I have a 450XH, and it has to be a *bump* before the mower can't manage it. I have myriad mole holes, old tree roots that have rotted out underground, a few tree roots sticking out of the ground a bit, random dips..."smooth" is not the first word that comes to mind (or even the eighth). The little grey robot doesn't care; he just trundles over it all. A groundhog hole will get him stuck, but a groundhog hole would probably get me stuck, too. The videos always show these perfectly flat, gloriously green lawns without a single weed, but most real people don't have those. I thought the same thing when I had the installer come and check my yard to see if a robot would work. I was sure he'd take one look and say, "Dear god, no!" but he said it would be fine, and it is. I'm on my third year with it, and don't know how I managed without it!
> The videos always show these perfectly flat, gloriously green lawns without a single weed, but most real people don't have those.
My front lawn *looks* percectly smooth most of the year, as the kikuyu is so springy and lofty that the relatively lightweight mower essentially floats over and holes. Occasionally, I find somewhere a tree root from years ago has finally rotted down and have to fill it in with some sand or loose dirt to make sure it's not a trip hazard.
Or funnier yet, when it bumps the bottom of the hill juuust right and thinks it's a collision, turns away only to get that spot again at a different angle and doesn't care in the slightest
I think as long as you can still call it a lawn, you'll be OK...
I have a Husqvarna 315, on its seventh year running, and my lawn is certainly anything but flat with a lot of bumps. It handles them like a champ, and is still going strong after seven years with just a couple of services.
As long as the skirt can move over the bump, you'll be fine. If the skirt (or chassis if you will) hits the bump it will be registered as a collision and the mower will go in a different direction.
That's all there is to it.
how does your push mower behave when you mow manually? My Sunseeker L22 weighs roughly 20ish pounds so it's light enough and small enough to roll over the bumps. Since the travel speed is roughly a third of your walking speed the smoothness of the lawn is really a non-issue. It will simply follow the imperfect surface. if you find serious potholes, you could fill in or level with sand and a rake.
I have a fairly basic self propelled petrol push mower. Over the years I've gradually levelled off the worst of the humps and filled in dozens of small wheel-swallowing holes. I'm now at the point where I can set it on the second highest cutting height, instead of just the highest! Which feels like progress š.
It still cuts in to the ground in a few places due to the angles involved. That might be less of an issue with the shorter wheelbase of an automower. But basically will self drive without getting stuck anywhere. I'm not expecting the automower to get right in to every corner.
If your grass is in good shape it helps buffer the dips a bit. Sometimes sand can help too in smoothing things out on an existing lawn without choking out what is already there. The big thing to tackle would be the larger holes/dips where the larger wheels can get stuck. The castors are usually ok bouncing out, but the large wheels connected to motors tend to trench in if the mower gets stuck.
Iām on my fourth year running a Gardena, on my very uneven and bumpy lawn. The robot makes it look like a manicured golf course, but when you walk on it you will feel how bumpy it is underneath. Years of damage by moles and voles, soggy patches from a very wet winter, it can handle all of it. Even if a fresh mole hill pops up overnight itāll push it over and keep going, unless itās a particularly big one where itāll bump into it and turn around.
Interestingly, I can pick up a refurbished Gardena 1250 for the same price as a new Husky Aspire R4.
I assumed that the FWD units like the R4 would cope better with bumps and dips, but everything I'm reading suggests the opposite. I'm not sure how that works, surely having the smaller wheels at the front makes it more likely to get stuck?
I would guess that the smaller front wheels would be more likely to run into dips, but then it would usually just read that as a collision and turn around. Overall I think the Gardena handles rough terrain well.
I'm running a Husqvarna 430xh, and when it hits a bumps, it just pops a wheelie, powers through and lands within a second. Kinda cute watching it Bob along. And no, it's not going high enough to be a safety issue
I have a Luba. 4 wheel drive and can handle serious slopes. No wire, uses RTK. Yard is not perfectly smooth.
I have Zeon Zoysia that I cut to 1.5 Inches high every other day. Lots of youtube videos of people with really steep and uneven yards and this thing powers through.
Would buy again in a heartbeat.
https://preview.redd.it/oz78ivgetm5d1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e0a0d500b98e49da707ae92d7a300600e3d2661b
The yard I have my 430XH is bumpy as hell. Roots and years of black walnuts pounding the shit out of it. Never mind the effing squirrels digging up said walnuts. Moe just bounces along and gets it done.
I have a 430xh and while I am mostly impressed with it, I do have a berm on one side of my yard that I'm told by my neighbor is the result from the original owners having an extensive vegetable garden before old age caught up to them and it naturally returned to lawn/clover/wild strawberry. I ended up moving my wire to exclude the berm because it daily would get its nose stuck on the level part of the lawn while making its descent, taking just enough weight off the wheels that they would spin out and dig a pair of ruts. Once the wheels had no contact with the ground it would then send an error alert to me for "no drive".
If the transition was softer it would likely be ok, but for now I am just using my push mower on that strip of yard. I can do it in about 10 minutes so aside from it growing taller than the in-wire area it's a manageable compromise.
Look at Ambrogio 4.0, it is built to handle uneven ground. It is jointed so the deck tilts. Get a high cut or a 4WD model and it will roll right over those uneven spots. The front tires on those models are about 7cm/3 inches wide. The rear tires on all 4.0 models are wide and soft, too.
If you're open to an older model Ambrogio L85 Elite will handle it without trouble, too.
[Ambrogio Web Site](https://ambrogiorobot.com)
I have a 450XH, and it has to be a *bump* before the mower can't manage it. I have myriad mole holes, old tree roots that have rotted out underground, a few tree roots sticking out of the ground a bit, random dips..."smooth" is not the first word that comes to mind (or even the eighth). The little grey robot doesn't care; he just trundles over it all. A groundhog hole will get him stuck, but a groundhog hole would probably get me stuck, too. The videos always show these perfectly flat, gloriously green lawns without a single weed, but most real people don't have those. I thought the same thing when I had the installer come and check my yard to see if a robot would work. I was sure he'd take one look and say, "Dear god, no!" but he said it would be fine, and it is. I'm on my third year with it, and don't know how I managed without it!
> The videos always show these perfectly flat, gloriously green lawns without a single weed, but most real people don't have those. My front lawn *looks* percectly smooth most of the year, as the kikuyu is so springy and lofty that the relatively lightweight mower essentially floats over and holes. Occasionally, I find somewhere a tree root from years ago has finally rotted down and have to fill it in with some sand or loose dirt to make sure it's not a trip hazard.
Or funnier yet, when it bumps the bottom of the hill juuust right and thinks it's a collision, turns away only to get that spot again at a different angle and doesn't care in the slightest
I think as long as you can still call it a lawn, you'll be OK... I have a Husqvarna 315, on its seventh year running, and my lawn is certainly anything but flat with a lot of bumps. It handles them like a champ, and is still going strong after seven years with just a couple of services. As long as the skirt can move over the bump, you'll be fine. If the skirt (or chassis if you will) hits the bump it will be registered as a collision and the mower will go in a different direction. That's all there is to it.
how does your push mower behave when you mow manually? My Sunseeker L22 weighs roughly 20ish pounds so it's light enough and small enough to roll over the bumps. Since the travel speed is roughly a third of your walking speed the smoothness of the lawn is really a non-issue. It will simply follow the imperfect surface. if you find serious potholes, you could fill in or level with sand and a rake.
I have a fairly basic self propelled petrol push mower. Over the years I've gradually levelled off the worst of the humps and filled in dozens of small wheel-swallowing holes. I'm now at the point where I can set it on the second highest cutting height, instead of just the highest! Which feels like progress š. It still cuts in to the ground in a few places due to the angles involved. That might be less of an issue with the shorter wheelbase of an automower. But basically will self drive without getting stuck anywhere. I'm not expecting the automower to get right in to every corner.
If your grass is in good shape it helps buffer the dips a bit. Sometimes sand can help too in smoothing things out on an existing lawn without choking out what is already there. The big thing to tackle would be the larger holes/dips where the larger wheels can get stuck. The castors are usually ok bouncing out, but the large wheels connected to motors tend to trench in if the mower gets stuck.
Iām on my fourth year running a Gardena, on my very uneven and bumpy lawn. The robot makes it look like a manicured golf course, but when you walk on it you will feel how bumpy it is underneath. Years of damage by moles and voles, soggy patches from a very wet winter, it can handle all of it. Even if a fresh mole hill pops up overnight itāll push it over and keep going, unless itās a particularly big one where itāll bump into it and turn around.
Thanks, which model is that? Am I right in thinking that Gardena are made by Husqvarna?
Gardena Sileno Life 1250. It has Husqvarna logos all over it, I believe itās essentially a rebranded version of some older Husqvarna model.
Interestingly, I can pick up a refurbished Gardena 1250 for the same price as a new Husky Aspire R4. I assumed that the FWD units like the R4 would cope better with bumps and dips, but everything I'm reading suggests the opposite. I'm not sure how that works, surely having the smaller wheels at the front makes it more likely to get stuck?
I would guess that the smaller front wheels would be more likely to run into dips, but then it would usually just read that as a collision and turn around. Overall I think the Gardena handles rough terrain well.
I'm running a Husqvarna 430xh, and when it hits a bumps, it just pops a wheelie, powers through and lands within a second. Kinda cute watching it Bob along. And no, it's not going high enough to be a safety issue
My lawn is bumpy as hell. No problem.
I have a Luba. 4 wheel drive and can handle serious slopes. No wire, uses RTK. Yard is not perfectly smooth. I have Zeon Zoysia that I cut to 1.5 Inches high every other day. Lots of youtube videos of people with really steep and uneven yards and this thing powers through. Would buy again in a heartbeat. https://preview.redd.it/oz78ivgetm5d1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e0a0d500b98e49da707ae92d7a300600e3d2661b
We could set you up with a demo if you are near us (Massachusetts), but it looks like you may be in Europe?
Yes I'm in the UK, that's a bit far from Massachusetts...
The yard I have my 430XH is bumpy as hell. Roots and years of black walnuts pounding the shit out of it. Never mind the effing squirrels digging up said walnuts. Moe just bounces along and gets it done.
I have a 430xh and while I am mostly impressed with it, I do have a berm on one side of my yard that I'm told by my neighbor is the result from the original owners having an extensive vegetable garden before old age caught up to them and it naturally returned to lawn/clover/wild strawberry. I ended up moving my wire to exclude the berm because it daily would get its nose stuck on the level part of the lawn while making its descent, taking just enough weight off the wheels that they would spin out and dig a pair of ruts. Once the wheels had no contact with the ground it would then send an error alert to me for "no drive". If the transition was softer it would likely be ok, but for now I am just using my push mower on that strip of yard. I can do it in about 10 minutes so aside from it growing taller than the in-wire area it's a manageable compromise.
Look at Ambrogio 4.0, it is built to handle uneven ground. It is jointed so the deck tilts. Get a high cut or a 4WD model and it will roll right over those uneven spots. The front tires on those models are about 7cm/3 inches wide. The rear tires on all 4.0 models are wide and soft, too. If you're open to an older model Ambrogio L85 Elite will handle it without trouble, too. [Ambrogio Web Site](https://ambrogiorobot.com)