They dont work very well... They have a weed eater style string "blade" and a fan that makes it hover. The fan also pushes the grass down, so...
We had one at college they used to mow a steep bank along a canal. They would tie a rope to the handle, lower it down the bank, and drag it back up. Repeat.
Had the same 2 stroke suzuki motor the Toros had, liked those a lot when the grounds crew could remember to put mix in them.
It is understandable that a floating, air lift device, would push the grass down and certainly reduce the amount of grass that the "blades" could cut.
The mower is still being made, apparently, as the website indicates below. The "blades" appear to be a flat, short, resin based material that look similar to the "blades" sold as a replacement for the strings on a weed eater.
Tying a rope to a mower reminds me of our 18 acre "farm" we owned in North Indiana back in the 70's. A county road was at the front of the lot and, during the construction of the road, the highway department had cut through a "hill" that left a fairly steep (60 degree) bank that was about 200 feet long and about 20 ft high. I had a Sears aluminum push mower that I used to mow that bank. I tied a long "dog leash" chain to each of the mower handle connection points and mowed the bank as you related, above. The difficulties I encountered performing this activity were numerous and something I do not miss.
The irony of that experience is when we bought our 75 acre farm in central Indiana, the county road at the front of the farm was the same level as our adjacent land and entry drive. Ten years after we bought the farm, the county decided to replace the old, wooden "hump-back" railroad bridge with a modern cement bridge. To do this required the construction of a dirt ramp that created a 300 ft long steep (60 degree - up to 20 ft high) bank and a similar dirt built up entry driveway to our farm with a similar "steep" bank. For a number of years I made it a practice to let the weeds grow, cut the "trees / brush" when they became obtrusive, and let nature take it course.
Eventually that became, in my eyes, a real eyesore so, about 5 years ago, we bought the 1999 MF 6255 w/boom mower (as listed in my signature line) to control this problem.
That is our current method of resolving the mowing issues for this small amount of acreage. A 100 HP - $40,000.00 tractor mower to cut less than a 1/2 acre of "yard". :hide::hide:
On a brighter note - this completely justified acquisition has a cab, AC, heater, protection from the elements and it allows me to keep the fence row outgrowths under control since the boom mower is an excellent limb, branch and brush trimmer. :fing32:
