Lawn mower, weed-eater, suggestions for lawn equipment

[CRaSHnBuRN]

I'm posting this for Garrett Waters since his computer is giving him problems.


Still needing a couple of things for the new house. 2 of which are a mower and trimmer/edger. Looking for a self-propelled mower, but will look at just about anything. As far as the trimmer goes, if it runs, it's probably good enough. I've already hit up the pawn shops and no one has anything. So before we go to HD and by everything new, I thought I'd try here.

If no one has anything, what are some good brands to look at as far as lawn equipment, and some that we should be staying away from?

979.492.3164

[CheapJeep]

For weedeater's, chainsaw's, etc... I've had the best luck with Echo, their stuff is quality and can take a ton of abuse. Alot of people like STIHL but I haven't been too impressed with the performance for the price... I really haven't had much experience with a push mower because of the size of our place, but we have an old Toro and it still runs. :confused:

[davido]

I have an Echo weed eater. Pricey. Seems to work well though. I agree about Stihl. Sad but true. Broke a plastic handle on one once. It cost 2/3 the price of the chainsaw. Sucko.

Don't buy a Snapper. I paid a lot and have paid more since to maintain it. I would suggest a cheap push mower with a big rear wheel. I think I remember Grayson recommending that to someone one day. Good advice. Buy used, under $100 if possible. By the time you buy a nice mower and maintain it, you could just pay a service to do it.

[Seth]

second on echo - redmax if you go high end

puch mowers are all very similar for the most part. bs or tecumseh engine. lawn boys are still two cycle i think - no oil changes and one gas can. toro makes the standard for pros. honda is nice.

[Reckless]

Ive never had a problem with a stihl

[mark]

Where is our resident lawn care expert? I cant believe that this thread has gone on this long without a dissertation on real world experience with, in particular, John Deere.


...the reticulated output bearing on the Echo DL-225 is complete crap I've had to replace 20 of them. I would have had to replace more, but all my trimmers were stolen out of the back of the mowing truck...

[jerryg79]

sears auto-feed weedeaters blow, but it seems everyone in a reasonably priced weedeater has eliminated bump feed from their line.

Sears 7 hp big wheel, front wheel drive mower will straight up drag your ass around the yard, i like it but it sucks for people who arent used to mowers to begin with. Its even faster then the honda mowers, which i like as well but they are pricey and the only ones i've ever seen are rear wheel drive which is not conducive to my mowing style.

[KrazyKarl02]

I also think Echo is good. Honda lawn mowers, while pricey, are damn nice. My parents have one, it is easily 10 years old and starts first pull easily. If you have a girlfriend/wife she can even start the thing.

[tigweld]

my pops has always raved about honda's, and looking back I think we have had 3 mowers as long as i've been around(our last was a honda commercial 5.5 it lasted almost 11 years). honda also does really good trade in's on older models, they gave us almost 400 dollars on the beat up old one.

[Jackasic]

***, funny but true. so my run down from the commercial side:

Echo - good and dependable, chevy trucks of 2 cycle equip
Stil - spendy, good looking, fall apart in a year and are too expensive to fix - the Jag of two cycle
Red Max - want to be Echo - Ford of two cycle

John Deere - built proof, great service and parts - Mercedes of mowers
Snapper - Only buy these if you plan to mow your yard in shorts and knee high black socks.
Hyskavarna(sp?) - like all things Swedish, sexy, pricey, can't understand what they are saying.
Honda - Well, it's a Honda, what else needs saying. Spendy but will run forever. Local service is slow though.

Basically you want to but from a place that can service it because they all need to be fixed. So check out Ike's, Sears, John Deere, and Honda. Avoid the box stores unless you just see it as disposable.

[JeepPhisherman]

Thanks Chris.

I'm not looking to drop a lot on either of these, so the pricier brands are deffinitely out. I know Consumer Reports does some testing on lawn equipment from time to time, so does anyone have an issue that talks about mowers, or does anyone have access to their online site?

[JeepPhisherman]

It's a college house, but my bro owns it, so while he's living here for the next two years, he wants it to actually look nice, so we've got some landscaping to do as well as keeping the yard looking nice. I'm just in charge of it, since I suckered him into letting me not pay rent.

[agjohn02]

murray from wal-mart. perfect mower for the college house.

[Graystroke]

Yeah, I have always used the big wheeled mowers, non-self propelled. They roll a lot better and take less effort. We use to buy the western auto brand mowers they were called Wizzards, I think they were connected to Sears some how. They had 22" cuts and the last one we bought was 7hp. Western Auo is gone so we bought some generic Lowe's brand. The wheels in the back are plastic now but they hold up. I think it is a Murry or something. I see mowers as disposable items. If your lucky you can find one at a flea market or swap meet for cheap. We bought one to keep down at the shop at a garage sale for $25. When it breaks, park it at the curb. Hondas are for commercial apps and are made to be used everyday, great mowers, but overkill to cut the grass. You only use a mower generally once a week 3/4 of the year. The best mower I've ever used was a Howard Price Turf Equipment. It cut a golf course quality ruff , 16' wide @ 8mph! It had bat wings w/ cruise control, fairly powerful diesel motor. It cost $30K though!
I third the Echo's they work great. get one w/ a straight shaft and avoid weed eaters w/ curved shafts. Ryan weedeaters are ok and really cheap if you wanna go that route. I think we have had three of those. We have two echo's now. one w/ a metal blade and another one w/ auto feed. i tried the other head where you put the little pcs in there. they suck b/c you are always changing them out. granted auto feed sometimes screws up, but it's hella of lot better than the kind where you have to manually change the string pcs out. Think of how many times you tap the auto feed and this is how many times you would be shutting the weed eater off and changing out the string.

[jerryg79]

THere is a difference between autofeed and bumpfeed, what you're talking about is bump feed where you tap the head on the ground, autofeed works off inertia or some **** to "automatically feed" the string. I prefer bumpfeed X10.

I also like mowers with a blade clutch. When we bought our last mower craftsman wasnt making them anymore but I think the hondas like karls dad's/my uncles have one.

[BMFScout]

I want a Honda. If I'm using it every week for 3/4 of the year I want it to start on the first pull. Growing up we always had ****ty mowers and I hated mowing the yard. The people across the street had a Honda and when they went out of town I mowed their yard. I was in heaven. The difference between good self propelled and ****ty ones are like sportscars, good ones are rear wheel drive. If you're going to buy a ****ty self propelled I'd rather have a regular push mower that's lighter. Plus a Honda, much like a civic, runs forever. Now what I say and what I do are two different things. We'll see what I find and what I cough out the bucks for when it comes time. New ones are in the neighorhood of $700+.
I like the weedeaters with the attachments. We have the weedeater and blower attachments, works good and better than buying/storing different things.

[Seth]

you could always get the push type mower with electric start ala my sister ***

[Graystroke]

I saw one of the push real mowers at a yard sale today...talk about a work out.

[bburris]

My parents have had a Craftsman since I was in high school. It started to smoke once so my dad replaced the spark plug. Still starts on the first pull after you hit the primer pump thing on the side of the motor a few times.

Like Jerry said - it'll run away from you if you don't have a long stride like my dad or I do.

[Graystroke]

the primer bulb on the side of the engine was the best invention ever! makes one start pulls happen every time. back in 'ol army they did not have these and the first few pulls did exactly what that bulb does nowadays.