Machine: Camon LA25 from Tracmaster

Purpose: Remove Plugs of Soil from Lawn or Pitch to increase aeration and drainage.

Weight: 103kg.

 

Deployment requires 2 members of SOTG on site during operation.

When you have a lot of lawn & Pitch to cover,.

& it all or most of it needs aerating properly.

 

When a Scarifier & Aeration with changeable cartridge system combo machine can’t go deep or hard enough.

You call in the big heavy toys.

Camon LA25 Aerator & Lawn or Pitch Landscaping Machine

& does it weigh some, yes it does.

This is a proper arm ripper, loading & unloading it, is not a joke.

It is a lot of dead weight and mobile, so the fact it has sharp hollow tines sticking out of the rear, with a lot of weight behind it; makes you take it seriously.

 

That weight & wheeling it around though, soon gets forgotten once it hits the Green stuff.

It does self propel to a degree, it still takes a lot of effort & force to move around, raising the tines for turning it is a small work out.

Several hours doing a football pitch & a few small lawns using one, sends you home with burning Biceps & Triceps; I am sure of that.


For the effort though. it does a sterling job.

Punching out 4 Inch or so plugs of soil, & doing in a few hours on a football pitch, that would take weeks by hand.

If top dressed afterwards with sand you add air & drainage into your pitch or lawn.

Or you can just allow the plugs to dissolve naturally in place to add a top dressing, which will then be distributed evenly during the early Spring cuts with the lawn mower; each successively lower cut there after mulching up any remaining plugs or small chunks of turf or grass roots.

 

Further wind and rains washing them into the recently added holes & across the surface evenly.


SOTG initial thoughts.

It is a simple machine, it is just very brutal in how it does it’s job.

For that I love it already.

It doesn’t compromise, it just gets on with creating carnage at it’s working end.

It exposes weak areas of Lawn or Turf.  Churning then up fairly quickly showing you where more attention is needed as erosion is an issue, or as we have found out more so this week or the last few at least.

Clay is a nightmare, when the lawn or pitch is mostly on Clay…

Dreadful experience…


However, sand repairs and levels then a resurfacing of loam soil soon fixes that.

Hence the week with one on hire and getting a full week of lawn care with the machine required scheduled all in the same week.

This, in itself, was a task.

Getting the machine to fit in with that timing.

Near Herculean levels required to tie it all down.

We managed it though, and after a week using one daily, and for hours at a time.

It does a job, and it does it well.

 

Basic Review.

Simple to start up, chugs along all day, simple effective mechanics.

Brute force or nimble strength needed to run for more than a small area.

Utterly adore the work it does in a small span of time though, it covers a lot more than I thought initially.

& in areas where the lawn or Turf is good quality, the machine does indeed do most of the work; though it does it at a very slow yet effective pace in good ground and grass.

 

It’s destructive nature in less quality areas of pitch or lawn, can be of use.

It can ferret out a lot of clay patches where Moles have been active, & certainly where Mole hills have only ever been flattened rather than removed.  So it can also cull or catch in areas of moss or damp corners where the grass substructure is barren and little grass remains.

So it will chew into these areas and pick up soil, clods of clay or other weaker or undesirable material & leave ragged edges, rather than neat regimented rows of hoiles spiked into the soil.

 

In good soil and on good grass, it is very therapeutic and a nice experience.  I genuinely mean that.

The rhythm it sets into once running, and the constant whum whum as the tines does their work, is very hypnotic.

Till the soil plugs start getting thrown into the wheel runs or you drive over some and the wheels start to get full of mud.

Then every few legs, you have to stop to clear the mud from the tires.

This and a Tine that kept working loose are my only minor gripes after a week of using one daily.

 

Certainly things you can live with for the results the machine delivers, and all day if needed.

SOTG Rating: Epic

#CamonLA25

#Tracmaster

I might, or I might not, have some Drone footage of one in use… 😉

 

Also, big thanks to Corby HireBase for sorting out the machine & ensuring the timing slot I needed.

Top effort!