Oil for your Lawnmowers ?

Quite true, they did. As I stated in post #5 "B&S have recognised this, and newer (generally ohv engines) have been modified to accept newer type oils, including the 5W 50 mentioned. However, they still recommend SAE 30 as the primary oil choice." However, "between the lines" they do point out that 10W 40 can cause engine problems.

 

I've got a Hayter Harrier 48 Pro too, bought new last year (kind of wished I'd got the 56) and never had a problem until somebody else used it and probably drove into some low-lying tree brances or something. They snapped the governer spring asssembly and it would only work at an idle tickover.

Apart from that, it's been a dream of a machine to use but the guy who fixed it maintains the old Hayters like @shiney mentioned, were the best. Even the non-pro ones with the plastic case.

The local dealer charges £68.00 + VAT for a service which seems a bit OTT as all they don't do much to warrant that kind of cost but was worried if it's not done by a main dealer then the warranty is void.

 

The warranty on that is one year for commercial. The new one you have has a set speed unlike mine. But the grass bag, chute and plastic deck case is the same.
Wait till you get a wet summer then you will find the Hater a royal pain. They are not too good in those conditions which is why it's worth having a nice mower for back up like an Etesia but it's double the price of the Hayter and more depending on what you want.

 

The first mower I bought when I moved into this house was a Hayter, a Hunter 46 if I remember correctly. It lasted for 10 seasons before becoming uneconomic to repair. So I'm not exactly a fan of their products. Parts here were expensive also. Back in 1990 or 91, a blade cost the equivalent of £50....ended up buying them in the UK when I was over. Not a patch on my current MTD...

 

I agree with you on the wet grass issue. It's a nightmare for clogging after a bit of rain and it never seems to fill the bag as efficiently as other mowers I've used in the past. The bag never seems to get much more than two-thirds full before grass starts spilling on the lawn, even if it's dry. Other mowers would run until they stall because the bag is too full and they choke up. Mine's simply not capable of doing that.

It does have a variable throttle and since the governer spring was replaced, the guy tuned up the revs and it can go a lot faster than it would from new, although I try not to rev it to the max.

Apart from the 'collection' issue, I love it to bit as it makes such an eye-pleasing job on big lawns and superb stripes and that gets me work on big properties through recommendation rather than just doing mostly pensioners with postage stamp sized lawns, like when I first started out last year.

 

You can get high lift blades for the Hayters to help with the grass collection issues in the wet, I've tried them and to be honest it's only a little different than the standard.
Im surprised he increased the rpm, not many pro shops do that, they do however change gearing and pulley sys to cater for more speed while running at the rpm they were designed around.
Your warranty would be void if he's done that.

 

I will look into high lift blades as the grass collection issue in the wet is a nightmare. The bag barely reaches a quarter full (or even an 8th in rain) before grass clippings are spilling out onto lawns. The blades are always kept sharp.

Even when grass is dry, it starts spilling out at not much more than half-full. The constant emptying is rather tiresome and the grass collection equates to nowhere near that which Hayter claim in terms of capacity.

Apparently, the neck design has narrowed over the years, which isn't a great idea, but to me, the grass box angle seems too high Vs other mowers and will never reach full capacity due to gravity.

 

Bought a 537 Honda this year. I've about 30 hours on already. Great machine in dry and wet

 

Thats the trouble with rear roller mowers, the roller design closes the chute passage. Hayter also changed engine design going back some years that increased the problem on their mowers.
All rear mowers suffer this, there's not one that wins, ask any contractor. fine on constant short grass but any type of length in wet conditions they just can't handle it. My Hayter has just had the drive changed again after failing and took 5 weeks which was a bum but I've the Deere rear roller and Etesia.
Deere try to improve collection with a fan design that aids collection but it still suffers.
Hayter, Honda, Deere all like their cloth bags which are a pain to clean, they clog super fast. Other designs follow suit on the Honda too.
Thankfully Etesia are a rare example where they actively listen to end users and will develop their mowers, they have a rear roller kit available now for a few of their mowers, not perfect yet but getting there.
The Hayter grass box in defo too high an angle, just falls back on its self and chucks it out. Makes it hard work at times and slows down the job.

 

Thanks for the info - it's very informative.

It's a win/lose situation with rear roller mowers it seems. You win in terms of quality of the appearance (and gain more customers because of it) then you lose time (sometimes lots of it) if it's wet.

After the weather so far this season I've just about had enough of cutting grass and having to empty the box when it's not even an eigth full and un-clog the neck/shute, otherwise the neck clogs and it spewes grass all over the lawn.

Mine's a 2015 Hayter Harrier 48 Pro and am thinking of selling it and getting something that's got a rear roller (otherwise I would lose my two biggest customers) and collects grass properly.

In your expertise could you very kindly advise of some makes/specific models that would fit the bill?

Many thanks

 

To be Honest it's the one thing all us contractors and self employed gardeners just can't find the perfect solution when it comes to rear rollers and clogging.
If there was a perfect mower we would be clapping our hands and jumping with joy.
Etesia do the rear roller kit but I think it needs a tad more work going by comments I've heard but they will get it right in the end.
I've moved all but one customer over from rear roller use if it's wet. When it's damp I use my Etesia and my customers know it's keeping their lawns in check if I can't use the rear roller.
I cut a wet lawn today with my Hayter and you can hear the note of the sound change just before it spits and yes it's a sod, slows you down and makes hard work.
The older Hayters were better but they have high vibration levels and still clog or leave grass behind.
My Deere rear roller is about the same as my Hayter in wet grass.
I'm a big fan of Etesia, great mowers, good company to deal with, can demo the machines, have very good collection in the wet, run a tad slow compared to others but there are kits to speed them up without increasing rpm.
Down side is cost as they are expensive but for tough work, or poor conditions they are as good as you can get.

 

Surely it cant be that hard to design a mower that can cut wet grass and bag it and then stripe it ? We can get satelites to find distant planets but we still cant go out and mow a wet lawn ?

 

Not a difficult task to design one at all. Unfortunately, those that have the knowledge to design one are working in other, better paid industries.

 

Many thanks for your reply and useful info, it's much appreciated.

On your advice, I may get a second mower without a roller as a standby for wet days. At least people can have their lawns trimmed when the going gets really tough like it has been two days this week.

Some of the Cobra machine look interesting and seem affordable and having used one in the wet, it did a really efficient job despite the lack of stripes.

@WeeTam... it's so true. In this day and age of techonological innovation, surely such a feat isn't out of the realms of possibility.

@Sandy Ground may be right in that the talent may be attracted elsewhere due to higher pay but any manufacturer who coughed up the money for a small bunch of top class design engineers, who could build such a model, would make a killing from a patented design. For some reason none of the brands seem capable at present of doing what shouldn't seem so difficult to achieve.