News
Meteor hits the industry
Cylinders, rotaries, traditional flails or something quite different? Ransomes Jacobsen’s ‘revolutionary’ new mower
THE challenge currently facing many municipalities and professional turf maintenance contractors is how to manage a reduction in the number of cuts per season. Some contracts mandate a specific number of cuts per year, some ask for grass to be maintained between specific heights.
With reduced budgets, some won’t have the funds enabling them to cut grass as often as they have in the past. More time between cuts will inevitably mean longer grass. How well will existing mowers cope, yet still maintain the desirable attributes they offer? Users may have to consider alternative types of mower.
A cylinder mower offers the best cut quality, simply due to the more precise cutting action of a cylinder rotating against a fixed bottom blade. Other advantages of cylinder mowers are that they tend to disperse cut grass more evenly and are less likely to throw foreign objects. The configuration of traditional triplex ride-on cylinder mowers also makes them very manoeuvrable, with the ability to vary the width of cut very quickly by raising one or two mowers.
One single cutting unit deployed also helps with smaller areas of grass. The smaller footprint of each mower, both in width and depth, improves the ground following capabilities. The rear roller offers a striped finish and the ability to trim overhanging edges such as kerbs.
A rotary mower can cut longer grass and is simple and easy to maintain. Some models have the ability to collect grass. However, there is the potential to throw material across paths and pick up more foreign objects, especially if the height of cut is set very low. The mowers themselves tend to be wider, at least 1.52m (60”) and do not follow the ground contours quite as well as a cylinder. The width of cut is fixed unless the machine is a bigger bat-wing rotary. The whole machine tends to be longer which can be an issue when transporting.
Flail mowers are becoming ever more popular with the advent of lighter 1.52m (60”) versions to fit what are traditionally out-front ride-on rotaries. Flails disperse grass more evenly, have a rear roller to make edge trimming
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easier and offer a striped finish. Like wide rotaries they tend not to follow ground contours quite as well as a cylinder mower and do not have a variable width of cut, but
they will cope with a wide variety of grass heights.
All of the previously mentioned machines have attributes which make them ideal in many conditions, but all have limitations that can compromise performance in some instances. A combination of all these would seem to offer considerable advantages.
For some time now, Ransomes Jacobsen has been observing and working with municipal users to thoroughly understand the advantages and disadvantages of the various mowing solutions on offer. Why do users buy cylinder mowers? Why do they buy flail or rotary? How satisfied are they with the results each type of mower offers?
Traditionally, cylinders have been chosen because of the quality of cut they offer, at least that is the most likely answer you would expect from users. Unfortunately, the other desirable attributes of a triplex cylinder mower tend not to be discussed or considered, as the quality of cut is the overriding reason for choosing them; the conversation then tends to move on to maintenance and adjustments.
Conversely, with rotaries and front mounted flails the conversation tends to major on the ease of maintenance and the capability of cutting a more varied grass height. The shortcomings are almost accepted and unspoken.
The development team at Ransomes Jacobsen spent considerable time watching users and how they deal with the various activities involved in cutting grass. It became very apparent that the ‘footprint’ of the triplex cylinder mower was more of an advantage than was usually expressed by users. Operators constantly adjust the width of cut by lifting and lowering the three mowers. Squeezing between street furniture is easier as the folded width of the mower is less than a rotary or flail. Trimming round obstacles is easier by just lifting one mower as you pass the
obstruction
and lowering again once passed.
Grass is dispersed behind the mower and tends not to be thrown far, so there’s less clean up required after mowing and less
least 200mm, yet leaving evenly dispersed clippings and a striped finish. Grass and brush has been taken down at 300mm, but this really depends on the density of the material that is being cut.
risk of throwing objects. A rear roller allows the mower to ride along edges without scalping and offers a striped finish which clients find pleasing. It’s all very obvious when stated in a few sentences, but understanding the importance value of doing a good job versus the satisfaction value of what is currently achievable helps us understand how desirable an alternative product might be.
As you read this piece, Ransomes Jacobsen will have just launched the Meteor mower. This takes the best features of a flail and engineers them to fit inside the dimensions of a 25cm (10”) diameter, 75cm (30”) wide cylinder mower body, the tried and tested Magna unit that has been around for decades.
The new Meteor attaches to a turbo charged version of the Ransomes Parkway 3 tractor unit. Numerous technical challenges had to be overcome and matching the new mowers to the tractor unit was critical to the success of the project. The new machine has been on trial with several large contractors and local authorities and is proving capable of tackling taller grass than a cylinder mower, up to at
It can often deal with conditions a rotary mower might struggle with. It is primarily designed to replace both a cylinder and a rotary. Productivity is significant from the 2.15m width of cut, yet the individual units follow ground contours. Width of cut can easily be changed by raising and lowering the individual units.
Like all flails and rotaries, the mower relies on blade impact to cut the grass. Independent points of view suggest the quality of cut is somewhere between a rotary and a cylinder with maintenance simpler than a cylinder unit. The mowers benefit from easily removable shafts for ease of maintenance and blade change, which is sometimes considered the downside of traditional flail mowers.
For added flexibility, Ransomes Jacobsen designed the Meteor heads so that they can be removed quickly and easily and replaced with standard Magna 250 or Sport 200 cylinder units.
The Ransomes Meteor is particularly suited for community areas, parks, verges, central reservations and even municipal sports fields.
In conclusion, Ransomes Jacobsen has developed the Meteor to meet the mowing needs of end-users in a time of austerity, when budgetary constraints are impacting the maintained environment across the United Kingdom.
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