Rover Pro Cut 560, with MTD engine

[Woodchip]

G'day,

Im looking at a new Rover Pro Cut 560, I liked the old engines ( B&S)....anyone got any thoughts or experience with the MTD engines these mowers now come as standard with?

Only mowing a few lawns a week.

cheers
woodchip

[dave hirst]

look around for the briggs 450 motor, there are still a few around

[PaulG]

MTD owns Rover. Are you sure it's not still a B&S engine with different cowl and stickers?

[Alby]

MTD owns Rover. Are you sure it's not still a B&S engine with different cowl and stickers?

Hi .. I just came back form Rover dealer .. they have one Pro Cut 50 left with B&S motor then all new Rovers are MTD with chinese engine. Dealer said they would not sell one to a comercial operator (yet) until well tested. new ones are 22' deck and have full throttle only. Im buying the Procut 50.

[Redeye]

they appear to be chinese, the position of parts is different to B&S - primer,carby etc

[ian]

rover/mtd have their own Chinese engine now no idea how it goes though as the dealer said to Alby only time will tell whether it's any good or not

[Cranbourne Lawnmowing]

I've had my 560 with the chinese engine for a while now and do every lawn with it. At first I wasn't to sure about it but once I got used to it the honda's got left to collect dust. My local dealer said I'm a bit of a guinee pig. So far so good, except for last week had to put it in for a new cable after damaging it. End up using my 196 and hated it. I paid just under $800 for mine and will by another one.

[Stump]

Hey Woodchip
Are you buying the SP version, or the pushie pro cut?
They are not "full throttle". They have a governor. You can't idle the Briggs 850 either. There won't be too much difference in revs etc, they are mostly designed to run around 3200rpm like most others. When the governor kicks in, thats what it will run at. The dealers don't seem to know much about them at all. They couldn't even tell me how big the engine is. The 850 rarely bogs down in almost anything at full tilt. I would love to test drive one. Don't know if it has a cast sleeve either.
At the price they are selling them at, they may be worth a try. At worst you could chuck a new 850 on it if it ****es itself. The deck and hardware on the Rover's are built to last IMO. I have a pro cut pushie, and it's bullet proof. Love the 850.

[Woodchip]

Thanks for the replies so far,
Im looking at the SP Pro Cut 560....

Dealer says he puts the B&S 850 on them for the contractors, as the 910 chinese MTD engines is as yet unproven. But at abt $1200 total for the 850 conversion, makes ya wanna research if the 910 will be ok.

cheers

[dave hirst]

look around for the briggs 450 motor, there are still a few around

whoops i meant 850.
the procut 560 is a big and heavy mower,designed for large lawns, imho, if you are only doing a few lawns, and they are not large then maybe the 20 inch would be more suited

[Stump]

There are still a few run out models with 850s on them around Melbourne. What state are you in? My dealer still has a 20inch with 750, and a 560 with 850 on it, for less than you have been quoted. Get an 850 if you can. Mine has been great so far.

[edbeek]

There doesn't seem to be much info on the specs of the 910 motor at all.
It's 196cc and does 9.1ft/lbs of torque (compared to 8.5 for the B&S 850). No mention if it has a cast iron cylinder.
It comes with a snorkel which is a good thing.

It might be safer looking at something with a 6hp Kawasaki until the Rover motor proves itself.

[Cranbourne Lawnmowing]

The rover pro cut 560 with the 22" deck and the rover 50 with the 20" deck are both now running with the rover 910 engine which is a 196 cc engine.

[happymowin]

my mower guy said they just wont be stocking the rovers with the chinese motors, he reckons theyre rubbish.

i bought his last one with an 850 on it (no blade brake rubbish either) - and you CAN idle it, or decrease the revs slightly to make it slower.

its in getting the buggered wheel fixed, and a heap things checked out (like i think they slowed the revs on me at the 5 hour svc)

beast of a mower, only clogs up when mowing SATURATED LONG lawns.

no mower alive does well in those conditions - any normal job (short wet grass, or long dry grass) it packs the catcher.

thankfully its only a 65 L catcher, lol.


done a few jobs lately where i been getting about a cubic metre to 2 cubes per hour of mowing. just tears up the lawns, eats em for breakfast.

hate to use the honda on some of these, reckon theyd take me an hour longer each from clearing the blockages and not packing the catcher.

one tip, when mowing WET grass, wash the catcher screen off every 2nd catcher full, so the holes dont clog up (or bash with hand from inside to clear it)

if only it had a gearbox, lol

[Stump]

- and you CAN idle it, or decrease the revs slightly to make it slower.

Idle would be around 750rpm in my reckoning......I would say that it "idles" at closer to 2500rpm at a guess.
I really get annoyed when I hear all these dealers declare that the new "chinese" engine is rubbish. In effect, they are only assuming. I find alot of the so called Rover dealers don't know squat about them at all. I went into a large dealer the other day, and he was trying to tell me that they all had new briggs engines on them. When I asked to see the catalogue, it was one from 2010. After telling me that, he declared, "thats right, we are not stocking them cause they have those crappy chinese engines on them. He could not tell me anything at all about the so called crappy chinese engine though. I got a similar reaction from many Rover dealers.
In speaking to my own, I get the feeling that many dealers got burnt buying lots of the 850 engined machines, because contractors simply never had enough time to discover them before their honda's died. (the 850 powered versions). Now that they have seemed to, its too late.