite small and I just had an electric mower, now I've moved house we have a much bigger garden. I guess it's just a case of getting used to what feels right and playing around with the different speeds.

Davesnave

Wanton wrote: »

.....playing around with the different speeds.

That's it exactly. My other mower, which has 4 gears, never gets into top and runs happily at about half way between hare & tortoise in 2nd, or maybe 3rd if space is available..

It's a combination of things, not just one or the other.

DaftyDuck

It'll also run at different speeds in different temperatures. Ideally, turn it down so it still runs smoothly, but cuts the grass. Running fast is running hot, and puts more wear on the motor.Also uses more fuel.

It's a matter of practice.

force_ten

I used to have a mountfield mower with a honda motor and it had the hare and the tortoise speed control

As it was power driven it used to go to fast if you set it to the hare setting so i used to run it around half way between the two and as it warmed up throttle back towards the tortoise

I think if it will run at the tortoise setting once fully warmed up because as said above it reduces wear on the motor