Wheels or a Roller?

No, its not the choice of my next car but my new lawnmower.I am a professional gardener with both commercial and domestic customers and currently have a 4 wheel, 21" Honda HRX with the Versamow mulching feature. This is a brilliant feature as it means you do not end up with truck loads of grass cuttings to get rid of and its supposed to be good for the lawn. So I use this feature where ever I possibly can.I am expanding the business and have started my eldest son this year and figured that if we had two lawnmowers we would be able to get the lawns cut twice as quick and move onto the next job, especially the commercial stuff.However, I also have a number of domestic customers with large gardens who like to see their lawns have lovely straight stripes all over. As good as the Honda HRX is, with its four wheels, it just doesn't leave the lovely stripes that the HRD Honda does.So my dilemma is should I get another HRX with the mulching feature or one with a roller? And if I get one with a roller and we use both mowers on the same job - I then have the situation where one is leaving stripes and the other isn't and it could look a bit odd.Please help - I cant decide which way to go.Bob

Bob, we use the Honda HRX, ,S , prefer the HY though. Most of our work is commercial and used as a mulcher, fantastic mowers. Using a roller and a HRX on the same site is going to look odd unless used separate lawns, even using two different makes of non roller on the same piece of grass will not look right.

You're going to have to be careful with pricing, if you use a roller where previously using the HRX you've got to charge more as the purchase cost of a roller and maintenance costs along with the extra time to mow the grass have to be considered.

Personally although we use both rollers and non rollers I would get another HRX for your son and only use a roller where the customer specifies and charge a premium.

We keep our HRX,s for 2 seasons and our Hayter 56 PRO,S for one season, we've found this to be the most economic avoiding service costs and reliability issues and getting good values as part exchanges.

Replies

PRO

Phil Voice February 3, 2009 at 6:22pm

Good question Bob.

Personally for me it would be a roller every time on a lawn.

I have been in the same position with having one wheeled Honda and one roller before and it can cause quality issues when it comes to the visual effect.

Phil
Classic Gardens February 3, 2009 at 6:26pm

Bob

The 21 " lawnflight pro comes with a mulch attachment and is as far as i am aware the only roller mower to use one.

I use the lawnflights and love them, Like you say the mulching system is a godsend.
Graeme @ BGS February 5, 2009 at 10:46am

I use a mix based upon clients requirements and lawn conditions but given the choice roller everytime would be my clients preference.

One point to consider would be the cutting width of the machine. I have quite a few clients where access to the rear garden is very limited and hence the good old 21 inch is left in the van!
- Brian's Garden Maintenance > Graeme @ BGS May 21, 2021 at 8:26pm
  
  Hi Graeme
  
  What size mower do you use on the limited access garden you use please and is it a roller one?
  
  Thanks
  
  Brian
  - David Benson > Brian's Garden Maintenance May 21, 2021 at 9:20pm
    
    this was posted ln 2009
Peter sellers May 22, 2021 at 6:54am

Bob, we use the Honda HRX, ,S , prefer the HY though. Most of our work is commercial and used as a mulcher, fantastic mowers. Using a roller and a HRX on the same site is going to look odd unless used separate lawns, even using two different makes of non roller on the same piece of grass will not look right.

You're going to have to be careful with pricing, if you use a roller where previously using the HRX you've got to charge more as the purchase cost of a roller and maintenance costs along with the extra time to mow the grass have to be considered.

Personally although we use both rollers and non rollers I would get another HRX for your son and only use a roller where the customer specifies and charge a premium.

We keep our HRX,s for 2 seasons and our Hayter 56 PRO,S for one season, we've found this to be the most economic avoiding service costs and reliability issues and getting good values as part exchanges.
Public Member

Kris Baker May 22, 2021 at 12:32pm

I've got a Stihl battery mower, only used for the around the lawn edges.

It basically has the 4 wheels at each corner with almost no blade-overhang. I keep dropping a wheel off the edge and scalping it :( (**)

A roller would at least mean no chance of that happening at the backend, and when I have used them in the past they allowed the edge-side front wheel to "fly" when it went over the edge momentarily (with a reasonably amount of "twist" applied to the mower handle to shift weight to the non-edge side), rather than the whole thing drop over the edge and murder the edge

(**) in fact I think I will get rid of it, 90% of its usage is for around-the-edge, and I need something that doesn't fall off the edge (but which runs on Stihl batteries ... perhaps I can jerry-rig something with the battery belt/shoulder harness ...)
- Billybop > Kris Baker May 22, 2021 at 8:32pm
  
  yes i have stihl battery mowers, they are not the best for hanging over edges. Some of the Bosch battery models have a roller so I use one for that specific purpose on certain jobs. The Bosch are good machines I give them a lot of abuse until the wheels literally fall off, but the motors never miss a beat
  - PRO
    
    Jonathan Davidson > Billybop May 22, 2021 at 8:56pm
    
    Ive had a stihl cordless mower for a few months now and still getting used to remembering the front wheels are narrower than at the back so you cant keep going around borders with both wheels on the border side flush to the lawn edge. Cant fault a Hayter roller for being all aligned :-)
Neil Ruddick May 22, 2021 at 10:48pm

I recently bought a Checkmate roller for one of my Toro Timemasters. Both are second hand mowers, and the first is probably wearing out, so I bought a second one on Ebay, with a larger motor, and added the roller to this one. I work on my own, so I swop between the two mowers. The roller could be set up so that it is easy to remove, but It would only take 5 minutes undoing two bolts as it is. They do rollers for different sizes of mowers. They are not cheap, but they appear strong enough to outlast the mowers, and be transferable to your next mower in the future. You can bag or mulch with the roller attached.