Customer report: The dream machine
This is a customer story from Kurt Jewson, United Kingdom, about his AS 940 Sherpa XL "The dream machine".
"I’ve always had a nagging desire, a dream you might say, of owning my own woodland. The thought of somewhere to go to walk, think and watch the seasons change before my eyes was never far from my mind. Well, a couple of years ago the opportunity presented itself and the pull was impossible to resist. Where I live, in West Cornwall, is surrounded by countryside, most of which being agricultural land given over to dairy and beef production. However right next to us is a wooded valley. A mixture of old, established, trees and newer ones planted by the landowner over the last 30 or so years, as he steadily bought up the steep fields leading down to the stream that runs through it.
Over time paths were cut to allow access but, with his increasing age, these paths eventually became overgrown and were maintained irregularly by a local groundsman with a brush cutter. When he passed away, his estate decided to sell the land and my wife and I decided this was too good of an opportunity to miss. It was then that I decided to open up these overgrown pathways, many of which were on steep bramble festooned slopes, and create areas for walking and horse riding. My first attempts were with an ageing brush cutter that I first bought about 20 years ago, for trimming the lawn at our old rented cottage. Humm,… ‘You’re gonna need a bigger boat!’ as the famous line from ‘Jaws’ recommends.
Ok, next step. A walk behind brush cutter is what I need. So it came to pass that a beast of a machine was duly acquired, from a retired father of a friend, who’s grandfather probably bought it sometime shortly after the invention of the internal combustion engine, when steam was still king. A machine to make grown men suck air in through their teeth and rub their chins. A machine that would drag you through the woods, with you clinging on barely in control with a fear that it would be off, flattening all in its path, creating a spaghetti-like labyrinth of destruction.
I could never say that I tamed the best, but we came to an understanding and slowly the paths opened up. However, it was exhausting work and every time that we engaged in battle I would return home bedraggled, cursing and covered in scratches and bruises. There had to be a better way…
This is when I was introduced to the Sherpa, from AS-Motors. Wow! What a difference!
For a while, leading up to this life-changing purchase, I’d been in conversation with my local grounds care company. Not least in servicing the ‘beast’ walk-behind, and purchasing from them a more meaty hand held brush cutter for those ‘hard to reach’ thorns and whatnot. “Hire one (Sherpa) for the day, and see how you get on.”
OK, will do.
From the moment I saw the chap who had delivered it give it a quick ‘whizz’ about the woods, I was hooked. “It’ll do a lot more than this” he said, after effortlessly munching through the waist-high undergrowth on one of my nemesis embankments, “Fancy a go?”
Too right!
So, like a flash, was astride this industrial strength ride on mower on steroids, tentatively excited to do some serious work. And oh the joy. No longer tethered, like a Roman chariot driver, to the walk behind beast that was, but devouring the work ahead of me at ten times the speed… and sitting down!!!
Those hills and slopes that I slipped and swore my way through were no longer a chore. I was sold. Take my money, I want one!
I’ve had the sherpa for a couple of years now, and it’s proved itself over and over again. Recently, I’ve done a little modification and built myself a lightweight ‘box’ on the back, for carrying hand tools and packed lunches etc., as I’ve found myself using it for getting around the woods as purely a mode of transport as well for brush cutting and mowing. I went for the factory option of having a simple tow hitch added, which means that I can carry more kit around, and the odd log, in a small trailer, as well as this arrangement being useful load lugger about the house and garden.
All in all, as you can tell, I love it.
It’s rugged simplicity, comfort and sheer ability is always impressive. I come back from the woods, job done, all good and literally no sweat.
Well done AS-Motor. You’ve given me, at least in the wet, slippery, overgrown terrain of my steep woodland, my ‘dream machine’!"
Kurt Jewson, private user from United Kingdom
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The consistently sustainable product design of the powerful high grass mower AS 940 Sherpa convinced the top-class jury of the German Design Award. In the citation it says: “The AS Sherpa 4WD was developed specifically for mowing tall grass meadows, which its striking functional design expresses perfectly. A compact ride-on mower reduced to the essentials for sustainable and ecologically oriented green maintenance.” All AS 940 Sherpa 4WD models at a glance: