Anybody got one of these yet? Raven mower.

[San Jacinto]

Well, about a week after I posted the "glowing" review above, my unit started blowing fuses. Deck fuse. just over 15 hours on it. Made the Raven pretty much useless for me. Denver Global was ZERO help. Spent two weeks back and forth with them trying to get some answer on what they would do to fix this situation. Nada, nothing, never called me back.

Lowe's was great however, they refunded the entire purchase price even though it was just past the 60 day mark.

Took my refunded money and a 10% off coupon from TSC and picked up a basic 46" Cub Cadet mower for about 1/3 the price of the Raven. Seems to be fine for my needs. (fingers crossed, heh) The wife misses the Raven more than I do. It was ideal for her carting and towing small items around the property.

 

[carl6405]

I bought mine from Lowes. It was their demo. After a discounted demo price, plus 10 % off and 5% for using my Lowes card, I paid just over $3k for it. I have owned it now for just about 5 months and absolutely love it! Someone had their thinking cap on when they created this machine for sure. It does everything as advertised. I even tested the generator out on my 31ft travel trailer. It powered my travel trailer, with the A/C running, no problem. Once after mowing the lawn, I drove it over where I had a bunch of scrap lumber laying in the yard, and used it to power my chop saw and no issues. The main thing that tipped me into pulling the trigger on this machine was the 3 year warranty. I figure if the company feels they can stand behind it for 3 years, they must feel like it will hold up.

I've seen some complaints about a bumpy back aching ride. Well, it doesnt ride like a cadilac, but rides smoother than a standard riding mower. It has shocks on the front. But if you run over a hole with the pedal to the floor, yes, your back will feel it. What took some getting used to is the electrically powered system can be somewhat jerky, though, if you have a large area that you dont need to adjust your speed, you can just enable the cruise control.

My uses:
Mowing( Due to the mower being powered by the electric motors, the engine doesnt bog down. The blades turn faster than a standard riding mower.
Towing things around in the back yard(to move out of the way) my jet skis, utility trailer, log splitter. I put a standard 1 7/8 ball on the hitch plate.
Taking camping and running around the camp ground in electric mode.
Power generation for whatever I want. (5 gallon gas tank will last a long time between fill ups)
And it has a fuel gauge!
Faster than most riding mowers.. Except for maybe the Dixie chopper

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Thanks for the review.

 

[forgeblast]

Any new updates on the raven?

 

[flips256]

Any new updates on the raven?

Yep - I bought one from my local Lowes in November 2015 - got the big 10% off for Veterans Day and I couldn't resist. The 1st Raven that they delivered lasted about 1 1/2 days. I was testing her out, running around the property and mowing. Every time I stopped I would smell oil burning and see smoke. I 'thought' it was just because it had to break in and burn off the new coatings. Nope - I released the dump bed and saw oil all over everything - it was spitting it out profusely. I called Lowes and they agreed to bring me out another one and exchange. That all happened within a week and when I received the new one I successfully drove it around for a bit and did 1 pass of mowing on 4 acres. No issues, no problems. Of course, it was winter so it mainly stayed in the garage and was used very slightly in electric mode to run down to mailbox and to 'fetch' things from around the property.

Fast forward to this past weekend - I broke her out to mow the 4 acres again and everything was smooth for about an acre when all of a sudden it started making this god awful sound and then it just started moving forward about 2 feet and abruptly stop. it would then move again and stop. I thought maybe the high/low gear wasn't engaged properly and stopped the machine, reached underneath and attempted to re-seat the lever. (This is a real pain and I'm not sure of the thinking of putting this lever where it is) once again I started her up only to have the same thing happen. As I am trying to get her to limp back to the barn she starts to backfire, spit and scream from the engine and black smoke now appears....not a good sign. I shut her down and got my Craftsman GT5000 tractor (ole reliable) to tow her to her final resting spot.

Obviously I have had this thing well over the Lowes warranty period but I have only used it twice to mow my yard and its only 4 months old. I went to Lowes, spoke to the Manager and he said he wanted to contact Raven to see what is going on. He called Raven and after being on hold for over 30 mins explained the issue to them. They would NOT deal with Lowes at all. Told him that I could call them and they would see about sending someone out to "look at it" but they would not contact me directly. So he gave me the option of trying to get through to Raven and see if someone would come out OR he said he would come pick it up, send it out for repair and if it comes back as unrepairable, Lowes would get their money back and I, in turn, would get mine. They are picking it up on Thursday and I am silently hoping that it is Non-repairable...4 months, 2 machines and a lot of headaches - No more impulse buys for me.

 

[SPYDERLK]

Any new updates on the raven?

Yep - I bought one from my local Lowes in November 2015 - got the big 10% off for Veterans Day and I couldn't resist. The 1st Raven that they delivered lasted about 1 1/2 days. I was testing her out, running around the property and mowing. Every time I stopped I would smell oil burning and see smoke. I 'thought' it was just because it had to break in and burn off the new coatings. Nope - I released the dump bed and saw oil all over everything - it was spitting it out profusely. I called Lowes and they agreed to bring me out another one and exchange. That all happened within a week and when I received the new one I successfully drove it around for a bit and did 1 pass of mowing on 4 acres. No issues, no problems. Of course, it was winter so it mainly stayed in the garage and was used very slightly in electric mode to run down to mailbox and to 'fetch' things from around the property.

Fast forward to this past weekend - I broke her out to mow the 4 acres again and everything was smooth for about an acre when all of a sudden it started making this god awful sound and then it just started moving forward about 2 feet and abruptly stop. it would then move again and stop. I thought maybe the high/low gear wasn't engaged properly and stopped the machine, reached underneath and attempted to re-seat the lever. (This is a real pain and I'm not sure of the thinking of putting this lever where it is) once again I started her up only to have the same thing happen. As I am trying to get her to limp back to the barn she starts to backfire, spit and scream from the engine and black smoke now appears....not a good sign. I shut her down and got my Craftsman GT5000 tractor (ole reliable) to tow her to her final resting spot.

Obviously I have had this thing well over the Lowes warranty period but I have only used it twice to mow my yard and its only 4 months old. I went to Lowes, spoke to the Manager and he said he wanted to contact Raven to see what is going on. He called Raven and after being on hold for over 30 mins explained the issue to them. They would NOT deal with Lowes at all. Told him that I could call them and they would see about sending someone out to "look at it" but they would not contact me directly. So he gave me the option of trying to get through to Raven and see if someone would come out OR he said he would come pick it up, send it out for repair and if it comes back as unrepairable, Lowes would get their money back and I, in turn, would get mine. They are picking it up on Thursday and I am silently hoping that it is Non-repairable...4 months, 2 machines and a lot of headaches - No more impulse buys for me.

Pretty much universally negative thruout the thread. ... I would love to have one that lived up to its promise.

,,,,,,The only hope is for the company to refine it to the point that it has an acceptable performance margin.