Shopping For My First Ride On Mower - So Many For Sale But How To Choose A Good One?

Okay - lets recap.

We bought the house, on a large block of land. Loads of space, loads of lawn. Mowed the lawn for the first time, up hill and down dale between the terraces, then said sod this lets get a ride on lawn mower.

Looked online, saw lots of lawn mowers, had no idea what would suit me, found one that I liked at the local mower shop, but needed to find out if it was good value.

Next step : Buying a second hand ride on mower.

It seemed like a good idea at the time. Googling second hand ride on lawn mowers, cheap used ride on mowers for sale and similar drew a few results. And yes, I invested quite a few hours stretching into days, but like the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow finding a cheap second hand used ride on mower that was affordable and in good condition was a mission, to put it gently.

So back on the road I went. And I can tell you this. Ride on lawn mowers are NOT like cars. That is, there are plenty of new car shops, and plenty of shops that sell used cars. There are NO shops that only sell second hand ride on mowers. Other than ebay, or Gumtree or similar online shopping markets.

Nope, only mower shops that, if you are lucky, happen to have one or two used ride ons for sale, perhaps on consignment.

As I visited each shop, - and believe me, I visited about seven in total, I asked the question "Why aren't there more second had ride on mowers for sale? All I see are machines that are good only for parts, or machines that look nearly worn out?'

Here is the answer that I received. I must admit, it made quite a bit of sense, now I think about it. It seems that ride on mower owners usually research their purchase well before they buy. So the machine they buy is ideal for the job at hand. And since these mowers usually live on larger properties, the turnover is lower on these properties, and the lawnmowers are often never sold unless they are worn out.

All of which is why I couldn't find a good second hand ride on lawnmower - at least not one that would compare with the more modern versions. You see, all of the older models had smaller engines, and a large amount of wear. These machines were usually bought when the Aussie dollar was lower, and items more expensive. So the person wanting to sell their ride on second hand was usually after a price which was about half that of a new machine.

The only machine that I found that was even close to acceptable was about ten years old, and they wanted $900 for it. It had a 10 HP motor, and now towing capacity. The tyres were smaller, and narrower. This meant that I could not get a trailer for the machine - vital for moving mulch, dirt, grave, and lilydale topping around my hilly property. The small wheels meant less torque and narrow tyres would sink into the soft ground in winter. No good.

So back to looking at the new ride on mowers for sale I went.....and look what I found in my next post :)

Picture of my Rover Ride On Lawnmower

Mowing a lawn using a ride on mower - operating tips to safely use a ride on lawn mower

So there we are. The proud owners of a nice red ride on lawn mower.

My little red ride on lawn mower

After weeks of exhausting lawn mowing, especially during spring when growth is at its highest, it was time. I will digress into the rate of lawn growth - from early November thought to December, the grass on the lawn and the plants in the garden were growing at about 5 centimetres per week.

This meant the lawn really needed mowing weekly, or at the very least every second week. Given that we are on two thirds of an acre, with about half of that in lawn, pushing the normal lawn mower around was a big job. One of the other other good reasons to buy a ride on mower was purely financial.

The quote we received to mow our lawn was nearly $200 per cut. So for under $2000 buying the ride on mower wold pay for itself in about six months. An easy decision, that one. Anyway, the time came once my new ride on mower had been delivered. It was to e to fire it up for the first mow.


More on that nervous moment in another post, this post is about how to mow a lawn with tall grass using the ride on, as all as a bit about safe lawn mowing. With tall grass, there is one main thing to be aware of. A ride on mower is not a tank, nor an SUV. It's a mower.

If you mow too fast, tall grass can get wrapped around the central shaft of the mower, causing the belt to jam. The shaft will still spin, but if the cutting belt jams, this situation will cause the belt to burn out and not grip. Symptoms of this are a tell tale high squeal when mowing, this is the cutting belt slipping.

 To avoid this, I followed this simple rule. Slow and steady, never use the full cutting deck in tall grass. Doing this means I am giving the ride on the chance to cut te long grass cleanly and lessening the chance of a jam. To put it in perspective, the first lawn I mowed with my new mower was about 30 to 45 centimetres tall. The mower's cutting deck was a 38 inch, and the machine has a top speed of 9 km/h with six forward speeds. I cut the lawn slowly, on speed one, using about one third of the cutting deck or less.


Sure, this first mow took about an hour, but it was well worth it for the quality of the cut - a lovely finish - as well as the lack of damAge to the mower. It also gave a few lizards the chance to get away. Another tip when using your mower for the first time is to inspect the lawn thoroughly before cutting.


You need to understand if there are any undulations, ridges, rocks, tree stumps or other obstacles. If the grass is long this is an absolute must. If you are mowing slowly, this means you can pay close attention to the surface, going quickly is a recipe for disaster.

 More on safely using a ride on lawn mower in my next post.

 

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I bought a ride on lawnmower - or lawn tractor - and boy am I glad I did

This blog is a story about how I arrived to be the proud owner of my ride on lawnmower. I have learned quite a few things along the way, and hopefully by sharing some of them I can make someone else's life a bit easier when it comes time to buy a ride on lawnmower. So there will be lawnmower type stories, and why I chose the way I did.

Some months ago we moved from a standard suburban sized block - well rather a large one actually - of 1000 square meters, or a quarter of an acre, to a larger block.

Being young and strong and probably a bit naive I thought that I would be able to get by with my standard lawnmower, and lots of elbow grease.

What I didn't allow for was the fact that the property was split over three levels, as well as the sheer mass of lawn that needed to be mowed. That and the fact that we were moving from suburbia to a rain forest type location, with a lot more rainfall. Which of course is why the trees and plants and lawns grow so well - they grow faster.

All of which meant a lot more lawn mowing. So after the first session, giving up two hours into it with the job half done. Well not really. I just admitted that there were smarter ways to do things. So I began to research ride on lawnmowers, online to start with then into the real world for a look and see.

Lawnmowers for sale everywhere was my first impression. But how do you differentiate between them and settle on the one that is right for you? I saw ride on lawnmowers that looked like something Nana would ride to the shops when her legs give out. I saw lawn tractors that looked like small tractors. And there were other mowers that you could almost picture a council worker riding on, clearing scrub and small trees with ease. A bit too big for what I was after and the price ranged accordingly.

Probably the best thing I did was to stop trying to get all of my information online and to visit a ride on lawnmower shop. They said that it was all very well to own a larger property but no fun being a slave to the maintenance. After that first exhausting day mowing the lawns I agree with them

Actually I visited a few, well, okay, more than a few, comparing models and information. One thing I found was that there a quite a few different brands of lawnmower, and they are positioned a bit like cars. There are the very cheap brands, right through to the more well known brands, such as Husqvarna, and John Deere.

One that first caught my eye was a nice looking black and red model. Mostly black with a red racing stripe. With a tipper trailer, this beast of a ride on mower could be mine for just $2200. Not bad I thought. But being the type I never buy the first thing I see without doing some research and boy am I glad I did.