any lawn mower people? suffolk punch tyre mowers

[Redeye]

thinking id like stripes in the lawn and see the vintage suffolk punch ones are still affordable in running order

wondered if anyone knows whats the best ones to look for or avoid , i see later ones are qualcast branded ?

The stripes aren’t caused by the cylinder but by the rear roller. You would get a better cut with a modern rotary cutting machine and if you want stripes get one with a rear roller. The problem with cylinder mowers is the cylinder has to very sharp and perfectly inline with cutting edge. Just hitting a stone can ruin it all. Also a rotary mower will cut wet grass and copes better with rough terrain. If you have or want a cricket pitch finish they are something to consider.

 

[Ross365]

Yes, if it's just the stripes you want you can get that with a rotary if it has a roller. I'd say the cylinder mowers are more manoeuvrable; good if you have any tight bends or corners. But it may be the case that owning one of the old Suffolks is a bit like owning a classic car; you probably need to be willing to give it more TLC than a modern rotary. But having used a Suffolk for 30 years, I really wouldn't want to go to a rotary. If you used a cylinder mower and a rotary, one after the other, I think you'd find that interesting.

 

[Redeye]

If you are dead set on a cylinder mower one of the best is an Atco Royale which came with a key start. A very good mower without going to a Dennis. Both of these are streets ahead of the Suffolk Punch range in terms of quality. These are quality commercial mowers.

 

[steveo3002]

royale is the one with a trailor /seat isnt it ? my lawn isnt big enough to need that

this one did catch my eye though , look at those stripes

 

[Richiew]

I've rebuilt one just like that, they are geared a bit fast IME and I think @rtcosic came to the same conclusion. If you have a massive lawn you can get away with them as long as you aren't turning around too often.

 

[Ross365]

The mower in post 24 is a late Qualcast (under Bosch), some of which had a cassette system taking either a cylindrical cutter or a raker. I have one, used mainly as a raker, but for cutting I much prefer the vintage Suffolk Punch.

 

[DAPPH]

Can you guys recommend a decent lawn grass seed you have used . Seven years ago I spent £ 135 on a sack of supposedly golf green quality ,
I'd prepped the lawn areas giving them two decent doses of round up , rototilling deeply between the weed killing sessions and again lightly as a pre emergence dose by rototilling to a depth of six inches all the while removing all stone over 3/4 inch in dia adding four dumpy bags of sharp sand & feeding in about 2 tons of well rotted cow byre muck with its urine soaked straw beddings .
This last two years I've used a well known B&Q purchased feed & weed dressing . it hasn't touched plantains , couch grass nor the clovers .

 

[julianf]

Can you guys recommend a decent lawn grass seed you have used . Seven years ago I spent £ 135 on a sack of supposedly golf green quality ,
I'd prepped the lawn areas giving them two decent doses of round up , rototilling deeply between the weed killing sessions and again lightly as a pre emergence dose by rototilling to a depth of six inches all the while removing all stone over 3/4 inch in dia adding four dumpy bags of sharp sand & feeding in about 2 tons of well rotted cow byre muck with its urine soaked straw beddings .
This last two years I've used a well known B&Q purchased feed & weed dressing . it hasn't touched plantains , couch grass nor the clovers .

I've been trying, with very little success, to plant bent grass and creeping red in our lawn for a couple of years. It's not really taken well. I mean it would, more or less, but we have hounds and it's recovery rate is non existent with our soil type.

This year I've put in a bit of smooth stalked medow grass and it's doing well.

I'm not so keen on the rye grasses, as, whilst they come up quick and look good, the poa shows up significantly with them and they're a constant battle with reseeding.


Anyway, my point - unless you want to dig out the whole thing and bring in 70/30 mix and do it from scratch, it's probably more a case of finding a seed that works for you, rather than what someone else says is "the best".


Also -

The constant killing off and reseeding that you see on YouTube is ok if thats all you ever want to do. But the undesirable grasses will always come back, unless you find something to biologically out compete them (ie not a rye) or just accept that a lawn does not need to be mono culture!

 

[Smallfry]

royale is the one with a trailor /seat isnt it ? my lawn isnt big enough to need that

this one did catch my eye though , look at those stripes
View attachment 460595

Those stripes were NOT done by the machine pictured, it is only half the width.

As for newer machines being better quality than the older ones. No chance.

 

[DAPPH]

I've never had such crap lawns before in all my 66 years of cutting them .

 

[Ross365]

Can you guys recommend a decent lawn grass seed you have used . Seven years ago I spent £ 135 on a sack of supposedly golf green quality ,
I'd prepped the lawn areas giving them two decent doses of round up , rototilling deeply between the weed killing sessions and again lightly as a pre emergence dose by rototilling to a depth of six inches all the while removing all stone over 3/4 inch in dia adding four dumpy bags of sharp sand & feeding in about 2 tons of well rotted cow byre muck with its urine soaked straw beddings .
This last two years I've used a well known B&Q purchased feed & weed dressing . it hasn't touched plantains , couch grass nor the clovers .

For seed, I am a very big fan of this guy https://www.lawnsmith.co.uk/ but he's probably more expensive than the sheds. I've got patches of lawn in bad shade, and the moss wins out. Got some seed from him for shady areas and has worked very well.

 

[Smallfry]

Can you guys recommend a decent lawn grass seed you have used . Seven years ago I spent £ 135 on a sack of supposedly golf green quality ,
I'd prepped the lawn areas giving them two decent doses of round up , rototilling deeply between the weed killing sessions and again lightly as a pre emergence dose by rototilling to a depth of six inches all the while removing all stone over 3/4 inch in dia adding four dumpy bags of sharp sand & feeding in about 2 tons of well rotted cow byre muck with its urine soaked straw beddings .
This last two years I've used a well known B&Q purchased feed & weed dressing . it hasn't touched plantains , couch grass nor the clovers .

Different areas need different seed mixes, due to soil type etc. Best speak to a local supplier. Fine grasses though, are quite fragile and not very forgiving. The coarse varieties will always win through as it is more resilient.

Feeds will feed everything, but you need a selective weedkiller from a specialist supplier. Try Agrigem for advice, but they will not supply everything to everyone. They are expensive too, per litre, but bear in mind you only need a teaspoonful or so.

I use Grazon Pro and Pastor by Dow Corning on ours. Works a treat in keeping the weeds down, but it is really meant for grazing land.

 

[steveo3002]

not really suffering with weeds , the supermarket stuff keeps me on top of the odd one , guessing theres nothing that picks out the wirey and tough clumps alone?

 

[Smallfry]

not really suffering with weeds , the supermarket stuff keeps me on top of the odd one , guessing theres nothing that picks out the wirey and tough clumps alone?

There may well be. Again, ask Agrigem or whoever for advice, as its beyond the remit of B&Q or garden centre wallahs.

 

[julianf]

I may as well mention it here -

I've got a qualcast 35s with scarrifer cassette.
The blade is pretty good. Not repainted but will cut paper currently.
Carb could do with some minor attention - last time I used it, it was running but hunting a bit.

Realistically it's too large for our lawn and I would do better using the space that it takes up for somthing else. I reckon £100 would see it gone to someone here (mower and scarrifer cassette plus whatever spares I can find)

I could, undoubtedly, get more cash by selling just the blade cassette and scarrifer cassette separately on eBay, but then I'd be left with the mower and wouldn't have the heart to skip it or the motivation to break it.

I'm aware that this is a forsale post and not of engineering equipment, but, in the context, I trust a somewhat blind eye may be cast!

 

[DAPPH]

Different areas need different seed mixes, due to soil type etc. Best speak to a local supplier. Fine grasses though, are quite fragile and not very forgiving. The coarse varieties will always win through as it is more resilient.

Feeds will feed everything, but you need a selective weedkiller from a specialist supplier. Try Agrigem for advice, but they will not supply everything to everyone. They are expensive too, per litre, but bear in mind you only need a teaspoonful or so.

I use Grazon Pro and Pastor by Dow Corning on ours. Works a treat in keeping the weeds down, but it is really meant for grazing land.

In 1993 used Grazon 90 ot the small mammal farm , T'is indeed good stuff , it certainly knocked the weeds , brambles , nettles & scrub on the head after a few treatments , ended up 2yrs . later with almost half an acre of decent looking short grass between the trees buildings & paths etc. and as lawn areas .

 

[DAPPH]

not really suffering with weeds , the supermarket stuff keeps me on top of the odd one , guessing theres nothing that picks out the wirey and tough clumps alone?

Oxy acetylene cutting torch ... BAYG ( burn as you go )

 

[Smallfry]

In 1993 used Grazon 90 ot the small mammal farm , T'is indeed good stuff , it certainly knocked the weeds , brambles , nettles & scrub on the head after a few treatments , ended up 2yrs . later with almost half an acre of decent looking short grass between the trees buildings & paths etc. and as lawn areas .

They have changed it to Grazon Pro, which TBH does not seem as good, much like most things these days. Not quite as effective IMO, but it does not seem to keep as well as Grazon 90. Could have that for years and it would still work, but Pro only seems to keep for a couple of years at best.

 

[Redeye]

royale is the one with a trailor /seat isnt it ? my lawn isnt big enough to need that

this one did catch my eye though , look at those stripes
View attachment 460595

Wrong, they are attached if you have a large lawn. The Atco Royale is a compact machine, the Dennis is huge.