Well at my grandpas we have a ford 9n tractor that pulls an 8 foot wide reel mower we got from the golf course next door. It uses maybe a half gallon to do 4 acres.

At our house we have a kubota diesel that's we fill twice a summer. It is absolutely amazing. 2.5 acres of mowing :TU:

re:reel mowers They're well suited to frequent cutting on very smooth ground, like golf courses. When the grass gets tall they push the blades of grass down flat and cut nothing. My folks had a self propelled A/C electric reel mower. A 50 ft friction drive, self re-winding spool kept the power cord from being run over. That one worked well, too, much as I hated mowing the lawn when I was a kid.
My first home's lot was marginally larger than a postage stamp. I bought one of the recent Scott manual reel mowers with rear wheels, not the traditional rear roller. It was a fine unit. It took perhaps 30 minutes to do that entire lawn. We left the Scott for the next owners.
Now I have a battery B&D rotary mower for trimming and a 17 hp biodiesel powered Bolens with a 48" width triple blade deck for the 2 acre lawn we now have. The tractor is still running on the same 3 gallon tank I had at the end of the winter when the snow thrower came off and the grass deck went on.

Actually, I remember reading how to sharpen a reel mower somewhere.
*looks for book*

OK, it says that you file down nicks/other high spots with a file (but don't try to sharpen it yet). Then you put grinding paste on the blades. Now spin the wheels backward to spin the blades backward. (you will probably have to open it up to remove a ratchet that would keep the blade from spinning this way) Keep spinning them for 7-10 min. then wipe off the paste and you should be good.

Now don't you feel smart that you can sharpen a reel mower!:p


OK, well, I don't think this will make you any less sore, but you should be able to cut the lawn a bit easier.

As for a gas mower, I have one 5 Gal. and one 1 Gal. gas cans, and I don't fill them except for maybe once every 2 months. I do, however, have a fairly small mower, as it's only 4.5 HP and 20".

HAHAHA that reminds me of my old times in Mexico City...

And no everyone has upgraded to real lawn mowers now and were not running in horses everywhere haha.

We had one of these way back when. Part I loved was when you were moving really good and would hit a stick. It would come to a comeplete stop right into your gut. Of course being a dumb kid I would just move the stick and do it again. Never did think to pick up the sticks first.

My grandfather had a briggs & stratton powered reel mower in his basement when he sold his house in connecticut. It was all the way in the back of the basement, and since it was put down there grandpa had built walls down there. I was tasked with taking it out of the basement. That beast was heavy. I ended up taking it apart to get it through the doors, and chucked the pieces in the dumpster. That thing looked very unsafe - I can imagine how many injuries those things might have caused over the years.



-Jay