New Mower

Our old ride-on mower was a second hand viking that we picked up for a few hundred after we moved into our house. Over the past 8years or so, it had done well but the battery was stuffed (so I always had to use a jump starter), the wheels wouldn't hold air and it suffered from the occasional break down and I am no mechanic so we would always have to send it in to be repaired when it wouldn't start.
The most recent breakdown was just before Christmas and this year with the heat and the rain, you could see the grass grow. Really not a great time for the mower to break down.

Our very kind neighbours offered to mow our lawns for us which was awesome but we still had the back lawn growing out of control. The wife suggested we get a new one rather than spend more money on repairs (at this point the amount ofmoney spent on repairs was probably the same as a new one). So a trip to the local Mower shop saw us reserving a new Rover Hydrostatic ride-on lawnmower. Apparently during COVID, fewer units had been shipped in so nearly all mowers were sold before they even got delivered. That and the rush during summer meant we had to wait before new units were coming into the store.

Meanwhile our lawn was turning into a jungle of weeds (although the bright yellow daisies were nice - but still weeds). Our neighbours very kindly slashed our back yard to stem the chaos but it required shuffling the entire garage so that their mower could fit through, a major hassle and we didn't want to waste our neighbours time so not a task we wanted to repeat. Thankfully the shop called and they had our mower ready to go a couple of weeks later.

Initially we couldn't use it as it was pouring with rain but a couple of weeks later we had a clear weekend and I was eager to get out and start taming the jungle that had developed.
I have always used mowers operated by foot pedals - push forward with your foot and it goes forward faster and pull it back to go in reverse however this new one was hydrostatic - its all done using a lever on the side of the seat. Like you are changing gears but depending on how far forward you push the lever determines how fast you will go. Definitely something new for me and I'll admit there were a few times where I meant to stop (and reverse) but I accidently pushed the lever forward instead. Luckily no damage but it takes some getting used to. It also disengages the blades if you knock it into reverse but there is a feature to disable that which I only just learnt about - having to re-engage the blades each time you go into reverse was a serious pain!

Overall, I really love the new mower. Starts no problems, cuts so much more evenly (and faster) than the old one and while the hydrostatic transmission takes some time to get used to, its growing on me. I think the best bit was that I can use it to mow our front lawn as well which I could never do with the old mower due to low power and traction. Both front and back lawns can be done in only a few hours which is awesome! So easy, love it!