demoman357
Bronze Member
This is my review of a Hanmey RF1800 rear finish mower purchased for Betst Products.
I visited the dealer 5 days ago (Creswell, OR), agreed to purchase one of four 72" rear finish mowers he had in stock. He said that he would have it all ready for me when I would arrive 5 days later.
I arrived today and found the mower still in the shipping crate, ready to go, some assembly required, batteries not included. I said that I thought it was to be assembled, tested, and ready for me to load on my trailer. He replied "Yeah, sorry 'bout that." To make amends, he sold me a 3PH platform for $50 that became the basis of a custom ballast box. I could not hav3e bought the steel for that price.
Assembly of the mower was confusing as the instructions provided were for a different model. Two calls to the dealer confirmed this and that the parts I thought I needed but were not included had been deleted with a design change.
Next, the rubber caps provided to cover the holes in the belt cover to access the spindles did not fit the same. One fit properly, two others looked like round circles cut out of an inner tube. Very lame.
The steel for the top link arms were not bent equally. This caused a lot of "wondering what went wrong" as the mower mounted to the 3PH listing to port.
There was no lubricant anywhere. The gearbox was dry, the spindles had no grease, etc. Worst of all, the zerk fittings to grease the 4 wheel axels were drilled into a almost 90 degree corner of the wheel. One could not possible thread the zerk fittings in more that one turn before the hex head of the fitting was obstructed by the "V" shape of the wheel wall. Totally unacceptable.
One more call to the dealer was returned 3 hours later. He said that he looked at the other units he had and admitted that there was a problem. He told me that he would call me the next day with a solution. He would even swap out with new, better wheels if I would just bring the old wheels back. I accepted this as a solution even though it means a 90 mile drive.
Once the mower was lubricated and fitted to my tractor, it was time for field trials. I had left a 2 acre section grow for two weeks and the grass was knee to mid-thigh high. The mower cut the grass well at slow speeds but if I tried to cut it at the same travel speed that I use with a riding lawn mower it would leave many stalks sticking up and lots of clumps. Oh well, my rider does that same thing in tall grass. The "shark dorsal fin" like metal dangly thingies at the rear of the mower seemed to "catch" the cut grass and make 5 distinct wind rows out the back. This was much less noticeable when cutting grass that was of normal height (4 to 6 inches). The belt never slipped even when I went into some wet, waist-high grass as a torture test. The tractor engine RPM dropped just a little and the clippings were still small and short, not like cut hay or straw, just grass clippings.
Overall, my impression of the dealer was å*µo back to flipping burgers? This may be changed by how well he handles the warranty issues. The machine is made in China and sold to non-Chinese persons such as myself who seek the absolute lowest priced item that will work. It does not have the well thought out features of better-made products, like a belt de-tensioning device for winter storage, or larger round sided tires, or free floating attachment points. The steel deck would not double for a shelter during a motor attack. What it was expected to be and so far has lived up to is, a reasonably well-designed entry level mower. It does mow and I believe that it will provide me with several years, not decades, of useful service. I have a small private golf course that I have been mowing with riding lawn mowers for decades, It take a lot of lawn mower repair and about 14 hours to mow. Now I think that I can do all ten acres in about 4 hours. I will have to finish the greens as well as groom around the trees with a rider but I think this RFM will do the trick for now.
I will post a future update at the end of august when I have more experience with the machine and the dealer.
I visited the dealer 5 days ago (Creswell, OR), agreed to purchase one of four 72" rear finish mowers he had in stock. He said that he would have it all ready for me when I would arrive 5 days later.
I arrived today and found the mower still in the shipping crate, ready to go, some assembly required, batteries not included. I said that I thought it was to be assembled, tested, and ready for me to load on my trailer. He replied "Yeah, sorry 'bout that." To make amends, he sold me a 3PH platform for $50 that became the basis of a custom ballast box. I could not hav3e bought the steel for that price.
Assembly of the mower was confusing as the instructions provided were for a different model. Two calls to the dealer confirmed this and that the parts I thought I needed but were not included had been deleted with a design change.
Next, the rubber caps provided to cover the holes in the belt cover to access the spindles did not fit the same. One fit properly, two others looked like round circles cut out of an inner tube. Very lame.
The steel for the top link arms were not bent equally. This caused a lot of "wondering what went wrong" as the mower mounted to the 3PH listing to port.
There was no lubricant anywhere. The gearbox was dry, the spindles had no grease, etc. Worst of all, the zerk fittings to grease the 4 wheel axels were drilled into a almost 90 degree corner of the wheel. One could not possible thread the zerk fittings in more that one turn before the hex head of the fitting was obstructed by the "V" shape of the wheel wall. Totally unacceptable.
One more call to the dealer was returned 3 hours later. He said that he looked at the other units he had and admitted that there was a problem. He told me that he would call me the next day with a solution. He would even swap out with new, better wheels if I would just bring the old wheels back. I accepted this as a solution even though it means a 90 mile drive.
Once the mower was lubricated and fitted to my tractor, it was time for field trials. I had left a 2 acre section grow for two weeks and the grass was knee to mid-thigh high. The mower cut the grass well at slow speeds but if I tried to cut it at the same travel speed that I use with a riding lawn mower it would leave many stalks sticking up and lots of clumps. Oh well, my rider does that same thing in tall grass. The "shark dorsal fin" like metal dangly thingies at the rear of the mower seemed to "catch" the cut grass and make 5 distinct wind rows out the back. This was much less noticeable when cutting grass that was of normal height (4 to 6 inches). The belt never slipped even when I went into some wet, waist-high grass as a torture test. The tractor engine RPM dropped just a little and the clippings were still small and short, not like cut hay or straw, just grass clippings.
Overall, my impression of the dealer was å*µo back to flipping burgers? This may be changed by how well he handles the warranty issues. The machine is made in China and sold to non-Chinese persons such as myself who seek the absolute lowest priced item that will work. It does not have the well thought out features of better-made products, like a belt de-tensioning device for winter storage, or larger round sided tires, or free floating attachment points. The steel deck would not double for a shelter during a motor attack. What it was expected to be and so far has lived up to is, a reasonably well-designed entry level mower. It does mow and I believe that it will provide me with several years, not decades, of useful service. I have a small private golf course that I have been mowing with riding lawn mowers for decades, It take a lot of lawn mower repair and about 14 hours to mow. Now I think that I can do all ten acres in about 4 hours. I will have to finish the greens as well as groom around the trees with a rider but I think this RFM will do the trick for now.
I will post a future update at the end of august when I have more experience with the machine and the dealer.