Drug home a couple more Lawn Boys yesterday

[Cujet]

i only stopped using them as i cant stand the staggered wheel decks for comercial use. if you compare them to the suzuki 2 stroke and the robin 2stroke-then yes they seem like junk

The staggered wheels are less than ideal. I don't find them horrible, and most of the time I don't notice. But like you, I prefer a more conventional setup.

The strong point of the better Lawn Boy two strokes would be the light weight and torque. Despite torturing my Silver Series 6.5HP Lawn Boy 2 stroke, wobbly wheels, cracked deck and all, nothing I own matches it's capability. It will mow 2 foot tall grass and I can pull it backwards uphill without pulling a muscle.

The superb commercial 2 stroke Suzuki/Toro mowers are pretty much unobtainium now.

 

[bunnspecial]

Since I first started mowing when I was maybe 10 or 12 years old, I've rarely used anything but a stagger deck. Of course I had a decade long period in there where I didn't touch a mower at all(living in a townhouse...) but still that's been most of my time. After my wife and I got married and moved in together, mowing became my job and I used the cheap Murray-branded mower she bought when she'd bought the house from fall of 2020 to spring of last year. Since then I've been back 100% to stagger decks.

If you're side discharging, they discharge VERY efficiently. The stagger allows for a near straight shot from the front of the blade out the chute. With a good condition blade I can get 6-8 feet of grass throw. I rarely bag, but bagging is also very efficient on them especially compared to out-the-back bagging(I realize there are a few other makes out there that run the bag chute from the same location as the LB chute fits). The mower can also fit in much tighter places than one with wheels at all 4 corners if you approach things correctly. The offset wheel can help smooth out scalping on bumps.

A few weeks back I was out of commission thanks to a minor operation, and my FIL kindly came over and mowed a couple of times using my 7262. The first time he used it, he hated it and managed to miss a few spots. By the second time, he'd come around to it and appreciated how maneuverable the mower was. Lining up a cut where the staggered side is on the outside is not necessarily intuitive as you need to use the right rear wheel for reference. With that said, when you have 25 years(on and off) of using this type of deck, it is second nature.

BTW, I tried bagging last week for a change. I gave up here with 1/3 of the yard left to go...

 

[super20dan]

The staggered wheels are less than ideal. I don't find them horrible, and most of the time I don't notice. But like you, I prefer a more conventional setup.

The strong point of the better Lawn Boy two strokes would be the light weight and torque. Despite torturing my Silver Series 6.5HP Lawn Boy 2 stroke, wobbly wheels, cracked deck and all, nothing I own matches it's capability. It will mow 2 foot tall grass and I can pull it backwards uphill without pulling a muscle.

The superb commercial 2 stroke Suzuki/Toro mowers are pretty much unobtainium now.

i have 4 left. i bought a bunch in the 1990,s . you should see the insides on them you have never seen a more overbuilt engine in your life. the lawn boy is more powerfull but much less robust in the long run. carbs ,coils and pull starts often fail. exaust ports and mufflers clog up also. the best ones were the toro era ones. the f and dura force engine ones. pre toro the self propel systems were a joke. i still have a bunch of lawnboys but refuse to take them to work as the staggered deck just add time/work to the yard by only trimming on one side . the staggered deck also dosnt handle hills and ditches well .

 

[bunnspecial]

Well, regardless of opinions of how much of a pile of junk Lawn Boys are , I've found them rather interesting to collect and also enjoy using them a lot.

This thread has sort of evolved into a way for me to share what has become a growing collection-and a working collection at that since I do use them(although I haven't used the bricktop-yet).

I realize I'm not a commercial user, but considering that on nearly a weekly basis I use the 1973 7262, I think that's at least a decent endorsement as to their longevity potential. The 7262 had pretty obviously been used a lot before I bought it.

BTW, even my year old Echo trimmer cautions about the exhaust sooting up. On the Lawn Boys I usually clean the ports when I first get them as much as anything because it gives me a chance to inspect the pistons, but even after a decent bit of use I rarely find them dirty again using Lawn Boy branded TC-W3 at 32:1. I've had to rebuild exactly one starter due to a broken recoil spring, but the replacement was inexpensive and on the D series engines you can often pull the starter without having to remove the engine shroud.

So, I like them and for me find them very practical tools that, as I said, are also fun to collect and repair/restore.

 

[bunnspecial]

Pictures to come, but I'm excited to start on a new project.

I had sort of been asking around for a 21" pre-compliance F mower. My friend up in Iowa who sold me the bricktop 19" and the other recent additions offered me a good used 21" deck that would accept an F100 engine.

He offered to build it into a complete model 7268, but I passed for a specific reason. In a purchase a few months ago, I managed to get a "frankenmower" with a 70s deck 19" deck meant to take a D400 engine but that had been fitted with an F100 engine. The deck is pretty badly pitted and overall it's not worth saving, but in addition to the complete F100 assembly(engine, mounting plate, muffler) has good wheels, height adjusters, and other miscellanous pieces. It came to me with a jar of parts, but I put it together enough to see that the F100 engine ran fine.

So, the plan is to strip that one down, give the engine a mild refresh, and then install it on this recently acquired deck to have a good working 7268-a 21" pre-compliance F-engine push mower. The only major part I'm lacking is the correct engine shroud/gas tank but there are a few on Ebay(I'm eying one now and hoping I can come to a deal with the seller) and in general this is not a difficult one to find. There were a few different models, including the 19" of the same age and also the self-propelled equivalent(8268? Don't hold me to that) which take the same shroud.

 

[super20dan]

i agree old lawnboys are fun and i have a bunch of them but once you use the best commercial mowers of all time -you get spoiled /jaded