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Message started by raydawg on 04/07/13 at 18:15:59

Title: Stupid is as stupid does.....
Post by raydawg on 04/07/13 at 18:15:59

WARNING: This is a rant. Proceed at your own risk.

10 years I've lived in my present location. I have to mow approximately 1/2 acre of grass. Come spring time (now thru June) it requires twice a week mowing, it grows fast. My first mower was a Troybuilt self propelled. I beat the heck outta it, went 8 years of abuse (left outside in rain, etc) but always did its job when asked. 2 years ago the motor seized ( never changed oil) so shopping I went. Bought a Poulan Pro mulcher....worked fine, put it away (in the shed out of the rain stabilized fuel) Pulled out and it worked up till July then would not start for the life of me. F...it, went and bought a new one @ Home Depot, a Yard Machine. It worked OK put it away, drained fuel. Went to start last week with new fuel, nada, it tries but never gets going, spits gas out the muffler with white smoke....darn. Warranty is a real pain in the arse, have to make 2 round trips on the ferry to an authorized dealer. Can't find a new carb on line (its plastic!) or I'd just do it myself....
I'm done with Briggs and Stratton, just plain old junk anymore, and they are covert about parts, jerks!

Honda, here I come......

end o' rant

Title: Re: Stupid is as stupid does.....
Post by apache snow on 04/07/13 at 18:39:30

I bought a Cub Cadet back in 1995 thats still going strong. It has shaft drive. It would probably be expensive to replace today.

Title: Re: Stupid is as stupid does.....
Post by ToesNose on 04/07/13 at 18:55:07

I've had the same Toro push/propelled mower for a decade, run the gas out of it at the end of the season, sharpen the blade each spring, change the oil and air filter every other year and it's good to go. I had a Toro snow blower that was worry free too, sold it when I moved south.

Sorry to hear about the Poulan RayDawg, just a headache you don't need :(

Title: Re: Stupid is as stupid does.....
Post by rfw2003 on 04/07/13 at 19:31:53

I've got one of the newer Cub Cadet models it's about 4 1/2 years old and I've had nothing but troubles out of it. Every year I have to send it to the shop for one thing or another. Now it's out of warranty so it's gonna come out of my pocket this year. I'm wishing now I would have bought a John Deere when I got this thing like my neighbor did and they have had not a single issue out of theirs at all. Cub Cadets used to be a quality product but I see now they have gone down hill to the common throw away riding mowers that sell for less then $1K but you still pay the premium for their name. :'(

R.F.

Title: Re: Stupid is as stupid does.....
Post by ZAR on 04/07/13 at 19:48:06

Ray since I work with those dang things every day,I feel qualified to throw my $0.02 in. Listen to Toes. We sell Honda,Toro and Cub Cadet. Of those three,I'll take the Toro every time....no question. Sure the Honda is good,but over rated and overpriced. The Toro "Super Recycler" has beat Honda in customer satisfaction polls and Consumer Reports trials several years now. I don't even bother discussing Cub,be it riders,Zero-turns or walk behinds.

Title: Re: Stupid is as stupid does.....
Post by 45acp on 04/07/13 at 20:17:10

i know your pain. i have to mow a 6 acre shooting range every week. its sandy here in oklahoma so it just eats up bearing and blades like crazy. i bought a craftsman mower thinking it would last but no. ::) its like everything else made these days. its cheap.
my dad has had the same craftsman mower for the last 20 yrs. guess they were made better back then.

Title: Re: Stupid is as stupid does.....
Post by Serowbot on 04/07/13 at 23:12:22

Keep an eye on the rabbits...

They don't like you cutting their grass,.. and they're sneaking in at night, and peeing in yer' crankcase...

Devious little buggers... :-?....

Title: Re: Stupid is as stupid does.....
Post by engineer on 04/08/13 at 05:51:15

Many of the smaller new mowers, snow blowers etc. are now equipped with Chinese engines. A dealer told me that unless the engine has an American company's label on it, such as Briggs & Stratton then it is Chinese. That applies to many old reliable names in power equipment.

I use an older John Deere (made in East Moline and a couple older Toros with Briggs engines). They all do fine but they are easily old enough now to smoke and buy liquor. My goal is to keep them running as long as I can mow.

Honda still makes an excellent mower and they last a long time.

Title: Re: Stupid is as stupid does.....
Post by justin_o_guy2 on 04/08/13 at 07:17:50

Shoulda took care of the first one, huhh?

Ive got an MTD Yardman. Says Right THERE in the Owners Manual
Not intended for clearing brush
When we got here 7 years ago you either took the drive up to the road or you took a machete. I took a machete & mounted it in a cardboard sleeve under the hood, so I can slip it out while mowing. No need to lift the hood at all,,handle is Right There, easy to grab. I slowly worked that stuff back. Took 3 or 4 years, every year Id push the underbrush back a little farther. The seals in the rear axle started leaking. Every time it got hot out, it would leak. When it cooled off, it would inhale, get hot, air expands, pushes more grease & oil out. They dont SELL parts for that assembly, only the assembly, so, I took it apart, drilled a hole & ran a grease gun hose into it & mounted the grease gun tip poking out the back & put a vent on it. MIxed up grease, oil & antisieze & packed it. Put it together. Thats been 4 years ago. I took 2 zerks & put them in a coupling. Now, I can hook a grease gun up to one of them, poke the other in the grease gun hose end on the mower & pump grease in the rear end..

Title: Re: Stupid is as stupid does.....
Post by WD on 04/08/13 at 07:22:08

My Home Depot sourced Toro was a piece of junk from the word go. Bad carb, bad drive box, soft blade. Last year I went to restart it after it stalled and the recoil spring snapped. >:(

Husqvarna will be its replacement. Although, most of my mowing is with a 60" cut Kubota 4wd commercial mower. Or a 12 FOOT John Deere rough cut behind a Massey Ferguson 165 diesel... ::) "Yard" is about 20 acres.

The new Kohler engines designed to replace deceased Briggs, Tecumseh and Kohler valve in block designs are made by Yamaha.

Title: Re: Stupid is as stupid does.....
Post by rl153 on 04/08/13 at 08:13:19

Will this help?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObEOfiBdSXk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3c3T89QdtHI&NR=1&feature=endscreen

Title: Re: Stupid is as stupid does.....
Post by apache snow on 04/08/13 at 09:58:50

I got my Cub Cadet right before MTD took over. I guess they are cheaply built now. Mine has never given me any trouble. It has a Kohler engine.

Title: Re: Stupid is as stupid does.....
Post by rfw2003 on 04/08/13 at 10:01:24

657465676C61776A6B73040 wrote:

I got my Cub Cadet right before MTD took over. I guess they are cheaply built now. Mine has never given me any trouble. It has a Kohler engine.

Lucky you, I for one will never buy a Cub Cadet again with the experience I've been having with the one I got now. I should have known to take it back the first day when I had to get a warranty repair call when I had trouble with it on the very first day I owned it.

R.F.

Title: Re: Stupid is as stupid does.....
Post by prsavage on 04/08/13 at 10:01:44

When I had my Troybilt 33"wide cut I loved it. Four fwd gears plus reverse. It was a walk behind. Awesome mower but it stayed with the house when it was sold.

This tale of woe is a bit long winded, sorry.

Since being in this house (Oct. 2009) I have had four mowers in three years. All have been Walmart crap MTD/Yardman. First one went about half the season in 2010 and just would not restart when I stopped to empty the bag. I took it to a repair shop with the instructions that I needed it fixed but I did not want it to be more than half the price of a new mower ($239 new price) They fixed it by replacing the coil and with diagnostics and labour etc the cost was about $170. I was pretty steamed at them but I was over a barrel and had to pay it to get the mower back.

First cut of 2011 season and the mower would not start. Coil fried again. I threw it away this time. I mentioned to my wife that I would like to get a decent mower this time and that I could get a new Troybilt 33" from the states for $1300 plus duty, a Sultech Stealth 33" shipped from Ontario for about $1600 or I could keep looking for something. I came home from work and my wife had bought a $239 mower at Walmart. It work for the rest of the season.

I went to use it for the first cut of 2012 and it would not start. I had the coil tested - no good again. I couldn't find the receipt either. I said to my wife that this time we get a good mower. I came home from work and she had bought a $289 mower. Ooh! a whole $50 extra splurge! Of course at Walmart again.
Anyway, this mower did the 2012 season until almost the end. I mowed over a baseball and the blade broke right off! OK I agree that they are not supposed to mow baseballs but come on! I took it back and told Walmart they could keep their junk and I would not buy another mower from them. I borrowed a friends mower for the last cut of the season.

Here it is time for the first cut of 2013 and I don't have a mower. So I was looking at the Toro 30" walk behind last week at $1150 and available at a tool rental business here in my town. The day I mentioned it to my wife was the day she got fired from her job. How's that for bad luck! Money will be super tight for a while, so I will looked for a used mower either privately or from the pawn shop. darn.
:-/ :-? :-[ :'(

Title: Re: Stupid is as stupid does.....
Post by WD on 04/08/13 at 10:42:15

Buy a couple goats and a couple of tie out stakes. End of problems.

My Kubota mower is a 4 cylinder diesel rider. Steering wheel type instead of joysticks. Model F3060. Worth every penny versus a gas burner. In Canada you should be able to buy small Kubota tractors with mower decks pretty cheap, I have to get parts for my tiller tractor from up there, not a USA market machine. No safety guards or roll over protection...L1510, everything is in Japanese except the numbers... ;D

Title: Re: Stupid is as stupid does.....
Post by Pine on 04/08/13 at 11:22:51

Been running my $99 B&S for about 10 years.

On a side note.. I saw the Chinese made 6hp engine at HF... several places noted that the engine was NOT TO BE USED WITH ETHANOL ... so yeah... wont be buying one of those.

I was not aware that other brands made thier own engines... basically B&S, Honda, Tech, Kohler.. maybe one or two I am missing.