Anyone have these lawnmowers?

[GearHead_1]

thanks. What about power loss going from the 190 b&s I had to a 160 o r 163. Is that going to be significant?

You’d never know the difference unless you had like models standing side by side. As a side note, a number of years back a couple of companies, B&S being one of them got hammered for advertising HP ratings that just weren’t reality, every year it had another 1/4 HP. As a result of this you now see engine ratings advertising CC’s and Torque. Most won’t state HP ratings until you get up into lawn tractors and zero turns many with 20 plus HP. For decades these engines were always rated by their HP but they were lying to us. My guess is that most of these eninges are between 5 and 6 HP.

As I said previously my “experimental” Briggs as near as I can tell pulls a bit harder than my commercial Honda’s. I have no explanation for this because the Honda engines have very heavy flywheels on them, shouldn’t be able to stop this mass. The Honda engine probably weighs half again as much as this Briggs. This kind of stuff usually bothers me because I can’t wrap my head around it, just doesn’t make sense. In the end the only way I could justify this to my self was thinking that overall the mower was lighter and pulled itself better with the spring tooth on it. If you’ve never used one of these spring tooth attachments you’ve never seen how hard these little motors can work, they’re all simply amazing. With the drive wheels not engaged and the spring tooth’s height properly adjusted I literally can’t push the mower through the lawn.

Here’s another by the way, I think light mowers rock. The really heavy mowers are great for large yards without a lot of corners and turns but man handling 100 lb. mower isn’t anyone’s idea of a good time.

[GearHead_1]

I`m not going to say which one I think is best. I may once again be OCD. On small engines without oil filters, I change the oil after the first or second use( depends on how big the yard is). I look at it as all the metal from break in is floating around in the oil. After that I change it twice a season.

This just brought another thought into my head. I have an across the street neighbor buy a consumer grade Snapper (complete junk in my opinion) last year. It has a B&S engine on it. I think he actually went this route because I told him I like commercial grade Toro and Snapper mowers. He’s seen me at my father’s shop (also across the street) for years and knows I have an opinon on mowers and I recommended those brands. I was embarrassed because it didn’t have the traditional deck or drive system that Snapper uses on it’s better machines but what can I say? It has to be something that Snapper has farmed out to MTD, Other than the color of the paint and emblems nothing on this mower is traditional Snapper.

He’s a Dr., I thought he’d buy a better mower. I felt like telling him to take it back but he’s proud of it. Of course I can’t keep my mouth shut and I’m telling him what I would do to keep it running well and what has always worked for me, including my recommendation on oil changes. He hands me a piece of paper from the packaging kit that was part of the owners manual. I about fell over, no recommended oil change interval, add only as needed.

Never seen that recommendation before, could’t quite believe it but I assume it is to the point that these things are being made like microwaves, virtually no one spends the money to fix a microwave, if they break you replace them. This price range lawnmower is being manufactured with planned obsolescence in mind. That’s all fine and dandy as long as people know what they’re getting into. I suspect many do not.

I just realized how pathetic it is that I have this much to say about lawnmowers. I’ll go away now.

[Coleroad]

That`s crazy the little less than a quart of oil for life, Just top off. That`s like the for life transmission fluid, and lots of people think that one quart of gear oil in the differential is for life. People seem to want maintenance free, so manufacturers play along. That`s how unscrupulous people taut ceramic coatings as maintenance free product. Thank goodness not everyone is that way, made very obvious by people on here.

[Fishroes]

Mowers and a lot of other stuff are made so cheap nowadays it is ridiculous unless you get a mower from a dealer and they still aren’t made to last as long as the outdoor power products that were made way back when. I have an acre or so to cut (my wife does the cutting because she enjoys it) and it gets cut with a craftsman ys4500. It was made around 07 or 08 b&s 24 intek 506 hrs The motor has been flawless. I have rebuilt the blade deck and a couple other minor things. Here’s a tidbit I hope will help somebody out one day. If you have a hydrostatic transmission that seems to be getting sluggish and the manufacturer says it is not serviceable, that’s not totally true. Last summer mine was getting a little weak. It doesn’t have a fluid drain bolt but it does have a fill plug. Had to take a few things off to get to it. Put a hose in the fill plug hole. Got out a little over half of the fluid. Put synthetic fluid back in. The transmission was so much more responsive it was like night and day. Just barely push on the pedal and it jumps. I till my garden with a early 1970’s troybilt horse tiller. Still uses points and starts 1st or 2nd pull every time Have a 1986 wheelhorse 414-8 has the plow blade on it to push snow, gravel and other stuff. It does have its limits though. They just don’t make stuff to last anymore. Sorry for the long post. Edit. Gear head I would’ve fell over too. One good thing though they have started probably a few years ago putting fuel injection on some of the higher end stuff. Don’t know whether the govt is involved in that though.

[Stokdgs]

Brandt -
I bought a Snapper Rear Bag Self Propelled 21" Mower with the B&Stratton engine, 5hp, in 2002, and 16 years later, it still works great !
Have always used Snapper mowers because they vacuum the lawn so much better than other mowers in my experiences..
This old dog has the traditional metal drive wheel attached to the engine and on top is a hard rubber driven wheel which turns the rear wheels. It has I believe 10 speeds.. I never use them all..
In all these years, I have only replaced the bag twice because it wore out around the front of the brace that connects to the mower body, and the hard rubber driven wheel wore down in 2015 so I replace that at the same time..
It has worn down 2 sets of wheels in all this time and of course I replaced those..
I change the oil once a year with Synthetic 5w-30, and the darn thing never uses oil at all !!! Never smokes, etc...

What I love about Snapper mowers of this vintage is that they absolutely pick up everything and leave you a nice, even, flat, perfect lawn every time..

The other thing about this particular mower is that whenever I cut the lawns, I always cut them in 2 directions, so you can say it has had about twice as much use as a mower that only cuts one direction..

I use the 2 different blades - Hi Lift and the Mulch blade at different times, and have only replaced the Hi Lift Blade once because I sharpened it too many times, because, well, I like a nicely cut even lawn.. I get this little OCD from going out with my Dad when I was a kid, lugging that huge heavy golf bag for him, and watching the guys mowing the greens ahead of us..

They always mowed in 2 directions and of course the greens were table top perfect because of this, and they used Reel Mowers, which of course are superior in their cutting perfectly flat and not damaging the Bentgrass.. But we wont go into Reel Mowers....

Totally agree with El Gear-Heado above, the New Snapper Mowers are absolutely from another planet or something.. The drive system of old that I have is all gone and its some kind of fidgety drive system that I just hate.. My dear Mother had one of those newer ones and it was a chore to use it...

Good luck with your research ! Thanks to all the great feedback on here ! Love it !!
Dan F

[Fishroes]

Stokdogs. Those snappers have always had a good cut and vacuuming systems. I think they have a patent on their decks

[1500canoe]

Self propelled with a honda engine. You will thank yourself in the coming summers. Spend a bit more now because in two years you will gladly pay the difference.

KM

This x 2.

[GearHead_1]

Stokdogs. Those snappers have always had a good cut and vacuuming systems. I think they have a patent on their decks

They do have a patent on their stamped sheet metal decks, it’s rolled steel and it rolls under the mower. This deck when combined with THEIR Hi-Lift blade has hands down the best vacuum system on the market.

I’m wondering if Dan’s mower is a commercial aluminum deck Snapper because he said rear bagger. Most Snappers bag from the side even though the spouts direct the clippings reward. Those aluminum deck Snappers are very similar to the top of the line Toro’s both are first rate. Many of the people who make a living cutting lawns use one of these two mowers and I’d give neither an advantage, nothing not to like about either of them, though they can set you back about $1200.

[MattPersman]

Honestly i would buy that first one out of all of them. It has the least parts to break and does side discharge. I have several mowers. I toro super recycler which is a fine mower. But also a cheap high wheel non self propelled craftsman that side discharges with a B&S engine on it. Both cut fine. The toro is better but was also 3 Times the price.

The Honda I had before that I needed a new carb about every one or two seasons from ethanol gunk. All the cables were replaced. The wheels went bald.

That craftsman has been a no frills machine that we have raped. Sharpen blade change oil and that’s it. The less frills on some of these the better. I have cut my half acre with no self propelled many times. Sounds like work but a non self propelled is easier to push than a self propelled and you can go a little faster too.

They are all low quality machines. Might as well buy that cheapie and just run it for a few years and start over again. Heck it could make it way more


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[LEDetailng]

This just brought another thought into my head. I have an across the street neighbor buy a consumer grade Snapper (complete junk in my opinion) last year. It has a B&S engine on it. I think he actually went this route because I told him I like commercial grade Toro and Snapper mowers. He’s seen me at my father’s shop (also across the street) for years and knows I have an opinon on mowers and I recommended those brands. I was embarrassed because it didn’t have the traditional deck or drive system that Snapper uses on it’s better machines but what can I say? It has to be something that Snapper has farmed out to MTD, Other than the color of the paint and emblems nothing on this mower is traditional Snapper.

He’s a Dr., I thought he’d buy a better mower. I felt like telling him to take it back but he’s proud of it. Of course I can’t keep my mouth shut and I’m telling him what I would do to keep it running well and what has always worked for me, including my recommendation on oil changes. He hands me a piece of paper from the packaging kit that was part of the owners manual. I about fell over, no recommended oil change interval, add only as needed.

Never seen that recommendation before, could’t quite believe it but I assume it is to the point that these things are being made like microwaves, virtually no one spends the money to fix a microwave, if they break you replace them. This price range lawnmower is being manufactured with planned obsolescence in mind. That’s all fine and dandy as long as people know what they’re getting into. I suspect many do not.

I just realized how pathetic it is that I have this much to say about lawnmowers. I’ll go away now.

Pathetic talking about mowers. Not at all, you just gave me an education in mowers. Thank you. I need a new mower and I’m going to look for something older and used on CL.

Let’s resume some more super important discussion on the debate of sealant, waxes, and coatings

[The Driver]

I was going to say try and find a used Snapper XD 82V, they kick the crap out of the Ego. I picked up mine for 485 shipped with two batteries and a charger. You could sell a battery for 130 and wind up spending right in the price range you want. I`vehad zero issues and Snapper = Briggs and Stratton. It really is tough as nails and TONS of power (Keep in mind this is coming from someone who still uses an old school, rebuilt, real tecumseh ariens to snow blow (No cheap stuff for me).

+ you can run their blower to blow off the cars, it`s mean and just as strong if not stronger than the MB 8hp which I also have.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Snapper-...7884/301766189

[The Driver]

I just realized how pathetic it is that I have this much to say about lawnmowers. I’ll go away now.

Nah, it`s what we call attention to detail