Mulching Mower - how powerful?
Han Chung
Will a 6.5hp mower mulch better than a 5.5hp mower on a 250m2 lawn?
Regards,
Han.
len gardener
it will come down to the torque that one or the other engine may
develop at a certain rev' range, put simply the more torque for less
revs will be the ideal. on your size lawn you may not notice a whole
lot of difference but then if money is no option go for the bigger
horsepower.
for me lawns are resource wastefull, gardens are much more
sustainable, but if one wants a lawn then the best outcome is to leave
the clip on the lawn, makes them more water wise and the need for
fertilisers and chemical treatments is reduced.
len
snipped
--
happy gardening
'it works for me it could work for you,'
"in the end ya' gotta do what ya' gotta do" but consider others and the environment
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~gardenlen1/
Andrew G
"Han Chung" <han_...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:a18bb996.04041...@posting.google.com...
Really the area of the lawn doesn't matter, but the type and thickness of
the grass does.
A lawn that is kept neat and mowed regularly will place much less strain on
the mower, rather than a lawn that is allowed to get overgrown and long.
Buffalo and kyke lawns are a lot tougher than couch when they get long.
In general, the same brand mowers, both 4 stroke, same size cutting deck,
all things equal bar the engine size, than yeah, a 6.5hp would go better
than a 5.5hp under a heavy work load, but as I said above, a well kept lawn
should be a breese for a 5.5hp.
good luck
Han Chung
Hi Len - I just had a question about torque.
> it will come down to the torque that one or the other engine may
> develop at a certain rev' range, put simply the more torque for less
> revs will be the ideal. on your size lawn you may not notice a whole
> lot of difference but then if money is no option go for the bigger
> horsepower.
The two engines I'm looking at are:
http://www.honda-engines.com/gcv160.htm
http://www.honda-engines.com/gcv190.htm
The GCV160 has 7.6 lbf ft of maximum torque at 2500 rpm. The GCV190
has 8.1 lbf ft of torque at the same rpm. What does this all mean?
Cheers,
Han.
len gardener
i'm no engineer mate but up front the 190 is obviously the more
powerfull of the 2 the thing here is do you need that extra power?
which means it will cut heavier grass easier and at the end of the day
work longer as the motor isn't being over reved to make it work.
so put simply if you can afford it buy the bigger motor it will last
longer if you think you need that, i'm not conversant with the honda
motors they weren't in vogue when i was a mechanic, so at the very
least all you can do is read up on the manufactureres techinical data
and make you decision from there. from what i have read honda are a
very good engine. always the best people to talk to are those who use
them to make a living next time you see a proffessional lawnmowing
person ask them.
if you keep your lawn well mowed you also may never notice the
difference between the 2.
len gardener
one thing you may want to consider is the bigger engine uses 20% more
fuel than the smaller, basically their model numbers equate to the cc
size of the motor 1 is 160cc and the other 190cc not sure what other
differences there are ie.,. flywheel weight to help the torque. but
you also then have a heavier mower to push around the 190 is 2 or so
kilo's heavier.
i still don't reckon that at the end of the day any user would notice
much if any difference when used on the average well kept lawn. so it
comes down the pocket book can you afford the extra price which is
bound to be a factor.
len
On 17 Apr 2004 06:41:05 -0700, han_...@hotmail.com (Han Chung)
wrote:
--
Andrew G
If you can picture a car with one person driving along, then it comes to a
hill. As it heads up that hill it will slow down if you keep the accelerator
in the same spot. To keep up speed you need to feed on more accelerator.
Now same scenario, but the car is fully loaded, luggage and 5 people. The
car will struggle a lot more up hill, needing a lot more throttle to keep up
speed.
THis is due to Torque, and a car with more torque will struggle less.
WIth a mower you may hit long grass and the revs die down. A higher torque
engine will not die down as much. Engine capacity and or crank/flywheel
weight can make the torque difference.
Really for a house lawn that is kept tidy then for the average mower it
wouldn't make much difference.
And as for the revs at 2500rpm that is where the peak torque (figures given)
are reached. This is usually (or always I think) less revs than the engines
full revs, and unless you have a tachometer attached to the mower you won't
know the revs.
i.e. The mower mentioned is at 2000rpm and you hit long grass, the revs die.
Bringing the revs up to 2500rpm and it will cut at it's peak torque. If the
grass is that long that revs can't hit 2500rpm, then that would be where a
higher torque engine would be needed.
Anways, that's all as a general rule.
good luck
> Cheers,
>
> Han.
Andrew Puddifer
moisture in, but it helps mulch the lawn and is a whole lot easier than
dragging a full catcher around, both attached to the mower and not.
Four blade mowers seem to deal with thicker grass a lot better for a
given h.p, I have just bought a new side discharge mower(one of those
Yard Boss MTD US built mowers, a good mower) and it has the exact same
engine as my old mower, but half the blades. It bogs down a fair bit
easier in longer or wet grass, and the cut is not as consistent. I
actually like my old mower better, I did modify the deck with a jigsaw
to open up the discharge port a bit though!
As for power, my mowr is a 3.5 hp, and I have about 350 sq m to mow and
a bit of a slope to it. It does just fine if I don't mow it wet or let
it get knee high!
Just my findings...
Regards, Andrew.
len gardener
anything more than a 2 blade cutting operation does a much better cut
on a good lawn, scott bonnar used to have a 3 blade set up and rover
and some others a 4 blade system all cut very even and make a neat
job. not recommending anything un-toward but maybe you could fit a
rover disc and blade set up if you are not quiet happy with the
current cut of your new mower (has a cutter bar most likely). i have a
masport that came with a bar my opinion a pretty hopeless system so i
swapped for a rover disc assembly lost about 1/2" on the cut width,
but hey cut nice and neat and picked up grass heaps better when i used
the catcher.
Andrew Puddifer
Yeah, I am considering swapping over the disc off the Rover to the new
mower. The Rover disc has 4 brand new blades on it too.
The bar blade system is a real dud, obviously dirt cheap to
manufacture. I was actually thinking of welding up a six blade bar
system, but common sense prevailed!
I think the disc system works so well because the actual disc keeps a
lot of the cut grass clear of the blades, and helps discharge it(like a
centrifuge).
I only replaced the Rover(came free with the house, wouldn't run)
because it keeps developing carburettor problems, and I got sick of
buying secondhand carbs for it(yes I tried to fix the carbs, but it was
a problem I couldn't be bothered finding!). I kept it because it has the
cast iron bore Briggs engine, a very solid engine. Interestingly, the
new Briggs engines use a plastic carb, identical to the old one, just
plastic.
I can't find fault with my new mower for the price though, dead easy to
start and lots of grunt, the silly US mandated handle bar brake system
was pretty quickly disabled though!
Regards, Andrew.
len gardener
not a good idea to do that sort of welding unless you are real expert
at it.
these new systems especially the cutter bar ar not only cheaper from a
manufacuturers point of view, and mind you the cheapness never
reflects in the price you pay for a mower, but they are all part of an
attempt to make a mower fool proof, something that can never be done
as the fool will always circumvent the save the fool from themselves
modification.
for me cutter bars give about the worst cut that one could imagine
when used on a well trimmed lawn. also by putting the disc and blades
this may make a difference to the power of motor as you are adding a
bit more weight to compliment the flywheels weight and purpose. give
me swing blades anytime and i'm not in the habit of sticking me
fingers or feet under mowers to see what is happening lol. all this so
called "safety stuff" they are adding to mowers across the pacific
must be adding heaps to the cost of mowers let alone their weight and
the complexity of the devices? just more things to go wrong.
Han Chung
on a brand new 5.5hp Honda HRU196D from someone wanting to offload it.
It runs beautifully and mows the lawn really well.
Han.