Pope Water Tractor Sprinkler

Would be less than one star if possible. What an absolute pile of rubbish this plastic fantastic is. Worked the first time I used it (to a degree) however the second time, it just started getting slower and slower and eventually stopped...for no reason. Was full of water...the hose had pressure. It just stopped. This company used to make… Read more

quality products however I have not purchased a Pope product worth owing for some years. I will never purchase another Pope product as long as I roam this earth. What utter rubbish they are. There should be laws in place to prevent companies like this wasting the earth's natural resources with their poor products.

headache sprinkler – falls over, runs off the hose and goes where ever it wants, gets bogged if lawn is too long. Not worth the price, do not recommend purchasing this product to anyone.

Was an excellent product – Earlier models of this sprinkler were flawless and worked well, sadly with this new model they've taken the cheapest option and changed components and build quality to replace was an excellent piece of equipment, which now requires more water pressure and gets bogged easily, disappointed I've wasted my money at Bunnings with this.

Poor Performance – The earlier models of this sprinkler were excellent. The modern version works reasonably well on substantially flat, well mown, grass covered areas. In all other cases the wheels lack traction and bog easily and the centre of gravity is too high resulting in numerous tipovers.

This is a pile of Dung! – Having used the previous product for over 15 years, this new version is not worth 10% of the price. Avoid at all cost. Buy a cheap sprinkler and replace each year.

Poor performance on a moderate slope – My new tractor keeps falling over on a moderate slope that my old tractor had no issues with, is there a fix or is it a design fault which should have been covered in the instructions with a warning that the tractor was unsuitable for sloping lawns.

Time saver!!! – Absolutely love it. I don’t understand all the negative reviews here as this product is BRILLIANT. The water tractor does the job and saves me time from going out and moving the sprinkler every 10 mins. Extremely happy, just wish I’d know this was in the market years ago.

Pope tractor – Works well but plug falls out all the time and gets lost don’t seem to be able to buy replacements. Where do you suggest a place to buy plugs. Not happy.

Total garbage avoid at all costs – Garbage Rubish junk the idea of a travelling sprinkler is that it travels. My old metal one used to The new ones do not. Now to be fair it will run nicely along the concrete drive going down hill . An obvious example of what happens when you get a design graduate who has lived all his life in a Bondi apartment where the only garden was a window… Read more

box to redesign a product that worked perfectly well so it can be made very cheaply in China. The instructions, or lack of them are as big a joke as the product is. On anything other than a concrete driveway or a bowling green or a putting green it just sits there slowly digging a hole in our lawn and wasting thousands of litres of water. And yes it was first filled to the line with water. Then filled to the top with water Then filled to the line with sand But all it did was dig holes & waste water. The old one would pull a 40 meter hose so I thought the 40 meter hose might be creating too much drag but no. Tired a 30 meter hose same thing Tried a 20 meter hose just made holes & wasted water Tried a 10 meter hose still sat there wheels spinning & going nowhere. Every time the same thing happened, moved a few inches then hit a a piece of Buffalo runner, a twig, a slimey slug , a spot with no grass, a spot with grass longer than 1/2 inch tall . anything and everything stops it dead in its tracks while it turns the grass into a swamp. I doubt it could pass over it's own shadow. So DO NOT BUY ONE. Leave it on the shelf You could do the job better & faster with a watering can. And for those water watchers out there it was running off my fire pump drawing water from my 43,000 liter tank. The old one did both grassed areas using around 1,800 liters. Frigging around with this garbage pile gobbled up 22,000 liters and still did not water the entire grassed area that I am trying to green up a bit in preperation for ember attacks.

So if you are standing in your favourite store & you see this puss pile next to the more expensive USA cast one, buy the USA one and leave the Aussie one to rot on the shelves where it belongs

What a Pity Mr Pope – All I can say is I fully reiterate comments from previous reviewers, that the plastic (Chinese Made?) replacement for the cast metal (Australian Made?) sprinkler is definitely not value for money.

Can’t beat the old one – I have 2 of the old Pope metal sprinklers. One was ours and the other handed down from my parents like a family heirloom! In the past years have had to replace the arms after being bashed around after hitting bushes ect, no problem could get spare ones from Bunnings for a couple of dollars! Now... can’t get the arms! The new model has arms moulded… Read more

in! I’ve had to dismantle one of the tractors that acted as an organ donor to try and breath new life into at least one!

What will I do with the donor??!! It’s led a good life.... kept children happy on scorching hot days, lovingly watched over our lawns keeping it green, kept us amused as kids when hitting a boggy patch and digging its way out leaving a little crater, and once trying to leave home by leaving the safety of the hose and traveling off on its own off the beaten track through bushes looking for a new life and maybe greener pastures?

Should we just put it on a shelf for future generations to view and marvel at?

Sorry Mr Pope but you should’ve kept the old metal model, and saved many an old tractors life. Rip my watery friend.

Find an old one at a garage sale and repair it – I recently decided – almost with sentimentality – to retire my 42-year-old metal, seriously leaking, gears-worn, spinner-head loose, rusty-here-and-there, much-repaired old water tractor (also made by Pope). I bought a plastic, ‘fill-able for weight’, brand new unit from Bunnings, not taking it out of its box till it was home. I returned it… Read more

(defective unit) on the following day, but asked for money-back, not exchange.

Admittedly a defective unit – some problem with the gears (which are no longer visible or adjustable in any way) – it would spin, slow down, speed up, until it had some weight of hose behind it (about 6 metres, as in 3X2 metres) – and stop, unable to overcome the faulty interior friction.

But – what an embarrassing come-down, ‘Mr Pope’! I have so many Pope products in my yard – hoses, sprinklers (some seeming to die earlier than they used to; quality more and more like ‘cheap Chinese’. Even so – I expected the design and QA to be improving after a poor spot a decade or so back.

The old one (I can be precise about 42 years) was 90%+ metal, and heavy. The ‘front’ (guide-wheel, rolls lengthways along the hose) is longer, the wheel is visible, not covered, the ‘steering’ a simple Y-shape tiller, the wheel itself round, not ‘cogged’ (cogs not needed, may be problematic). The rear wheels were heavy sprockets, and bit no problems into lawn, sometimes ‘dug’ into soil or mud, but – just move it, no problems. The ‘off-switch’ was a little stiff and worked fine with the tiny tin metal ramp (combined to work as off-switch). Apart from a peculiar tendency to sometimes switch itself off when the water was first turned on, no problem.

The new one – where to start. Weight comes from adding water into the body of the sprinkler. Recommended depth was halfway over a sideways plug (a mere pop-in plug, which only sealed in one twist). See potential for unusability here? Lose plug, split the plastic container? The plug didn’t even screw in; no washer; and the recommended water-level was guesswork. Even so, the recommended weight of water was insufficient.

The nozzles – I’m being fair – were an improvement on the 42-year-old design, similar to units available for possibly 30 years. The spinner arm is plastic.

The front wheel is cogged (why? – it doesn’t work as well) and hidden underneath the streamlined look of the water canister. This made getting the guiding wheel over the hose it was supposed to straddle a matter of guess-and-feel.

Rear wheels were of similar size and vaguely similar cog-shape to the metal ancestor – but seemed to lack grip on anything but taut, mown grass.

The ‘off-switch’ was hypersensitive and could easily be pushed into the off position with a tuft of unmown grass.

The entire ‘business end’ underneath is a single sealed unit – maintenance possible only on the O-ring – any chip, bump, crack in the plastic, even scratch on the nozzle – the entire unit would become inoperative.

Now, the old unit is a sod to repair; after rusting out a number of drive-shaft pins over the years, I thought ‘one last time’ and glued it – but it’s better than the brand new one. (WHAT?? – after 42 years???) Even so, I’m expecting it to outlast (on its final repair) any new unit worn out by simply leaving it in the sun.

Comparing old and new is a bit like comparing a plastic or paper cup with an ancient metal pannikin.

So – if you want the convenience of a sprinkler that pulls a hose and turns itself off – hunt the garage sales and see if you can find an old, fixable one.

Pope Water Tractor Constantly Falls Over – The previous versions of the Pope tractor sprinkler were good. Just brought a new one, and it's terrible, it now has a very narrow wheel track width and constantly rolls over, even on moderate slopes, I'm not happy! I assume the wheel track change was too reduce the box size and transport costs (not to improve the product).... Looks like another dopy business manager's decision.