Right, there's no reason you shouldn't mulch with a Hi-Vac. The only functional difference is that the bottom lip on the deck is turned under for a Hi-Vac and outward for the dedicated mulchers with the A.I.R. designation. I mulch with a Hi-Vac all the time, and so do a bunch of lawn crews. Dan, I'm not familiar with a smaller OHV Robin. That would be interesting. I am familiar with the old L-head Robins, that I think might have been called WT1-185V or something like that. Although displacing the same as the EH18V, these would be much smaller and lighter due to the L-head configuration. They would also make a lot less power. But as you say, I'm sure they are anvil reliable. I thought about buying one on eBay once for a mower project, but never got around to it. My current mower is a C216012RV (commercial Hi-Vac with the monster Robin EH18V but no self-propel) that I added self-propel to. This thing was the deal of the century: the guy was local and listed it on eBay as a "Robin" mower instead of Snapper for $50 buy-it-now, IIRC. So nobody with a "Snapper" search ever saw it, and I snapped (pun intended) it up asap when I saw it. I went to pick it up, and it looked brand new. They guy couldn't start it, so he figured it was disposable. I got it home, cleaned out the carb, and it ran great. I added the drive system with parts I mostly had laying around, and now I have the Cadillac of Hi-Vacs (Cadi-Vac?).

I hate to ask this, but have you looked into a lawnboy 10642? For about the same price, you can get an electric start and a better mower than either of those. The guys on this site will back this up. When I saw that Snapper at sears, it looked pretty sorry. I guess if your set on just these two, I would have to say the Toro. I dont know about you, but I have used a few front wheel drive mowers in the past, and they are not as easy to turn as a rear wheel drive mower. I can only assume thats why the pros dont use them. Kyle

Hi snapper6xs. Are you still running? I have a 1991 RER with an 11 hp Briggs Intek, also intermittent no-spark situation. I replaced the magneto (it always seemed to die just when it got hot) rebuilt the carb, pulled the head and cleaned carbon off cylinder and valves, and replaced the safety switch interlock thingy. I seemed good for two cuttings and POW, it dies on me yesterday. I pulled the red wire off the post with the magneto kill wire and nothing. Then I pulled the magneto kill wire and it fired right off. Can that terminal block that it connects to expand and cause a ground situation when the block is hot? If so, what's the fix?

Not certain if the holes in the wings will alter the vacuum but there's a reason for the holes. There are optional wing extensions that bolt to those holes. The dealer supplied bagging blade should have been without the holes or explained to you the one supplied should have the optional extensions added. The extensions will add at least 50% additional air flow over the standard bagger blade. The steel deck is a little less efficient then your old aluminum deck and its blade. You may need the optional extensions to equal the old "A" deck. They weren't able to quite duplicate the the form of the molded "A" deck when stamping out a sheet of steel. It is not at all unuasual to have to apply one primer push to restart. .020" plug gap is correct if the engine is the Briggs Intek OHV model. Any other, no.