Australasian lawn mowers are getting pretty big over here in England. Masport, Victa and Rover are doing well, it seems.

Anyone any ideas on which of these are the best machines? I'm particularly concerned with their grass bagging up performance as we have sticky and wet grass to cope with a lot of the time.

Thanks in advance

masport and rover in that order victa don't even make a good garden static display they are all show and no go, been there done that and seen it done after many years as mower mechanic.

len

mail len

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Thanks for your replies. I'm starting to come around to the idea that Masport is the mower for me. It's a pity I can't hire one first to try it but there isn't a hireshop doing the make near me.

I did try a Rover 20" self propelled. The small swinging blades put out a real draught and the catcher filled up very well. However, there's a small ridge on the side of the exit chute and this collected a dollop of cut grass which occasionally fell off onto the lawn. Nothing too bad and if I have to go Rover I could tolerate it.

Very best wishes,

Tony

Many thanks for your prompt replies. A couple of comments:

I've just been told by an honest dealer that the cheaper Honda engines are now not made in Japan and are not as good as before. So it isn't just B & S that is getting cheapo!

I find Honda mowers cumbersome and their reputation here as grass cutters and baggers isn't the best.

We can still get mowers with a fan over the blade here. John Deere is one such, though I didn't like the rest of the machine.

I'm getting interested in the technicalities of mowers now.
For instance, one of the factors that helps good grass pickup is the ability to suck in air from underneath the engine. This complements the air coming in from under the deck and helps keep enough of a flow to keep bagging the grass when the mower is set to cut close to the ground.

It's funny how the various makes have a good feature or two but not enough. For instance, the 21inch Masports have a maximum cut height setting that is lower than their own smaller models. Why?

Think I'll have to design my own mower.

God bless

Tony

the best self propelled mower is the snapper mate for me nothing comes near them. yes apparently b&s getting a bad name but me i'm usually wary of bad hype as lots comes from lack of understanding by the regular user. i had the b&s on my greenfield shredder it worked just as well as the 20+ year old motor on my mower but then after years of fixing mowers i do give them good servicing oil is cheaper than motors.

masport of course are new zealand mowers. the honda motor is getting good market share most professionals use honda motors. and of course victa no longer aussie owned sunbeam (usa) took them over when i was still repairing mowers over 20 years agao and i saw of late that sunbeam has been taken over by someone else.

as far as i know rover and greenfield are true aussie machines but they don't use aussie motors there just isn't one good enough that was ever made here, they use b&s and honda at the very least.

and the demise of the 2 stroke motor is well under way as per EPA regulations rules and sunbeam/victa knew all this when i was still repairing mowers so it is nothing new in the usa their home grown 2 stroke mower manufacturer has stopped production of its 2 strokes.

len

Sorry to be late coming back to you. Yes, it's a pity that two stroke motors are going out. I fancy one as, obviously, my strimmer, blower, and hedgecutter are two strokes and I'd need only a can of one type fuel.

About the only two stroke available here is the Victa and, from these posts, and what I've gleaned elsewhere, their mowers aren't as good as they used to be. Funnily enough Victa sold mowers here with their own four stroke, pumped lubrication, engine a few years ago but these motors now seems to be vanishing in favour of Honda.

I'll probably have to go that way too.

Best wishes,

Tony

that's ok mate, news to hear that victa touted their own 4 stroke? they only ever made a 2 stroke and always used 4 strokes from those manufacturers of 4 stroke engines eg.,. briggs & stratton, kirby/techumseh & i suppose they could have used honda but 2 stroke was their stock in trade and yes the real old models before the sunbeam take over where not to bad they had some pride in quality as an australian company. like they only ever made lawn mowers at that so anything else ie.,. rider mower or whatever with the victa name on it is going to be a badge model only like they used to use morrison rider mowers as their own, terrible make of mower at the time.

len

Hondas patents ran out so moved plants to China all materials are the same just cheap labour for there motors so still the same as when made in Japan .

Alot of parts for Honda mowers are sourced from Australia very handy for our country .

Keep your fuel new and clean keep your filter clean and you wont have much trouble.

Also use the four blade full flute program to cut wet and long grass creates alot more air flow.

Cheers hope this has helped .
www.indmowing.com.au