Howse Implement’s? 48” Box Blade and a 72” Landsc

[stevenw]

Folks,

I’m looking for a 48” Box Blade and a 72” Landscape/Rock Rake for my BX2230 (my residential use only). I have looked at the medium duty Land pride, King Cutter and Woods products in person. All are nice but pricey here in New England. I have also seen on the Internet the Howse and Midwest products. Shipped to my home is considerably less money that the others picked up locally.

I have taken a very close look at Howse WEB site and their implements (http://www.howseimplement.com/).What I like about their products is that I can go to their WEB site, purchase products and replacement parts. They make it very easy to identify components and then place an order. In the past when I have broken tines, it always seemed the area dealers did not carry the specific replacement and they would have to place an order anyways. In addition, I have paid as much as 26.00 for a replacement York brand tine. Howse sells theirs for 7.00 + shipping.
So to my question, does anyone have experience with the Howse products? Are they of good medium duty quality? Do they stack up to the other manufacturers medium duty products? Bottom line…would you buy these products and if you already have, would you buy them again?

Let me know.

Steve

 

[Bob_Skurka]

I had a Howse rotary cutter. I would say it was lightly built, not medium built. I sold it because it was no longer of any use to me.

Would I buy another Howse piece of equipment? That depends on a couple things . . . if it was something that was likely to be used only a couple times, then the answer is YES, because they are low priced and because I figure it won't break the first couple times I would use it. On the other hand, if the item would be used on a regular basis, I would buy heavier duty and pay the price for quality.

As for Midwest equipment, I have one of their tilt/swivel/offset rear blades. It is very heavily built and of very high quality. What I can't believe about it was the modest price. Sometimes you run across a company that gives you more than you expect, in the case of Midwest, their rear blade was the best designed I could find, but when it actually arrived I was even more impressed. I don't know about their other products, but their blades are well made, well designed, a true value, and I suspect their other stuff is similar.

 

[gone]

Re: Howse Implement’s? 48” Box Blade and a 72” Landsc

If i were to use only around home a few times,?ya-a i probly would buy howse.But as my profile shows i have landpride mower and landscape rake-mower at least once-twice a week,rake few times a year on houses and little leage fields,ect. the diff. in light landpride and howse is apples and oranges,night and day,hot and cold. On another note i think a 72" rake is a little big for the BX. you'd have a hard time pulling it full,lighter raking probly ok.

 

[crown]

Re: Howse Implement’s? 48” Box Blade and a 72” Landsc

I own a 4 foot Howse brush hog and have been impressed with it thus far, as metioned earlier I only use it 6 to 8 times a year, but it has held up well to my very rocky back 3 acres. It is certainly not the heaviness or quality of my Woods RD 6000 finish mower but that is used 30 times or more a year. I think for your 2 acres the Howse product line should be a good cost effective choice.

 

[Soundguy]

Based on experience with their mowers.. I can say that howse is light duty.... KK faires a bit better.. and climbs into the light/medium duty category.

How much price difference is their in a local KK box ,tax tag and title, and the to the door price on the howse.? If it is 50-60 bucks.. I'd get the KK.. besides.. all that money in shipping.. is 'less product'. I will say this though.. a box blade is pretty simple equipmnet.. no bearings or seals.. just a frame and wear surface. Unless it turns into a pretzel snagging a rock.. kinda hard to mess one up.

And using it on a sub-compact tractor like that kubota .. I don't see it having enough power/traction to pretzelize it.. unless you ran full speed backwards into a tree..

Just my opitions..

Soundguy

 

[stevenw]

Folks,

Thanks for the feedback. Keep it coming.

Soundguy,

Here is what I have for pricing…

The Land Pride LR15-72 rake (275 lbs.) w/ gage wheels priced out at $745.00 and the Land Pride Box Blade BB1548 (303 lbs.) is $425.00. Total $1170.00

The King Kutter 6’ rake w/ gage wheels priced 898.00.

I can buy the Midwest LR20-72 rake (214 lbs.) w/ gage wheels for $516.00 and the Midwest Box Blade BB20-48 (397 lbs.) for $320.00 plus $176.00 for shipping both to the carriers dock. Total $1012.00

From Northern Tool the Howse HLR-72 rake (236 lbs.) w/ gage wheels for $410.00 and the Howse Box Blade BB48 (387 lbs.) for $250.00 plus $210.00 for shipping both to the carriers dock. Total $ 870.00…A $300.00 difference from the Land Pride.

I’m not looking to cheap out here but as you said, there aren’t very many moving parts on these and if you aren’t using them commercially they should hold up. Take a look at the weight between them all. The Land Pride rake does weigh more which leads me to believe they are heavier duty…Bottom line the Howse rake is probably light duty. Howse seems to stack up very close to the Midwest products.

The question to the forum, now is does anyone have experience with the Howse light duty rake and if so, how has it held up? Same question for the Box Blade.

As I said in the beginning of my post…Howse has a great WEB site when compared against their peers. For folks that shop with their fingers they make it easy and their prices are reasonable.

Thoughts?

 

[jerrym4]

Howse must have several different levels of quality on their products. I own a 6 foot brush hog that is built like a tank. I bought it used at an auction last year and I would bet its probably 10 to 15 years old. I have yet to see another brush hog that is at solidly built.

 

[rich1010220]

I own a 4' Howse rotary cutter that is about 8 years old and it is holding up great.
I was just at Leinbach Machinery Company in Winston Salem NC and the Leinbach Line 48" heavy duty box blade was selling for $219.00. I own one of these also and so far so good.

Rich

 

[AndyM]

I've always put Howse implements one step above King Kutter.
The paint job is better (no rust until after you get it home), but some of the welds are sharp enough to cut yourself.

 

[bncsauve]

I bought a 6' landscape rake from Northern. I use it quite a bit for grooming my gravel and stone drive way (it will even dig some to channel water) and land clearing. It works great and has held up quite well. Many times I have caught teeth on rocks, but have never broken one. I also have the wheel kit, but don't use it very much. They seem to work fine when I do use them.