Founded in 2008. The Landscape Juice Network (LJN) is the largest and fastest growing professional landscaping and horticultural association in the United Kingdom.
LJN's professional business forum is unrivalled and open to anyone within within the UK landscape industry
LJN's Business Objectives Group (BOG) is for any Pro serious about building their business.
For the researching visitor there's a wealth of landscaping ideas, garden design ideas, lawn advice tips and advice about garden maintenance.
Replies
I had a very slight clicking on my HRH536 QX and i remembered a prior conversation with my dealer who said the drive cable stretches and that tightening it up will cure it and prevent premature wear. I dont know if it applies to the HRD but it worked on my mower.
I hope that is what it is and not something more costly !
Don't know if it's the same gearbox as the Pro models, but the parts diagram for those is here:
http://www.danarm.co.uk/parts/index.php?m=LM5360HXAR-PRO.
When mine have failed it's been failure to disengage rather than any noises that's been the first symptom. How good's your relationship with the dealer? They should be able to diagnose it easily enough, I'm always afraid I'll do more damage or replace the wrong thing by doing it myself!
welcome to the world of honda/kaaz rear roller gearboxes. Did your friendly local dealer advise you that they are crap when you bought it ?
If it is the cable or the lever on the side of the gearbox then you are in luck but it still won't last that long anyway.
If it is the bevel gears in the box then it is best to replace the full box than just the bevel gears because when you just do the gears it always seems to fail again quite quickly. A dealer i am pally with will only replace the full gearbox now after having having trouble with rebuilding old ones.
When we were running hondas or kaaz (lawnflite/sarp etc) full time on a domestic round i would expect about 6 months out of a gearbox.
I've run the Honda Pro, and subsequently three Kaaz. I average just over a year out of the gearboxes, so long as you always get them rolling before you engage drive. It's not what I'd call a weak spot, or "crap", just a service item!
In between I've had two Hayters, neither of which lasted a season without the engines failing (oil changed every two weeks in peak season). I think you just have to accept that running a mower for what, 20 hours-plus per week, is going to wear something out. Someone once told me it was the equivalent of driving a car for 100,000 hard-driven miles per year, which puts it in perspective.
Whenever my Kaaz mower has been clicking its always turned out to be the bearings.
briggsandscrapem said:
Is the kaaz machine the same as Asuka,sarp,shanks,lawnflightpro ??
Googling those they are similar, but not the same. As I understand it the various alternatives are companies who buy in the Honda engine and drivetrain, and fit them to their own machines.
As I've said before, and I owned a Honda Pro before the Kaaz, the Kaaz has slightly better wet collection. The handles aren't as solid, but are perfectly adequate, and it's £300-£400 cheaper than the Honda. As has been discussed at length; the engine will never break, the rollers are a service item, the gearbox (or rather the drive take-up) is fragile unless you push it up to speed before engaging drive.
I'd never go for a Honda other than the Pro-spec. But, for the same money as a lesser Honda you get a Pro-spec alternative such as the Kaaz I use, and I'd guess the other alternatives. Given that all the moving parts other than the wheels are in common with the Honda Pro I can't see a reason to buy anything else.
Thanks for the reply,i havent had any dealings with the honda pro i will be having a look at them now though.
The mowers i mention are the same mower just a diffrent name on the front, all made in japan, the drive went on my 19" Asuka 5hp kawasaki engine last year and was quoted £230 for a new box but there werent any in the country and due to the exchange rate they werent expected anytime soon.
So i replaced it with a 21" shanks, 5.5 Honda engine great mower as is the Asuka, but this problem seems to be well known about them,it's a shame as apart from this problem i cant fault them atol.
And if the drive does fail on the one im running just now i cant think of anything else that would compare to replace it with.
Im thinking of going to the expense of carrying replacment boxe's for when it does go.
The ones that came up on googling Asuka,sarp,shanks,lawnflightpro aren't the same as my Kaaz, but they do look similar. Either way they are essentially a Honda Pro for hundreds less, with no real downside other than the Honda parts needing repairing sometimes. And then less often that other makes IMO.
When my last one got the first signs of impending gearbox failure I replaced it. It's now kept at home, used once a week and has been fine for nearly a year now. It's not economical for me, as a one-man-band, to keep two new machines on the go, but this way i've got a back-up mower when the new one is in for repair.
Back to the OP, I still think this might not be the gearbox though. It's not a symptom I've ever seen, failure to disengage drive is the usual problem (and a fairly scary one when it happens!).
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next