Petrol Honda mowers

[jamcg]

Ooh you can have goats cheese too.

OV9, the thrill of milking a goat...

That’s…….. that’s…….. that’s a boy goat

[mik]

Ooh you can have goats cheese too.

OV9, the thrill of milking a goat...

That’s…….. that’s…….. that’s a boy goat

Which can't be stated without the obligatory :

[Mito Man]

One of my goats weighs 90kg, I don’t think a donkey would appreciate him jumping on their back.
You don’t want a female goat, they’re extremely hormonal, will cry non stop when in heat so that they can get shagged, then you need to milk them twice a day or their udders will explode. Because they produce milk they drink a crazy amount of water and pee a ridiculous amount. This means their shelter is always wet, stinks of piss and needs cleaning out very frequently.

[mik]

You don’t want a female goat, they’re extremely hormonal, will cry non stop when in heat so that they can get shagged, then you need to milk them twice a day

Maybe I am mis-reading the ownership requirements....but....

[Mito Man]

A male goat is always more preferable, don’t want to end up like this bunch

[Jobbo]

One of my goats weighs 90kg

Yeah, I've always been thinking pygmy goats. Short legs to go with the dachshunds, munchkin cats and me.

[Mito Man]

You’ll become very a very good fencer with Pygmy goats to keep in.

[mik]

You’ll become very a very good fencer with Pygmy goats to keep in.

[nuttinnew]

[Jobbo]

[Jobbo]

Ordered. Not a Honda. Will be delivered w/c 11 March. I suspect I’ll need to wait a month until I can use it, the ground is so boggy everywhere currently.

Al-ko T22. V-twin, bigger engine than a 2CV
https://www.gardenmachinerydirect.co.uk ... n-tractor/

[mik]

Ordered. Not a Honda. Will be delivered w/c 11 March.

Nice

Spec states 23" rear wheels , but I suspect that's the outer tyre diameter

Regardless - I'll send you some tyre tippex, and you can post some images once you are done.

[Jobbo]

I hope it is fitted with Wan-King tyres.

[nuttinnew]

Nice
No need to consider this then;

[Jobbo]

I forgot to revisit this thread when my new mower arrived. Only looked at it again because I have to do a lot of mowing to do this weekend - the forecast is dry for once. I now have four mowers (and a strimmer) and I will use most of them tomorrow:

• new ride-on Al-ko T22 105.4; it is much less effort than a walk behind even covering a far bigger area. But it can't do the fiddly bits and it can't do the front lawn because that is raised up about 2ft above the drive, with a retaining wall. I've been impressed with how it coped with the muddy waterlogged area which I didn't realise was there until I drove into it - didn't get stuck, did leave muddy tracks on the grass though.

• 2007 Honda Izy HRG415 which I bought new, has only been serviced once and just keeps on working. It's the lightest so easiest to get on to the front lawn, but also the narrowest and slowest so it takes a while to go round.

• 2021 bigger Honda Izy HRG536 with variable speed, GCV170 engine etc. Bought at a year old on eBay in 2022 for £495, this is actually my favourite walk-behind to use. It's a bit less wieldy than the smaller Izy but still light enough to deal with the tight bits. This one lives at our old house until that is sold in about a month, unfortunately - so I will be using it to mow the lawns there tomorrow, and look forward to getting it to the new place.

• 2023 Honda HRH536; the daddy of walk-behind mowers which I bought last year. As you will realise from the above, this is not my favourite. The engineering is lovely; it has roller bearings for the metal wheels, an aluminium deck, hydrostatic drive and leaves a really excellent finish. So what is wrong with it? I'll explain below. Have a picture of the Al-ko first:

Why don't I like the HRH536 then? They have been around for years and I had always wanted one because they are the top of Honda's range, used by professionals and people with fine lawns - it's the top of the tree. I think the RRP is £2000 or more now, and the build quality reflects that. But despite the deck being aluminium and the relatively simplicity of it, it's quite heavy. It's also not balanced to make it fingertip light to hoick up the front to turn it round so it's more effort to use. There's no mulching function, which is fine - I don't use that on the HRG536 and the flap on that annoys me because it traps grass. And the HRH is great at collecting because it is dedicated to that one function and the deck shape is optimised for it. But when the collection box is full it doesn't just start leaving clumps of cut grass behind, it noticeably dislikes it and stops cutting, clogging up really quickly instead.

That's not all I'm afraid. It has a 160cc engine which is older in design than the GCV170 and less powerful. I think it will keep working through a nuclear winter but the lower power is noticeable if, like me, you go 2 weeks between mows and the grass is a bit thick and long. And while the variable speed control is lovely in operation, the levers are on the left hand side of the bars and get caught by any hedge alongside, regularly turning the engine off or the speed back to its slowest setting.

I'll get a mower line-up photo when the HRG536 is back with the rest of them but I think the HRH and the original Izy are going to end up unused. And the HRH is a bit extravagant to keep as a back-up so I might end up selling it. It would suit someone with a much finer lawn than mine, without hedges right alongside but sadly I don't think it's right for me.

[mik]

Shame about the HRH536 - I assumed it would be all of the awesumes.

[Jobbo]

It is awesumes, but my use case has changed and it really doesn't fit it.

[dinny_g]

Do you do all the fiddly bits first, like cutting in paint, then use the ride-on for the broad sweeps ??

I think that's the way I'd do it...

And how many times do you need to empty the ride on for that garden? I presume you have several Green Bins ?

[Jobbo]

Dinny, that field area doesn't really have much in the way of fiddly bits - I simply drive round the edge as close to the fence/ditch as I can (should have got a wider deck...) and then keep going round until I get to the centre. No real attempt at stripes; I just want to keep it short.

The rear garden does have fiddly bits - raised brick retaining walls, some surprisingly steep slopes considering I thought it was virtually flat etc. I have to do a few bits with the normal mower. It's quite hard to get the cut height consistent too.

As for the quantity of clippings; I have one garden waste bin and I'm going to use it just for weeds. The quantity of grass clippings is voluminous. First cut I couldn't even go up and back once before the 310l collection box was full. I now have a pile hidden behind the hedge poking into shot on the right; it's at least hidden from the house

[dinny_g]

Out of sight, out of mind!!

Start a compost set up maybe?? You’ve got the space