Ride on mower

[Phgty]

Not holding much hope but can anyone recommend a ride on mower suitable for 2.5 acres of grass?

I'm overwhelmed no idea what to look for!!

DH has a Husqvarna (if that’s how you spell it). It was the 2nd bottom model, but couldn’t help you with the reference number. We have just under 2ac of grass and to be honest it is probably overkill having the ride on as a powerful normal mower could do it.

We also have a bit of a slope / tier, which doesn’t help.

DH spends a lot of time titting about with it round about this time of year, chews up some of the garden with it (usually on a Sunday morning), then it needs to be taken away for a costly service in the winter. We’d have been better off spending the money on extra gardener time, and now we’ve consumed a bit of the back of the garden to make a gym I’m suggesting he sells the sodding thing.

Thank you so much!

DH is getting carried away and wanting a bloody compact tractor, I really feel like that has got to be overkill? We also have some slopes though.

We have a small ride on mower from the 1990s that we inherited but so far DH has spent more time tinkering with it than doing anything on the garden.

Ridiculous that this is causing me stress!!

I would get on farmer's forums to get an opinion on what's the most reliable.

Are you wanting to collect the grass or mulch it? Are there obstacles to mow around, or is it relatively straightforward? Do you want the mower to be be able to pull a trailer, leaf sweeper or snow plough?

No obstacles, mulch, and doesn't need to do anything apart from cut grass!

If you don't want to collect, it might be more sensible to go for a zero turn rather than a lawn tractor. The decks are generally wider and they can be more reliable. Bobcat is a good make but it will set you back a bit. For a lawn tractor and two acres, Stiga / Mountfield is a decent make, but you could also consider MTD or Lawnflite. Get petrol - the battery ones don't have anything like enough range. A compact tractor will do the job, but will be more expensive - you're also paying for the finishing mower attachment. If it's only to cut the grass, why buy something that can plough. If money is no object, your DH might consider an Avant loader - more attachments than you want, but might be nice to be able to trim the hedges or dig drainage trenches.

The budget would be £5k for a mower, but £10-12k for a compact tractor - trouble is finding one 2nd hand with a decent service history, ideally DH would prefer a compact tractor as it has the attachments etc but we need something ASAP for the grass so I suggested we spend £5k on just a mower for now, then keep an eye out for a tractor.

Having to pay someone to cut it at the moment so want something quickly, something reliable and preferred with delivery!

Thanks so much for your help, do you have any recommendations of companies or sellers to approach?

We have a Honda which we upgraded to from an old Westwood. Ours has the small trailer so we can use it for hoying stuff round the garden as well and also add a water roller when the grass gets a bit bumpy (we do it probably 2/3 times a year max but makes a massive difference)
The Honda is fairly fast (well compared to the Westwood) , mulches and can collect if you need to (we rarely do this because what the hell do you do with that much grass!)
It's good, fairly simple to use and service/fix and even our teenager can drive it.

That sounds great. Do you have a model or make? Can I ask the cost and where you bought it (new or 2nd hand?) Thank you!

What about buying a large scale robot mower?

I think you can get commercial robot mowers which will do 10,000m2+ areas and then you wouldn't have to bother with mowing yourselves. Obviously they're expensive but they are by the looks of it no more than a ride on mower.

I wasn't sure and it's off getting serviced atm but found a photo and it's a HF2417
We bought it quite a few years back so I'm not sure how much but googling says it's widely available for around £5k

I'm not sure where we got it from but we bought it online new and got it delivered

Round here I know you can get them from Sam Turners but that might not help unless you are in N. Yorks

John Deere with a mulching deck. Very reliable

Both our neighbours with large gardens (1-2acres) have the same one so it's popular round here.

If he gets a compact tractor don't go for a Kubota. Lovely things but the parts have to be imported from Japan. Ours spends more time broken than working

Don’t get a tractor, it needs separate insurance, a lawn mower is included in house insurance, we have the stiga estate 5092 hw. The garden is a bit bigger than yours. I’d recommend it. We also bought a trailer that we just take the grass box off and attach and use it to move stuff around rhe garden Ie logs, plants etc,

shop around for a supplier near you. We upgraded from our old Westwood to this one.

https://www.7oaksmowers.co.uk/product/stiga-estate-5092-hw/

I'd agree with the suggestion of a robot mower. You can get 4WD and they deal well with slopes, we were quoted about £6k and saw a few gardens (c1.5 acres ) where the lawns looked great

@Augend23 this is our ultimate goal but have concluded we probably need it AND the ride on as although it can do the regular maintenance cuts it can't do the useful stuff like rolling (essential with our clay after winter) & towing and that first high cut of the year
Our friends have one for their acre and love it but says it does have limitations.

I saw them doing the slopes round Edinburgh castle and they seemed to be coping very well. My garden is too small to need one, but googling suggested e.g. Husqvarna does ones to cover that much area.

Can you make some of the land into wild meadow? You only need to strim that once a year (early autumn) which will really reduce the time you spend on it.

We have over an fair amount of meadow with quite rare flowers (orchids etc) and insects according to the local nature group. DP has found a love of strimming it (once all the flowers have died). I just bring him tea/beer every hour or two when he is doing it with his noise cancelling headphones and audio book on.

It looks untidy but beautiful during the summer.

I’d not recommend a robot one. Unless you can have two. That and a sit on. With a large garden like that there are times you need to collect the grass, you don’t want to mulch, as you will just be dragging the cuttings around on your feet. Plus a ride on has many more uses, we use ours for way more than cutting the grass, we put the trailer on it and move stuff around much more than just grass cutting.

We have a Kubota for our 1 acre. Bloody love it

Robot mower all the way. Ours keeps on top of an acre. We do still need a strimmer and push mower for odd bits. But our main lawn areas have been completely maintenance free for the last couple of years. I wasn’t convinced but DH persuaded me, and I admit he was right. We do have a quad and topper for the field though, and can use that with a trailer for stuff.

My DH is in this business and recommends this (hopefully the picture attaches)