Ok, today’s rant!!

Has anyone in readerland ever worn out a push mower ENGINE?! I have have had a few die in dramatic fashion , one broke a connecting rod, other shattered a piston, but they were very old mowers. I also bent a crankshaft after hitting a large stick buried in some bushes.

My complaint: my push mower is maybe 6-7 years old at most, it runs like a top. The problem is the “ventilation” from the top of the mower deck. The deck has rusted thru. The last couple mowers I have had all went to that big lawn in the sky running perfectly, just with decks completely rusted out. Are they constructing mower decks from compressed rust now?!

Forget trying to weld patch panels, there is nothing to weld to. To be honest, I don’t think I have had to replace the blade on this mower yet, abd I sharpen it yearly. It’s pretty bad when the blade lasts longer than the mower deck.

I do NOT want this to get political: How is it 40 years ago society made appliances and equipment that lasted, people managed a decent standard of living on a single income, we had good paying jobs, and for the most part life went pretty smoothly. Now we have automation making things cheaper/faster, it takes to incomes to have the same standard of living, and nothing lasts.

I don’t really expect an answer, I just feel better after venting. Hopefully the mower lasts this year, I’ll buy a replacement in the fall during the end of the year clearance sale. Then in another 6-7 years, I’ll do it again.

 

Back in the day when I was mowing lawns in the summer, my dad had an old rusted out mower that still ran good. Make a long story short, he built a deck from 30 inch pipe with 1/8 inch top. Was heavier than hell but lasted forever.

 

You live in the rust belt, I have my Father in law’s 1980 Toro, still runs good, I had to do a valve job on it a few times and replace tires among other warn parts but the deck is still solid.

 

Assuming the grass isn’t dead, any grass is wet. I wouldn’t think grass in the Midwest would be any wetter than grass in Arizona ( just a lot less of it!). I’m certainly not mowing my lawn in the dead of winter, with road salt spread all over the streets.

Maybe the environment is the cause, I have never lived anywhere else than the Midwest. I just remember as a kid mowing my grandparents lawn with their old mower (it was old in the early 80s) I used that mower until the died in the early 90s. I have no doubt the quality of material used in manufacturing has declined big time over the last couple decades.

I bought my first push mower at a garage sale when I bought my first house in 1993. I gave it to a neighbor kid when I moved into my wife’s house. He had a much “nicer” new mower, I figured I don’t need this old one! Ha!

 

Steel is cheaper, like worse quality and thinner, than it used to be. My push mower is 17 years old, it loses some paint, I may need to touch up the inside.

 

How about a aluminum deck ?

 

grass is evil

 

I was a little confused at first. To me a push mower was a reel blade mowing device that had no motor but generated a greater degree of sweat. I see now that we are talking about a modern device that became popular a couple generations ago.....Still lost in the fifties...... Tedd

 

I'm just in from starting my old lawnboy. Three pulls. I think its 23 years old.

I actually said out loud, "This engine is going to out-live me."

 

Life and devices have changed. Manufacturers made quality products based on longevity that EXCEEDED customer expectations. Now things are manufactured to be the cheapest cost item and meet MINIMUM customer expectations. Bean counters have determined that manufacturing products for more than "Minimum expectations" is lost corporate profit.

 

I agree. I expected to read the same thing.

 

I rinse out the under-side of the deck to remove old clippings about once every other mow, on average, and of course all the usual annuals like oil change blade sharpening and air filter replacement. So far, the longest-lasting mower I've had went for about 18 years before the engine gave up the ghost. The deck was showing surface rust on the underside, but certainly not anything you could poke a hole in. Then my Honey got me a (used) Troy-Bilt riding mower for a Father's Day gift. Same routine, rinse it out about every other run around the yards, sharpen the blade, oil change and new filter at the beginning of each season. Coming up on five years and no signs of rust yet (knock on wood)

 

Aaaahhhh... push mowers / lawn equipment... I feel you...

While quality of steel is one argument, another is this: you should be scraping / washing the underside of the deck a few times per season (if not more often), and definitely at the end of the year. You didn't mention whether or not you do this. Rusted out decks are nothing new, as I remember decks disintegrating back in the 70's as well.

Here's my complaint: auto chokes. ABSOLUTELY HATE THEM. Give me a primer bulb carb any day of the week. I picked up two "roadside specials" self-propelled mowers in the past 5 years. One was a clapped-out looking Craftsman, another was a very nice Husqvarna -- both with B&S motors. The Husky was tossed to the curb because it doesn't like to start, the Craftsman because it was "locked up." Husky has an auto-choke, and it's likely getting tossed to the curb by me here this spring, because I haven't ever been able to get it to start without starting fluid. The Craftsman wasn't actually locked, it just had a ton of acorns in the fins of the magneto. It was very poorly maintained, so it's rec'd a new air filter, spark plug, and oil change. I fixed the self-propelled mechanism (belt had jumped off pulleys), and that sucker starts first pull EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. Guess what type of carb it has?

 

Picky picky!!!

I know the type of mower your referring to. While my yard isn’t huge, I think using that style mower would be a all day project.




I use my riding mower on the outside of my fenced backyard, the push mower I use inside due to all the obstacles, things like the my wife’s garden, pool, pool deck, sheds, etc. Things I’d never be able to get around on the riding mower.

Around here, you need to be careful what you call your lawn tractor. Call your “riding mower” a tractor around a farmer, and he is likely to tell you exactly what his definition of a tractor is. Luckily, it’s fairly easy to identify a farmer, just look for the well worn hat with a fertilizer or farm equipment logo on it.

My “riding mower” is definitely showing its age as well. It’s almost 15 years old. My dads dad (not the same grandparents that I mowed their lawn) had a lawn care business with about 10 riding mowers in his fleet. He retired in 1979 from Delco Electronics, then started a couple side businesses to keep him busy. Definitely a different mentality than today!! I fondly remember sitting on them in his shop when I was a little kid. I recall he had several Wheel Horse, a couple John Deere mowers, and a few Simplicity, they all ran pretty much morning till dusk thru the summer. I seriously doubt much made today would last.

 

Commercial Lawnboy, my dad's from the late 1960's. Can not kill it! Hit huge rocks. Put a deep big slash in 2'' glav. pipe running across the ground. Water shot up 20 feet in the air. Still run good. B&S mower broke it staff after it hit pipe. Magnesium deck is a little pitted, but very light weight. Replace the needle bearings 30 years ago. Needles held together with like Bees wax.

 

Wow, my inherited 60’s Toro is still going over at the shop. Back in late 80’s it got run over in garage and had to weld one corner of cast deck back on (with wheel) and the twisty/ratchety spring loaded starter got replaced with a simple cup and loose starter rope. It’s longevity can undoubtedly be traced back to never seasonally draining gas combined with an oil change every 5 years or so! Ahhhh, the good old days.

 

I actually own a 30s push mower, minus handle, with metal wheels, like metal tread. It, according to my grandfather's label, arrived in his yard via tornado. I shall clean it up and put a handle on it soon.

Edit: It appears to be a Keen Kutter.

 

If it fires up easily, I'd totally use that old mower! I am guessing, though, that it was just something your grandfather held onto for the story, and it probably hasn't run since the day before that tornado.

I bought a new reel-type mower from an auction a few years ago for $7 to use at my cottage. I have some areas of... uh... lawn... that is barely there, and the soil is extremely sandy. Plan was to use it in those areas so I didn't create my own mini-Dust Bowl, but the blades on it were not sharpened and I have not gotten around to doing that yet. So, it hangs in a corner of the garage.

 

It's a mechanical push mower; you're the engine.

 

I grew up on the Gulf Coast and push mower decks rusting out was fairly common back in the old days when I was a kid. My Dad finally bought a Craftsman mower with an alloy deck (I think it was magnesium?) and that one lasted longer than anything else I remember. So when my second, third, or whatever mower deck rusted though and I finally got tired of being blasted with debris coming through the "ventilation" ports, I bought a mower with an aluminum deck. That was sometime in the early 90s when I live don the Gulf Coast, and that mower deck is still intact today.

 

Lawn mowers are one of those things that almost every homeowner has sitting in their shed back yard garage etc etc. Hell my 87 year old Dad has a near mint mower that just sits and never gets used. I will have to fire it soon. One of my brothers has his own landscape business so he mows it and aeriates it. I have usually had very good luck getting old mowers to fire and run good.

My dad has an old 5 horse rototiller that has been outside forever. Going to see what I can do with that too.

 

Because of today's disposable world we live in. So many things do not last like they used to. Remember all the old appliances you would see at your own home and your friends? Now you can't even get a fridge to give you ten years.

 

my lawn mower was my grandmothers back in the 70s, It is the dept store brand push mower w B&S engine. over the years it was my parents 2nd mower that was used regularly, my primary, then my second mower. It has outlasted several other similar mowers. Somehow the paint is still good and it fires up w 2-3 pulls all the time. I did have to replace 1 wheel as the hub wore out, and the handle was replaced as well. i never change the oil but i do add it. My regular (rider) mower is a 22 yr craftsmen

my snoblower is a 71 vintage Ariens I've had for 30 years. its seen regular use since ive owned it and it works mint, so good in fact that when my moms 85 Ariens snowblower "wore out" the front auger diff (in about 2005, i found her a 79 in nice shape, that machine runs very well to

 

Older is better, I still have an old Frigidaire that still works like new, and has a lot of chrome

 

We were all set to buy the "knock-knock" LG fridge, until I researched LG's. They have had compressor problems for years, to the point that the beginning of this year I noticed they all have "10 YEAR COMPRESSOR WARRANTY" stickers on the front of them at all the stores. Nope, not anything I want to deal with. So, because of how I take forever to make a big purchase decision, we have two stainless appliances (the microwave and dishwasher that both died) and two white & black appliances in our kitchen.

 

Before all this covid hit I was a facilities guy in a building full of 2500 people. Ten years there then no more job. We had 6 full-size side by side LG's per floor. 13 (yes 13) floors. Those fridges died constantly. It was a shame. You would think that newer technology would make things last longer. So not the case from my experiences.

 

It all comes down to the type of mower that you get. I was up in PA this weekend and my Mom is still using the old Gravely Super Covertible to do the lawn. It just wont die! The mower is older than I am (and I'm 51) and it still runs like a champ.

 

How cool is that mower? I love it. Sure looks in great condition especially for it's age. Go Mom Go!! I bet she can drive it too. Boy I would have to restore that someday.

 

That Gravely has had to have had a respray or two in it's lifetime. If that's original condition, then kudos to Chip's family for maintaining it so well over the years. That's crazy!

 

Oh, it definitely has had a respray or 3 over the years. Here's what my Mom has done for maintenance on it for the past 15 years since my Dad passed...hardly anything at all. Every winter she pulls the battery and then puts one back in in the spring. Heck I don't think she's even changed the oil in 10.

Driving it is really an art though. No steering wheel, just the handles. Throttle on the right handle. Two levers on the left, one controls forward gears, the other reverse. Even the seat is just an attachment that you bolt on. The bad part (and the one that you learn 1st not to do twice) is to never hit a hill straight on. If you do, the 2 handle bars will be driven into your knees or further.

 

I certainly wouldn't want one of my elderly parents using that old thing. I'd have to put my foot down and say, "Here's your replacement, I'll take the Gravely."

 

You'd have to meet my Mom. She's a tough old bird and there's no telling her anything. I tried to get her a new snapper a few years ago and she just laughed at it. She said that it felt like a toy. She says that she likes to "earn" a nice lawn and that it is supposed to be work, not easy. My Grandmother is even tougher. She lives with my Mom now, but not really by choice. She came up from Florida last year. She said that she was tired of having to go out in the back yard to shoot the rattlers to keep them away from her rabbits. She's already buried 2 husbands.

Like I said, you don't tell the women in my family to do anything that they don't want to do. You just nod your head and move on.