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Residential Mower Recommendation Needed

Steve

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Went to a local shop on Saturday and Home Depot on Sunday to compare deals with Steve’s pictures.

found this Honda outside, in the rain on display. retails for $620.
they had it marked down a bunch plus a 15% coupon. I got it for $285. New, never gassed.

couldn’t pass it up. Not what I was looking for but I’ll give it a try. Have 30days to return it if I don’t like it.

200cc engine, 5 year warranty, composite deck with lifetime warranty. Already not liking the filter cover. Seems flimsy. Needs more zip ties.


I’m gonna find out how much I actually enjoy mowing I guess.

Other bonus, ROI on such a good deal is less then 5months. Guys charge roughly $60 a cut in this area.


HRX217VKA

View attachment 225212


Wow! Thats a great deal. Dont worry about the filter cover. They are much more robust then they feel. And they seal real well too.
 

LOMartin

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Sounds like a good deal.
Gonna be a lot harder to mount a chainsaw rack on it than on a Snapper rider.

thanks for the offer. Really appreciate it.
This was just too good a deal. Still may get a rider later.

I’ll charge the tourist to ride Forest Gumps mower. You know it would work here.

I’m still building out the property on coffee bluff but moved to a house in burkshire.
 

Locust Cutter

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Hondas are hard to beat. Had my HRX217 in everything from manicured resdential to farm mowing/bagging while removing 8". Now, if you want to get some exercise, but buy once and have it nearly forever, buy a used 36" commercial walk behind. Belt drive is easy once you know how to run it (and cheaper to maintain) but a hydraulic drive option would be smooth as glass. Something like a Scag SWZT. I have a SW36 and can't tell you how many 05 - 2 acre places I've cut, and it does VERY well, leaving nice stripes. They're obviously built for commercial use, so finding one with about 500 hours on it for about 1.5-2K is doable with business that turn over equipment every two to three years. Lawnboys are tough and cut very well. I ran the snot out of them growing up. I also ran the snot out of two different Snapper Hi-Vacs, and in DRY grass, they bag amazingly well! In wet grass, or fleshy Spring weeds, you'll hate them.

Edit: I see you bought a mower. Be careful on the air filter cover as accidentally bashing it will break it quickly. That's my only gripe over 2 Hondas and roughly 8 years of experience. The blades look flimsy, but keep the sharp (both of them) and it'll cut amazingly well.

I'd still suggest yo g t a scag dealer and demo a SWZT though. You might just decide that a nice used one is the ticket!
 
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Bilge Rat

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Hondas are very good.
The only issue i have seen is the very small passages in the carbs will need cleaning on a homeowner/ occasional use motor.
That is also no big deal. Just pull the carb then remove main jet and the tube behind it.
Push a # 76 micro drill thru the 4 or so small holes in the tube and it is good to go. I use the back end of the drill.
The issue is not cranking/running they just surge even then you can still cut the lawn then clean the carb. 30 minutes once every year or 2.

The 2 blades cut really well, clean even cut and the cut grass is chopped up fine so you rarely need a bagger.

Old Snappers are a redneck status symbol.
 

TeaKay

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Husqvarna Automower and never have to go out to mow again. Plus it will look 1000x better than any gas mower.
 

TeaKay

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Push mowers are highly overthought and time is wasted on them. Don’t spend less than $300 or more than $500 and you’ll likely be fine unless you buy a Snapper. If you buy a Snapper you’ll probably wish you were dead.
 

rogue60

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Husqvarna Automower and never have to go out to mow again. Plus it will look 1000x better than any gas mower.
Whenever I hear people talk of how great it is to sitback and do nothing in life as far as any kind of movement goes lol
Makes me think of the movie WALL-E people that have seen the movie will know what im talking about the human's have even lost the ability to walk thank's to gizmos taking care of all there needs it's so close to the mark the road mankind is going down it's not funny lol
 

TeaKay

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I got too many other things I’d rather do than mow the lawn. The robot does a better job hands down and I can go do other *s-word instead.
 

Onan18

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I’ve had mine 5 years now and it’s broke twice in a month so I’m looking for a replacement

Has it had all of the updates done? There is a new idler arm and cable kit, new metal pulleys for the timing belt, and I believe a new engine pulley as well. Once updated they are pretty bullet proof.
 

stihl livin

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Has it had all of the updates done? There is a new idler arm and cable kit, new metal pulleys for the timing belt, and I believe a new engine pulley as well. Once updated they are pretty bullet proof.

never got any info on updates. This has been Blown head and now an oil leak. I mowed with it again tonight as I don’t really care and the yard was bad. My last toro was great this one not so much
 

Onan18

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never got any info on updates. This has been Blown head and now an oil leak. I mowed with it again tonight as I don’t really care and the yard was bad. My last toro was great this one not so much

Engine trouble huh, let me guess, Briggs? Kohler makes a really nice replacement engine, the CV200, leaps and bounds better than the Briggs.

Have you looked at the new Exmark X Series 30" it comes with the CV200 and a beefed up transmission.
 

stihl livin

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Engine trouble huh, let me guess, Briggs? Kohler makes a really nice replacement engine, the CV200, leaps and bounds better than the Briggs.

Have you looked at the new Exmark X Series 30" it comes with the CV200 and a beefed up transmission.

yes Briggs. I’m looking at the Ferris and exmark or even a metro or proline. Thought about a hustler raptor 36 buy don’t think that’s necessary to spend that much
 

alleyyooper

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See you found a good deal on the Honda. Congrats, use rec gas in it, keep the air filter clean and should have a great machine to mow with a long time.


I am very happy with my fleet of mowers. I have my big ExMark 60" deck I use 90% of the time and do some commercial mowing with it.
5th year and only so far have had to do routine maintance on it.



Got this Bunton 48 walk behind, I've had to work on it several times because it would not start in the spring. Former owner didn't get the electric start so when it would not spring start once again he said to come and get it. Get it running and find it a new home he didn't want it back.

Mows nice, I am doing the property fence line with it at the presant.
But once I get more/better used to it I will use it to mow ditches.




My ditch mower right now is a Husky AWD with a briggs engine. The recoil on the engine was crap and I had to make a crappy mod on it because I didn't want to have to carry my cordless drill in the truck to every job site.
Yes the banks are steep so I wear base ball cleats so I don't slip. OH also have the oil leval a tad over full.








Use a zip tie to hold the dead man switch down.



Use the cordless drill to start.




Under this pile of JB weld is a plastic washer that gives and won't hold the wings that pop out the spin the motor. The JB weld stiffens up that washer.



I suppose most people wouldn't start the mower in a year what I start it in a month. I do a lot of ditches for people.
The recoil is held on with pop rivets too. I drilled it out installed 1/4 20 one inch bolts. Found some flat washer things like used in the old days to hold brake drums on cars, used them to hold the bolts for the recoil. Worked great.




They will drive by while I am doing one and stop/turn around and ask if I could do theirs. Look at theirs and give them a quote. Haven't been told no yet.

One in the picture is around 150' long on the south of the drive and about 50' on the north I charge $30.00 to do it.





Al
 
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legdelimber

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That entire shroud and recoil assembly was a major back step by Briggs.
The Riv-nuts that hold the tank onto the air shroud are bad to spin when you need to remove the recoil.
And I use a nut driver, by hand, to loosen them.

That new recoil is flexy and the steel in it rusts waaay worse than the old ones ever did.
And I personally never liked having the damned dipstick attached to the shroud.
The old style centrifugal ball ratchet was easy and simple.
Pull the shroud once a year (need to clean out the detritus build up anyways) and oil the felt in the center.
Ah but people would run them dry and squealing like a stuck pig till they seized on the crankshaft, broke the rope and twisted the guts out of the entire recoil assembly.
So now we get the new, disposable as a unit, one.
Seems like Tecumseh lead us down that road before they went under. Nice parting shot.

I've got a couple of motors with that new type recoil on them that I'd put an old style, notched, rope cup on 'em
IF the hardware store still had any.
 

legdelimber

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Interesting idea with the push washer things to hold the 1/4x20's. I got all fancy and tack welded some T-nuts under the shroud.
Do a good cleanup prep so that the welder arcs nice and easy.
Using smallest solid wire you can run. That flux core stuff just splatters too much
Snip the end of the mig wire with your cutters , or the ball on the end will try to skip a little and miss the edge of the nut.
Run a screw into the nuts and shroud and a quick tap of the mig gun should hold them.
Make sure the screw doesn't stick out past the nut or a dingleberry will danged certain find the threads and then you can't remove the screw after the weld.
You may need to stack a couple of washers temporally to get the backset of the screws.
 

stihl livin

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1263FD64-B8E6-483E-9CB8-496D1AE24245.jpeg A friend of mine had this from when he use to do yard mowing. Told me to take it for the summer and let him know in the fall what I think. I did mow the neighbors yard since he still hasn’t come cut it and I was happy with it but his yard is more open and flat with little to no obstacles. I will mow this week and test it out in my yard and report back. 44” cut kohler motor. Just need the mulch kit and maybe bagger. Can anyone tell me if these are still available for this mower? Not sure on the year but it starts right up and cuts great.
 
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