The $125.00 2015 lawn mower that won't quit!

[ultrarunner]

The local mower shop is very busy with repairs but has almost no new inventory to sell...

Much of what they sell no longer California CARB compliant...

This includes many Honda Generators, assorted Mowers, etc...

A mower that won't quit is one to hold onto...

 

[Jstpssng]

The mower we had when I was growing up was a Lawnboy which my father had traded for a couple of boxes of tomato plants. Actually it was two, which he made into one. That thing lasted for over a decade, and did a lot of work between the house, greenhouse and camp. Finally the housing gave up the ghost when I was in HS and he bought an International (?), which was made by Lawnboy. It was nowhere near the mower the old one was though.

 

[Handloader109]

I've got an old snapper rider. It was gifted to me to toss when I bought my first house up here in Arkansas. It needed a gasket on the oil pan, and I bought a rubber drive wheel. And as it is an electric start, a small motorcycle battery. This will be 11th year I've had it. It mows my back enclosed dogyard. Had to replace the two wires to the starter last spring. I've a chipmunk that had stuffed the bottom with acorns and had chewed up the wiring. .. it uses oil, so I do have to buy that..... but it starts and mows

 

[Grumpycat]

Paid $500 for my P.O.S. EGo 56V 21" SP in 2016.

Still mows the lawn on the original 7.5AH battery.

Sharpen the blade now and then. No oil. No filters. No longer wear hearing protection when mowing. Starts instantly, every time.

Will hit the magic $75/year operating cost this year. Considering the cost of gasoline and motor oil it has already beaten that number. Plus I never have to take a can to the gas station, I just lift the battery out of its charger, then put it back after I mow.

 

[flyerdan]

My current mower is an aluminium deck Snapper that I got off Freecycle back around 2008. I think the po dumped it because the plate with the speed lever cracked and it won't stay in any of the higher speeds. I don't feel the need to run to keep up with it so it's fine for my use.

 

[JasperFrank]

My Uncle bought a Gravely, single cylinder two wheeled tractor, I believe in 1970, with what I thought had a huge front mower deck. He used it right up till 2018, before selling his house and moving into a retirement village. It was a frightening device for me to use, as a young teenager, that wanted to help out.
But I learned how to use it. It had levers for forward and backward and engagement of the blade. And was started using a pull strap you had to re-wrap each time you wanted to start it.
He had that Gravely for 48 years. And wanted to give it to me. Wish I had taken it, but I lived 3,200 miles away, and had no room in the van from the other stuff I was taking back. I will always regret not accepting his offer. He sold it for more than he paid for it.

I've been through at least a dozen mowers in the past 25 years. I gave up on New, cause the rocks would kill them. So I just buy what ever is local in the paper for $30, or free, and fix them, knowing they will be completely destroyed in short fashion. To me, they are all the same mower with different brandings.

 

[stevem5215]

Oh yeah. The Gravely. Forgot about that one. We have a 50's Gravely original with the single cylinder and the external ignition. It runs still but we don't use it much due to it being a beast to operate. My dad loved that thing (rest his soul) but it was a heell of a machine to operate and even start with that cord around the crank. Ether was my friend. Boy, could it spit the sparks out the muffler when you went to start it in the spring. Probably full of rust in the cylinders!

 

[JasperFrank]

stevem, you might be sitting on an asset with that Gravely. If you don't use it, it could bring you some serious coin selling it. They have become collectable.

 

[GT48DXLS]

I've got an old snapper rider. It was gifted to me to toss when I bought my first house up here in Arkansas. It needed a gasket on the oil pan, and I bought a rubber drive wheel. And as it is an electric start, a small motorcycle battery. This will be 11th year I've had it. It mows my back enclosed dogyard. Had to replace the two wires to the starter last spring. I've a chipmunk that had stuffed the bottom with acorns and had chewed up the wiring. .. it uses oil, so I do have to buy that..... but it starts and mows

You have soo... gotten your money's worth, free plus a couple expenses.... Awesome!

My Uncle bought a Gravely, single cylinder two wheeled tractor, I believe in 1970, with what I thought had a huge front mower deck. He used it right up till 2018, before selling his house and moving into a retirement village. It was a frightening device for me to use, as a young teenager, that wanted to help out.
But I learned how to use it. It had levers for forward and backward and engagement of the blade. And was started using a pull strap you had to re-wrap each time you wanted to start it.
He had that Gravely for 48 years. And wanted to give it to me. Wish I had taken it, but I lived 3,200 miles away, and had no room in the van from the other stuff I was taking back. I will always regret not accepting his offer. He sold it for more than he paid for it.

I've been through at least a dozen mowers in the past 25 years. I gave up on New, cause the rocks would kill them. So I just buy what ever is local in the paper for $30, or free, and fix them, knowing they will be completely destroyed in short fashion. To me, they are all the same mower with different brandings.

I know what you mean, yet back then they were very common and to think how long it lasted, wow. Their is still a 2 wheel tractor being built today, don't know much about them, interesting though, from BCS America and many attachments,

https://www.bcsamerica.com/products/tractors

GT

 

[JasperFrank]

My memory may be foggy, but I remember that I could steer the Gravely, using one or the other wheel power levers, of which there were two, left and right that had three positions; Forward, Neutral and Reverse. I hated walking behind it all day. So I rigged up a two wheeled cart I could ride on, pulled by the Gravely.
The Uncle nixed that, saying it was too dangerous. It did look that way in hind sight, then I showed him, that Gravely made a two wheeled rider cart, very much like what I had created. He thought the OEM cart was too expensive and also thought by him to be dangerous and/or extravagant. So for 7 years, I walked behind this machine maintaining his yard, by his rules.
I really, really should have taken it back to my house.... It is a regret that I didn't .