On Wed, 11 May 2011 21:27:46 -0400, "Giganews" wrote:

OK guys, what do you think the best push mower is these days? My John Deere
has given up after about 15+ years. The Kawasaki engine was great until
today. Bad knock (started that last year) and it stopped. I'm not sure if
it is worth rebuilding.

The new JD mowers use B & S engines and, IMO, they are just not all that
durable. Any opinions?

I had a Cub Cadet years ago and it was crap after 3 years, a Craftsman after
4 years. Both were a long time ago.

How about self propelled reliability? It was subject to breaking in the
past, but may be more durable today.

I'm also thinking Honda. Never had one but they seem to have a good
reputation.

I've had two JD rear drive rear baggers. I'm not sure what engine.
One I bought around late 90's and the other about 3 years later
because I'm stupid and didn't learn from the first one. One of them
was model JX75 or something similar.

I bent the crank severely on the first one when I hit a small stump
hidden in grass. Quotes to rebuild or replace the engine were about
the same....75% of cost of whole new mower. The crank was bent and
bottom bearings were toast. One shop said they might be able to
straighten the crank, but couldn't be sure it would work and wanted
50% of cost of whole new mower to try. Since it was busy season in the
shop, any repair was going to take 3-4 weeks during which times I'd
have to borrow or rent another mower...so I just bought another one.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. The self propelled transmission crapped out
about 1 month out of warranty. I bent the crank on this one too, when
it barely scalped a high root. This time it was bent just a little
and I've just lived with the vibration since I only use it for
trimming as I now have a tractor. I've had much cheaper mowers that
would not have even slowed down when hitting that root, let alone
bending the crank.

I suspect the issue is the style of blade clutch JD uses. It moves
the blade several inches farther away from the engine bearing than it
would be without the clutch, and this gives a lot more leverage when
the blade tip hits something.

I've concluded the JD's are overpriced , unreliable, and expensive to
fix.

I'd try the Honda if I were you. Or go the cheapie route and figure on
replacing it every 4 years or so.

Frankly, the cheapies are often a lot lighter and easier to
maneuver.....


Paul F.