Lawn Mower advice

[GH85Carrera]

OK, I admit it, I am "different".

I have been married for 25 years and she is great.

I have had my 911 for 22 years. It runs great.
I have had my El Camino for 27 years. It runs great.
My lawn mower is 25 years old, and is showing age.
My spinning metal blade edger is 22 years old but starts on the firsts pull and runs great.
My string trimmer is fairy new, just 10 years old. The old one was was painful to use because of the design and the current one is tons better.
My leaf blower is only 8 years old. The old one was a total POS.

I use all of the above regularly all summer. The El Camino gets used all year and I turned 3,555,555.5 miles on it today.

My lawn mower is a Lawn Boy M series mower. It has a nice magnesium chassis so it is fairly light weight. It is new enough it has all the sensors "for my protection." The engine is a 2 stroke but it has a separate oil tank like a motorcycle so I don't have to mix the gas and oil. The drive belt for the transmission is original. I completely wore off the tread of one set of wheels and I am on the second set of wheels. Parts are getting hard to find.

I think it is time for a new walk behind self propelled lawn mower. My M series Lawn Boy seems to be low on compression. It does not have the power it used to have. It is getting had to start, and it can't last forever.

OK, enough preface, now for the question:

I want a good quality rear bagger 21 inch or so mower that can also mulch with if I need to. I am not interested in the Big Box store cheap consumer grade disposable mowers. I want something designed for the pros, and I expect it will be the last mower I ever buy.

What model do you recommend? I expect to pay 600 to 800 bucks or so, maybe more for the right one.

[Nordwest]

I have a newer 5 hp Honda, self propelled and twin blade design. It is awesome. The twin blades work great for mulching and filling the bag to the top. Best mower I have used and I have done a lot of mowing.

Dave

[Nickshu]

Honda HRX217. They are sold at big box stores, about $800. More if you want electric start.

I am 6 years into mine, it's been flawless...let me point out that I have a 0.5 acre lot, fully landscaped, probably 0.25 acres is grass, so the Honda gets worked pretty hard. I did have to replace the carb once, that was my fault b/c I forgot to run the gas out of it before one winter and it sat all winter w/ ethanol fuel in it. Carb was less than $15 on Amazon, OEM Honda, and took 20 minutes to swap out.

My understanding is that Lawn Boy is now owned by Toro, so it's now a rebadged Toro....I looked at both of those when I bought my Honda and was not impressed.

[1990C4S]

Piston and rings.

[pavulon]

14 years on an MTD. 3rd set of wheels. The push bar broke on it 2 weeks ago...metal fatigue where in connected to the mower. New bar was here in 3 days. Had to put a new gas line on it 3 years ago. Otherwise, fuel, air filter and mobil1 15-50 once a year. File sharpen the blade every month or so. Can't justify a new one when this one won't die and cuts just fine.

[GH85Carrera]

Consumers report puts the Honda HRX217K5VLA and HRX217K5VYA at the top of the list. Actually the Hondas got the top 5 spots.

From what I have seen I can part out my old M series and get almost what I paid for it back. There is a forum of fans devoted to it. It is like an air cooled 911 with guys rebuilding them.

[jpk]

I'm using a Honda that's pushing 30 years old. It's been pretty troublefree; just a new control cable here and there. Still starts easy and runs well.
My only beef with it is that the mulching perfornmance sucks; if your grass is thick (not necessarilly long), it leaves clumps and stripes. I'm would think the newer molded decks are much better
A few years back (maybe 7 or 8) I picked up a used Toro personal pace that was not a box box version, but one you get from a toro dealer. Much better cut quality in general, and does better with both bagging and mulching. I really like the personal pace drive control.
I'd suggest going to a dealer rather than the big box and trying them out. A lot of places will carry both the Toro and Hondas, and a good dealer will let you try them.

[Scott Douglas]

Years ago when my son was still in high school (he's 30-something now), I got hold of an old Snapper Hi-Vac chassis that was missing the engine. I went out and bought the cheapest Honda powered side bagger I could get. Told my son, if you want to be an engineer, show me you can adapt this engine to that chassis.
I've been mowing my lawn with it ever since then. Don't need a leaf blower as this mower vac's up all the clippings/leaves etc. I hardly ever have to sweep up afterwards either.
Most of the gardeners around here use the pro model Honda's. They kick butt, but, they don't vacuum up the way my Snapper does. I priced a new Snapper optioned with the engine I've got on mine and it would have been $1200, four or five years ago.

[pwd72s]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

OK, I admit it, I am "different".

I have been married for 25 years and she is great.

I have had my 911 for 22 years. It runs great.
I have had my El Camino for 27 years. It runs great.
My lawn mower is 25 years old, and is showing age.
My spinning metal blade edger is 22 years old but starts on the firsts pull and runs great.
My string trimmer is fairy new, just 10 years old. The old one was was painful to use because of the design and the current one is tons better.
My leaf blower is only 8 years old. The old one was a total POS.

I use all of the above regularly all summer. The El Camino gets used all year and I turned 3,555,555.5 miles on it today.

My lawn mower is a Lawn Boy M series mower. It has a nice magnesium chassis so it is fairly light weight. It is new enough it has all the sensors "for my protection." The engine is a 2 stroke but it has a separate oil tank like a motorcycle so I don't have to mix the gas and oil. The drive belt for the transmission is original. I completely wore off the tread of one set of wheels and I am on the second set of wheels. Parts are getting hard to find.

I think it is time for a new walk behind self propelled lawn mower. My M series Lawn Boy seems to be low on compression. It does not have the power it used to have. It is getting had to start, and it can't last forever.

OK, enough preface, now for the question:

I want a good quality rear bagger 21 inch or so mower that can also mulch with if I need to. I am not interested in the Big Box store cheap consumer grade disposable mowers. I want something designed for the pros, and I expect it will be the last mower I ever buy.

What model do you recommend? I expect to pay 600 to 800 bucks or so, maybe more for the right one.

My Honda powered Snapper Commercial grade is going strong after 9 years. The Commercial grade gets better wheels, and the Honda OHV engine. My lawn is 1/3 acre, so it has had plenty of use.

(cautionary edit) I've noticed Snapper is now sold at Wal-Mart...Quality may have suffered since I bought mine.

[stomachmonkey]

I have a busted up old POS self powered that has not self powered in years.

Wheels are wobbly and the fronts stick if I set it to cut too high.

The throttle is pretty much stuck WO and the bag attachment is only God knows where.

But it starts on the first pull every single time.

And the stuck wheels make it harder to push which gives me a great workout and saves me money on a gym membership.

What's not to love.

[javadog]

35 years ago, I bought a used Lawn Boy of unknown vintage from my brother. I used it for 15 years, never had an issue with it. Then I decided to upgrade to a new Honda. I've got no idea what model it was, but it was self-propelled. I had lots of problems with it, not the least of which was fuel contamination from crap getting in the fuel tank vent. I removed and cleaned the carburetor countless times, as Honda never thought to fit a fuel filter and the way they routed the fuel line made it difficult to install one of any decent capacity. It also had troubles with the self-propelled mechanism, I don't recall what those were.

I finally junked it, bought an inexpensive John Deere push mower and haven't looked back since. Starts first pull on the first day of mowing, whether I drained the gas out for the winter or not. It now smokes a little bit, but it mows just fine. I suspect it will outlive my interest in mowing the yard myself.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Another happy Honda HRX217 owner here. Dead reliable, easy enough that my wife likes using it, night and day difference compared to the Toro Personal Pace mower that it replaced. Just changing mowers made my yard look better.

[enzo1]

Originally Posted by 1990C4S

Piston and rings.

This....or a Snapper

[cabmandone]

I'd hunt CL for another lawnboy. I have a B.I.L that owns about 10 or so of them just for parts.

[wdfifteen]

You are on such a roll, why not just buy a replacement engine?

[Bill Douglas]

If you wanting to wring another year or two out of the Lawn Boy M you could take the head off and clean it up. I had something similar and found it was full of oily black carbon. It ran like a champ after I scraped it all off. And being a two stroke it's only 10 minutes work

[nota]

while your in there
a plug then
rings and crank seals
and you have like new performance
bet those items are an eazy search away

[john70t]

I've got a Briggs/and/Stratton-powered mower with an unknown UK chassis.

Been trying to kill the thing for the last decade but it simply will not die.

The carb is toast and primer has to be pumped full because it's always empty.
Then remove clogged filter and manual choke using my palm.

The main fuel line is cracked in at least one good place but it won't explode or catch on fire for some reason despite spilling gas all over it.

I still use the 5gal jug of 85% octane gas labeled 2007 from a friends filling mistake.
Add a splash of 2stroke oil for lubricant, big dash of normal 87, and all good to go.

I don't change the oil. Ever.
(Well ok I change it every couple years or whenever. Meh.)

I changed the spark plug for the first time this decade.
The old one had 1/8" rust patina and a southofbordergrandmahooker gap but it still ran fine.

The blade was sharpened with angle grinder and spun on a metal rod to balance.
Ran over roots a few years ago and it ran like crap like a 45deg bent crank.
Used to make freight train noise.
It has fixed itself somehow in the meantime.

I did recently buy a $5 push mower for emergency backup. All metal.

[SCadaddle]

A few years ago, the newly minted young Doctor across the street put a really nice Honda HRX215 complete with bag and a big box type Toro mower on the curb. He'd bought a new electric mower. I snatched up the Honda and my next door neighbor settled for the old Toro.
About $40 in air filter, spark plug and carb rebuild kit the old Honda ran and cut grass like a champ. I felt bad about being the new owner and offered it back to him for the price of the parts I had bought to get it going again. He declined and was happy with his electric mower. As for the old Toro, I think it never again saw the light of day.

[fanaudical]

I have a Honda mower and it works great.

But I think I would fix the Lawn Boy...