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#1
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Toro mowers
I was given a Toro mower yesterday, saying that it needed a carb kit. I am
familiar with working on these. I have not touched it yet. What is everyone's opinion of Toro mowers and their equipment? I like the Hondas I have. They start easily and run well. Never had a Toro, so just wanted to check. Steve |
#2
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Toro mowers
On Tue, 1 May 2012 06:07:57 -0700, "Steve B" wrote:
I was given a Toro mower yesterday, saying that it needed a carb kit. I am familiar with working on these. I have not touched it yet. What is everyone's opinion of Toro mowers and their equipment? I like the Hondas I have. They start easily and run well. Never had a Toro, so just wanted to check. Steve I bought a new one many years ago and it was great. I'm not up to date on the more current ones. |
#3
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Toro mowers
"Steve B" wrote in message
... I was given a Toro mower yesterday, saying that it needed a carb kit. I am familiar with working on these. I have not touched it yet. What is everyone's opinion of Toro mowers and their equipment? I like the Hondas I have. They start easily and run well. Never had a Toro, so just wanted to check. First, identify the engine. Our Toro mower (2008) has a Honda engine. -- Don Phillipson Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa, Canada) |
#4
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Toro mowers
"Steve B" wrote in message ... I was given a Toro mower yesterday, saying that it needed a carb kit. I am familiar with working on these. I have not touched it yet. What is everyone's opinion of Toro mowers and their equipment? I like the Hondas I have. They start easily and run well. Never had a Toro, so just wanted to check. My Dad had one years ago and even with a sharp blade it did a horrible\ragged job of cutting grass. When I inherited the task of mowing their yard I'd haul over my trusty old Snapper before using their Toro. |
#5
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Toro mowers
On May 1, 8:07*am, "Steve B" wrote:
I was given a Toro mower yesterday, saying that it needed a carb kit. *I am familiar with working on these. *I have not touched it yet. What is everyone's opinion of Toro mowers and their equipment? *I like the Hondas I have. *They start easily and run well. Never had a Toro, so just wanted to check. Steve We run a fleet of Simplicities of several vintages and have a Wheel Horse/Kawasaki waiting in the shop with ignition problems. Toro bought the W H brand and produced it with some changes. Not a very robust machine. The commercial people here (Midwest) are hung up on John Deere (OK but overpriced) so overall the high end is Kubota and the second tier is Simplicity and John Deere, with Toro, Husqvarna, MTD, and the rest for lighter service. By the time the new price tops $5K any machine will be pretty decent. Joe |
#6
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Toro mowers
On May 1, 9:07*am, "Steve B" wrote:
I was given a Toro mower yesterday, saying that it needed a carb kit. *I am familiar with working on these. *I have not touched it yet. What is everyone's opinion of Toro mowers and their equipment? *I like the Hondas I have. *They start easily and run well. Never had a Toro, so just wanted to check. Steve I had one several years ago when Toro was living on its reputation. It was a lemon, always in the shop. I went to Lawnboy which was OK but now have a Honda that I like best. Honda is fairly consistent but lot of companies cycle up and down in their quality so I think you need direct input of a mower shop. |
#7
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Toro mowers
Steve B wrote:
I was given a Toro mower yesterday, saying that it needed a carb kit. I am familiar with working on these. I have not touched it yet. What is everyone's opinion of Toro mowers and their equipment? I like the Hondas I have. They start easily and run well. Never had a Toro, so just wanted to check. Steve If it has a B&S engine you can probably get the diaphragm at Lowe's. Clean the carb up put the new diaphragm in and mow. I've got a couple of Toros sitting out in the shed, I don't care for all the self propelled, bag the grass stuff they have on them, I usually use an old walk behind propelled by me. |
#8
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Toro mowers
On May 1, 8:07*am, "Steve B" wrote:
I was given a Toro mower yesterday, saying that it needed a carb kit. *I am familiar with working on these. *I have not touched it yet. What is everyone's opinion of Toro mowers and their equipment? *I like the Hondas I have. *They start easily and run well. Never had a Toro, so just wanted to check. Steve I have owned three Toros, two self propelled walk behinds and one small garden tractor/mower. From a quality and durability standpoint they were all pretty good. In fact the tractor was quiet good. HOWEVER - when I did start repairing things parts cost was very high. I was also using standard Briggs powered equipment at the time and carburetor replacement cost was about 3-4X the cost of a Briggs carb. I replaced a steering tie rod on the tractor at a part cost of about $50 and this was 20 years ago. About four years ago I bought a 23 HP John Deere tractor/mower half expecting the same kind of cost mark up but it has really been very reasonable. Besides, if you buy a Deere at a dealer (vs big-box) the keep you on a discount list - at least the local guy does. RonB |
#9
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Toro mowers
tom wrote:
"Steve B" wrote in message ... I was given a Toro mower yesterday, saying that it needed a carb kit. I am familiar with working on these. I have not touched it yet. What is everyone's opinion of Toro mowers and their equipment? I like the Hondas I have. They start easily and run well. Never had a Toro, so just wanted to check. My Dad had one years ago and even with a sharp blade it did a horrible\ragged job of cutting grass. When I inherited the task of mowing their yard I'd haul over my trusty old Snapper before using their Toro. The snapper stands the grass up better. The toro mulches well. At least thet is the case for mine. |
#10
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Toro mowers
On Tue, 1 May 2012 06:07:57 -0700, "Steve B" wrote:
I was given a Toro mower yesterday, saying that it needed a carb kit. I am familiar with working on these. I have not touched it yet. What is everyone's opinion of Toro mowers and their equipment? I like the Hondas I have. They start easily and run well. Never had a Toro, so just wanted to check. Steve Yesterday I just saw one landscaper with a well used Toro tho it looked like he uses it for smaller / lighter duties because he also had one of the big commercial mowers as well. |
#11
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Toro mowers
On Wed, 02 May 2012 06:28:59 -0500, "Doug"
wrote: On Tue, 1 May 2012 06:07:57 -0700, "Steve B" wrote: I was given a Toro mower yesterday, saying that it needed a carb kit. I am familiar with working on these. I have not touched it yet. What is everyone's opinion of Toro mowers and their equipment? I like the Hondas I have. They start easily and run well. Never had a Toro, so just wanted to check. Steve Yesterday I just saw one landscaper with a well used Toro tho it looked like he uses it for smaller / lighter duties because he also had one of the big commercial mowers as well. The alloy deck Toros were good machines. That's going back a ways. Not sure what the new stuff is like. |
#12
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Toro mowers
On 5/1/2012 12:30 PM, Frank wrote:
On May 1, 9:07 am, "Steve wrote: I was given a Toro mower yesterday, saying that it needed a carb kit. I am familiar with working on these. I have not touched it yet. What is everyone's opinion of Toro mowers and their equipment? I like the Hondas I have. They start easily and run well. Never had a Toro, so just wanted to check. Steve I had one several years ago when Toro was living on its reputation. It was a lemon, always in the shop. I went to Lawnboy which was OK but now have a Honda that I like best. Honda is fairly consistent but lot of companies cycle up and down in their quality so I think you need direct input of a mower shop. Honda's are sometimes sold at Costco. I wonder if they are built to Honda's same standards or not..... |
#13
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Toro mowers
On Wed, 02 May 2012 20:49:48 -0400, Duesenberg wrote:
On 5/1/2012 12:30 PM, Frank wrote: On May 1, 9:07 am, "Steve wrote: I was given a Toro mower yesterday, saying that it needed a carb kit. I am familiar with working on these. I have not touched it yet. What is everyone's opinion of Toro mowers and their equipment? I like the Hondas I have. They start easily and run well. Never had a Toro, so just wanted to check. Steve I had one several years ago when Toro was living on its reputation. It was a lemon, always in the shop. I went to Lawnboy which was OK but now have a Honda that I like best. Honda is fairly consistent but lot of companies cycle up and down in their quality so I think you need direct input of a mower shop. Honda's are sometimes sold at Costco. I wonder if they are built to Honda's same standards or not..... Does Costco have their own SKU? |
#14
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Toro mowers
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#15
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Toro mowers
I just bought a Toro 20332 based on lots of research. I had about $350
to spend. PROS: the self-propel handle is SUPER comfy, far better than the Honda paddles I tried out. Also, the dang thing really does start on two pulls. No priming. Every time. The hose cleanout is very handy, although I still have to clean out the nooks & crannies. The rear drive is nice. It can go faster than I can comfortably walk if I want it to. The engine is side valve not OHC... but then again so were all mowers before OHC and many of them lasted 20 years. CONS: the single blade still doesn't cut as fine as a Honda twin blade. The deck feels thin but I haven't heard anyone complain. If I were to buy again, I'd spend $500 and get a Super Recycler/Bagger from the Toro dealership. Those are truly the Cadillacs. Honda may have the big box market locked up, but visit a Toro dealer and you'll see the really good stuff. Sidebar: I had dinner with a Toro marketing rep this winter. He said the residential market is dying. The buyers are extremely price sensitive, and the top end of the market is shrinking in favor of the middle and bottom price tiers. Since the middle market is a very vulnerable place for any company to be (except for Craftsman which has its own sales channel), Toro isn't sure whether it will double down on "premium" residential, which it must do long-term in order to stay in the game. It's Toro vs Honda in the high end residential push mower market, and Honda has the stronger brand, at least perceptually. |
#16
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Toro mowers
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#18
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Toro mowers
On Thu, 3 May 2012 11:16:20 -0700 (PDT), Bryan Scholtes
wrote: I just bought a Toro 20332 based on lots of research. I had about $350 to spend. PROS: the self-propel handle is SUPER comfy, far better than the Honda paddles I tried out. Also, the dang thing really does start on two pulls. No priming. Every time. The hose cleanout is very handy, although I still have to clean out the nooks & crannies. The rear drive is nice. It can go faster than I can comfortably walk if I want it to. The engine is side valve not OHC... but then again so were all mowers before OHC and many of them lasted 20 years. My Honda starts on one pull, every time. No priming. I didn't like the paddles at first either, until I figured out how to set them. Now I don't think I'd give them up. The problem is that my lawn just got 4x bigger and my knees didn't get any younger. ...off to Sears this weekend to buy a tractor (gotta figure out how to get it home). |
#19
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Toro mowers
Are they HONDA mowers, or mowers with Honda engines??
Honda Mower with Honda engines. Might have been a 190 engine. I remember it being stashed in the warehouse for a few weeks. He told me at the time that for years Costco sold a few Hondas in spring. |
#20
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Toro mowers
In article , Duesenberg wrote:
On 5/2/2012 10:33 PM, zzzzzzzzzz wrote: On Wed, 02 May 2012 20:49:48 -0400, wrote: On 5/1/2012 12:30 PM, Frank wrote: On May 1, 9:07 am, "Steve wrote: I was given a Toro mower yesterday, saying that it needed a carb kit. I am familiar with working on these. I have not touched it yet. What is everyone's opinion of Toro mowers and their equipment? I like the Hondas I have. They start easily and run well. Never had a Toro, so just wanted to check. Steve I had one several years ago when Toro was living on its reputation. It was a lemon, always in the shop. I went to Lawnboy which was OK but now have a Honda that I like best. Honda is fairly consistent but lot of companies cycle up and down in their quality so I think you need direct input of a mower shop. Honda's are sometimes sold at Costco. I wonder if they are built to Honda's same standards or not..... Does Costco have their own SKU? I'm not sure. My boss purchased a Honda at Costco for $200 less than the local sales shops but he seemed a unimpressed with the quantity of plastic that Honda used in the Costco model. I mean he got a fantastic price and AFAIK, the engines are exactly the same. But around these parts Costco sells Honda lawn mowers for about 1 month and once they are gone, they are gone. Costco had a write-up in their magazine promoting a Snapper mower. Given that, I'd be suprized to find a Honda mower this year since they'll carry at most 1 model. But a big national chain, different regions could get different inventory. I remember seeing a Honda branded mower at one point and intended to get whatever they had the next time mower month rolled around. Unfortunately, they went 2 years, I think, without any mower at all. The Snapper I saw had a B&S 190cc motor. It bears a strong resemblance to various MTD brands (Yard Machines at Home Depot, something dark green at WalMart, and probably a couple others). But the Snapper deck has more metal in the front and back than the MTDs. Actually, the YM sitting powerless in my shed has *no* metal on the back plane--all plastic, no way that would last. Somewhere I read that Snapper uses thicker sheet metal, but I've never been able to judge that in person. m |
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