I bought a new Greenfield 34 Fast-cut ride-on mower for my 1.3 acre property in Lawrence NSW. It has a Briggs & Stratten 25 HP V-twin engine. Not my 1st choice but all they use these days. I specifically chose the Greenfield as it is Australian and offers a small dozer blade attachment, no other smaller mower does so.
I am seriously disappointed in the quality of the build. The throttle arrangement is at best “agricultural”, it was so stiff that pulling up to start, the handle came off and the sharp edge of the protruding pressed steel lever cut my finger badly. It took nearly three months to get a new cable via the Grafton dealer by which time I had made a timber replacement and bolted with epoxy base it on myself. To get at the cable adjustment is awful, one has to take off the engine fan cowling and the fuel tank, the latter held on by a screw into the internal frame placed right in front of the steering column - so one cannot get a screw driver to it. Dreadfully poor design. Again I fixed it by installing a hex head bolt when I replaced the tank. Adjusting the throttle tension (once the fuel tank was out of the way) was a simple Nyloc nut screwed against a washer and a fixed bolt, poor design, wonder how long this will last.
The next problem was the dozer fitting. The main mounting bracket has two 12 mm bolts inserted at each end of a piece of steel about 15 cm by 30 cm by 6 mm thick. The bolts are inserted into holes and tack welded on ONE of the bolt head faces. As anyone with any mechanical know;ledge knows welds contract on cooling and this one is no exception, it pulled the bold out of parallel and they do not fit through the required slots. I have not fixed this one yet - I am into my second month of waiting for a replacement bracket. I expect I shall have to break the welds and re-weld them - on two opposite faces.
All in all a most unsatisfactory experience with Greenfield. The factory does not seem to care a jot about its customers, I cant get any answer from them via the dealer, he has tried. I wish I had bought another brand, dozer blade or not. $6000 worth of rubbish design.
