I've had a 1024 for 5 years now, bought it new and I have run the dog snot out of it, has 260 hours, Mows 3 acres a time and with the 50 inch deck and 24 horse B&S I can mow field grass as tall as the mower and it never misses a beat. Only problem I have had is the case have gasket started leaking at around 250 hours I pulled the engine, separated the case and installed a new gasket reinstalled the engine ,replaced the drivebelt and its good as new, Thinking of getting some gator blades for it. Little tip a service guy told me if you have the Briggs engine is don't throttle it down before shutting it off. Guess it lets the oil pressure get low and might cause a dry condition as the engine is winding down. Just so happens the whole time I've owned it I have always left it wide open when shutting down.