Need suggestions for a lawn mower

I'm surprised 2 folks in a row had less than stellar results with their Hondas. My neighbor fixes mowers for a living. I asked him to keep an eye out for $100 trade in 5-6 years ago. He brought me a used Honda Harmony. Was probably 5 yrs old when I got it.

I have abused hell out of it. It has spent a couple winters under snowbanks. Runs like a charm. The drive train is tricky- and needs to have 2 cables adjusted perfectly and clean grease in the wheels.

A beast to take apart. Neighbor brought me a 'parts mower' which I tore down for 'fun'.

I'd be tempted to just take off all that dead weight & drag & make a pusher out of it. That is their downside-- as a push only mower the Harmony sucks.

Neighbor has one he put big wheels on & really is a dream to mow with.

Jim

Second that. No matter what's wrong, getting the problem fixed is still almost always cheaper than a new one. Unless the item causing the commotion a member of the opposite sex.

I'll second that!

My 10 year-old Toro Super Recycler with personal pace and aluminum deck is still going strong. The personal pace feature makes mowing a lawn with numerous plantings and such very easy -- not the problem older-style self-propelled mowers have.

I like your thinking. It shows good logical planing.

I will say that TroyBuilt is no more. They sold the name to MTD as I recall, who at once cheapened the line. TroyBuilt was my favorte gasoline powered machine.

I have a Black and Decker Battery powered push mower. I suspect it might not be what you want (it is a little heaver than a like powered gasoline mode.) I have had it clost to ten years if I remember correctly. I had a corded electric some time before that and a true Troybuit inbetween.

All three were good and depending on my lawn needs I would be happy to chose any one of them again. Right now, I think I woudl go back to the lighter weight corded model.

Sheep work well.

Perce

The heck with Consumer Reports recommendations. Get one of these

git-r-done

That thing looks like an A-10 Warthog :-/

Thanks very much for all the responses.

At this point, to get my old 2-cycle Lawn-Boy working I would need a new gas tank and a new carb. Also, the spark plug will no longer tighten. I'm not sure how that happened, but something felt funny when I removed the plug to clean it, and now it won't tighten. I don't know how I could have stripped it while removing it, but I guess I did.

So, I think to fix all that would cost more than a new mower, and you know, it is 30 years old. I think it's time to retire it.

I've got one area that's very close to my pool, and I've learned the hard way that things just work better if I bag in that area. It's actually less trouble doing that than dealing with all the unbagged stuff the wind blows into the pool. So that's why I need a bagger.

Well, based on the comments I think I should look at Toro's, and perhaps look at what Sears and WM have to offer, just in case. I would expect Hondas to be wonderful, but keep hearing the opposite from a number of people here locally.

And I'm gonna stick with a push mower. Self-propelled is just something else that'll break. I don't know if they make 2-cycles anymore (Sears maybe?) but I would certainly look at one of those.

Which would be absolutely no good on my large corner lot. And the B&D cordless I had ate batteries for lunch. First set failed just out of warranty (and I've seen a few fail WITHIN warranty) - and then the expensive replacements were good for less than 3 years - and I needed to mow half the yard at a time, with an overnight recharge in between.

My current lawnmower is a 30+ year old "pro" big-wheel 25 incher built in Schreveport La with a 4 HP Briggs engine on it. Keeps going, and going, and going. 20" BMX bike tires on the back. Friction drive (rollers). It is a tube frame unit, with flat sheet metal deck that rusted through a few years back, and I replaced it with stainless steel.

Are they good for steep grades because different angles of the crankcase won't starve it for oil? I suppose also because they are lighter.

Pictures please!

There are many 4-stroke lawnmowers now that have oil pumps with a well designed pickup, and are not oil starved when at a steep angle.

Right the first time. Second is alst generally true, but the first is the important one.

Putting them up on on-the-net.ca.

Just the higher end hondas etc.

That is why I said "many" rather than "all".

I've seen mowers with Kawasaki engines as well.

That's why I said "etc"

Hard to argue with that.

And screw up a nap from 5 doors down.

Try adding some oil to the gas next time. My memory is fuzzy, maybe ~5%, I'd err on the high side.

Changing mower oil interferes with napping and fishing.

I've run 2 mowers until the decks rusted to pieces, never changed the oil once. I suspect I don't know a single soul who has ever changed the oil in their mowers. -----

- gpsman