Spending Money to Save Money

Vaughn McMillan

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Now that we're a one-income family, we're tightening the belt around here these days, and one of the expenses we figured we should cut is the $20 per week we've been paying the gardeners to mow, edge, and blow the lawns. Around here, we have to mow the lawns every week, all year round. In the dead of winter we can maybe do it every other week, but the leaves and pine needles build up, even if the grass isn't growing much. When we moved to this house, LOML and I each had our own mowers. I ended up giving mine (the newer of the two) away to the lady who bought my old house, and we kept LOML's old Sears mower, figuring we'd never use it, because it was worth $20 a week to me to NOT have to mow the lawn.

Times and priorities change, so Tuesday I got out our old Sears mower. It's one that LOML's dad bought back in 1987, and LOML used after her mom and dad were divorced soon afterward. It hasn't been run since we moved here four and a half years ago. (Barely ran last time it was used.)

I filled it with gas, blew out the air filter, and checked the oil. I pushed the carburetor primer bulb in once, and it was like pushing on a wet Gummi worm. It disintegrated in one push. Quick check on the web, and that part is available from Sears...attached to the entire engine assembly, for $175. I looked the engine over to see if I could figure out if it was a Briggs & Stratton or Tecumseh, figuring I'd just replace the primer bulb or at worst, the carb assembly. No obvious sign of the manufacturer, but I could still probably hunt down a replacement, or take it to a local shop for repairs. But in going over the engine I remembered the first time I'd worked on it, back in probably about 1998. At the time, LOML didn't realize lawnmowers were supposed to have oil in them. She had never changed the oil (or added to it), and had never cleaned or changed the air filter. When I changed the oil that summer, it looked like Ellie Mae's coffee. Black molasses. (What little was still in the crankcase, after 10+ years.)

I figured I didn't really want to invest a lot of money or time in the old mower, since I'd probably be wasting my money in the long run. Plus, we have quite a bit of lawn, at least for a guy with a bad back trying to push a lawn mower, so it didn't make sense to invest in a mower I would have trouble using. I figured if I was going to start mowing the lawns, I needed a self-propelled mower. A bit of web reading also told me rear wheel drive was better than front wheel drive. I did some web surfing and ended up with this one:

http://www.toro.com/home/mowers/recycler/20352.html

Consumer Reports rated this model's predecessor a Best Buy, and all the reviews and ratings I saw of it seemed to be quite a bit better than average. It's not a commercial duty Honda or Toro, but it's the upper end of Toro's homeowner line, so it should last me a good long time. It's got a very standard Briggs & Stratton engine, so parts should be available down the road. The way I see it, after five months of mowing my own lawn, it'll pay for itself. And being self propelled, it probably won't beat up my back like my previous lawnmowers have.

It was after dark before I got it home, so I won't get to test drive it until Wednesday. I think I'll put a coat of wax on the mower first. ;) I'm actually looking forward to mowing the lawn. :D
 
It all makes sense to me Vaughn, there is no reason to waste your time futzing with an old mower, that you will not like wrestling around.

What does that mower cost, $400...? If you are paying $20 a week, that is only 20 weeks and the mower is paid for.


Looks like a good machine! :thumb:
 
Nice mower, Vaughn.

The personal pace is supposed to be a nice feature. How big a yard do you have to mow? Is the B&S engine an Intek? I've had several of them, and they just keep running and running...
 
Vaughn,

I have this Toro with the electric start and I am immensely pleased with it. I think the thing you will like the best, especially with a bad back, is the personal pace self propelled feature. When I have let the lawn go too long it allows me to move along at a slow pace. Likewise, if I'm doing a fall cutting and the growth has been minimal, I can race through the lawn. If there were anything I'd change it would be the bag - it fills too quickly and is a little awkward to change. But, if you mulch, like I normally do, that won't be an issue.
 
Great story Vaughn.

When we moved from a townhouse into our new house in 2004, we gained a (small) yard that had to be mowed. My neighbor contracted for $25 biweekly mowings and I bought a $100 lawn mower at Wal*Mart. Five years later he is still paying $25 (biweekly/summers) and my hundred buck mower is still going strong.
 
...What does that mower cost, $400...? If you are paying $20 a week, that is only 20 weeks and the mower is paid for.

After the $20 rebate, it'll be right at $380. That's less than five months of paying the gardeners. (Although I'm probably going to keep them coming every other week for a while...they're losing customers like most other businesses are around here, so I want to help them out a bit if I can. They've treated me well for over four years.) Still, the lawnmower will pay for itself in pretty short order.

Nice mower, Vaughn.

The personal pace is supposed to be a nice feature. How big a yard do you have to mow? Is the B&S engine an Intek? I've had several of them, and they just keep running and running...

I'm guessing I've got about 1/5 of an acre, but it's thick Marathon grass. Not a tremendous amount of area to mow, but pushing a non-propelled mower one lap around the front yard hurts my back.

The engine is the Quantum 675 series, whatever that means. I've not heard of Intek. Is it a product line? It's 190 cc displacement...not the biggest out there, but it should be sufficient.

Vaughn,

I have this Toro with the electric start and I am immensely pleased with it. I think the thing you will like the best, especially with a bad back, is the personal pace self propelled feature. When I have let the lawn go too long it allows me to move along at a slow pace. Likewise, if I'm doing a fall cutting and the growth has been minimal, I can race through the lawn. If there were anything I'd change it would be the bag - it fills too quickly and is a little awkward to change. But, if you mulch, like I normally do, that won't be an issue.

Glad to see another good review of this one. I'm looking forward to the personal pace feature. They had a slightly older, but electric start Toro for the same price, but I didn't know how reliable or worthwhile it would be. I've since seen a lot of good reviews on the electric start.

Since we've lived here, the gardeners have always bagged, but I'm going to try mulching, particularly in the back yard where the lawn is a bit thinner from dog traffic and shade. The small bag (and small opening to dump it through) are about the only negative reviews I've seen on this one, aside from a few folks who obviously got lemons from the factory and had engine or drive train problems.
 
Hey Vaughn nice mower but I am not going to agree with your logic.;) In your shoes I would have gone down to the local Salvation army store and checked out the second hand stores around where I live and see if I could pick up a piece of junk that needed less work but was working. But thats the recycler in me.:D

You did keep the world economy going by making that purchase though with the Vaughn houshold economic stimilus package VHESP.:thumb::rofl::rofl:

Lets see , jobs at I guess HD, then jobs in trucking, the port and in shipping and of course employment in the far east somewhere.

Not bad.

Enjoy cutting the lawn. Thats what i have two sons for. Just wish they would learn to do it properly. But hey we only cut grass for a few months of the year here thats the benefit of snow.:rofl::rofl::rofl:
 
I guess cutting grass all year is betting than shoveling snow part of the year. :huh:

Vaughn, one of my best friends is in the business of cutting grass as the "head grass cutter" at a local country club. He has close to a millioin dollars of equipment in his shop at work...guess what he has in the garage at home to cut his lawn...yup Toro. I think you made a good purchase.

I've been using an old craftsman mower that my BIL kicked to the curb almost 8 years ago. One of the plastic wheels was broken. I took the ones off my dead mower and have been using it ever since. I don't need to change the oil, I just add some every couple of weeks.:) Starts on one pull the first time in the spring every year too....hope I didn't just jinx myself. :doh:
 
I've got more small engines around here than I care to admit.

Most of them have had some sort of a problem at one time another from rotted priming bulbs to rotted hoses, clogged needle valves,etc... I even replaced the crankshaft on a 4 horse 4 cycle outboard motor.. I could tell the story about how it got broken, but my life would be in danger from my dear wife...

I picked up a book on small engine repair and never looked back.

The price on that priming bulb from Sears is ridiculous. I had a leaf blower that the priming bulb rotted on. All I could find online were ridiculously priced. Then one day at Lowes I saw some priming bulbs on the shelf. I bought one for a few bucks and was able to modify it to work.

I'm sure you'll like the new mower though!
 
Well, We were taking the sail boat and the dingy out for a weekend of gunkholing on the the california delta. I figured I'd get the sailboat out of the slip and out on the the river and my wife would drive the dingy, then we'd meet up and tie the dingy off on the back of the sailboat..

So I got the motor started on the dingy and got my wife situated. I backed the sailboat out and started on my way out of the marina and watched as my wife tried to get the motor on the dingy in gear. For whatever reason it wasn't working. I yelled 'you've go the throttle too high', and with that she managed to get the motor into forward gear and gunned the throttle. The dingy shot forward and rode up on the dock and tipped straight over backwards dumping my wife over into the shallow muddy water with the motor running at screaming full speed for all of about 4 seconds before it got a lung full of water and snapped the connecting rod... I parked the boat as quickly as possible and got her out of the water.

My wife had driven the dingy before and used the motor, but apparently not enough. It was a pretty scary situation, but kind of put an end to our weekend plans... I was just glad she was ok.

I took the motor in to have it repaired and the prices they wanted to repair it was about the same as a new motor. So I just bought the parts and a repair manual and did it myself. Works as good as new...
 
What a coincidence. My mower's plastic motor shroud cracked from age. This would be no problem if the top of the shroud wasn't also part of the gas tank wall. As the motor runs, gas fountains out the top of the shroud. Good grass killing feature ;-) B&S 6.5HP, should be no problem . . . The part is readily available for $125 plus shipping. I'll fool with it as in my mind it is officially dead. I'll try to milk another summer out of it and watch for mower sales.
 
For whatever reason it wasn't working. I yelled 'you've go the throttle too high', and with that she managed to get the motor into forward gear and gunned the throttle. The dingy shot forward and rode up on the dock and tipped straight over backwards dumping my wife over into the shallow muddy water with the motor running at screaming full speed for all of about 4 seconds before it got a lung full of water and snapped the connecting rod...

Brent I'm glad the wife was OK and not hurt BUT... If the camera would have been rolling, you could have made a bundle if you sent it to AFV :D:rofl: Hmmmmmm do you think she would want to do a re-take???:rofl::rofl:


its not so much that we wouldn't tell royall, but how much he's willing to pay for us to keep quiet... :rofl::rofl::rofl:

Gees Dan, You have a very high opinion of me:D I would have split it with ya!:rofl::rofl:
 
That was a wise move Vaughn. You could have put $200 into that old mower and still had an inferior machine (dare I say junk).

That was my thinking, too. Even with a new engine, I'd still have to push the old one manually.

Vaughn I have a better way to save money on the lawn mowing. Just plan say no don't fall for the peer pressure that the grass has to be cut.
Just like any other drug just say no.:thumb::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
I have found that my grass is a lot happier when left to grow on its own.:rofl::rofl:

The peer pressure is no problem. The severe and unrelenting beating I'd get from LOML would be a problem, though. :eek:
whipit.gif
 
Excuses, Excuses........

......., but "I" can see right through this Charade.:rolleyes: What with Stu enrolling back in that Aikido class, and now you've bought a new Lawnmower, so you can have an excuse to make long weekly walks, it is readily apparent that you guys are "secretly" trying to start a FWW "Health Club".:rofl::rofl::rofl:

I think that you might have made a mistake though on the model you bought, Vaughn. That fancy automatic speed feature might be NICE for SOME folks, but I'm thinking that as large as your yard is, you might need a model that will maintain the same SPEED all the time, 'cause it MAY have to DRAG you along toward the end of that "Health Walk", (at least til you get back in Shape Again).:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
 
Well Vaughn, we just picked up a Ryobi ONE+ lawn trimmer about 6 months ago - just before it started snowing here, otherwise I'd be able to offer you a review. :rofl:

One of the things we are doing to cut down on mowing is planting a vegetable garden at the flat lowlands wet spot of our lawn that needs very frequent mowing. This also maybe saves money on the food bill too. (Not sure on this yet, as we've only done this one year and it ended up being more of a proof of concept trial than an actual "into our bellies" sort of thing).

Lastly, given the age of his daughters, Stu should be learning kenjutsu, not aikido. :rofl:
 
Well, I took the new toy out for a drive this afternoon, and I'm pleased with the results. It'll definitely give me an aerobic workout if you try to keep up with top speed for any length of time, but it was easy to settle into a comfortable pace, and adjust the speed up or down in different areas of the yards. I'm gonna like this self-propelled stuff, I can tell already.

Despite the complaints I saw in some reviews, the bag size and effectiveness is on par with the three other rear-baggers I've used in the past. It did a great job of picking up leaves and pine cones, too.

And the primerless automatic carb worked perfectly. :thumb: The engine started on the first pull out of the box, and every time I stopped it afterward.
 
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