Every year somebody is buying a new mower all over the country. Every year people also have trouble starting their lawnmower even though they took care of it! There are good brands and bad brands, and knowing which brand is the best can be difficult! I have used Toro’s, Snapper’s, John Deere’s, Husqvarna’s, ETC. Some of you buy the same mower every year to just through it out when it stops running. Why spend $150 dollars every year when you can spend 350 to 600 for a mower that will last you 20 years or more under normal TLC? If you do the math, your saving money in the long run and your getting the quality you deserve!
The first thing I want to cover is Toro’s deck design. On the super recyclers, the decks are designed to be high vac’s. The deck is comprised of 20-gauge cast aluminum. The deck is constructed for maximum performance in getting the wet clippings into the bag without bogging down! I did not have a single problem bagging the grass at all! The bag was completely full before needing to be emptied. This deck was also designed to mulch the grass too. The deck and blade is designed to cut the grass upward into the deck then back down onto the blade to cut it some more before letting the mulch back onto the grass. When I used the mulch feature, there were no large clumps of grass all over! The mower comes with the mulching blade as well. This deck was also designed to side discharge too. I have seen many mowers with side discharge and they all say one thing to me, DANGER…WARNING. This is because the side discharge can be opened at any time and if you hit something hard under the deck it can fly through the discharge door and hurt somebody! Toro thought this through completely! The discharge door was designed to have a locking mechanism. Simply move the lever to the right and its locked, move it to the left and your unlocked and ready to discharge. I had no problems with it whatsoever and it worked perfectly! Adjusting deck height was simple. Just move the levers at the height, which you want to cut.
Now I would like to cover the Tranny/Personal Pace System! The tranny is located under the deck with a faceplate on top of the deck to get at it. The drive cable comes out of a little hole in that faceplate. How this system works is the faster you walk, the faster it self propels! Basically, the more you are pushing on the handle, the faster it goes. Most mowers use a lever and or handle bar to engage the self propel system. Toro’s Personal Pace system makes it much easier cause you don’t have to mess with drive speed levers and handlebars to pull. Just walk faster and it will self propel faster. It’s a simple and ingenious system! The tranny uses a drive belt to power it; it is not a direct drive unit. After a while grass will cake up in there but all you have to do is remove the faceplate and shoot compressed air at it or other cleaning method. The Personal Pace system made it so easy for me to mow my lawn!
The wheels on this mower are high quality wheels! They are made out of a tough rubber for long life and have great treads on them to grip the ground well. The rims of the wheels are made out of high quality plastic, for the price that I paid, I would of expected to get metal rims! But, you only find that on commercial units these days. When moving from grass to concrete, it was a smooth ride and that impressed me! The back wheels have grease zerks where you can add grease for long life! Most mowers do not have them so I was impressed to own one that does. I did have a problem with the handle bar wing nuts. With the constant movement of both the mower and vibration, even after a snug tightening of the wing nuts would get loosened until they fall off where you almost run them over with the mower! I did not want to tighten them too much for fear I might strip them! If you buy this mower, you must buy a product called Loctight. This is a type of glue that when put on the threads of a bolt and then tightening down the nut, it will keep it that way after cured. The Blue colored Loctight can be broken if necessary. The Red and Green require a Welding Torch.
This mower uses a Briggs and Stratton 6.5HP Side Valve Quantum engine. It is very easy to start this thing. Push the primer three times and then pull the recoil rope. Starts on first pull every time! No need to deal with a throttle either because this engine does not have one. In my opinion and experience, the only time you need to have a throttle on a mower is if you have a BBC system. (Blade Break Control) That is where the blade stops when you release the handlebar lever but the engine keeps running. Toro does make a BBC mower but this is not a BBC mower. When you release the handlebar on this mower, it kills the engine. The carburetor on this engine is adjustable and I like that considering many cheaper mowers use engines that are non adjustable. The air filter is very easy to remove and install a new one. Sparkplug is right out in front of the engine so that is also easy access! I like how the muffler has a guard grill going around it to keep you from accidentally burning yourself. The engine uses SAE 30 weight Detergent oil.
I was really looking forward to owning a great mower that did everything I asked of it and I believe I got it! It has all the features that I want and a few more. I would have never thought of that locking mechanism on the discharge door. Nor would I have thought of the Personal Pace system. This mower bags, mulches, and side discharges well! The wheels are built well and you can grease the rear wheels! Deck height can be adjusted easily! The mulching blade works very well and seems to be made strong! The engine is very easy to start and runs well! Go out there and buy yourself a Toro!
Date Purchased: 05/03/05
Price Paid: $549
Recommend: Yes |
Pros:
Easy To Start, Quiet Running, Burns Clean, Long Life/Built To Last, Very Durable, Personal Pace System, Grease Zerks, Locking Mechanism On Discharge Door, Faceplate For Easy Access To Tranny, High Vac Deck, Muffler Grill.
Cons:
Wing Nuts Need Loctight! |
