Husqvarna Automower - Testing the Rough Terrain Kit

www.automowerchallenge.co.uk
My last video showed installation of the Rough Terrain Kit. This one shows how it performs.

[@ianmathieson65]

Extremely helpful videos and subsequent discussions. Many thanks. I too am considering a Husqvarna - the 430X - as a replacement for my 20-year old John Deere lawn tractor has given excellent service and have a similar problem where the lawn slopes everywhere at about 20 degrees right down to the flower beds. Think I need to ask the dealer to set up a demo with the rough terrain wheels already fitted. Our ground is soft and well-watered by Lake District rain.

[@gannetripple]

Thank you. The mower is still going well, five years on, with just basic maintenance from me every so often. I've used non-Husqvarna blades from Amazon without any problems. I don't feel the all-terrain kit helped very much, but our ground, here in the south east, really is very chalky and dry. The grass is thinner than it looks in the videos, so there's little for the wheels to grip. We miss the Lakes, used to spend a lot of time there when we lived near Manchester, so know just how lush the grass can be.

[@tapetask]

Bird song was very “English Garden” very nice.

[@gannetripple]

Do you know, I don't think I'd really noticed! But, yes, we're lucky to have some woodland at the end of the garden and do try and attract them. So far, we've counted more than 30 species, from goldcrests (on a feeder just inches outside a window) to sparrowhawks.

[@exaisle]

Hi...I'd be interested to know how close to the edge of the lawn/flower beds you have the boundary wire and how far you have the automower set to go past the boundary wire. Do you feel that the rough terrain kit is worth the expense?Great videos by the way, very helpful. :-)

[@gannetripple]

Hello exaisle. Thanks for your comment. To your questions...the boundary wire is generally 250-300 mm from beds (a lot less than that where the grass is level with adjacent paving). I don't think there's s setting for how far the mower goes past the wire, or if there is I haven't found or altered the default. I gradually moved the wire at the bottom of the slope further away from the bed but, in the end, gave up and excluded that part of the lawn altogether. If the slope is too steep, the mower is likely to escape across the wire and either stop with an 'out of bounds' error or continue into the bed. The mower will cope with steep slopes readily enough but needs a level 'escape' area at the bottom. It seems impossible to get away with a boundary wire across a steep slope. I have a Bosch Rotak 32 Li mower (i.e. the smallest, lightest Li) for the excluded area. I use it on the edges all around the lawn too - it's great. As for the rough terrain kit, no, I don't think it's worth it unless you have fairly soft soil under the grass that the teeth on the wheels can get into for grip. Mine is hard, dry, chalky soil (the road I live on is a boundary of the the South Downs NP). I'm still loving the mower though!

[@exaisle]

Thanks for the comprehensive reply! The setting I mentioned is in the app...under settings....installation....Drive Past Wire. I'm on the lookout for a small cordless mower for inaccessible areas and hilly slopes outside the front gate. I'll take a look at the Bosch, I think it's a good brand...

[@gannetripple]

@@exaisle Yes, I imagine the Bosch would make an excellent alternative. I gather it's noisier, but that may not matter. The Husqvarna is almost inaudible from more than two or three metres. Nearing the end of its third March-November season, it's performed flawlessly, with just a few blade changes and a good clean at the end of each season. I'll certainly replace it with another, in due course. It amuses me that the cctv cameras reckon it's a car! I have to exclude the lawn from the motion detection area.

[@carleh2008]

use your end screen options to add links and submission buttons and such.

[@davidhaverty4951]

Carl, Excuse my ignorance but I'll have to ask you to clarify. Do you mean, in this case for example, use end-screen options to link to the previous video?

[@carleh2008]

yes, go to video manager, videos, edit, 4th tab should be "end screen". you can then put in a sub button and best for viewer and other link. best for viewer will pick based on user from your vid, or you can manually select the last vid/next vid. so on

[@davidhaverty4951]

Thanks Carl. I suspect not many people on the Husqvarna Automower Challenge know that, unless they're frequent youtubers. The education is very welcome.

[@carleh2008]

its what I do :) editing, photoshop, tech support, whatever needed lol

[@My_HandleIs_]

How has it worked with rain and damp grass? That is when the skidding is severe.

[@gannetripple]

We're on South Downs chalk which is very free-draining. Combine that with the slope, and the ground there is rock hard, much of the time. Rain actually helps, at least after it's dried up, by softening the soil a little and giving the mower a better chance of gripping. I must emphasise that it copes fine with a similar slope elsewhere, because there's a flat(ish) area of grass at the bottom of the slope - it happily copes with going up and down the slope, simply can't stop on it. I don't think the Rough Terrain Kit helps much unless the ground is soft enough for the teeth on the wheels to dig in. I'll just add that, three years on, the mower has performed flawlessly otherwise and required nothing but new blades and the odd clean under the cover. Last year, I ran it right up to December, then garage-stored it for three months before restarting in March.

[@thundermustard]

Ouch, the blades on the gravel sounded bad!

[@gannetripple]

Yes, poor blades! There was no other damage though, and, a couple of years on, the mower remains fault-free and working perfectly.

[@masonrhys5216]

pro tip: you can watch movies on flixzone. I've been using them for watching lots of of movies lately.

[@derrickemmett9623]

@Mason Rhys yea, I have been watching on flixzone for since november myself =)

[@graysonfernando8272]

@Mason Rhys Yea, I've been using flixzone for months myself :)