OT ~ robot mowers, giving it a shot

jdMyers

The techno/gadget side of me has been watching the progression of robot or auto mowers for a while.  Finally laid  the perimeter wire, guide wires etc and put in the charging station aka mat.  Will probably build a mini garage for it.  

Anyone on here have any experience.  Looking at the husqvarna models.

Even made my yard signs.

1voyager

I hope it works well. 

In the meantime, I'd love to have a robot snow shovel!

JohnInCarolina

I’d just advise against walking on the lawn in open-toed shoes or flip flops while those things are tooling around!

Eoin

I have a Husqvarna model, it works really well. If you have edges into beds, it won't quite reach the edge, so you'll have to trim that from time to time. It's a big time saver and also saves a lot on fuel relative to a ride on. Causes less damage to the ground than a heavy ride on as well.

jdMyers

Eoin said:

I have a Husqvarna model, it works really well. If you have edges into beds, it won't quite reach the edge, so you'll have to trim that from time to time. It's a big time saver and also saves a lot on fuel relative to a ride on. Causes less damage to the ground than a heavy ride on as well.

Which one do you have.  Any cover or garage for it?

Eoin

Mine is the 430. The model really just depends on the area you are mowing. Our lawn is basically flat, but quite uneven. Because the mower has a small cutting area, it follows the lawn profile better than our big ride on - doesn't scalp the high spots / leave the low spots long. This means we can cut shorter than with the larger mower, even though the ground isn't perfectly even.

No garage, but your climate may be much harsher than here. The docking location is behind a building, so a little sheltered from the weather. It's easy to pick up and move inside if you have a long, harsh winter.

nolaegghead

Eoin said:

Mine is the 430. The model really just depends on the area you are mowing. Our lawn is basically flat, but quite uneven. Because the mower has a small cutting area, it follows the lawn profile better than our big ride on - doesn't scalp the high spots / leave the low spots long. This means we can cut shorter than with the larger mower, even though the ground isn't perfectly even.

No garage, but your climate may be much harsher than here. The docking location is behind a building, so a little sheltered from the weather. It's easy to pick up and move inside if you have a long, harsh winter.

Sounds like a great application for a pet door.

Or a fun project like building a little garage for it and decorate it with Warning signs and...

jdMyers

Lol.  There are some amazing mini garage builds out there with a lift door.

WeberWho

In high school I took a few courses over at the technical college and one of them was a welding class. It was hardly considered a class. I want to say we did one full week of actual work and the rest of the time was just hanging out in the shop and working on whatever you wanted to mess around with. One student turned a garage door opener into a pitching machine. Another student worked on his truck. If you didn't have anything to work on you most likely were to help the teacher mess around with whatever project he was working on. The teacher had off the wall ideas. When I joined his shop they were finishing up with a remote control commercial lawnmower. A stand behind commercial lawnmower except no one was standing behind to run it. He was a young teacher but extremely smart. He somehow was able to get everything wired up and run the lawnmower from a remote control that you would use on a RC car. It was an odd sight seeing a commercial lawnmower mowing grass a football field away. 

jdMyers

Man.  It would have been neat to see regardless.  My brother rigs his fishing line to a rc boat to get the line where he wants it.  Kinda funny.   

jdMyers

so it's finally up and fully running.  It checks the weather. If it's below 50 or temp drops it goes and parks itself.  Recharges itself.  And checks for rain and and adjusts schedule.  I have to admit I love this particular mod.

Gulfcoastguy

Why does Skynet come to mind?

nolaegghead

Autonomous robotic spinning blades?  I dunno.

jdMyers

Skynet from terminator hilarious.  Autonomous robotic spinning blades is pretty accurate. Cuts everyday yard starting to look like carpet .  Best of all, I'm not mowing.

Eggdicted_Dawgfan

@jdMyers I’m not sure what model you have but some of those mowers have an option for a fairway kit that allows it to cut lower. I want to say around .75”. Not that you want it that low but if you ever want that golf fairway look without reel mowing, that may be an option. 

jdMyers

Interesting.  How do you yell the mower that

Eoin

jdMyers said:

Skynet from terminator hilarious.  Autonomous robotic spinning blades is pretty accurate. Cuts everyday yard starting to look like carpet .  Best of all, I'm not mowing.

My lawn looks better than ever with the robot.  It's not exactly flat, so a conventional large mower tends to scalp the top and leave it long in the dips.  Scalping the tops means a higher cut than I would like.  The small cutting area of the robot follows the terrain better, allowing a shorter cut.