Gentlemen, start your mowers!

[FergusonTO35]

The 2019 mowing season is here and I'm starting off with a new addition to the fleet, a Lawn Chief 16.5hp/42" riding mower. The previous owner is a friend's uncle, he bought a new zero turn and the dealer didn't want the Lawn Chief for a trade in. He gave it to his nephew, who didn't have any room or use for it, and so passed it on to me. It is the typical 90's-2000's store brand MTD machine with 7 speed varidrive transaxle. It is in surprisingly good shape and mows quite well, only thing I can find wrong is a bit of an oil leak from the valve cover. Already ordered the gasket, will post pics soon as I get a chance.

 

[sawfun]

The 2019 mowing season is here and I'm starting off with a new addition to the fleet, a Lawn Chief 16.5hp/42" riding mower. The previous owner is a friend's uncle, he bought a new zero turn and the dealer didn't want the Lawn Chief for a trade in. He gave it to his nephew, who didn't have any room or use for it, and so passed it on to me. It is the typical 90's-2000's store brand MTD machine with 7 speed varidrive transaxle. It is in surprisingly good shape and mows quite well, only thing I can find wrong is a bit of an oil leak from the valve cover. Already ordered the gasket, will post pics soon as I get a chance.

Some of the older MTD stuff are decent homeowner machines. I have a tiller with forward and reverse rotation. splines as well as turnable handle, shredder/chipper, and edger that do a great job. The edger' s front bearing is cheezy but otherwise it's as good as my Mclane.

 

[Larry B]

The 2019 mowing season is here and I'm starting off with a new addition to the fleet, a Lawn Chief 16.5hp/42" riding mower. The previous owner is a friend's uncle, he bought a new zero turn and the dealer didn't want the Lawn Chief for a trade in. He gave it to his nephew, who didn't have any room or use for it, and so passed it on to me. It is the typical 90's-2000's store brand MTD machine with 7 speed varidrive transaxle. It is in surprisingly good shape and mows quite well, only thing I can find wrong is a bit of an oil leak from the valve cover. Already ordered the gasket, will post pics soon as I get a chance.

Got tired of the crappy Briggs valve cover gaskets. I use permatex The Right Stuff to seal them. Better than a gasket. Don't forget to adjust the valves while you are in there. Nice snag. I have a Deere RX75 trying to sell. Seems nobody wants a 36 inch mower.

 

[FergusonTO35]

Thanks bro. I always put a thin smear of Permatex tack and seal on my gaskets. Do the valves adjust like an auto engine? I really like those RX75's, unfortunately I have too many others that need new homes right now.

 

[N8TE]

I bought this 60" Exmark 7 years ago... Best money I have spent on a time saving tool. Leaves me more time to cut wood and kill coyotes

 

[Larry B]

Yeah like a car. Set them both at .004 if the valve lash gets a few thou too wide the compression release won't work and will look like a bad starter.

 

[Larry B]

I bought this 60" Exmark 7 years ago... Best money I have spent on a time saving tool. Leaves me more time to cut wood and kill coyotes

View attachment 180838

Exmark makes a fine mower. You wanna trade? Mine is the color of money LOL

 

[Onan18]

I have an old (2001 LZ25KC604) Exmark Lazer Z with a 25 HP Kohler Command Pro and a 60" deck. Been an excellent machine, going to break 4000 hours on the old girl this year.

 

[FergusonTO35]

Exmark makes a fine mower. You wanna trade? Mine is the color of money LOLView attachment 180839

Very nice, I'm a big fan of simple machines with good quality. I have a nice STX38 sitting in the garage waiting to be brought to life. I need to thin my fleet down to just that one, the Murray, and the new Lawn Chief. The others are in various states of disrepair taking up room and I don't have any interest in fixing them. Matter of fact, most of them are "gifts" from friends and relatives who got new ones.

 

[Larry B]

Years ago I tried my hand at flipping mowers. After parts and my time if I broke even I was lucky. Now if I get a donation I either junk it or i fix it and sell for what i have in it just to stop a good machine from being thrown away. Like the RX75. A guy who ran a marina once told me " no money in owning a boat but lots of money in fixing other people's boats" true words have never been spoken.

 

[FergusonTO35]

Yep. I recently got burned pretty bad on selling a mower to a family friend. It had done great for me and my dad for years, as soon as this guy took possession of it things started breaking. After putting more of my own time and money into it after the sale, we both agreed that a 20 year old riding mower was not for him and I refunded him.

My new policy is this: if you want me to help you with something OPE related I will be glad to do it for the cost of parts. No profit, just helping you out as others have helped me out in life. That doesn't mean I am going to spend hours making one good machine out of three basketcases for you, or repeatedly fix things because you fail to properly care for your machine. It just means, if I can knock it out pretty quickly I'm happy to help out. If I don't feel like messing with it, don't have time, or think that you have unrealistic expectations, take it somewhere else or (gasp!) learn to do it yourself.

 

[Larry B]

Got that T shirt! I quit building or working on PCs for people for pretty much the same reasons. Some people are too lazy or stupid to update their anti virus. I gave my wife's nephew a riding mower I spent many hours on to fix it up and quite a few dollars. 3 years later I still get to fix it. Free of course. No big deal but still. Since I run a shop I give a warranty on my work but some folks think it is a lifetime warranty. But then you get guys like yesterday. A concrete contractor brought me a pressure washer and said " I need it today" bad gas from last year. Cleaned carb, oil change, spark plug and air filter. Charged him $100. He said thanks and would have paid twice that to get it in a couple hours.

 

[FergusonTO35]

My straight job is salaried, thank God. That little RX75 is pretty sweet, would match my STX38 nicely. No, I can't buy it anytime soon! This summer I need to get rid of the junkers and focus on the nice ones. Famous last words, right?

 

[N8TE]

Exmark makes a fine mower. You wanna trade? Mine is the color of money LOLView attachment 180839

I'm a fan of green equipment too

 

[Larry B]

I have an old Frasier Rototiller to restore a Sears ST12 I want to restore. Got an old Locke Triplex mower I want to restore and use as a display in front of the shop. Got an old 30" sawmill blade I want to make a display out of. Thought I would have more time when I retired. HAHAHA jokes on me. I need to retire from being retired. Besides the RX75 I have a JD S82 I repowered from 8hp to 12hp. Another mower I will probably take a beating on. Maybe I should buy another chainsaw kit I don't need.

 

[FergusonTO35]

And, here she is fresh from mowing the back yard:

 

[Larry B]

Good looking machine

 

[FergusonTO35]

Thanks bro. I never was much of an MTD fan, but this thing is growing on me.

 

[Larry B]

Between MTD, Briggs and HOP (Husqvsrna Outdoor Products) pretty much owning all the homeowner grade brands of mowers nowadays hard to keep up with who makes what where. Even the mighty John Deere has joined the race to the bottom of the price point/quality game. It's all about marketshare. Of course now we have the sub $3000 ZTR mowers that people think are just like a $15000 Scag. I really shouldn't complain but seeing how some of the new stuff is built with more plastic bushings, thinner metal , flimsy spindles and the like. I am old enough to remember the old Cub Cadet, Wheelhorse, Roper, Simplicity and such from the 60's and 70's. My snowblower is a Frankenstiend 1972 Sears ST12 with a Tecumseh HH120 cast iron motor made from 3 different parts engines. Still has the original rear tires on it. Oh well, rant off. Closing the shop for a few days. Heading to Akron for a few days next week as the next grandchild is scheduled to arrive Monday at 0700.

 

[FergusonTO35]

To their credit, JD seems to sell good products through their dealers. We put new blades on dad's LX277 today, you can tell it is made,to a higher standard than the Lowe's models.