Meet Bumble-a new type of pet.

[Clarky]

Many on here have dogs, some have cats, others may have goldfish, but we now have Bumble.

Bumble is extremely well behaved, returning to his 'kennel' when ordered and only coming out when told.
He takes his own exercise and makes good use of it by helping keep the garden neat and tidy and doesn't even need clearing up behind him.
Although he was expensive to purchase, having an excellent pedigree, he doesn't need a lot of costly food or vets bills and can safely be left to his own devices when we are not at home. That means we can come home from a few weeks away with out having knee deep grass.
His name comes from Kate's favourite cricket commentator, David Lloyd, aka 'Bumble' and because he spends his time 'bumbling' around the garden we thought it rather appropriate.

 

[Clarky]

Here's a short video of Bumble at play:-



Richard.

 

[hilldweller]

Where are the stripes ?

Bumble is flattering it.

 

[tonyidle]

That means we can come home from a few weeks away with out having knee deep grass.

Just knee-deep edges.

 

[Hollyberry]

Not as much fun as a ride on but I can see the attraction.
Is he(?) /it programmed to cut on a set date and can be left out ?
I’ve thought of getting a robot vacuum cleaner ( done away with all grass as too much effort to cut)

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[Clarky]

Where are the stripes ?

Bumble is flattering it.

Who needs stripes?

Just knee-deep edges.

True, but only some edges. Where the turf lines up with the terrace he can cut right over the edge.
His cutters are set well back from the sides so if he goes too close to the edge where there is a drop his little front castors would go over and he will get stuck.
I quick whiz round with the strimmer should sort the edges out.

Richard.

 

[hilldweller]

Who needs stripes?

Richard.

A lawn without stripes ! I blame your parents.

 

[Clarky]

Not as much fun as a ride on but I can see the attraction.
Is he(?) /it programmed to cut on a set date and can be left out ?
I’ve thought of getting a robot vacuum cleaner ( done away with all grass as too much effort to cut)

He is fully programmable from my phone, anywhere in the world. Can set what hours/days that he works.
He is even clever enough to adjust the times depending on the weather ie. in dry weather when he's not cutting much he will rest for longer, in wet weather when the grass grows more, he will stay at work longer.
He is left out all year, just taken in in winter when there's nothing for him to do.

Richard.

 

[Puddleduck]

He is left out all year, just taken in in winter when there's nothing for him to do.

Richard.

Looks great and would be ideal for my parents except he would be stolen after about 3 minutes

 

[Clarky]

Looks great and would be ideal for my parents except he would be stolen after about 3 minutes

Wouldn't do the thief any good though.
Bumble is protected by a pin code and can't be started without entering it. If you try to lift him a shrieking alarm will go off and, as he has GPS he can be tracked. If he is stolen he is put on a manufactures data base and all service dealers are notified so the software can't be updated
I've been told that they are being used successfully in Hyde Park and Edinburgh council are also using them. Although they are the commercial/heavy duty version they are basically the same. They've not been nicked yet as far as I know.

Richard.

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[Clarky]

A lawn without stripes ! I blame your parents.

Haha!!
My dad was a professional gardener who had been trained in green keeping and was very proud and particular about his close cropped lawns.
Didn't rub off on his sons though.

Richard.

 

[Odd-no-more]

How does it charge?

 

[Zepp]

They have got them at the Carthago factory you should ask them for some decals lol

 

[Clarky]

How does it charge?

When his battery gets down to about 30% (roughly an hours mowing) he takes himself back to his kennel/charging station and plugs in. Once fully charged he continues.

In the attached photo you can see the flat plate on the grass behind Bumble. He drives up the plate and slots into the charge contacts at the back of the dock. Electrical connections are in the summer house with a low voltage cable running to the dock.


Richard.

 

[Southdowners]

If you have lawns separated by a driveway can Bumble cross the drive to the other side and cut the other lawn?

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[BobtheBass]

How does it charge?

Bumble has set up a direct debit with Clarkys bank account and has his wages sent to him electronically every month.

 

[Hollyberry]

When his battery gets down to about 30% (roughly an hours mowing) he takes himself back to his kennel/charging station and plugs in. Once fully charged he continues.

View attachment 309329

In the attached photo you can see the flat plate on the grass behind Bumble. He drives up the plate and slots into the charge contacts at the back of the dock. Electrical connections are in the summer house with a low voltage cable running to the dock.


Richard.

He sounds mega obedient. Is it possible to know where there is a single one as I’d like to marry him/it. ?

 

[Allanm]

How does he cope with slopes, trees and bushes in the lawn?

 

[Minxy]

We do have brick edging down the edge of all our borders (I put them all in years ago and it took ages) so at least it would be able to cut right up to the edges, however the cut grass obviously stays on the lawn so we'd end up with a mountain of 'thatch' when we got back so I don't know how he would cope with our garden with lots of different grass areas, although they are joined up ... we'd probably find him hiding in the bushes due to exhaustion!

 

[Jenben]

We have his cousin called Robbie. He has been with us for just over a year and seems to like to chase pigeons across the lawn.

I am not sure he saves us time on cutting the lawn as we spend quite a lot of time watching him at work .

Sometimes he goes missing and we imagine he is having a crafty fag behind the garden shed.

We also are suspicious that when we go out for the day he might just be lying around but jumps back to work when he hears our car.

As you can see he has become so much part of our lives that we have given him a personality

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[old-mo]

I bought one and set it up....

This is a picture of me and the Mrs after we returned from a month away...

Trying to find the little *astard....

Battery must of gone flat at some time...

 

[Mrsambulancekidd]

We do have brick edging down the edge of all our borders (I put them all in years ago and it took ages) so at least it would be able to cut right up to the edges, however the cut grass obviously stays on the lawn so we'd end up with a mountain of 'thatch' when we got back so I don't know how he would cope with our garden with lots of different grass areas, although they are joined up ... we'd probably find him hiding in the bushes due to exhaustion!

I would imagine that because it would be a constant fine cut, it would just mulch into the lawn and feed it.....a win, win.

 

[Langtoftlad]

Although he was expensive to purchase, having an excellent pedigree,

Can I ask why you chose that particular make & model?

We have his cousin called Robbie

Same question...

...having got a RoboVac, have been pondering the acquisition of a brother for my patch of unruly weeds.

The Flymo 1200 gets a fist full of good reviews on Amazon, yet is one of the cheapest less expensive models .

 

[Jenben]

Can I ask why you chose that particular make & model?

Same question...

...having got a RoboVac, have been pondering the acquisition of a brother for my patch of unruly weeds.

The Flymo 1200 gets a fist full of good reviews on Amazon, yet is one of the cheapest less expensive models .

We have the bottom of the range Husqvarna no fancy app giving us info as we weren’t sure if it was going to work out for us but it has, we are converts.

We picked Husqvarna as we saw a lot of them trundling across lawns on our Scandinavian trip, they have been making them for a long time and have got good support. I think the Flymo 1200 is a rebadged (recased) Husqvarna 105 (like what we’ve got).

 

[Robert Clark]

When his battery gets down to about 30% (roughly an hours mowing) he takes himself back to his kennel/charging station and plugs in. Once fully charged he continues.

View attachment 309329
In the attached photo you can see the flat plate on the grass behind Bumble. He drives up the plate and slots into the charge contacts at the back of the dock. Electrical connections are in the summer house with a low voltage cable running to the dock.


Richard.

How cool is that ?
Every motorhomer should have one

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[Jenben]

Langtoftlad

Given the Flymo is essentially the same mower as the Husqvarna 105 it’s got to be worth a look as it’s a couple of hundred quid cheaper. Knowing what we do now we should probably have gone for it instead of the 105, but we were a bit nervous about support in the UK at the time.

 

[gus-lopez]

. I think the Flymo 1200 is a rebadged (recased) Husqvarna 105 (like what we’ve got).

yes , exactly the same apart from the decals.

 

[Clarky]

Langtoftlad A couple of things we particularly liked about Husqvarna were the cutting system and the phone control.
The cutters are like 3 small swivelling razor blades. No bashing the grass into submission like most rotary mowers but a nice clean cut and also very, very safe. Because its mowing every other day the grass never gets too long and the tiny bits of grass drop onto the lawn and eventually rot down to add feed.
The phone/app control means we can both keep an eye on it, the position in the garden shows up on Google Earth/maps and we can also change settings if needed while we are away. We often go away for 6 weeks so if there is a problem and he's not moving I can ask my neighbour to go round and have a look.
In addition the dealer network is excellent and they came and did the full install, including burying the guide wires............at a cost of course.

Richard.

 

[Clarky]

If you have lawns separated by a driveway can Bumble cross the drive to the other side and cut the other lawn?

Yes, in most cases.
It would need a guide wire across the drive and fairly flat entry and exit from the drive to lawn.

Richard.

 

[Clarky]

How does he cope with slopes, trees and bushes in the lawn?

Our lawn is flat but they will cope with quite steep slopes. trees and other hard obstacles aren't a problem as he will just bump into them, stop and turn. Bushes, flower beds and suchlike can have a guide wire around them to keep him away.
In our garden we have a birdbath standing on raised paving and he just leaves a few inches uncut round the edge. If the paving had been level with the lawn he could just have run across it so the edges would be cut too.

Richard.

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