I was given a Toro mower yesterday, saying that it needed a carb kit. I am familiar with working on these. I have not touched it yet.
What is everyone's opinion of Toro mowers and their equipment? I like the Hondas I have. They start easily and run well.
Never had a Toro, so just wanted to check.
Steve
My Dad had one years ago and even with a sharp blade it did a horrible\ragged job of cutting grass. When I inherited the task of mowing their yard I'd haul over my trusty old Snapper before using their Toro.
We run a fleet of Simplicities of several vintages and have a Wheel Horse/Kawasaki waiting in the shop with ignition problems. Toro bought the W H brand and produced it with some changes. Not a very robust machine. The commercial people here (Midwest) are hung up on John Deere (OK but overpriced) so overall the high end is Kubota and the second tier is Simplicity and John Deere, with Toro, Husqvarna, MTD, and the rest for lighter service. By the time the new price tops $5K any machine will be pretty decent.
Joe
I had one several years ago when Toro was living on its reputation. It was a lemon, always in the shop. I went to Lawnboy which was OK but now have a Honda that I like best. Honda is fairly consistent but lot of companies cycle up and down in their quality so I think you need direct input of a mower shop.
If it has a B&S engine you can probably get the diaphragm at Lowe's. Clean the carb up put the new diaphragm in and mow. I've got a couple of Toros sitting out in the shed, I don't care for all the self propelled, bag the grass stuff they have on them, I usually use an old walk behind propelled by me.
I have owned three Toros, two self propelled walk behinds and one small garden tractor/mower. From a quality and durability standpoint they were all pretty good. In fact the tractor was quiet good.
HOWEVER - when I did start repairing things parts cost was very high. I was also using standard Briggs powered equipment at the time and carburetor replacement cost was about 3-4X the cost of a Briggs carb. I replaced a steering tie rod on the tractor at a part cost of about $50 and this was 20 years ago. About four years ago I bought a 23 HP John Deere tractor/mower half expecting the same kind of cost mark up but it has really been very reasonable. Besides, if you buy a Deere at a dealer (vs big-box) the keep you on a discount list - at least the local guy does.
RonB
Yesterday I just saw one landscaper with a well used Toro tho it looked like he uses it for smaller / lighter duties because he also had one of the big commercial mowers as well.
The alloy deck Toros were good machines. That's going back a ways. Not sure what the new stuff is like.
Honda's are sometimes sold at Costco. I wonder if they are built to Honda's same standards or not.....
Does Costco have their own SKU?
I'm not sure. My boss purchased a Honda at Costco for $200 less than the local sales shops but he seemed a unimpressed with the quantity of plastic that Honda used in the Costco model.
I mean he got a fantastic price and AFAIK, the engines are exactly the same. But around these parts Costco sells Honda lawn mowers for about 1 month and once they are gone, they are gone.
Are they HONDA mowers, or mowers with Honda engines??
Quantity of plastic? Did he compare it to one at HD? (trying to think of what's plastic on mine).
That's sorta the way Costco works.
My Honda starts on one pull, every time. No priming. I didn't like the paddles at first either, until I figured out how to set them. Now I don't think I'd give them up.
The problem is that my lawn just got 4x bigger and my knees didn't get any younger. ...off to Sears this weekend to buy a tractor (gotta figure out how to get it home).
Honda Mower with Honda engines. Might have been a 190 engine. I remember it being stashed in the warehouse for a few weeks. He told me at the time that for years Costco sold a few Hondas in spring.
Costco had a write-up in their magazine promoting a Snapper mower. Given that, I'd be suprized to find a Honda mower this year since they'll carry at most 1 model. But a big national chain, different regions could get different inventory. I remember seeing a Honda branded mower at one point and intended to get whatever they had the next time mower month rolled around. Unfortunately, they went 2 years, I think, without any mower at all.
The Snapper I saw had a B&S 190cc motor. It bears a strong resemblance to various MTD brands (Yard Machines at Home Depot, something dark green at WalMart, and probably a couple others). But the Snapper deck has more metal in the front and back than the MTDs. Actually, the YM sitting powerless in my shed has *no* metal on the back plane--all plastic, no way that would last. Somewhere I read that Snapper uses thicker sheet metal, but I've never been able to judge that in person.
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