Hayter Harrier 41

I have had my Hayter Hunter 41 for 14 years now. It is still available and of course there are various derivative models available so what I write will apply to them also.

I am lucky to have a large garden. The garden is not necessarily lucky to have me. I am not the worlds greatest gardener and having watched all the gardening programmes telling me the Latin names for all the plants the only Latin I know is Caveat Emptor and Carpe Diem. So consequently I buy nothing for the garden and seize the opportunity to do something else.

The garden is in three sections, a long, narrow bit by the oak, sycamore and chestnut trees, a fiddly bit around the orchard and planted area and the large square area where the kids play. Consequently I have three mowers and the smallest of these is the Hayter Hunter. I will do reviews of the others at some stage but I will do the oldest first. The Hunter is petrol powered but the engine only powers the blades and does not drive it so you have to push it. The engine is the workhorse Briggs and Stratton which seems to power practically all UK made mowers. It starts by pull only so no electric start but even after a winter storage it has never failed to start. There is no priming needed on the engine and there is not a great deal of resistance when pulling the cord so it is not hard work starting.

The blades are rotary so you get a good cut but not perfect. The mower also has 4 wheels and no roller so you will not get a stripey Wimbledon finish. The strength of this mower is its reliability and consequently its value for money. It runs on unleaded fuel and I think it still has the original spark plug in. It is robust and well made and still looks very good with very little damage at all. The height of the cutter can be adjusted by means of a small lever device which is a bit fiddly but does the job. The grass box is easy to empty and it too is light but robustly made.

In the 14 years the mower has had 2 services in all that time. Me and my Hunter will not be enabling the mower shop man to retire on revenue from us. The only time it went wrong was when my father-in-law turned it upside down (no, I do not know why – I think its his hobby) and flooded the combustion chamber with oil. I soon managed to drain it and my father-in-law is banned from going near my mowers now.

All things considered though when I think what I paid for it this has been one of my better purchases.