Hi group,

Does anyone here rate Mountfield rotary mowers with the rear roller, either
push or self-propelled for professional use or should I be looking at Honda
or Hayter?

--
Rocket
MCSA
=====

First off I must state that I work for Honda.

Mountfield as a British company no longer exists, so if you have a
Mountfield mower that you've had for 20 years you cannot compare it to
anything available today. It is part of a European consortium called GGP
owned by an investment bank (UBS I think) and the machines are either made
in Italy or Scandinavia. The build quality is not the same as it was.

Hayter is also owned by an investment company (Chinese called Summersong)
but still produce in the UK (except for electric mower - Chinese) Their
mowers are of good quality.

Honda produce their machines in France. Their are of the same quality as
Hayter with more better options, and feature the most reliable and easiest
to start engine. But don't take my word for it, contact your local
independent dealer and ask him which engine is the easiest to start.


"Rocket" wrote in message
...
Hi group,

Does anyone here rate Mountfield rotary mowers with the rear roller,
either
push or self-propelled for professional use or should I be looking at
Honda
or Hayter?

--
Rocket
MCSA
=====

Rocket wrote:
Hi group,

Does anyone here rate Mountfield rotary mowers with the rear roller, either
push or self-propelled for professional use or should I be looking at Honda
or Hayter?

I have a Mountfield M3 rear roller about 4 years old, and I wouldn't buy
another. It's one of the worst pieces of engineering I have ever had the
misfortune to come across. An example, to tighten the handle fixing bolts
at the base end of the handle: There is an allen key bolt head outside the
handle, bolt through the handle, through the chassis and a nut on the other
side. To get to the nut you have to remove a pop-riveted on baseplate and
probably the entire rear roller mechanism. The nut should be captive, then
all you'd have to do is tighten the bolt, but it ain't, so if the bolt is
loose the nut spins round and round behind all the gubbins. That's just an
example of the lack of forethought in the engineering of the thing.

It was advertised as the first Mountfield mower to be designed using
computer aided design techniques, and it was new out at the time. My
theory is that the old guy who used to design their mowers retired and
they got some come-uppity oik straight out of University in to replace
him. Of course, engineering's not a high point of modern university
engineering courses, but he will have been taught how to use a CAD
package, and so that's how he did it. Consequently, it's a disaster.

The motor is good, though, never had any problems with it... but then
it's a B&S bolt-on.

Rant off.

Trev.

PS - you wanna buy it off me?

Strangely enough my rear roller mower is called 'Harry'.
Wierd, but that is what it says on the grass shield at the back :-)
AFAIK it is made in Ireland, and it has done well now for several years -
always starts easily and cuts well.
Don't know if they are generally available, but it was cheaper that a
Mountfield or Hayter and recommended locally.
It has a different arrangement for the grass chute at the back and so is
less likely to stall with a full grass bag in wet grass - allegedly.

[Just Googled and found http://www.mowdirect.co.uk/cgi/ss000002.pl so they
are available :-)]

HTH
Dave R

"Rocket" wrote in message
...
Hi group,

Does anyone here rate Mountfield rotary mowers with the rear roller,
either
push or self-propelled for professional use or should I be looking at
Honda
or Hayter?

--
Rocket
MCSA
=====

The message
from Trevor Barton contains these words:

Rocket wrote:
Hi group,

Does anyone here rate Mountfield rotary mowers with the rear roller,
either
push or self-propelled for professional use or should I be looking
at Honda
or Hayter?

I have a Mountfield M3 rear roller about 4 years old, and I wouldn't buy
another. It's one of the worst pieces of engineering I have ever had the
misfortune to come across.

I have a Hayter which I bought second hand, ex-hire, in 1984 and it's
still going strong :-)

Janet.

3 years ago I bought one of those 99 quid Italian made B&S powered
horizontal jobs from Focus - lack of roller didn't wasn't a factor for me as
I had new house grass was growing inches overnight and almost dailly
cutting was the order of the day in mid summer.

It starts at first pull (I use 0w/40 or 5w/30 oil in sump) the only
problems were the handle nuts that kept vibrating off easily fixed by
replacing with nyloc nuts.