Originally Posted by
VocalNeal
Go and check again if the 4 day ladies have really made it flat. You need flat lawn for a mower. Have they used a peice of 2x8 on a string and dragged it all over the plot, twice?
What a crock of shit this statement is. If your "lawn" is not flat then set your mower on the lowest level and cut the high points off, or if the valley is too deep throw some dirt in the fill it a bit. Over time the lawn will grow and it will have a bit of character instead of looking "manicured", unless of course that is what you want.
Originally Posted by
JPPR2
How big an area you gonna mow? What type of grass? 20 truck loads sounds like a descent size plot. Mowing that with an electric seems odd. You would have to lug around a huge cord.
Get a Honda or Husky in BKK. Money well spent. Make sure it has at least front drive wheels so you aren't killing yourself pushing it. 15 to 20k baht is the going price for a good one with a nice size rear bag. Of course you could find someone to do it for you, but they aren't likely going to have a mower, they will use a blade on a weedwhacker and take it all the way down to the roots and the lawn will die. One of those "Get what you pay for" deals...
JPPR is correct re: "Get what you pay for" as I found out.
When we moved to Thailand we bought a lawnmower with us from Australia it is a Victa 60 and worked a treat, it was a mulcher/catcher mower. Eventually it gave up working and instead of having it repaired I went and bought another mower this time a Makita 150cc mulcher catcher here in Thailand, it was also a mulcher and worked really well, can't remember what it cost. Anyway one day it decided to stop working so as I needed to cut the grass I couldn't wait to get it fixed and went and bought another mower this time I went cheap and bought a small 99cc mower. Unfortunately it only works well if the grass is short and growing thinly, if it gets a bit long and is thick the mower stalls as it isn't powerful enough. It cost me 5K and was a waste of money. Maybe it would be OK if you are like pragmatic and mow your grass every 5 days but I can't be stuffed doing that so it usually is like a jungle before I get into cutting it.
Finally I went and got my Makita fixed and it is going strong at the moment. Both the Victa and the Makita have Briggs and Stratton engines which I think are great.
So my advice is:
Don't worry about whether your lawn is "flat" and spend the money and buy a mower that has some power i.e. at least 150cc motor. Again JPPR's advice on spending a bit ,more and getting one that is self driven would be well worth following.