new mower

at one of my gigs they are scrapping the Hater Harrier and replacing it with a John Deere R54 RKB - any feedback on problems/ things to watch out for etc., would be appreciated. Ta!
:thmb:

www.wyreforestgardener.co.uk

 

"John Deere R54 RKB"

I've got one of them!!

Heavier and less manoeuvrable than my previous mower, and thus a bit harder to operate over rough ground. Roller is quite small diameter, and metal, so can spin on rough ground and lose traction (you can push the mower to regain traction, of course).

Health-and-safety-gone-mad style Dead-man's-handle, but its reasonably clever in that there are push-down and pull-up handles - the push-down engages the blades, and the pull-up the drive - so its easy to stop the drive, but leave the blades spinning (e.g. for a U-turn at the end of a row)

On mine engaging the blades comes close to stalling the engine (I'd be interested to know if yours behaves the same).

You are likely to scalp your knuckles getting the grass basket off - H&S again in the shape of the spring which closes the door on the grass clipping exit having come off a Trebuchet!

Good points:

Built like a brick outhouse; deck guarateed for life, or 15 years, or somesuch.

Cutting height very easy to adjust.

Speed control is well thought out - select any forward speed from dead-slow to can't-keep-up

Large fuel tank.

Starts first time

 

Kristen - thanks for the input. I especially liked the trebuchet bit.
cheers
DM