lawn mower class action suit

[Jaylegger]

I didn't get a card, nor do I want anything to do with a law suit..., but if I paid for a 5 horsepower mower, and ended up with a lower horsepower mower.. say 2 or 3, then I'd want them to make right on it. Like give me my darn 5 horsepower engine. I don't want the money, I want the power. That's where fair is fair to me.

How exactly would you force a manufacturer to provide you the actual power numbers that marketing mislead into believing you had? Ask nicely?, jump up and down? The only thing which would convince any manufacturer which has acclimatized itself to outright lying for profit is by making it less profitable for them to continue the misleading tactics than it would be when not not engaging this behavior. Huge payouts are required to effect change, and if left unchecked the deception would increase with each new budget and marketing plan.

 

[sld]

Who cares how many horsepower a mower has? All that matters is whether it cuts the grass or not.

If your mower is struggling to cut the grass you probably need to sharpen the blade. The suckers are the ones who think they need a 7 or 8 horse mower to maintain their lawn. The 3.5 Briggs never had any trouble over the years.

I think most people are over reacting to this. Throwing the card in the trash will make me feel better knowing a sleazy lawyer will get nothing from my effort.

Same thing happened with the masonite siding. I have been contacted several times by law firms wanting me to join a class action law suit. I refuse because my siding is 12 years old and the only problem I have had is where the paint wasn't protecting it.

 

[Matt_Jr]

I partially agree.

How much horsepower doesn't matter so long as it does the job. But if you are a landscaper, and you sometimes get that job where a couple moves into a foreclosed home, and the grass there hasn't been cut in 2 years, and it's up past your waist, a 3.5 horsepower mower is gonna take too long to cut that yard, no matter how small it is. But a 7hp engine.. hmmm.

Jaylegger, I was just saying, I'm not interested in getting money, cause that doesn't change the fact that my mower is weaker than what that number says on the hood, and I'm not interested in driving up the costs of mowers in the future. If a mower company wanted to do right by us, which will most likely never happen, they would give us the mower that we thought we bought when we read the label. I know it'll never happen. Just saying.

 

[mustangsallysdad]

For those of us that have already bought, well we already paid the extra cost; we paid for something we never got. Hey if you enjoy getting screwed when you buy something that's your business but I want what I paid for.

What "better causes" could these lawyers be working on?

We have homeless service veterans living on the streets...men and women who have fought for your right to "rant and rave" and make rude comments toward anyone who doesn't agree with you...or, perhaps they could work on getting you a better attitude.

 

[turbo36]

We have homeless service veterans living on the streets...men and women who have fought for your right to "rant and rave" and make rude comments toward anyone who doesn't agree with you...or, perhaps they could work on getting you a better attitude.

Sure do enjoy my freedoms and sure am thankful for those that fought ( thanks, Cary) preserve them, but what does that have to do with getting ripped off by someone? Keep to the subject and the facts please and keep the personal attacks to yourself.

 

[Brad_Blazer]

I have always marveled at the ever-increasing horsepower ratings on yard equipment. I figured that the reason was that when shopping, the horsepower is percieved as the single most important point of comparison and it was cheaper to make a slightly bigger engine than to actually improve the overall performance and efficiency of the machine. I guess they haven't even been doing that - they have just been making new labels!

The newer torque ratings seem to be a way to prominently post a bigger number that will be confused with the "old" horsepower number while providing less information.

I would prefer a standardized label with testing per published specification with engine shaft horsepower AND fuel consumption under full and partial load conditions. All this would cost manufacturers is the paper to print the label on or do you think they don't already have the full performance curves generated?

Without reliable information how do you compare products when shopping? Look at all of the tractor posts: The one defining number for a tractor is it's horsepower. It would be nice to be able to assume that it's a reliable figure.

Dang, I might just go crawl around my mowers and get the info to file my claim.
https://lawnmowerclass.com/Making_a_Claim/Claim_Form.aspx

 

[Ken45101]

How much horsepower doesn't matter so long as it does the job. But if you are a landscaper, and you sometimes get that job where a couple moves into a foreclosed home, and the grass there hasn't been cut in 2 years, and it's up past your waist, a 3.5 horsepower mower is gonna take too long to cut that yard, no matter how small it is. But a 7hp engine.. hmmm.

ROFL, 7 hp won't do that either. Now a 17 hp engine on a DR brush mower, that's the ticket for that job. Or a tractor mounted rotary cutter ("bush hog").

Seriously, I always knew those numbers were fluff, presumably related to some peak stalling hp or something. "Puffery" fits the bill fairly closely although technically the word references something that cannot be measured.

What should have been done is for the Federal Trade Commission to step in and enforce real standards rather than a bunch of lawyers with a "rip of the consumers and make themselves rich" scheme.

Ken

 

[jinman]

I think the outcome of this is that many people will get a few dollars and/or extended warranties on their less-power-than-advertised engines. Engines will no longer have HP ratings, but rather only have the cubic centimeter or cubic in. displacement figures. A few lawyers will have a nice payday. Prices will go up and/or jobs may be lost because margins and sales will be hurt by those manufacturers who are the weakest.

Somewhere along the line, somebody may figure that to increase the money pool, they need to not only include Sears and Kmart, but also Walmart and Target. Who knows, maybe that ethanol-laced gas is the problem and we should include Exxon-Mobil, Shell, Chevron, etc.. . . .these lawsuits have a way of going viral. I think I'll just drop my card into the trash.

 

[FlaDon]

ROFL, 7 hp won't do that either. Now a 17 hp engine on a DR brush mower, that's the ticket for that job. Or a tractor mounted rotary cutter ("bush hog").

Seriously, I always knew those numbers were fluff, presumably related to some peak stalling hp or something. "Puffery" fits the bill fairly closely although technically the word references something that cannot be measured.

What should have been done is for the Federal Trade Commission to step in and enforce real standards rather than a bunch of lawyers with a "rip of the consumers and make themselves rich" scheme.

Ken

7 hp will do the job if it has the torque to back it up. Try a 5/6.6/7.6 HP Gravely Model L or C and 30" deck sometime. A modern 7 HP Kohler Command Pro can't match the lugging ability of the Gravely as it was rated at 1600/2600/3000 RPM. And the Gravely engine displaces the same Cubic Inches as a Kohler K301 12 HP. Old statement still applies. There is no replacement for cubic inch displacement.

 

[TBDonnelly]

I think the outcome of this is that many people will get a few dollars and/or extended warranties on their less-power-than-advertised engines. Engines will no longer have HP ratings, but rather only have the cubic centimeter or cubic in. displacement figures. A few lawyers will have a nice payday. Prices will go up and/or jobs may be lost because margins and sales will be hurt by those manufacturers who are the weakest.

.....and if this forces more manufacturers out of business 'parts' will be non-existent. I'm tossing my postcard in the trash.

Don

 

[MESSMAKER]

Should probably give the money to any of the suppliers that took the high road and did not fudge the #s, If there were any.

 

[jhwentworth]

Wow, this seems to be a hot button.

Engine horsepower is still torque times RPM, divided by 5252. The companies give you the gross torque figure, without the RPM. Their gross torque figure is suspect because it may be measured without a muffler or air filter, and without a RPM it's impossible to determine the actual horsepower. In the old days, B&S would give a max HP @ 3600 rpm, and then govern the engine at 3200 rpm.

 

[Tim D]

I, as well as many of you also received the card. I read it and had to laugh. I thought to myself, what a silly lawsuit this is. I too have three engines that meet the lawsuits criteria but I will not participate because I know that if the lawsuit wins, I will just have to pay that much more for a mower the next time. I guess I will again be another 2 time loser, once for not joining suit and again when I have to pay the higher prices because of this. All three engines have more than payed for themselves and if they were rated a little higher HP than what I got I sure didn't miss it. Looks to me as though the winners in this will be the lawyers and the consumer will be the loser.

 

[EE_Bota]

Hi,
Just a reminder: There is no case pending. Whatever the lawyers did, they did, but it cannot be stopped or undone.

The money is extracted already. There is no known way to put it back in the manufacturers pocket.

Personal opinion: I would like to have good numbers on engines. I would like to know the exact basis of the lawsuit so I could determine to my own satisfaction if the companies "had it coming." If they did, I am glad it came. I hate frivolous lawsuits. But I truly hate specification fudging. If an engine is on a mower, it is a safe bet the mower will mow. If your hydraulics calculations show your new splitter needs 8 hp, and you buy a 10, and you still have performance problems, what do you do then? Will a 12 do it? An 18? How do you know?

 

[coobie]

Anybody else seen anything on this class action suite relating to advertised hp ratings in a bunch of riding mowers and walk behinds under 30hp? Looks like the claim is mfg's mis-represented and overstated the hp of their lawn mower engines, sounds like they are all denying but are settling to the tune of 65 million total.

I got a post card also.I think its a way to make lawyers rich,tossed mine in the trash can.coobie

 

[EE_Bota]

I said it was a done deal, but this describes the deal. I suppose that if a TBN member from Wisconsin wanted to, they could join the class, file notice of request to appear, and testify to the Judge that he thinks the lawyer's claim on the settlement pot is unjustifiably high, and only serves to pick the pockets of the class they claim to be representing.

 

[Ken45101]

and testify to the Judge that he thinks the lawyer's claim on the settlement pot is unjustifiably high, and only serves to pick the pockets of the class they claim to be representing.

Probably a waste of time. Don't forget, judges are lawyers and have their own best interests at heart. They believe that their friends should get high compensation at the expense of everyone else.

Ken

 

[roadhawk]

If it's all about the horsepower, I wonder why it's just for lawn mowers? What about my B&S engine on my tiller, and 2 of them on pressure washers? What about my edger? All of those also have horsepower ratings.

 

[dcyrilc]

If it's all about the horsepower, I wonder why it's just for lawn mowers? What about my B&S engine on my tiller, and 2 of them on pressure washers? What about my edger? All of those also have horsepower ratings.

Saved for the next lawsuit.

 

[2manyrocks]

I'd like to know who in these companies came up with this idea of messing with the HP ratings and what their justification was. It seems so stupid and inevitable that they'd end up paying out money like this, and for what reason? After all, who were the engine manufacturers really competing against? In many instances, it was a choice between the same manufacturer's engine on mower A, mower B, mower C,....It's not like there were 40 different engine manufacturers competing in this market.