When I first bought my house, Mr. Deckbar donated his old Lawn Boy mower to me. It was just like the one we used to have and I used it for several years but each Spring it was harder to get started. Norm turned me on to Starting Fluid which will bring just about any engine to life (it is pure octane, actually ether I think) but even with that it was sluggish. So I checked out Consumer Reports in 2003 and they had a Yard Man mower that they liked and said did a good job of mulching. With the old mower I would bag and compost the clippings sometimes, but mulching is better because it just recycles the clippings into the ground where they help the grass grow.
This week after the floods and a day of sun on Tuesday to dry things out, I was mowing my front yard and got too close to the water meter. The blade hit the meter and, although the engine kept going, it sounded bad. After that row I stopped to take a look and the end of the blade was twisted pretty badly and the mower made a clicking noise as the blade went around even thought he blade wasn’t hitting anything. Also it was leaking oil pretty bad. Time for a new mower, I figure. The Yard Man was only $200 at Walmart and it had lasted me 7 summers. Just replacing the blade probably would have been $25 and if the engine was fixable it would have been more. I kind of doubt the engine is fixable.
So back to Consumer Reports and while Lawn Boy had some rough times in the past, it is now owned by Toro (actually the takeover was in 1989, so that has nothing to do with anything) and CR ranks the Lawn Boy 10640 very highly. It has 6.5 hp Briggs and Stratton engine (Yard Man had a 6.5 hp Tecumsah engine). I went to my Home Depot, but they didn’t have that model (or very many others; most people aren’t buying mowers in September so while I was hoping for an off season sale, instead the selection was just bad). The one out by Mom had one though and so now it is sitting in my car in a box, waiting for it to stop raining.
Good for Home Depot on L’vill Hwy! Who’d a thought it? How much did it set
you back? I guess I’ll just keep Jeb’s to see what happens next. That lawn mower looks familiar.
Is your title a reference to an old Letterman episode where “fat guy” meets “big man”? Letterman got 2 guys, who had these titles on their vanity plates, to meet each other and shake hands.
Maybe subconsciously because I remember that show. When I got the Yard Man, I thought it was funny how similar the name was to Lawn Boy, and I thought about the phrase “Lawn Boy, Meet Yard Man,” but I never blogged it. That transition made it more like a step up in power to go from Boy to Man, but now going from Man to Boy makes it like there is a new kid on the block.
As any good author, you can tell Ted has many different blogs drafted in his head… some years in the making.
I tried out the mower today. Just as advertised, it started on the second pull after I put the oil and gas in (no priming). It is quieter than the Yardman. Also, in long grass I usually have to use the side discharge with the Yardman, but the Lawn Boy doesn’t come with that (it is free by mail if you want it; they say most people don’t; I ordered it just the same) so it was on mulch and it went through everything fine, but it was definitely ragged and would need for me to go over it again. But I only mowed for a few minutes to see if it would work.
I took the old mowers out to the street, but took a picture first. The old Lawn Boy was amazingly light, but that’s because it had a smaller engine and a cast aluminum deck. Nowadays mowers all have stamped sheet metal decks.
I have two mowers, a dying Murray 4 HP that was a (dying even then) gift, and a nicer Craftsman 4.75 HP that I got at Sears in 2005.
The Craftsman can mulch, but I always use it without the mulching guard, so that the grass blows out the side. I mow so that the grass blows onto the yard. The difference is that the motor seems to have an easier time.
I like having two mowers. When the Murray finally dies, I plan to get a Honda HRS216K3PDA [http://is.gd/3SSsB]. The bottom of their line is fine, since side discharge is my favorite. I heard Honda mowers got great reviews from a friend who checked a few months ago.