Blade Height Adjustment
Posted by sara (betsie's mom) on 21 Nov 2006 at 05:04 pm | Tagged as: General
This is what Betsie’s blade height adjustment looks like when it’s pulled up. I have it set right around the 2″ line right now…. or maybe those are centimeters…
I just wanted to let you know that I’ve bought an evolution mower from Kerry a couple of weeks ago. I have a WAY tougher yard to mow. Mine is ALL hill, with lots of obstructions. So, mine has been stuck A LOT. I will be fixing up the yard when I can. I am chronically short on time, but am very technically adept. I asked a number of questions of both Vishal and Kerry and they avoided the tougher ones. Do you know of any experiences from owners that have HILLS? I would like to know how they are doing. It seems that I will have to get the yard in good enough shape that it doesn’t get stuck, and then I will see the self programming features kick in. I will try to check back every now and then to this website. I don’t want to get “a lot” of email at this address because it is at work, but some is OK.
The biggest problem I’ve seen with hills is with the location of the wire. I had a slope at the edge of my yard and betsie kept ending up outside the wire in that location. I guess she would hit the wire, try to turn around and lose traction and end up backing up too far, out of bounds. Mowing the hill itself wasn’t too bad. The spiked tires help, maybe an even spikier modified tire is what’s needed.
That’s exactly the problem I have. My yard is in “bad” shape, so I am going to have to move the wire further up the hill to where it looks like it will get traction. Also, my yard will be about .5 acre when complete, but I have less than half that now. My mower ran FOREVER (4+ hours) without using up the charge on the batteries. I have two batteries because of the size of my yard (eventually). I noticed also that the mower gets hung up on the back “guard”, the stainless steel shield below the handle. I plan to take this off this weekend and see if it helps. I am somewhat concerned that the mower will pop a wheelie and either flip over or loose traction. I have the spike wheels like you, but they only seem to help where there is grass, particularly bermuda. I have some root damage where it got stuck on tree roots from the spiked wheels cutting the root while it was stuck.
I only have one battery and it usually runs at least 2 hours.
I wouldn’t worry about the wheelies, when the ground levels back out the mower will just keep on going.
I’m sure Kerry told you, but set the blade as high as you can (but still allow space above it or grass will get stuck) at first.
I think taking the guard off might be a good idea. I also thought about bigger wheels to give more clearance. I still haven’t figured out who it was that designed it to cut the grass SO super short!
It might take a bit of work to get your lawn smoothed out, but it will be that much nicer when you do!
I don’t know if I wrote about it, but I bought more wire before I started setup at my old house. I opted for single instead of stranded, and it cuts less easily when caught in the blade. But it doesn’t keep a good connection at the charging base terminals.
Wheelies: But without the guard, the mower can rise up until it goes upside down, unless the handle stops it. I’m going to try it anyway.
Blade: Yes, I set the blade all the way up, or maybe 1/4″ less. I agree that this is “short”, but it does look good.
Wire: I went with the stranded wire. It cost more, but probably is easier to work with. I plan to bury it when I get it how I want it. Otherwise, it is a trip hazard and in the way when raking, etc. I’m going to have LOTS of wire when done. Especially if I have to make secondary areas, like I think I will. Otherwise, I don’t see how it is ever going to find the front yard, and if it does, its going to wander right out of it as soon as it heads for the hill/slope. Do you have a problem with it missing any part of the yard?
According to Kerry, it learns the yard by remembering where the corners are and also the perimeter wire. I haven’t been able to see it go for more than maybe 10 minutes without getting stuck, given that I have “issues” in my yard.
Right, I forgot about the guard. I guess tipping upside down isn’t much worse than getting stuck is.
You could set up areas… or you could just set up different entry points without adding the extra wire and see if that helps. Probably not as effective, but less work.
I noticed that it will only do one smart spiral between wires.
So: wire -> turn -> spiral -> straight until next wire.
In this way it mows from the outside to the middle.
I haven’t noticed that it will only do one spiral between wires. I’ll look next time I’m home. I work out of town. I’ll have some more feedback when I do some more work with it this weekend. Does yours go out and mow every day, or can you otherwise see some evidence of the “self programming” feature? How tall does the grass get between mowings? Does it get every blade of grass each time, or does it take several cycles to get all of the yard? When does Betsie decide she is done?
From what I’ve seen, when the battery is low she’s done, and not before then… but I could be wrong.
When she returns home after a session it will show the Percent Complete number. If that number is above the setting you pick (adjustable from 70 to 90% or something like that) then she will delay her start. If it isn’t that much complete then she will go right back out again after charging completely, or if it’s a programmed off time she will go right back out as soon as she’s allowed.
From what I’ve seen, the delay is usually until the next day, but it might go longer. I’m mulching leaves lately, so between that and the rain she hasn’t gotten into the completed zone consistently in a long time.
Well, I’m done for the weekend. The most it would mow without getting stuck was about an hour, after I moved the boundary wire “slightly” in some areas. I will have to make a large move to put the wire so that it will mow only areas with good grass/no slope. It has a TOUGH time skidding on a slope, and just CANNOT keep from going over the wire. Twice also its hit something with the blade and jammed a blade under the metal cover at the back. I have to loosen 3 screws to get it loose. I didn’t take the back guard off, and will do so when I can make a roller instead. Several times it got stuck when the momentum of the mower caused the shield to ride up on a bump, or when something was sticking out of the ground but not high enough to get the blade or get the mower to bump and back off. It also seems to get lost in small areas and has the hardest time getting out. We’re talking 20 by 40 feet, say, and on a slope. Then when its coming out, it will hit a tree, etc. and get lost there again. On a good note, with light grass it seemed to keep mowing almost 6 hours! When it was worn out though, it came home like a drunken sailor. Its response time to follow the wire slows down, and this caused it to go over the wire in a couple of places that I fixed. I will do the wholesale movement of the wire this coming weekend, and that should fix 90% of the problem. Some areas of the yard I will have to flatten down so the guard won’t catch, and I also have problems with it riding up on trees or roots but not enough to catch the wheels and back off. So it gets stuck (again). It’s taking more work than I hoped to get the yard into shape. I can show you a picture if you would like.
I ran ours all last season without the back guard on. Our yard is 3/4 acre maintained area and is rather level, but we do have a problem with moles from time to time, plus we have a low spot where a curtain drain runs the entire width of our front yard. The Lawnbot kept getting stuck by the back guard on these rather insignificant rises and drops. I removed the guard and put the handle back on… he does do some wheelies where he used to get stuck– but the handle seems to stop him from flipping right over and he always comes back down quickly. He hasn’t gotten stuck or flipped over once since the modification. I think it is more of a safety issue than a functionality one (with the guard removed he now can shoot things out the rear). While I ran him guardless last season, I am thinking about putting some sort of flexible rubber guard there for next season.
Like a mud flap. I like that idea.