Vintage Ride mower on?

[rkinsella]

Hi folks,

I am thinking about buying a vintage ride on mower, as the romance is going out of cutting my 1/2 acre garden with my beefy petrol push mower. I like the idea of Vintage mower as it is something I can maintain myself and less generally goes wrong with the older stuff.

My concern is though - living in Ireland as I do, it gets wet, sometimes very wet and the grass doesn't stop growing. So sometimes the grass has to be cut under non ideal circumstance, it's wet and long, and there is a lot of it.

With my current mower this is a pretty miserable experience, the grass isn't picked into the grass box and clogs up the cutting deck every 2 or 3 minutes. I just usually slog through it, letting the mower pick up what it can and stopping ever 2 or 3 minutes to clear the cutting deck of balls of wet grass. Then going back over it with a rake to pick up what has been dropped. Great craic as you might imagine.

I am worried about what this will be like with a ride on mower - I have never had one, I am interested in hear people's experience. Will I be able to raise the deck to point where the grass will be picked up and then cut it incrementally ? or should I just mulch it somehow?

Would appreciate advice.

Ray K

 

[ajstoneservices]

Wet grass clogs my ride on just as it does my sp mower. I frequently have to take the collector off to clear the shoot.

 

[Burnerman]

Most ride on / garden tractors collect the grass in a box in the back......that's just great if the grass is dry but a PITA if its wet - clogging up is the order of the day.
To do this, the blades have swept up edges - mulching blades are flatter.
There's plenty of used gear out there, all with the problem of cutting decks that are rusted through
Countax are one of the more robust machines....have you anything in mind?
John

 

[rkinsella]

Oh, I don't have anything special in mind. Though given our recent experience with rusty decks I will trying to avoid those.

Was hoping there was some magic way I could just mulch the long grass. Probably not as tidy as collecting in a box. But a damn sight better than declogging a deck every 3m minutes?

 

[Burnerman]

For mulching, see if you can find a machine that discharges the grass from the side.....that will usually be a single blade machine anyway.
The normal technique is to cap the side discharge chute and fit a mulching blade. No tractor likes grass longer than 5" or so though - a scythe machine is best for that.
John

 

[bernardgreen]

Get a couple of sheep or goats. Or if it must be a "ride on" solution get a snall horse.

My neighbour's Ride On gets clogged with wet grass or creates a mess of cuttings if, in desperation, he turns off the collector

 

[rkinsella]

My neighbour's Ride On gets clogged with wet grass or creates a mess of cuttings if, in desperation, he turns off the collector

Desperation is really the right word for this, I can relate - as I said a pretty miserable job. On sheep and goats, I have thought of this in the past - perhaps for the future when my day job calms down sufficiently. Trouble enough keeping my cat fed.

The normal technique is to cap the side discharge chute and fit a mulching blade.

I presume that mower would have to support this - its not a standard feature on all mowers?

No tractor likes grass longer than 5" or so though - a scythe machine is best for that.

I wasn't aware such a thing existed, it looks pretty bad ass.

 

[Burnerman]

All ride ons will mulch to some degree.....if it has a side discharge then it can be capped or the grass simply thrown clear. Twin blade machines with a centre discharge chute are less good at mulching but as before, its the shape of the blade that counts.
The scythe machines are great when the grass is long but well dangerous for anything in the way.....I used to hire out Allen scythes for my sins years ago, and they had a mind of their own as often the clutches wouldn't disengage on command
Anyway, choose carefully - there's some real junk out there!
John

 

[bernardgreen]

Back to basics

http://onescytherevolution.com/blog.html

 

[lostinthelight]

I use mowers, walk behind and rideon that will cut and collect long wet grass without any problems, do you have a budget for a mower?
litl