About the Landscape Juice Network

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.

PRO

 I have a mowing job which entails having to literally carry my petrol mower up and down some very steep garden steps . 

The mower weighs 40 kg and lifting it has started to cause me back and knee problems . 

I realise the recommended safe lifting weight for a male is 25 kg 

The grass grows at an incredible pace in a fortnight 

Although the lawn is narrow its the length of a soccer pitch 

It takes me Two hours boxed off , i can empty the bag half way onto a compost heap and minimum edging as the lawn has no borders it runs between various walls and buildings .

Its one of those jobs i feel would be worth investing in and buying a new mower weighing around 25 to 30 kg with at least a 22 inch cut with good engine torque 

I dont mind cordless but realistically doubt if it will meet the spec .

Planks dont help solve the step problem .  

Good customer worth investing in but not worth risking my back  

any recommendations or solutions  

Thanks

 

 

 

You need to be a member of Landscape Juice Network to add comments!

Join Landscape Juice Network

Votes: 0
Email me when people reply –

Replies

  • PRO

    Hi John, would a sack barrow help? I take my mower up a small set of garden steps with one which is fairly easy. You can also get those barrows which have a set of triple wheels made for going up steps.

    • PRO

      Thanks Jim this sounds like a good idea , worth a try , I have a little Aldi sack trolley which might just give some idea of how effective this method will be before upgrading to a more robust trolley with bigger wheels to get up the lip on the steps .

  • PRO

    Hi John

    Have you thought about a mulching petrol flymo ? I used to use one for a sloping garden - light enough to carry up and down slopes / steps, but the only downside is it didn't collect the clippings.

     

    I just did quick google, and here's just one that came up.....

    https://www.mowers-online.co.uk/lawn-care-garden-care/lawnmowers/pe...

    Sorry if that appears to be advertising - there are of course many others available !!!

    Ragards

    Mark

    Cobra AirMow 51B Petrol Hover Mower
    Powerful Hover Mower with optional wheel kit for tough terrain. Cobra AirMow 51B Petrol Hover Mower. Free UK mainland delivery* Buy now from mowers-o…
    • PRO

      Thanks Mark Yes i had looked at these in the Cobra catalogue with the wheel kits and the light weight for a pro model is impressive , I have used a stihl flymo in the past on slopes and it was excellent , i tried it on the flat and good on dry grass , uneven areas but a bit of a slog on the more lush taller grass leaving damp cut grass visible in clumps . 

      I was wondering if the wheel kits are designed to get around this and also if a flymo on wheels might catch toe caps . 

      There are quite a few different models to choose from in the Cobra catalogue and i have a dealer nearby so this is a consideration .

  • Obviously depending on the financial aspect, how about buying a mower and leaving it on site - especially when the grass is growing strongly and rather than rigidly cutting every fortnight, cut every 10 days during for this growing period, steatching to every 3wks at other times? 

    • PRO

      Thankyou Colin great to hear from you . 

      This would be the ideal solution to leave on site unfortunately there are no outbuildings the customer owns at ground level , there are others at ground level but i dont know who owns them and i would then have to lift the mower over a wall . 

      I also need this particular mower Toro for another similar job , much easier as it rolls straight out of the van and onto the lawn . 

      I have left bulky equipment on sites before and it has worked every time , such a shame in this case .

  • I have a Greenworks 80 Volt lawnmower which is 53cm cut which not too heavy to lift, I would say under 30KG without battery in. But that one not too good for cutting long grass short especially if wet or damp, when it is liable to drop bits and blocks up. It has its uses, but mainly is left in the shed. My Bosch Pro 53cm gets a lot more use but is heavy. Needing ramps to safely put it on pickup truck. Although I can lift it off the truck without. And is an extremely expensive initial set up. Other brands and models maybe available now as these are a few years old. When it comes to lawnmowers, "Heavy duty" always seems to mean "Heavy" unfortunately

    • PRO

      Its amazing how heavy some of these cordless mowers are , are they self propelled pulling all that weight while cutting ? 

      If they go the distance on the number of batteries the operator can justify / afford to buy then its impressive with no fuel or servicing costs . 

      I must admit i have not seen a bad finish on a lawn from a cordless mower , it would be interesting to compare finishes fuel v battery as we become more used to battery . 

      30 kg will be heavy to lift into a pick up but not so heavy up and down steps and if you can get a good grip on the machine because that can be a problem lifting mowers not designed to be lifted you end up grabbing a vunerable part or a bit that digs into your fingers .

      • The big pro Bosches are self propelled, it's a separate motor from the main one that drives the blade. It's a good system where you can vary the walking speed with the twist of a ring on the handlebar. They really went to town on the sturdiness and quality of materials hence the weight and  £1.200 price tag for the lawnmower (without batteries) although I ended up purchasing 3 of the machines at a 75% discount. As they got discontinued. The Greenworks 21 incher i have is not self propelled (some models are, I believe) but is light enough to push without undue effort. In fact some of these self propelled can actually slow you down I find, if the grass is not too long you can almost run behind some mowers. That one is 80 Volts so you would have thought it would be powerful cutting. But I think they program them somehow to run for longer on a battery at the expense of blade speed, also probably to reduce wear on components and therefore warranty claims, the quality is nowhere near that of the Bosch Pro but I paid only £200 brand new for the Greenworks one as I already had batteries from using their 80V chainsaw

  • Stihl rm253 20inch and 28kg. Doubt you will get anything bigger for the weight?

    . Never used one though!

    A Stihl448  with mulching plug should be considered. 18 inch cut but light enough to carry because of the design.  I'm not sponsored by Stihl 🤣

This reply was deleted.

Trade green waste centres

<!-- Google tag (gtag.js) --> <script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-WQ68WVXQ8K"></script> <script> window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-WQ68WVXQ8K'); </script>

LJN Sponsor

Advertising