Ride on mower.

My Hyundai has finally given up. It had a hard life. I have, maybe an acre, to cut, and I keep reclaiming a bit more from the reeds and the weeds.

Do I buy a cheap mountfield or a more expensive husky or do I go second hand?

I have an acre of very rough paddock. I had a 12hp Mountfield for a while, but it wasn’t man enough and it eventually fell apart. My paddock is very uneven, slopes in two directions and is plagued by moles. The chassis broke and was rewelded 3 times before it eventually died. I bought a second hand Husky. 22hp, 46″ cutting width. It’s a beast! It cuts the field in half the time of the old one and never gets blocked with grass. A regular occurrence with the Mountfield. I would definitely buy again. It’s 10 years old and I’ve had it for 5.

It is however currently in bits because I mowed a big rock and shattered two blades and a spindle! Parts are in the post though, so it’ll be back in action before the next cut is needed. I think they were around £4K new at the time, I PXed the broken Mountfield for parts and paid £1,800. Plus it came with about a grands worth of extras, a massive 3 bin grass collection system which I don’t use, and a tow behind trailer which is really useful.

I’ve got a husky rider 216awd – it’s great. Tho I would say that whilst quick it’s not that quick. I leave most of our garden as wild flowers meadow so have maybe 0.6 of an acre or so to cut. That’ll still take me 45 minutes to do the lot – tho there are a lot of paths to cut and trees to go round so it’s not that most efficient patch to cut. The husky is great as it makes going round the trees easy, and its super simple to lift the front and clean the mulching deck.

All that being said if I just had a big block of grass I was maintaining as lawn id probably get a zero turn as they’re much quicker.

Don’t mess about. Do it properly first time

There’s a nice Fendt on the Tractor Trumps thread recently, but a bit like welshfarmer above, 4 passes and you’ll be done.

Etesia to have one that’s like a go cart but gets on in the rough.

Or dig a pond in the reeds, water doesn’t need mowing.

John Deere X740 is very impressive:

Diesel engine

Power steering

Cuts almost anything

Can take a loader and/or PTO powered kit on the back

But maybe a bit overkill and no longer available new (replacement model is lighter and cannot take a loader) and a bit spendy!