Higher End Mower to recommend to Customers

[The motor guy]

Higher end? That's open ended. Why not recommend a commercial grade 21" exmark or toro mower. (same company) Come with either the Honda GXV160 5.5hp or the Kawasaki FJ180V 6hp and both have a 3 speed transmission. You're looking at 1100-1300 dollars though, depending on if you want the one with the blade brake, which I don't recommend unless you don't mind replacing the belt every couple years. It stretches and has to be replaced cause the blade slips. Tightening the cable doesn't work for some reason.

 

[bubbatime]

Originally Posted By: punisher
A couple times a year I look at the Toro Super Recycler, and try to justify it.....but I can't.


Like I said, they are 25 year mowers. Very durable. Buy a 5 year old one, and it wont even be broken in yet. I have bought AT LEAST 20 of them for under $100 off Craigslist. Some of them needed minor work, some of them were perfect, and some of them needed new engines. My best score was from a scrapper that sold a perfectly fine 4 year old Super Recycler with a busted wheel for $5. I put a new wheel on it and sold it for $200. Craigslist is where it is at. Check the classifieds several times a day.

Just one example. 18 months old for $200. This mower will last you most of your mowing lifetime and is MUCH better than any new $200 mower you can get at a big box store.
https://tampa.craigslist.org/hil/for/5509977533.html

 

[Merkava_4]

All the Pros use these Toro Commercial mowers. If you look at any gardening rig in California, you'll see at least one of these in the trailer. I don't know what's so great about them; I've never used one. I have touched one though and they seem very well built. The deck is 1/4'' thick aluminum and tires are real rubber.

 

[Justin251]

When I worked for a lawn service right out of high school we had some customers that only wanted theirs done with a push mower.

We had a honda that was very heavy but it did cut very evenly and cleanly and made the yards look very nice. Luckily most of those were relatively small parts and we could cut the larger sections with the zero turns. Also, the pushmowers didn't ever leave ruts in someone's yard.

If you google lawn mowers they have a list of the hightest rated mowers and TORO is near the top of the list for both push and riding mowers.

 

[JTK]

I don't think I've ever seen a local lawn service use anything other than a cheap MTD or Husqvarna group built 21" mower. They seem to put all their resources into the ZTRs, trimmers, blowers and everything else. Last time I priced one of those Toro commercial units, they were ~$1600. Great stuff I'm sure, but WOW.

 

[The motor guy]

Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
All the Pros use these Toro Commercial mowers. If you look at any gardening rig in California, you'll see at least one of these in the trailer. I don't know what's so great about them; I've never used one. I have touched one though and they seem very well built. The deck is 1/4'' thick aluminum and tires are real rubber.

Until a few years ago, they've been making the same deck design since about 1985 and they're simple as dirt, thus being reliable.

 

[The motor guy]

Originally Posted By: JTK
I don't think I've ever seen a local lawn service use anything other than a cheap MTD or Husqvarna group built 21" mower. They seem to put all their resources into the ZTRs, trimmers, blowers and everything else. Last time I priced one of those Toro commercial units, they were ~$1600. Great stuff I'm sure, but WOW.


Depends on the area. Many people in my area use the exmark commercial 30. $1900.00 In some areas where their is nothing but acreage to cut a lawn service may only use the 21" mower for an hour or two a week, so their is no need to pay a ton of money for something to sit on the trailer.

 

[CincyDavid]

I bought my wife a Toro Super Recycler 20382 from our local mower shop to replace a Honda HRX217 that kept having transmission issues. The Toro has a Honda engine, and once she adjusted to the Personal Pace system, she likes it. Other local shops had a similar mower with the Chinese engine, and I just felt better about the Honda engine.

I still prefer to use my raggedy old Snapper Hi-Vac with the turned-under deck edge and a 5.5 HP B&S engine, unless the grass is really wet. The bagging chute on the Snapper tends to clog in wet, heavy grass, and the Toro's more open design just dumps the clippings in the bag, no matter how heavy and wet it is. I was given a Snapper with the curled-out deck edge, and a bigger B&S engine, I think 6.75HP, but it just never seemed to have the same suction as the other Snapper, so I gave it to someone who needed a free mower.

I maintain my mowers, but I just know that my neighbors just run theirs until they break, then run to Lowe's or Home Depot and buy a new one. I wish I had looked at Snappers when I bought the Toro, a "real" Snapper, not the [censored] ones at big box stores, is a formidable machine.