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Cutting Grass. What are my options
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I have a little less than an acre. Its in terraces 3-4m wide. There are several and the ground is quite steep. I have an access path between them. The steepest point of the path is probably a 2m drop in 4-5m horizontal

Can ride on mowers cope with that?

A strimmer seems like a huge amount of work?

A petrol push mower? How much work is an acre with one? How long would it take?
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Re: Cutting Grass. What are my options [Andrewmc] [ In reply to ]
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I have just under an acre. With push mower, trimmer and then blower it's about 1:30-2hrs. Can't wait to get a riding mower. I have some hills I'll still need push mower for.

Trying to picture what you described. Sounds like you might be stuck using just a push mower due to access

"I think I've cracked the code. double letters are cheaters except for perfect squares (a, d, i, p and y). So Leddy isn't a cheater... "
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Re: Cutting Grass. What are my options [Andrewmc] [ In reply to ]
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Push mowers are pretty easy these days. They're self-propelled and lightweight. It might take some time, but depending on how these terraces are laid out, a riding mower might just not be feasible. A push mower should be able to do an acre in somewhere around an hour or less, if it was flat and straight.

Buy a pusher, and spend an hour or so every week or two mowing, smelling the grass, enjoying the outdoors, getting some sun, etc.

Slowguy

(insert pithy phrase here...)
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Re: Cutting Grass. What are my options [Andrewmc] [ In reply to ]
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Husqvarna has an electric robotic one that should work. Guess it depends what the access path is but it will cut 1.5ac I believe . Are you sure it's an acre? We have about 4 acres, half of it developed with a good amount of grass and have 1/4ac of grass... I can cut 1/4ac with a push mower in <30min (30" toro time master)
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Re: Cutting Grass. What are my options [Andrewmc] [ In reply to ]
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Sounds like you'll want a push mower, given the terracing. Self-propelled is nice - we just got a new Craftsman self-propelled pusher from Sears and it works well, but there are several things I don't like about it. 1) it's front wheel drive, so when you make turns by lifting up the front wheels a bit and rotating the mower on the rear wheels, you lose your propulsion. 2) the FWD unit adds about 8" to the front of the deck, so you lose the ability to cut close to edges & plant beds by pushing the mower forward and 3) the grass catcher bag is a huge pain in the ass - terrible design. If you go with self-propelled, I'd stay away from FWD.

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Re: Cutting Grass. What are my options [Andrewmc] [ In reply to ]
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Andrewmc wrote:
I have a little less than an acre. Its in terraces 3-4m wide. There are several and the ground is quite steep. I have an access path between them. The steepest point of the path is probably a 2m drop in 4-5m horizontal

Can ride on mowers cope with that?

A strimmer seems like a huge amount of work?

A petrol push mower? How much work is an acre with one? How long would it take?

What is a strimmer? When I was mowing lawns in Europe we had a very lightweight electric mower that basically propelled itself off the ground by using the air generated by the blades. Super easy and light but not good for high grass or super thick grass.
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Re: Cutting Grass. What are my options [CW in NH] [ In reply to ]
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3900 sq m. Give or take.

It looks a bit like this

http://l7.alamy.com/...ller-area-dth3cy.jpg

Mine are deeper front to back but same same more or less

A push mower descending would be fine. Getting it bacj up might be trickier.
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Re: Cutting Grass. What are my options [Andrewmc] [ In reply to ]
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That would suck to set-up for a robot, and I'm not sure how well the work on that scenario...
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Re: Cutting Grass. What are my options [Andrewmc] [ In reply to ]
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Self propelled will get up there. You also could look at a commercial grade zero turn skid. Might be tight also

"I think I've cracked the code. double letters are cheaters except for perfect squares (a, d, i, p and y). So Leddy isn't a cheater... "
Last edited by: Leddy: Sep 11, 17 15:11
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Re: Cutting Grass. What are my options [Andrewmc] [ In reply to ]
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Andrewmc wrote:
3900 sq m. Give or take.

It looks a bit like this

http://l7.alamy.com/...ller-area-dth3cy.jpg

Mine are deeper front to back but same same more or less

A push mower descending would be fine. Getting it bacj up might be trickier.

If it's like that picture, where you can go up one level, turn around and go up the next, a self-propelled would be fine.

Slowguy

(insert pithy phrase here...)
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Re: Cutting Grass. What are my options [slowguy] [ In reply to ]
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slowguy wrote:
A push mower should be able to do an acre in somewhere around an hour or less, if it was flat and straight.

Maybe if your jogging

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Re: Cutting Grass. What are my options [mop] [ In reply to ]
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mop wrote:
slowguy wrote:
A push mower should be able to do an acre in somewhere around an hour or less, if it was flat and straight.

Maybe if your jogging

I had to do my 1 1/4 acre with a push mower once. Took me 3-4 hours. Takes me about an hour with my ride on.
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Re: Cutting Grass. What are my options [Andrewmc] [ In reply to ]
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Andrewmc wrote:
I have a little less than an acre. Its in terraces 3-4m wide. There are several and the ground is quite steep. I have an access path between them. The steepest point of the path is probably a 2m drop in 4-5m horizontal

Can ride on mowers cope with that?

A strimmer seems like a huge amount of work?

A petrol push mower? How much work is an acre with one? How long would it take?

String trimmer is no good for actual mowing. It would be perfect for all the edging along the walls though, if you want to get it right to the edge.
Ride on mowers will have issues with steep uphills especially if the mower deck is engaged. I would ride up and then mow on the downhill if the power from the mower is limited. You would benefit greatly from having traction ballast in the tires (put in tubes, then fill them with calcium chloride solution).

We have about two mowing-required acres with some more gentle slopes. With an old 38 inch John Deere with 12 hp Kawasaki engine, it took probably 3 hours and you'd have to be careful to overlap swaths so as not to overload the mower. With a 54 inch Kubota tractor and a 22 hp diesel, it took about 1:45 and you only need to overlap so as to ensure you don't miss swaths. Biggest hassle was that the front-end loader impedes vision and maneuverability around trees. Then we got a 48 inch Kubota zero turn mower. Got the gasoline engine since the diesel one was nearly double the price (and used ones were not coming up for sale in our area). With it we can mow everything in about 1:30, and the biggest challenge is to not accidentally run over small shrubs and trees... the independent rear-wheel steering intrinsically gives you good traction on hills but traversing along a side slope can result in a crabbing action since the front wheels just caster.

If you can use a tractor with a loader I'd consider that. The newer ones (from Kubota at least) have an easily detachable loader including quick connects for the hydraulics. The four-wheel drive is amazing. If you only need it to mow and you have the budget I'd look for a zero turn radius mower. It will cope with your switchback terraces like no other.

Less is more.
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Re: Cutting Grass. What are my options [knewbike] [ In reply to ]
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knewbike wrote:
mop wrote:
slowguy wrote:
A push mower should be able to do an acre in somewhere around an hour or less, if it was flat and straight.


Maybe if your jogging


I had to do my 1 1/4 acre with a push mower once. Took me 3-4 hours. Takes me about an hour with my ride on.


48:26 if you hustle a little bit.

"I think I've cracked the code. double letters are cheaters except for perfect squares (a, d, i, p and y). So Leddy isn't a cheater... "
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Re: Cutting Grass. What are my options [knewbike] [ In reply to ]
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knewbike wrote:
mop wrote:
slowguy wrote:
A push mower should be able to do an acre in somewhere around an hour or less, if it was flat and straight.

Maybe if your jogging

I had to do my 1 1/4 acre with a push mower once. Took me 3-4 hours. Takes me about an hour with my ride on.

If it took you 3-4 hrs to mow 1 1/4 acres (just the mowing, not the trimming or other work) then either you have a really tough lawn to move, or with all due respect, you're doing it wrong, especially if you have a self propelled mower.

Slowguy

(insert pithy phrase here...)
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Re: Cutting Grass. What are my options [slowguy] [ In reply to ]
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It is a tough lawn. Many trees, hills, long fence, driveway couple buildings and a garden plot or 2. Push mower iis not self propelled. It is my trimming mower and I was rebuilding the engine on the riding one. If I was dork enough to wear a gps watch my map would look quite different

Also I would like to point out that mowing a full 20" swath for the area of an acre with no overlap is 5 miles. At least that's how the math works out.

To the OP. I would get a wide self propelled walk behind.
Last edited by: knewbike: Sep 11, 17 16:37
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Re: Cutting Grass. What are my options [Leddy] [ In reply to ]
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I don't think I could hold a 14 minute mile with my non propelled pusher. I could try but I don't think I would get as good of a cut.

I have less than 1/4 acre lot and it takes me close to 90 minutes. I could probably do 60 minutes at my normal pace if it was all one nice perfect rectangle with out kids play equipment to move.
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Re: Cutting Grass. What are my options [torrey] [ In reply to ]
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I had a little pep in my step. It was the first time I cut my lawn after moving. Friends had been busting my balls for buying a walk behind so I was trying to prove a point.
Even with some hills, going around trees and kids stuff, landscape edges I'm done in unders 1:30. Then trimmer and blowing takes it out to 2 hrs tops.

"I think I've cracked the code. double letters are cheaters except for perfect squares (a, d, i, p and y). So Leddy isn't a cheater... "
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Re: Cutting Grass. What are my options [Andrewmc] [ In reply to ]
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I'm encouraged to learn that there are other men who still mow their own lawns.

Here's what you need for that yard:



________
It doesn't really matter what Phil is saying, the music of his voice is the appropriate soundtrack for a bicycle race. HTupolev
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Re: Cutting Grass. What are my options [Andrewmc] [ In reply to ]
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I'd skip the ride-on mower. Those transitions are just too steep. Golf course in my community has some really elevated greens (probably about the pitch you're talking about). They use push mowers for the sides of those... and those are people who basically cut grass all day long for a living.
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Re: Cutting Grass. What are my options [Andrewmc] [ In reply to ]
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As I myself was mowing this evening, I was thinking about the Alien Civilization thread here on ST...

It occurred to me that perhaps we have been visited by aliens, but when they observed us doing something as absurd as wasting our time tediously manicuring these vast swaths of non-purposeful greenery, they concluded that we were a bunch of morons, gave up all hope on us, and then left forever

And yet I dutifully finished mowing my lawn. Sigh.

Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball
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Re: Cutting Grass. What are my options [Andrewmc] [ In reply to ]
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A lawn service.
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Re: Cutting Grass. What are my options [Andrewmc] [ In reply to ]
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I've got a pretty steeply sloping backyard, and my Honda rear wheel drive does well.

Looking at what you're dealing with... have you considered goats?

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If I don't, who will? -Me
It's like being bipolar in opinion is a requirement around here. -TripleThreat
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Re: Cutting Grass. What are my options [H-] [ In reply to ]
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H- wrote:
I'm encouraged to learn that there are other men who still mow their own lawns.

Not me! Mrs. eb does the mowing. She's the best! THE BEST !!!
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Re: Cutting Grass. What are my options [eb] [ In reply to ]
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eb wrote:
H- wrote:
I'm encouraged to learn that there are other men who still mow their own lawns.


Not me! Mrs. eb does the mowing. She's the best! THE BEST !!!



________
It doesn't really matter what Phil is saying, the music of his voice is the appropriate soundtrack for a bicycle race. HTupolev
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