Honda Mowers sold at Home Depot?

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Superbuick96

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Are the Honda brand mowers sold at Home Depot made specificly for H.D.? I noticed the prices are roughly $50.00 cheaper, then if you were to buy a Honda brand mower from an authorized dealer, or from Honda direct. Im aware that Toro,Lawnboy,and Troy-bilt make cheaper versions of they're mowers for the big box stores, but have never heard anything yet of Honda doing so....Just wondered if anyone knew for sure?
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: Superbuick96
Im aware that Toro,Lawnboy,and Troy-bilt make cheaper versions of they're mowers for the big box stores,

Where's the proof of that? The Toro I bought this year at HD looked exactly like the one I inspected at Ace Hardware.
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: Superbuick96
Im aware that Toro,Lawnboy,and Troy-bilt make cheaper versions of they're mowers for the big box stores,

Where's the proof of that? The Toro I bought this year at HD looked exactly like the one I inspected at Ace Hardware.


+1. If you have proof of that, I'd like to see it.

As far as any company making cheaper versions of their product for the big box stores, there is nothing unethical about that, UNLESS the cheaper version has the same name and/or model number as the "better" prodcut sold by another dealer. I'd guess that most OPE manufacturers make lower end products available to the big box retailers, while most of the small independent dealers of said equipment choose not to carry the lower-end products.
 
Originally Posted By: Superbuick96
Are the Honda brand mowers sold at Home Depot made specificly for H.D.? I noticed the prices are roughly $50.00 cheaper, then if you were to buy a Honda brand mower from an authorized dealer, or from Honda direct. Im aware that Toro,Lawnboy,and Troy-bilt make cheaper versions of they're mowers for the big box stores, but have never heard anything yet of Honda doing so....Just wondered if anyone knew for sure?


What you're probably seeing is mowers branded "powered by honda" with honda engines on them. A few manufacturers are doing that now, and MTD is one of them. MTD makes a clone of a honda that is the same color as Honda's push model (the HRR2166PDC) but with a [censored] deck. Honda mowers have 2 blades on all their mowers now (the quadra cut system), other manufacturers have one.

Take a look next time and see if you can find a manufacturers sticker behind the engine. Most likely its made by MTD or White Outdoor Equipment. Honda's been only selling their true mowers to independent dealers forever, and I doubt that is going to change soon. Although Ariens started being carried at HD.

It doesn't make a difference on the cheap mowers anyway if its powered by honda or not. Even if it's powered by a Briggs, the motor is going to outlast the mowing deck anyway.
 
Originally Posted By: wavinwayne
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Superbuick96 said:
Im aware that Toro,Lawnboy,and Troy-bilt make cheaper versions of they're mowers for the big box stores,

Where's the proof of that? The Toro I bought this year at HD looked exactly like the one I inspected at Ace Hardware.


+1. If you have proof of that, I'd like to see it.

"In 2007, the low-end lawn and garden tractor products were outsourced to be manufactured by MTD and sold at Home Depot stores"-Wiki Toro Page
"2007 - Began building the low-end lawn & garden tractors for Toro (company)

2008 - Began having a third-party company (located in China) manufacture a new line of engines for the Craftsman 2008 line of Snowthrowers. They are no longer building them with Tecumseh engines."Troy-Bilt Wiki

Ive heard that if you buy a John Deere tractor from a Big Box it comes with a Briggs, but if you buy it from a Autorized dealer it comes with a Commercial grade Kawasaki...

Its a fact that That Toro and L.B make Home Depot exclusive mowers, the L.B. comes with smaller deck then other versions...

Im not claiming to be any athourity on mowers, perhaps its bad assumptions to think versions made for retailers are of a lesser quality then if you were to buy from a authorized dealer. Ive read allot on this topic on a lawn and garden forum. But we all know how forums work, everyone claims to know everything.
 
On the HD Toro model issue, I recall someone posting that they found that all models at HD had steel decks, while the "real" models at OPE dealers for very little more had the proper alloy decks.

I know it isn't "proof", but I believe that's the basis of the claim. Perhaps someone else has quotes.
 
Yes, what he said ^ and they also have steel wheels with ball bearings. Not sure about the motors but I bet they are OHV, not flat head.

If you go to lawnsite.com (a professional lawncare business owners' site) none of those guys buy big box "junk."

I have a Toro from Home Depot which "feels" cheap but will in all probability out last me.
 
Originally Posted By: Nayov
Yes, what he said ^ and they also have steel wheels with ball bearings.

The specific Toro model I bought (20333) had steel deck and plastic wheels at both HD and Ace Hardware. Don't know about other Toro dealers.

However, the specs on Toro's site show the deck material to be "steel" and all the photos show plastic wheels, so I highly doubt it that some other dealers get this specific model in a different configuration, made of more expensive components.

That's not to say that other models may be different.
 
Originally Posted By: Superbuick96
..Ive heard that if you buy a John Deere tractor from a Big Box it comes with a Briggs, but if you buy it from a Autorized dealer it comes with a Commercial grade Kawasaki...


That's just a matter of a JD LA100 series vs. the JD X300 series that you cannott get at a deptartment/big box store anyway. You need to step up to a $3000 (minimum) 300 series deere to get a Kawasaki engine. In regards to the OP's Toro question; Lowes, HD, Ace, etc.. only sells the low end Toro products. The same low end stuff you can get a dealer. If you wan't the 'real' Toro pushmowers or lawn/garden tractors you have to go to a dealer. Here's a real toro mower (heavy cast alum. deck, Kawi engine), as far as tractors go, unless you want a ZTR or commerical walk-behind, it looks like MTD makes ALL the Toro lawn tractors now:
hdwpm22164_34r_193815_xl.jpg



Joel
 
JTK is correct. the big box stores sell the low end products from Toro, Lawn Boy and JD.
You can get these at dealers too, but the higher levels are the big sellers at the dealer end of things.
The top of the line Toro has a Honda motor as does the Lawn-Boys.
The Kawazaki engine is only available in the 26 hp rider.
 
I can vouch that those snowthrowers are Chinese engines.... We bought one this past fall. It's a Honda clone, but its from some chinese engine maker. Can't remember the name.
 
Oh my, that's a beauty. How much is that (can't find it on their site)? It must be an OHV (with an oil filter?) and probably has cast iron liners. Love it.


hdwpm22164_34r_193815_xl.jpg
 
So I looked at their prices and their commerical line is $800 to $1500 for the walk behind models. Impressive stats for the engine (Kawasaki):

Crankshaft: tapered, 50mm long; recoil start

FJ180V Model Series Features

Overhead Valve
New Combined Crankcase Design
Forced Lubrication with Redesigned Oil Pump [filter?]
Cast Iron Cylinder Liner and Chrome Plated Piston Rings
Extra Large Dual-element Air Cleaner
Large Muffler
Rotating Grass Screen
High Inertia Flywheel
Better Cooling with Large Size Sealed Fan
Electronic Spark Ignition
Precision Mechanical ACR
Meets EPA Phase-2 Regulation
 
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Originally Posted By: Nayov
So I looked at their prices and their commerical line is $800 to $1500 for the walk behind models. Impressive stats for the engine (Kawasaki)


The nice thing about a hi dollar commercial machine is the overall quality of the structure. The nice stiff deck, wheel hardware, handlebar hardware, etc.. stays together over the years and doesn't get all loosy goosy on you making it a chore to use. IMO, I wouldn't care if there was a Chinese made OHV engine on that $800 Toro. It's the deck and everything else that counts to me.

Joel
 
Originally Posted By: mechjames
Originally Posted By: Superbuick96
Are the Honda brand mowers sold at Home Depot made specificly for H.D.? I noticed the prices are roughly $50.00 cheaper, then if you were to buy a Honda brand mower from an authorized dealer, or from Honda direct. Im aware that Toro,Lawnboy,and Troy-bilt make cheaper versions of they're mowers for the big box stores, but have never heard anything yet of Honda doing so....Just wondered if anyone knew for sure?


What you're probably seeing is mowers branded "powered by honda" with honda engines on them. A few manufacturers are doing that now, and MTD is one of them. MTD makes a clone of a honda that is the same color as Honda's push model (the HRR2166PDC) but with a [censored] deck. Honda mowers have 2 blades on all their mowers now (the quadra cut system), other manufacturers have one.

Take a look next time and see if you can find a manufacturers sticker behind the engine. Most likely its made by MTD or White Outdoor Equipment. Honda's been only selling their true mowers to independent dealers forever, and I doubt that is going to change soon. Although Ariens started being carried at HD.

It doesn't make a difference on the cheap mowers anyway if its powered by honda or not. Even if it's powered by a Briggs, the motor is going to outlast the mowing deck anyway.


I have noted the HONDA powered stuff and then the HONDA powered mower with HONDA on the Deck and Bag with no other names also offered in a couple of the BOX stores. Think both Lowes and the Depot.
 
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