I bought the 10685 last season b/c I had to have a Lawnboy and couldn't find a new 2 cycle close to home. I've since found a few, but still use my 10685 quite often. For mulching its great, side discharge is about as good as any I guess (never really heard of anyone proclaiming the discharge quality of their mower), and it bags well too, but... In my opinion the bag is a bit small. If you stay on top of your grass cutting, and don't let it get too high, then you should be OK. I was accustomed to a snapper hi-vac with a much larger bag and could go so much further before needing to empty the bag, however the LB does a nicer job of bagging than the snapper did. The tec6.5 has tremendous power also. There are many here that knock the newer lawnboys, and I can understand that with the cult following the 2 cycle LB's have... They are purists and thats cool. I wouldn't trade my 10323's or 10550 for anything, but I also don't mind having the 10685 around at all. **Personal experience story - following hurricane Katrina, we were cut off from returning to our homes for weeks. I had been way behind on cutting my grass (almost 3 weeks since last cut when the storm hit) and it was at least 3-4 weeks until I got home after the storm. The house had been flooded due to the local govt. deciding to not run the drainage pumps and we had an extreme amount of work to do. After a full day of removing furniture, drywall, etc. I felt the need to actually see an improvement in the house so I went out to the shed (raised 18" off the ground so didn't flood) and pulled out the 10685. The lawn was hideous to say the least, but I needed to get this done. I setup for side-discharge, jacked the wheels all the way up (4") and just walked through the lawn. The mower slowed/bogged down maybe 3 times throughout the whole cut. You can only imagine the windrows that were left behind... I made a 2nd pass with the wheels set a bit lower (3.5") and concentrated on running over all the piles of grass, and then made a 3rd run mulching with the wheels set just at my normal cut height (3") and finished up for the day. While my finished product was not a 'beautiful' manicured lawn, it was 100x's better than it was before. It at least made me feel like something was getting done and I actually got comments on how nice the mower cut over the next few days from neighbors. It's funny how something like a lawnmower can change a situation and attitude so drastically. Good luck with your purchase. -mike s.

Thank you so much for the warning, even 10 yrs later it's still advertised steel sleeve. I wondered as I'm looking to buy a new engine to set back for future replacement since new throwaway designs (never change oil) are so terrible. Not sure how briggs durability in the future is but I know their past and getting one while I can. Its for my 1996 Snapper self propelled mower, I saw the 875 JD engine sold alone online. I knew B/S site says the 875 is just aluminum bore & the 850 is sleeved but I thought JD ordered them special maybe? This is not the case as I suspected and how I found these posts. Oh well' now I learned at least a few things on my project. 1} Snapper disc drive self propels outlast 3+ engines easy. My lawncare friends snapper SP deck outlasted (2 Briggs,1 Honda so far). 2} JD really are a bunch of liars. 3} The 850 Pro is the real Briggs Pro engine under Vanguard. To anyone who thinks steel sleeves are not needed in Aluminum engines try telling this to GM...Mention them saving a few bucks producing the Vega , as that is why it's engine failed at 30k on average. Sleeved aluminum engines are in almost every car today, my old Toyota had 420k when I sold it 5 years ago, still see it around town. One truck near me here, Google this: Clyde glides to a million. Thanks again!!

Assuming you end up going JD, I would skip your question as to fitting into a pick-up at the store and change it to why would anyone buy from box store instead of the real dealer who delivers. There are lots of threads on this, but I don't actually recall any positive reasons for box store expect a few cases where the buyer has gotten a sale price from store on a special. Otherwise, the prices are same, and everything from careful storage before sale, through proper set-up and buyer introduction to machine, to home delivery, to more responsive dealer service (if bought from them versus them servicing a box store purchase) all favor buying from dealer initially. I would actually buy from dealer even if there was a sale at HD (within reason). For the pick-up question, assume the deck will be off, as it would be much easier even if the deck did fit. The real question under this one is the ease of deck removal. All manufacturers have been making decks ever easier to remove, as this is a very convenient feature for anyone who does even basic home maintenance. It is a feature that you should compare on competing choices to see which you like better. My 2002 era JD LT160 deck takes me around five minutes to install or remove, moving slowly. The JD 165 before that (from 1986) was a lot more bother, and I don't even remember the mechanics of removing my first JD deck, on a Model 57 from 1975, but it was a pain. You can also get a drift from the above that I lean JD, and the time gaps between the mowers above represents my holding periods. Each of the old mowers was sold after all of those years at a very good percentage of the original price, which is another JD feature not matched by most other brands.

There seems to be a homeowner spending threshold of $1499 on lawn tractors and to be honest the average home owner would likely be served fine by anything in the $999 - $1499 range if they take care of their equipment.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> JD made the decision to sell at this price point to increase sales. If truly a lesser quality machine, one would expect more repairs. Why the dealer would not welcome this extra repair revenue escapes me. My guess is that, under warranty, JD does not reimburse them at the same rate they charge regular folk for non-warranty repairs. In either event, they are shooting themselves in the foot by not playing fair with all customers. In fact, if you believe the ‘lesser quality’ $1499 model indeed tarnishes the JD reputation, you’d think the dealers would be going out of their way to treat you right to make up for JD’s ‘foolish mistake’ to sell that model to begin with. Further, the 'cursory' 20 minute inspection vs an hour at the dealer sounds fishy to me to begin with but putting you at the back of the line just further hurts the JD name by creating droves of disgruntled customers who no doubt will be coming on with their ‘lesser quality units’ that were only ‘cursory’ inspected now having to wait weeks for a repair! I really personally think the $1499 model is probably fine for your average homeowner. I t may not last 25 years but so what…your not paying $3000 for it. I think it offends the buyers of the expensive machines more than anyone else. I recently bought a Cub for $1699 after looking at a JD, an Ariens and a Husky. My preference is always to support my local dealer when possible and many times the pricing is the same anyway. The JD dealer pointed out he did not sell the $1499 HD model…’plastic tranny and crappy seat’ he said. I respected him for telling me that. Sadly he really did not want to spend more than 2 to 3 minutes with me to explain why I needed to spend $300 more for his base model…sort of had the attitude…’Bye…gotta go sell some big farm equipment’. I quickly moved on. The Husky dealer was not thrilled that Lowes sold his brand either BUT…he bad mouthed the Husky in general anyway and tried to move me to some $3500 thing I could not afford. Again, I respected that but I moved on. I ended up buying my cub at a dealer. I probably would have been just as well served by the JD or the Husky…