What is Dudley holding? {Harry Potter}

When the Dursleys are moving out at the beginning of Deathly Hallows Pt. 1, what is Dudley carrying to the car?

Weed-whacker?

They don’t have guards like that in the US, but they might in the UK.

Hover mower.

(Which, funnily enough, I just learned about on this board yesterday.)

Yes hover mower - my family had exactly this sort of mower when I was growing up. Great fun to swing about over the lawn.

Here it is http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/7302938.htm

Why aren’t these in the US? Is there some patent issue keeping them out, or market research that says Americans wouldn’t think a floating lawn mower is cool? I already use an electric, for under $100 I would try one of these out in an instant.

I couldn’t figure out how a muggle family had access to an obviously magical device.

I need this.

I remember the “Flymo” being advertised in the U.S. in the 80’s. Didn’t know anyone who had one.

I also remember a (possibly apocryphal) story about someone mangling themselves trying to trim a hedge while holding it in the air, then suing the manufacturer because the manual didn’t say to not do that.

For a very small yard/garden, that might work. For the typical American 1/4-1/2 acre, that would be an arm wrecking chore.

Ok, I’m an American so i may be way off but the hover mowers i see online have a handle that meets the base at two points, giving you a wide horizontal handle. What i see Dudley toting (obviously i was curious to Google it) looks like the Flymo base but only has one shaft ending in a handle that looks like an American weedeater. Do they make them both ways or do they make trimmers (weedwhackers) to look like a hover mower? I just found it funny that they were running off away from danger and he takes a weedeater. Wouldn’t be on my “escape packing list,” lol.

Link to a photo?

There’s a picture of the scene at the top of this discussion. If you Google “hover mower” all of them have 2 shafts connected to the base. The picture above from the movie shows one shaft.