Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

I am in search of a good lawnmower. I want a mower that will bag as well as mulch, prefer electric start, and rear wheel drive. I cant decide on a Honda, Huskavarna AWD, troy built , or toro. I have a hill that is about 30 degrees. I need it to mulch as well as bag well to suck up and multch leaves. Any suggestions. The husky has a Honda engine I'm leaning that way but Honda has the best warranty.

Do you have a Snapper dealer nearby? If so, go look at one of their Commercial "Ninja Blade" walk behinds. I can't say if they've changed since B&S took over but ones built prior to that are loved by lawn services. Built like a tank and run forever. I'm still using a 25 year old with a Wisconsin engine and it's perfect. They switched to Kawasaki engines but now I see they've changed to B&S Pro Series. It looks like they kept the steel-hubbed ball bearing wheels and the extra heavy decks.
Not a consumer grade mower! Don't expect pretty with lots of features, and expect it to be heavy. But if you want a mower that'll last you for 15+ years and do an excellent cutting job, that was (and it looks like it still is) the one.

Info: http://www.snapper.com/~/media/PDF/Snapper/Brochures/120201_2013_SNP_WB.pdf (starts on page 8)

MN_Runner wrote:
The HRC is way too heavy for homeowner use, tipping the scale at 125 lbs dry.  It's not twice as better than the HRX, but it does feel twice as heavy.  I like a lot of things about the HRX217, but not the long handlebars and fussy bail drive controls.

I couldn't agree more. Weight should be an important consideration. I bought an Ariens Pro 21" commercial grade mower a few years ago. The machine is very well built but it's just too heavy for me. I got so caught up in wanting "heavy-duty" that I didn't take weight into consideration since its self-propelled. Going in a straight line is fine but I have to work hard pulling it back and manuevering it into in the many nooks of my landscaping.

Does anyone have any experiences withe the Smart drive on a Honda lawnmower? I here hydrostadic was good but when it fails you will do better just buying another lawnmower, cost to replace is to high. I do not know if ther commercial units share the same hydrostadic drive or not.

Just get the one without the hydrostatic transmission model (HRX217KVA) if hydro reliability is a question. 

bus708 wrote:
Smart Drive was introduced by Honda a few years ago. Early versions used an internal cone-style clutch, current versions use a slipping belt-style clutch. Smart Drive has a single rotary control that can adjusted like a tilt-wheel on a car. The control was created with a considerable ergonomic design process. Smart Drive is available on both the steel-deck HRR series mowers and some HRX (polymer/NeXite-deck) mowers. A replacement Smart Drive transmission has a retail price of $98.97. When installed on an HRR model, it has a 4-year consumer warranty, but if on an HRX model, the warranty is 6-years.

Hydrostatic drive (a.k.a. Cruise Control) has been used on many Honda mowers for 20+ years. It's a proven and reliable design, albeit more complex and costly to replace. It does offer two controls, one to set the maximum speed, then other to control the speed from 0 - maximum set point. Cruise Control is only available on Honda HRX and commercial HRC models. On the HRX, the hydrostatic drive is driven by a constant-tension belt. On the HRC, a driveshaft is used. A replacement hydrostatic transmission (HRX models) retails for $134.79, and has a 6-year consumer warranty on HRX models, 2-years commercial warranty on HRC models.

 -Robert@Honda
Caveat: I work for Honda, but the preceding is my opinion alone.

MN_Runner wrote:

+1 There's no need for a hydro on a lawnmower. Get something you can fix rather than just replace very expensive parts.
A quick google on the HRX217HYA showed the transmission was available only as a unit (no individual parts) and was $200 and two weeks to ship at one place, out of stock at two others.

One of the local repair shops mentioned about the high costs of replacing cables on Honda lawnmower.  The cables seems to be a frequent problem for these mowers, not sure why.  Does anybody know if this is true?  Robert Coats provided some costs for transmission parts, but make sure you take into account of the labor costs for the repairs too.

As Robert Coats mentioned about the Honda Smart Drive being a slipping belt clutch, this seems to be the same as Toro Personal Pace drive.  It is very simple and effective.  The only difference between the Honda Smart Drive and Personal Pace is the user interface.  If the drive system goes bad, just swap out the belt and make some adjustments.  I have the Toro Super Recycler and it's been working fine, very simple and intuitive to use. 

I don't think the hydrostatic trans on a walkbehind mower is really needed or an advantage.  Honda touts this as a cruise control, which doesn't really match my mowing style.  I am never in a cruise control mode, I am constantly varying my speed as there are lot of trimming near edges, making lots of turns.  For me, having to constantly fiddle with the speed lever on the hydro trans will become quite annoying.  I have hydro trans on my Honda snowblower which I like a lot, but I do not want it on a walkbehind lawnmower.

One more thing, you will have to choose whether you want the mower to excel at bagging or mulching.  A lot of mowers advertised as being able to both mulch or bag, or a combination of (Honda clip director).  One mower deck and blade cannot excel at both bagging and mulching.  My Toro Super Recycler is very good at mulching, but very pathetic at bagging performance.  This is even after changing to a high lift cutting blade.  The deck design is too shallow and the internal baffles doesn't create much of a vacuum. 

aa335 wrote:

It is costly because you have to take a bit of parts off to get to the cable.  It is not the cost of the cable but rather the labor to replace it.  I seen a few youtube videos and the job was a bit tricky and time consuming.  I agree that belt drive is more than good enough and hydro is too much.   30CC increase on HRX217 is noticeably better than 160CC on HRR216 models.

Thanks for the input guys I ended up with a HRX217.