Pushing a Lawnmower: Motor Stress or Acceleration?

[geordief]

I have a mower with back wheels that move the mower over the lawn (a back wheel drive).
If I apply foward pressure when the machine is already in motion what is going to happen?
Assuming that the wheels do not skid can I succeed in accelerating the mower or am I simply stressing the motor ?
If so ,where?
(If I simultaneously apply an upward pressure -so that the motor pivots on the 2 front wheels- will this take the stress out of the motor ?)

 

[russ_watters]

Welcome to PF.

You won't stress the motor, only yourself. The motor has a governor to prevent it from going too fast, and when you push it, it'll reduce the power to the motor to keep the rpm roughly constant.

 

[geordief]

Welcome to PF.

You won't stress the motor, only yourself. The motor has a governor to prevent it from going too fast, and when you push it, it'll reduce the power to the motor to keep the rpm roughly constant.

thanks.Well I don't expect you to be a lawnmower expert but perhaps you might be able to explain why it does in fact accelerate quite a bit when I am going down the slope but more or less refuses to respond if I am mowing on the flat.
Does this damage the mower?

Also would there be any benefit in disabling the governor? (if I could organise it it would be simpler to ask the service man to reinstall the settings that came when I bought it- he changed these because he couldn't understand why the motor was cutting out so much and gave it back to me running slower but ,at least, not cutting out any more...)

 

[Turbodog]

DON'T DISABLE THE GOVERNOR! It will overspeed and you will shatter your piston rod within a few minutes. Ask me how I know... a serviceman recently messed up my dad's snowblower and the engine ran away. When he didn't shut it down after about 2 minutes it was done. The piston rod was in about a thousand pieces.

 

[geordief]

DON'T DISABLE THE GOVERNOR! It will overspeed and you will shatter your piston rod within a few minutes. Ask me how I know... a serviceman recently messed up my dad's snowblower and the engine ran away. When he didn't shut it down after about 2 minutes it was done. The piston rod was in about a thousand pieces.

thanks.That sounds like irrefutable advice.