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Thanks Harry, look forward to the call. My experience only backs up the comments seen on here. Early Weibang models had some issues, now resolved and getting good feedback albeit a heavy mower. We have used the importer for over 30 years and I know them to be very good on spares back up so that is not an issue although it is a fairly new machine to the market place. Viking have improved the roller drives with various mods over the last years and problems appear to have settled down. A good performing mower in the wet, good finish. Hayter meanwhile seem to have gone from first choice 10 years ago to not even featuring for many with the latest models.
Same as Harry though I take great care of my Viking 655 but not exactly wrapped in cotton wool and would not consider another machine for the mirad of domestic lawns that I cut every day.
If you must be cutting domestic lawns in all weather conditions then the last thing you need is a 60 plus kilo mower, which I believe the Weibang is, churning up the lawn at every turn.
The Viking is heavy enough to lay a good stripe but light enough to manoeuvre to avoid tearing a lawn to shreads during adverse weather conditions. (I know the purists amongst would say don't mow wet grass)
If you keep the plastic grass box really clean so the vents are never blocked with the power and the aid of the well designed lofted blade then it will collect soaking wet grass all day long and fill the box just like the photo in Harry's last post, although I think that was dry grass.
If you are mechanically minded then the repairs are easy and cheap on the Viking MB655VR.
Hope this helps.
Here are my experiences for what it's worth:
This season I have changed from a Hayter 48 Pro to a Weibang Legacy 48 PRO. Yes the weight is higher than what I was used to and noticeably so. We all have those gardens that no matter the weather they always seem to be a bit damp and muddy and a bit unpleasant to work in, and for those gardens I pull out my second lighter mower which is an Etesia. But at least 90% of my gardens I use the Weibang on and i've had no issues with it making a mess even in all the wet weather we've had. If you check through the forum you'll see that everybody who actually owns one seems to love it. If it's too heavy for you then it's too heavy, but other than that it's comfortably the best mower i've owned. Fast and picks up great. Plus you get a 3 year commercial warranty.
I had the 19" version of that Viking, a MB650VR. When it worked it was brilliant, but the drive broke repeatedly on me and I swapped it after just a few months. A friend of mine had the exact same issue after the same amount of time. I've heard from some on here that the 21" is superior and some seem to have had really good reliability with them. Maybe we were both just unlucky but that was our experience. It definitely was great when it worked though, I'm not trying to knock the performance at all.
which weibang are you looking at..... the legacy or legacy pro.
pro
Yes Harry, lets get that drink sometime soon.
Thanks for all the comments. Think we'll end up going for the Weibang based on comments here and feedback from other local users. Multi user so needs to be very robust. Like the Kawaski engine and the 3yr commercial warranty. Will probably buy after Xmas as don't need one yet - currently the Etesia gets a lot of use especially AM as lawns still very damp.
Shame about Hayter - they seemed to lose the plot a few years ago and haven't really recovered from that yet.
Hi Andrew
Would you not consider getting another Etesia?
roller option poor on etesia