so you require a front deck ride on but you also want to collect the grass but what's the options
well there's pretty much only one and that's the husqvarna rc 320. this is the
four-wheel drive version they also do the two-wheel drive version which is the 318
but today we're going to show you through this machine show you all the features and benefits
we're going to cut some grass down here in our demo garden and see how we get on
we're haze machinery this is our youtube channel please subscribe let's crack on with it
so husqvarna brought out this mower about three years ago they haven't really changed much yet
so they must be fairly happy with it yes it's quite a high maintenance machine but why is it
different compared to other mowers on the market so we're all used to the front deck operation with
a deck at the front engine at the rear but for years there's never been a collection option to
be able to collect the grass with the front deck well this is probably the best option that has
ever come available on the domestic market how is it different we've got the deck at the front
and then you've got an auger system which comes up through the center of the mower so a skewer
helix however many other words you can think of about those and that skewers the grass up
through the tube and into the grass box in the process of it doing that what it does is
compress the grass as it comes into the grass collector this grass collector is 300 liters
and on our demo garden down here which is about half an acre we would normally get probably 10 12
grass boxes on a standard ride on with this one we'd only get six so it pretty much brings your
collection down by half the other nice thing is it doesn't matter if the grass is damp or whether
it's a little bit longer if you go a little bit slower give the machine time to do its work it
will still pick up the grass even when it's damp so it'd be one of the best domestic collectors on
the market let's open it up have a look around it and then we'll get on to some cutting some grass
so let's take a little bit of a closer look at that auger so we push the seat forward you can see
the auger tube coming up through the center of the machine now if we turn the machine on
we can tip up the box on the back which is all electric tipping it's got a hydraulic actuator
there on the other side of the machine to tip the box up but here is what we're looking at
is the auger system as you'll see that tube comes up from the bottom of the deck down there
and twirls the grass all the way up through and here you can just see the auger at the top which
is yeah like i said a helix coming up through and that pushes the grass up through the hole
here into the grass box while compressing at the same time very clever bit of engineering
it works extremely well and i've always been very impressed so this mower comes with the briggs and
stratton endurance series engine which pumps out 22 horsepower coming out 656 cc so there's
oodles of power here for this machine you've got to remember the deck is at the front so with the
belt series going up through the machine you'll lose a little bit of power so compared to other 22
horsepower mowers on the market where the deck's a lot closer to the engine you'll find you'll get
a lot higher blade speed so with any front deck machine where the engines at the back and the
decks at the front you'll always lose a little power due to the distance that they are apart
so as i said it's a 300 liter collector on here and it's very easy for maintenance
and washing it all out because you can lift up the back here and it's got a magnet on the top to be
able to clip it in out of the way so you can get into the collector and wash it all out nicely this
is actually our demonstrator machine so it's been out on a few demos already so there's a little bit
of grass on it around the machine but as you can see they do clean up really nice when required
as with most husqvarna front deck machines the deck has a service position so you can pull the
deck out and flip it up around it's very easy to do it's no different than this machine that is
the others so let's crack on with that so first of all you've got a special key on your key ring
there's a little plastic tab so you can pop that in the front there push down and then you can lift
off the front cover nice and easily you'll see underneath the front cover there is instructions
of how to do this so as soon as you pop that one off you can then easily see what you've got to do
so before you pull the deck up around and alter anything on the front there's a couple things
you've got to do from the driver position the first one is to lower your deck height
not right down to one but down to the service position so it's right down to the bottom and on
the other side this lever here is what pulls the auger up out of the way so the auger is obviously
connected to the deck by pushing this lever down you're unlocking the auger away from the deck
the next step is to disconnect the deck so we want to do is pull that one out there which
then takes the tension off of the belt so you can then pop the belt off of the pulleys and
you want to take it off of all three pulleys all the way around and then you've got a belt keeper
here on the side which you can clip your belt up into while your machine is up out of the way
otherwise if you don't pop it in there you'll end up when you pull your deck up around the
better will disappear in behind you then you've got your height adjuster which that pops out of
there like so and you've got a little keeper up in underneath which keeps the pin up out of the way
and now your deck is completely disconnected from the machine bar actually on the brackets itself
and they can just pull it out through and you push it up round as we go now
so what you do is hold on the handle on the front and you can pull that one up around
making sure the bar clips in on the back like so and your deck's in the service position so
now the deck is in the service position it gives you a really good insight to what's underneath
one for maintenance purposes so for washing cleaning taking the blades off and sharpening
it makes it a lot easier than it does trying to get in underneath the center deck machine
as you can see it's got three blades on this machine so the two outside ones are counter
rotating the idea of that is so it's pushing the grass up into the center of the machine
for the auger to then carry into the grass box the little one at the front is just simply there
to stop you getting a line up through the middle of your lawn if you see your sub mowers it's a
little bit more obvious than others where the line is some decks offset so that you don't get a line
up through the middle and then some are timed this one here's just got the little one at the
front so there's not a timed deck on front of this machine it's just a standard double a section belt
and then the blades are counter rotating to be able to drive that grass up through as you need
it so as with any ride on lawn mower the cleaner the deck is underneath the better it'll work
the manufacturers have made these decks to the exact shape they need to be to work at their
peak performance so when underneath the blades are completely packed in the grass they're obviously
not going to work as well as if they are clean many of our customers ring us up sometimes sort
of six eight weeks after uh saying all the mower's not collecting as well as it was when it was new
simply is because they haven't cleaned underneath the deck with husqvarna front deck machines
being able to pick the deck up and push it around to be able to clean it makes it a lot
easier to better do so right so let's get it back down into its working position and go from there
so the one very important thing when you put the deck back down is obviously where the belt
is and where the belt is going it's very easy on these mowers to put the belt through the wrong
part of the mower so that when you are going to go and cut it's going over something it shouldn't be
from that you'll get belt wear very very quickly so double triple quadruple check that that belt is
in the right position and that when it's back in its position it's not rubbing on something
it shouldn't be let's pop it back in do you see the smaller silver pulley at the back which is
the idler pulley and you've got your v pulley over here which is the black one so it goes around that
and then onto your front pulley you then pull a little bit of tension on the tension spring
just to make sure it all clips in place if you've got a lot of resistance on that
spring it normally means your belt is in the wrong place or if your belt's baggy as again
it's not right but underneath the cover it will show you exactly which way that belt's got to be
so then pull that up into the position you've got tension on the spring and you've got tension on
your belt and then visually look back through the machine to make sure it's not catching on
anything it shouldn't be even lower the deck down to make sure you've got a better view
up through there to make sure it's not catching on anything on a high or a low position and make
sure it's touching all the pulleys it should and nothing it shouldn't so this little height
adjuster here it's got a keeper up and underneath to protect it while you put the deck up around pop
that out of the keypad and it needs to slot into that hole you'll find with all the husqvarna front
deck so they don't quite go in the hole when you put the deck back down so if you just push down
on the front bar you'll see it pop in so i'll pop that out again it'll sit there all you do is push
down on the bar here and it'll pop in nicely then you pop your front cover back in again in under
there and under and then clip that on the front add your deck back on the front now we're going to
make sure those two levers are right before we go any further so this lever here needs to be pulled
up that lowers your auger back into your deck and then again you visually want to look in underneath
to make sure that has gone back in to its place so as you pull that lever up you'll see the
organ move back down into position let's do it one more time so that's pushing it locking it
out of the way to be able to lift the deck up as you pull that lever up to put it back in position
it will drop down into place so over to this side you pull your height adjustment lever
right back up to the top and now you're ready to start mowing again so this being the 320
version of this machine like i said they also do the 318 the 320 v4 wheel drive so you've got
drive on the rear wheels and you've got drive on the front wheels the two wheel drive version
is only driven by the rear wheels it's all hydrostatically driven so you just got forwards
and reverse on the pedals so if you've got a flat garden like ours a two wheel drive version would
be absolutely fine but if you've got any slight incline i'd definitely recommend the four wheel
drive version because the way the machine's set up with a lot of weight at the front of the machine
the tool drive version will struggle on any kind of slope so if you've got a flat garden absolutely
fine for a two-wheel drive but if you've got a slight incline definitely go for the four-wheel
drive 320 like this one here so the other big difference between the three one eight and the 320
front deck collectors is not only that the 318 is tool drive and this one here the 320 is four wheel
drive but the 320 also comes with power assisted steering you'll see in the video that it's very
very easy to steer you can literally do it with one finger so it makes mowing the lawn so much
of a pleasure the fuel tank is extremely easily accessible on the side it's a nice big big big
cap on there to be able to get either a big funnel in there or you know be able to get your petrol
without it going everywhere some ryden's got little tiny fuel caps on and they're a bit painful
this is really really nice it's also got the level indicator it's full at the moment so you can't
really see a level on it but that tells you where your petrol level is which is really really handy
but if you do get into the instance where you run out of fuel why mowing you can disengage
the hydrostatic axles on this and push it if required so they are based here so you've got
one here behind the front axle and you've got one here behind the back axle pull both of those out
and you can now freewheel your machine once it gets going there we go with those in you wouldn't
be able to do that so you can push them back in again and now your hydrostatic is locked so now
only works on the pedals so again ideal that both axles can be disengaged some four-wheel
drive ride-ons on the market you can disengage the back axle but you can't disengage the front solo
is predominantly a collecting mower and that's why most people want to buy it because the normal
front deck machines that husqvarna supply are just mulching or redischarging the best thing
about this one not only does it collect but a push of a button you can also turn it into mulcher
that button just turns the auger off so it stops it ordering and then you've got back
to a normal mulching deck that you're familiar with on other husqvarna front deck machines
so there's enough of me waffling on let's get on the machine and do some cutting down here in our
demo garden we've got lots of different grasses where we're stood at the moment is very thick
with moss and thatch so that's one test it will do it's currently about three four inches long
and it's not the nicest lawn to cut but typical devon english country garden lawn which isn't
lawn grass it's field grass and then we've got our area of lawn that we scarified and aerated about
three or four weeks ago and done a video if you haven't watched that video please click up here
because it's available it's a nice little video to watch but that area doesn't have the moss doesn't
have the thatch and the grass is a lot thinner so we're going to cut on both areas at two different
heights we've got yeah three or four inches here to cut down to about sort of inch and a half
and then the other area will cut down as well so let's jump on the machine start it up and
crack on so being that this has the briggs and stratton endurance series engine on it
it doesn't actually have a choke so it's fully built in so it's just what husqvarna core turnkey
start so all you have to do make sure you've got your foot on the brake and you're sat on the seat
and your deck is in the up position all you have to do is turn the key and it starts up
and switches off easy as that so what we've got to do first obviously assess your lawn you don't want
to cut too low if your grass is longer you want the deck up as high as it will go and you want
to be going a lot slower a lot of people think they can go into eight inches of grass and put it
on the lowest setting and keep going through the grass and it's going to do everything it wants it
to do unfortunately that's not the case with any mower you need to assess what grass you've got and
adjust your settings and your speed accordingly because if you don't you're just going to burn
through belts and a heartbeat and then you'll be ringing up your dealer saying oh my belt's
burnt through already none of us want that so always just take it steady assess the situation
if it's long take it down in sections and give your machine chance to do the job it's got to do
then when you engage your deck pull it up and just do it slowly and there we go it's all going around
if you do it too fast you'll hear a broader thud and you're putting more stress on that belt
than there's required so nice and slowly you'll see that i'll float as well so as
your deck goes up and down with the grass that lever will go up and down with the deck as well
all right on the hydrostatic no gears and off you go
it's always good to bear in mind that these are lawn mowers and are designed
for cutting lawns up to 12 centimeters or 5 inches of grass on the higher setting
but the odd longer grass area or weed area in the corners will be absolutely
fine but they are not suitable for cutting paddocks or rough areas
with the ease of the rear wheel steer and combined power steering it makes turning an absolute breeze
as with all husqvarna front deck machines they are the perfect tool for cutting around trees and
shrubs and it is no different with this one and it only has a 50 centimetre uncut circle on full lock
as with all mowers on the market always pick up sticks dog toys and
anything else before mowing over them as they are only designed to cut grass
so these machines are available with two different size cutting decks this one has
the wider 112 centimeter or 44 inch but also available is the 103 centimeter or 40 inch deck
the wider deck is ideal if you have beds and borders as it allows you to cut further over
the edge without having your wheels falling in whereas for narrower access the 103 deck
is the same width as the machine itself so you know if the deck fits through so will your mower
when your grass box is full the alarm will sound just like this when this happens stop cutting
straight away lift your deck up to the transport position and trundle off to tip your grass
once reversed up to your grass seat you can then tip the box as you can see a lot of grass
fits in these collectors once tipped up pull forward nice and straight to reduce the chance
of damaging anything and then you can lower your box back down and start mowing again
so i think you can agree that's a pretty awesome collecting ride on mower it's one of our favorites
with the auger system going up through the middle collecting that grass it works extremely well
yes it's quite high maintenance machine so it's going to be one that needs to be looked after
as with any machine which does more than just one job you're going to expect high maintenance
with a deck at the front an engine at the rear with the organ system and the tipping collector
there's lots going on with it but if you're looking for a machine which is very versatile that
can go underneath trees around trees under bushes able to collect much easier and do everything from
the operator seat without having to get off then this is a machine to definitely consider we love
the husqvarna front deck collecting machines we hope you do if you've enjoyed this video please
watch the others that we've got here on youtube please click that subscribe button follow us
on facebook and instagram and please check out our website haze machinery dot co dot uk where
we've got these machines for sale then click on there and buy one for yourself if you've got any
questions at all please do not hesitate to contact us hayesmachinery.com thank you for watching