Recommendations for a new push mower?

[rickm]

I have a small lawn care business on the side and all i have used over the years is a Craftsman push mowers when i cant use a rider and have good luck with them it stays on the trailer year round out in the weather all i have to do to it at the beginning of the year is change the air filter and spray carb cleaner to get rid of the moisture at the beginning of the year and usually starts on 2nd pull.
And if you are going to do any bagging i would recommend a self propelled one, when the bag gets half full will be a royal pain to push

 

[tRidiot]

That's a good point, I didn't think about the bag full of clippings making it harder to push. I still don't think I want him using a self-propelled mower, though... I never liked them myself. I wonder about it getting away from him. He's a small skinny kid, he needs the exercise, for realz. (So do I, lol).

I looked at some Craftsman stuff, but as above, I am concerned about the company's overall health. It's not something that's going to break the bank, though, honestly, a couple hundred bucks for a mower. But getting into the nicer self-propelled ones, you go over 3 bills and closer to 4 pretty quickly.

Wish I could talk the wife out of bagging...

 

[Shoot Summ]

https://tulsa.craigslist.org/tls/6050116688.html

 

[CBarCRanch]

That's a good point, I didn't think about the bag full of clippings making it harder to push. I still don't think I want him using a self-propelled mower, though... I never liked them myself. I wonder about it getting away from him. He's a small skinny kid, he needs the exercise, for realz. (So do I, lol).

I looked at some Craftsman stuff, but as above, I am concerned about the company's overall health. It's not something that's going to break the bank, though, honestly, a couple hundred bucks for a mower. But getting into the nicer self-propelled ones, you go over 3 bills and closer to 4 pretty quickly.

Wish I could talk the wife out of bagging...

You can always take the drive belt off.

 

[steelfingers]

Borrow the neighbors.

 

[mtnboomer]

My Cub Cadet pusher has been so good, I'll never look at another brand.

Your Cub Cadet push mower is actually made by MTD. MTD actually owns, or builds, many of the popular outdoor equipment brands, such as Yardman, Yard Machines, White, McCulloch, Wheelhorse, Ariens, and several others. If there is a "blade of grass" logo beside the company name, it's made by MTD.

 

[Parks 788]

I have always bought the Toro 22" self propelled. Has a Briggs engine and is a good unit. Like most midrange machines if you let them sit too long during the winter or you store them outside they begin to get hard to start after a couple years. My latest machine that is a couple years old I store in side the garage start it every couple weeks and let ideal for 5-10 minutes and basically take care of it. Still starts in 2 pulls.

And don't make your kid push a damn mower on a 1/3 acre. The kid won't gain muscle or get in shape doing that ****. All he will do is get pissed and resent you. Teach him hard work and responsibility another way. Making him push a POS $200 mover over 15k square feet of lawn is not the way to do it.

 

[nofearfactor]

To each their own but at my house with 4 kids wanting to help do yard work to make extra money- 3 girls and a boy- I was not going to buy them the best mowers to use since we have such a small area to keep maintained and most of it is pretty rough in places. I always have did the weedeating tho at our place myself. The girls didn't do it much but the last kid we still had left at home to mow was our son and he really beat the mowers up mowing our lil corner of hell, not to mention he broke the back wheels on 2 different cheapo (sub $300,etc WalMart or Lowes specials) push mowers that I bought just for the kids to use. I kept extra back wheels stocked up with him. I called the mowers Bic lighters, cause they didn't last long, but were so cheap it didn't matter, if they got 5 years out of one it was a success. I think in the 14 years or so that the kids mowed we went thru 2, maybe 3 of them. All from WalMart or Lowes. We live rural but still have a small double fenced front and back yard with pool and decks to mow and trim around plus the ol lady likes a nice cut yard regularly to keep the chiggers and ticks at a minimum. That one kid sure was a skinny lil thing when he was growing up from 8-12 (at 20 now he's 6'3" x 220 doing MMA, boxing and in college), but he always worked good and never gave up. He just didn't turn his corners well or something and his back wheels were always wobbly. We always bought mowers with baggers too because they just worked best for them struggling to cut over piles of cut grass. The kids kept the mowers maintained themselves, changed their own plugs and cleaned their foam air cleaners themselves, etc. I would come along and make sure they had oil changed because they made a mess of it. Now 3 of them are home owners with their own mowers. And I'm back cutting my own grass.

 

[Jeff405]

I have always bought the Toro 22" self propelled. Has a Briggs engine and is a good unit. Like most midrange machines if you let them sit too long during the winter or you store them outside they begin to get hard to start after a couple years. My latest machine that is a couple years old I store in side the garage start it every couple weeks and let ideal for 5-10 minutes and basically take care of it. Still starts in 2 pulls.

And don't make your kid push a damn mower on a 1/3 acre. The kid won't gain muscle or get in shape doing that ****. All he will do is get pissed and resent you. Teach him hard work and responsibility another way. Making him push a POS $200 mover over 15k square feet of lawn is not the way to do it.

WTF? Teenagers love to mow grass.

 

[mtnboomer]

WTF? Teenagers love to mow grass.

Yeah, when I was still at GM and had my small engine side business, my son was still in high school. A lot of my customers would ask me what I used to cut my lawn, I would always answer, "A teenage son."