What about Snapper, they have 2 different walk behind mower lines now. Their top of the line seems nearly identical to mowers they were making decades ago. Everything seems old time heavy duty. Which leads to a few big positives. Reliable proven design, dependable, and when yo do need a part chances are it will be available. (A problem I had with a 10 yr old Murray, sure those generic parts are available at big retailers, as well as some parts for more recent models, but they like to keep you buying new equipment every few years.) Plus they are mostly sold at dealers who are also service shops. When you need your mower serviced, the big retailer wont be the one you bring it to. Look at many of the mowers they have discounted in their discount area. Usually the ones returned for one reason or another often with the sticker of the local repair shop that serviced the machine. Snappers other line is new and designed and priced to compete with mowers sold at the big retailers. Im not sure about the dependability, but if you are using them with different teen operators and on Camp sized property with hills and such with enough area needed mow that two mowers would be needed to cut it quickly then it may be wise to purchase from an authorized service / dealer like Snapper. And the prices online at Snapper are suggested list only. When I got my new Snapper I had moved from a flat 7000 sq ft lawn to a sloped 20,000 sq ft lawn. Considering I had 3 times the amount of lawn, I definetly wanted self propelled, mulching, and a high quality motor. So I picked the old style Snapper mulching deck with the 6hp Kawasaki engine that is used on many commercial models for $599 , $100 under list without bargaining. If I had gone with the standard B&S engine it probably would have been closer to the price of the Deere yout mentioning since the mulch only B&S Snapper is listed at $499 and your planning to get two so you could probably get a nice deal. Ariens also makes a nice mower I was considering, but the Ariens dealer wasnt as close as my local Snapper dealer. Also considering the other equpiment you have it would be even more of a reason for me to buy from a Dealer / Service shop as opposed to a big retailer.

Well, I shortened the fuel line just slightly so it's running entirely downhill. Recleaned carburetor, this time with a WaterPick (the kind you use to clean your teeth that shoots little jets of water -- my new favorite carb cleaning method, because you don't have to fear spraying carb cleaner in your eye and can watch whether the water's come out well or not). Unbent a staple and recleaned the holes in the carb bolt. In the process of disassembling and reassembling, I discovered that one of the screws holding the air filter housing had a flat tip, while the other had a cone-shaped tip. It struck me as odd that the flat-ended one was in the hole that had gas and air passing through it, so I reversed them and put the cone-shaped one in the hole that had gas and air going through it. Somewhere along the line, I seem to have solved the problem, because I cut grass with the mower for about 20 minutes and it ran fine. So thanks for all the tips. Now my only concerns are: 1) my ear senses that the mower seems to be running a bit fast, and 2) the mower is definitely very loud compared to other mowers (muffler dosen't have any obvious external defects or holes). For what it's worth, the exhaust air seems to be blowing out of the muffler with tremendous force -- none of my other mowers make flowers, etc. flap in the breeze like this one does. Thoughts?

DougMac, You have a good point. Dew is a great natural mister that will cut down dust on days we have it. Without any additional work or the dreaded dragging out of the hose (from a gimps point of view) However, as the devils advocate I read (perhaps a Scotts flier we used to get) or heard on a lawn care segment many years ago that it is best to cut in the evening. Here is why more or less as I member: When you mow in the mornings, the grass is shocked more so than when you mow in the evenings. The sun does a number on the newly exposed grass leaves left after mowing no longer shaded by the cut part. Particularly if you break the golden rule of never cutting more than 1/4 to 1/3 of the blade height at one cutting. In the evening the shock is much less since the grass has a chance to recover overnight and it may get misted by dew before the sun beats down on it. A good 16 to 18 hours of rest or recovery period of sorts. Akin to us sleeping to get recharged for the next day (does grass sleep?). Anyhow it made a lot of sense to me and I have always done so since informed while I was able to mow. Now that I cannot mow from my wheelchair, I as a rule still forbid my wife to cut in the mornings. Particularly in the middle of the day that being the worst case scenario shock wise. On the other hand since the lawn now looks like crap anyway under my wifeÂs loving care, perhaps I should rethink my golden rules. She might be happier and the lawn may just go from terrible to just slightly a hair more than terrible. :-) I guess what I am saying is that this theory might only apply if you truly are hell bent on having the best lawn on the block organically or otherwise. Sort of an edge or sorts for those anal retentive types concerned to the nth degree about what their lawns look like. Or just plain like a lush green carpet of grass blades. Boy do I miss it! The green natures carpet that is. Not the work. Seems like we (or I) have much more important things to spend time on these days such as trying not to think about the inevitable soft drink or another sinister plot someone will get on board a planeÂnot entirely what it seems to beÂ.just a matter of time. Or enticing that elusive 18" rainbow to take your most recent cricket imitation creation What do you think about them apples? Thanks, Radar

Another year has passed and two cycle Lawn Boy mowers continue to increase in value and are sought after by many for restoration and use. To all the people who posted here 14 years ago how are your four strokes doing? Are they worth as much as a two cycle Lawn Boy? As I previously mentioned, one of the most important factors that brought the two cycle Lawn Boys strongly into the 21st century was the improvements made in two cycle oil. Today’s oils are nearly smokeless , produce soft carbon, and give excellent lubrication at a 50:1 mix ratio. Lawn Boy manuals printed in the 1970s said to check the ports every 50 hours of operation and warn about the danger of carbon particles breaking loose and scoring the piston. They also say to remove, clean and gap the spark plug every 25 hours. We have to assume these maintenance intervals were based on using Lawn Boy oil at a 32:1 ratio. At the time these manuals were written, Lawn Boy Engineers might have had a hard time believing that one day their mowers would go 300 plus hours on the same CJ-14 spark plug without removing it once, and only need port checking and cleaning at 100 hr. intervals with no worry of hard carbon scoring. They might have been even more surprised to learn this would be possible using a 50:1 mix ratio. Oil has changed so much since then that it could now be said that using the old Lawn Boy oil today would be the last thing you would want for your two cycle Lawn Boy.