Okay, I just finished mowing the biggest of the three lawns, and I was right: Setting the Neuton to a saner cut height (2) fixed the “clippings foul wheels” problem. It still doesn’t seem to be terribly effective at mulching – I end up with rows of cut grass, much like if I’d been using the side ejector, but they’re in slightly different places – but that’s all right with me.

The battery was just starting to run out of steam and the mower to bog down as I was finishing up, and that included a number of switches back and forth to the Clever Attachment to knock down the grass around the trailers, the woodpile, the parked snowmobile, etc. that the Big House people like to leave scattered around the lawn. (In practice, the Clever Attachment turned out to be just as handy as I expected it to be.) According to the documentation, the battery won’t reach its full power until it’s been drained and recharged five or six times.

It’s definitely easier to jockey around the obstacles – and drag back to the garage afterward, which involves going pretty much all the way around the compound – than the gas mower.

I’m still sold. I hate mowing lawns, but it’s a hell of a tool. Someone who liked mowing lawns would probably be in hog heaven with this gizmo.

I just talked to one of their technical support folks (they’re apparently a division of DR, the company that makes the giant field mowers and stuff one sees advertised on TV, which I find slightly amusing). They’re sending a replacement for the key socket assembly, no charge. The guy said he didn’t think it’d be a problem, given that I was able to correct the misalignment with the key itself, but we might as well replace it anyway.

Replacing this bit apparently does require the use of one tool – a screwdriver. You’ve got to love modular technology.

Anyway, since it’s working correctly, there’s no need to wait for the new part to get here – it’s just a contingency measure – so I may as well go and do the back 40 now. More in the gripping saga of the electric mower later.