Anyone got CR latest Lawnmower issue?

[petek]

I went to HD this morning and picked up a new LawnBoy mower since they had a free extra year extended warranty and a $100 gift card promotion on for this weekend only (in Canada) only for "in stock items". Good thing I went early because they only had two of the model I bought. Anyways my sister called and when I mentioned it she said she had the current issue with lawnmower reviews but couldn't find it,,grrrrrr. I couldn't find it in store all last week so I'm wondering if anyone here has it and what does it say about Lawn Boys? I got an Insight Gold with Honda engine and Sensa speed self propel. If they give it horrible reviews I may take it back, it's still in the back of the truck.

 

[vinvac]

Pete

Lawnboy has never gotten good reviews from Consumer Reports, but I am here to tell you I would own no other lawnmower.

I have never used one of the 4 cycle versions and they do appear to be constructed much cheaper then the older 2 Cycle models. I hopefully will never have to use a 4 cycle mower again. I have owned two that never were any good, one had a Briggs motor and the other a Teuchmasa...don't think that is spelled correctly. Lawnboys two cycle motors will out perform any 4 cycle mower on the market. I am currently using the last model of the two cycle that Lawnboy made and it has the Easy Stride that you speak of and I love it. I am also using a 30 year old Lawnboy that will out cut and has more power than any other mower I have used. Both mowers are being used in the mulching mode and my neighbors are always amazed at how much better my mowers mulch and how much smoother my lawn looks then theirs.

Morgan

 

[scott55405]

When we had a city/suburban lot, my father had a Lawn Boy about the vintage of Morgan's that he just loved. His was a rear bagging model. For many years prior he insisted on using the non powered type because he didn't think the motorized ones did a good job or he didn't like the way the lawn looked, but he really liked the Lawn Boy.

 

[Cybrvanr]

The true 2-cycle Lawn-Boys dissapeared when OMC went out of busness. Bombardier now owns the Johnson and Evinrude nameplates and manufactures outboard motors that are totally different from the traditional OMC built ones of the same nameplate....sort of like GM frigidaires and Electrolux Frigdaires. I'm not sure who owns Lawn-Boy now, but the ones I've seen in the stores have regular 'ol Briggs & Stratton motors on them.

B&S motors are pretty decent, and I own an MTD with a B&S QUantum 5 HP motor I purchased from Lowe's back in the late 80's. That mower has survived me maintaining lawns for up to 8 lawns in my neighborhood when I was a teenager, and now continues to perform for me in my own home. It started on the first pull after sitting in my shed for 4 months without being used...can't complain about that! I have installed a high-vacuum blade that will make a very smooth cut to the yard.

I still like the old 2-cycle Lawn-Boys though, but they have become quite hard to find lately. The two things I like about them is that they have much more low-end torque for cutting through extra tall, neglected lawns, and the vibration is much more pleasing than the 4-cycles make!

 

[Cybrvanr]

answers at their web site!

Looks like now they are owned by Toro Corp...not a bad brand of mowers at all, and can be had with B&S, Techumseh, and Honda engines, and they still make 2-cycles too in house !

Check out this link!

http://www.lawnboy.com/about/engine/DuraForce_engine.html

 

[mixfinder]

Lawn Mowers

Lawn Boy model 10685 made it into Consumer Reports "Quick Picks." Model 10695 was rated just under it's Lawn Boy brother but sells for $80.00 more. CR said the Lawn Boy offers easy handling. The Lawn Boys are built by Toro and CR is waiting to see if the brand's reliability improves.
Kelly

 

[petek]

Well I"m gonna take my chances and keep it. They are made by Toro but that's where the similarities end. They don't appear to share any components from what I could see in the store side by side, other than the Sensa Speed / Personal Pace and even then the handles are different. Wheels are different, mower decks are different. I figure, well it's gotta Honda engine hopefully I don't have any probs with it.
I couldn't pass up the deal. Plus one of the other features I liked none of the others had was the folding over handle which makes it the easiest of all I saw for removing the bag. I'll take some pics

 

[rickr]

Lawn-Boy mowers

I love the old Lawn-Boy mowers. They were built so well, and lasted forever. I guess now they are "Toro-Boys". They don't sound the same, even though some are a two cycle engine. The guy next door has a newer Lawn-Boy two cycle, and it never runs smooth. The engine surges after the thing runs for awhile, and it is VERY annoying to have to listen to it.

I use this 1963 Lawn-Boy Automower as my only mower.Sold the newer Lawn-Boy I had last year. Have a double city lot here, and it performs perfectly. It has a 4HP Lawn-Boy two cycle engine and is self propelled.I installed a mulching plate on it last year. Of the three Lawn-Boy mowers I have owned, this one is the oldest, and makes the lawn look its best. A level cut lawn, as the ad used to say... It is always fun to mow when you can mow with a vintage mower!

 

[petek]

Here's a pic of it all set up and ready to go. It fired up on the second pull, whew. While the grass isn't long enough to cut yet it did pick up a lot of leaves in the bag. I like the Sensa Speed feature, it's much like a power-drive Hoover without the reverse. The Honda engine is very smooth, doesn't have that lawn-mower sound so much but it's a little bit noisy, like a Hoover as well. That I'm not so pleased with but then I don't have anything to compare it to other than the Sno King Tecumseh engine on our snow blower which is very noisy. This is in no way shape or form a vintage LawnBoy, even the mower deck is totally different. I noticed that on the new Ariens which had a deck similar to the vintage LB's and Jacobsons, now they have a deck much more like this one. I guess it has to do with mulching or something.

 

[rickr]

Great looking mower Pete. They have sure changed over the years. The deck on yours has a Toro look to it, for sure. My first boyfriends mom had a Toro in the early 1970's that had that same raised "ring" on the top of the deck. That mower was a bright red, and had, "TORO WHIRLWIND" across the top/front area of the deck. This mower had to be from the late 1960's
I mowed their lawn with this Toro one time. It was not self propelled, and was very heavy to push in comparison to the Lawn-Boy my parents had.

Good luck with your new mower. Looks like it is built very well.

BTW: I mowed my lawn last night for the second time this year. Because of the rain, it had not been mowed for two weeks, so it was getting pretty high.Just wore a light jacket while mowing. Now it is snowing and blowing so hard, that the lawn is covered in white snow!
The Mid-Worst weather can never make up it's mind! lol!!

 

[petek]

Rick, I'm surprised you're grass is so far ahead of ours since you're not that much farther south than we are here. We had that one warm week and since that cold snap, we didn't get any snow, it's taking forever to warm back up again. Once again what was supposed to be warmer this weekend hasn't evolved. It's not even got above 40 today GRRRRR. Here I was telling my other half that when we moved here we'd be having much earlier spring weather, well it's in the mid 60's back in Calgary this instant and it's 33 here.

 

[rickr]

Seems as most of our weather comes down from The Great Lakes Pete. So we never know what we might get. We had some nice weather awhile back. I even put the window a/c units in on the second floor. Now we are back to the Ice Age. lol!!
The ground is covered here, but the streets are not. It is still snowing, so we shall see.... <: