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Our Etesia Hydro 80 leaves softish stripes but you might be better off looking at Countax/Westwood's (domestiv machines) which have a roller on the back of their sweeper units..
Thanks, Nick. The Countax looks ideal for my clients requirements, although I'm pretty sure the previous Gardener didn't use a ride on with a roller, but it has been specified as a requirement, so hopefully we will impress with a superior finish.
I was looking at something like that, but I must admit, what put me off was using the torro striper attachment on a torro ped mower,and constantly fighting to turn the bloody thing, so I thought if I'm having problems with a ped mower, what would it be like with a ride on?,
I have used a Countax on a large garden very handy mower leaves good stripes also the sweeper grass collecter can be used for picking up leaves you can also get quite a arragment of implements to go on them go for the twin cilinder honda engin
I am leaning towards the Countax, partly because of the attachments and the sweeper, as you say for the leaves. Looks like it's ticking all the right boxes so far.
I have Agri-Fab tow-behind gear (sweeper, roller, de-thatcher and hollow-tine), bought because they were reasonably priced compared to the competition - I've had them 6 years and they are holding up well, even the bag on the sweeper, which is original. Dunno if they would be suitable for every-day commercial use.
Tow behind makes it a bit more hassle for turning circle etc. on fiddly parts of my lawn; I towed it behind a 60" Allen National (cylinder / gang type - 2 acres per hour) which left reasonably good stripes on its own; on the occasions when grass was long enough to need collecting, and during Autumn leaf fall, the extra sweeper improved the stripes; on rare occsions when I wanted the stripes to look smarter I towed the roller.
Decided to replace spending 1h30m a week sitting on the mower with Robot mowers, so no stripes any more (but the grass looks better ... and I tow the roller for occasional striping)
Thanks, that was my concern with manouverability with the tow behinds, especially if I'm cutting wet/damp grass, with the concern of rutting if I'm having to make any sharp turns to prevent jack knifing.
My mower was belt drive, the extra weight of tow-behind would increase risk of slip when it was wet, but the mower wasn't really designed / rated for tow behind.
I didn't had a problem with rutting when turning, but if I had to do a 3-point-turn at the end of a row, or a dead end, having the extra length, and tow-hitch device, was a hassle, but for the few places in my garden where that was very tricky I would just jump off and pull sweeper sideways to make turning round easier. Bit harder with the roller!
If I had to do it every time I mowed I would definitely have prefer an inbound arrangement, rather than a tow behind, but for a nice big rectangle, like a football pitch, I reckon it would be fine.
Also the width of the cut vs. the width of the tow-behind need to be reasonably similar for the stripe.