Well, here's my experience... I have had the Mackissic 12PT10 for about 7 or 8 years or so now... I primarily bought this model hoping to shred my crazy jungle full of palm fronds and giant bird of paradise here in So. Cal. First of all this hammermill chipper/shredder works awesome for any woody type material... it just eats em up without any problems at all.. The circular knife shredder/hopper portion of the unit works awesome for long branches also. As for wet stuff like palm fronds the hammermill can work fairly well, but you gotta have a system down, otherwise the thing will just get clogged up with a bunch of wet mush. Another problem with palm fronds is that they can wrap around the shaft and bind it up fairly easily... Don't put the fronds in the hopper, it will bind and cause problems. Steps to keep this thing from clogging or binding.. 1. the metal screen that comes with 1 to 2 inch holes is no good for palm fronds and wet materials.. I ended up cutting out the holes so that they were about 3 inches or so with my handy grinder. Bigger holes in the screen is better, but can't just remove screen because the fronds will just shoot out and not get shredded at all, so just use a screen with giant holes. Works waaaay better. 2. It's best not to throw full length palm fronds in the hammermill, it will slow it down.. Recommend cutting them first into 12 or 16 inch lengths first before shredding them.. Same with the giant bird of paradise leaves/stems. Note: recently I have been using an electric lawnmower to shredd my giant bird paradise leaves/stems... it will shredd em so dang fast.. just tilt the lawn mower up and open the side exhaust/bag connection shoot and feed the giant leaves (stems first). Whatever is left at the end can easily be thrown into the 12PT10.. 3. Also after a few years, the hammermills do get a bit dull. Just take a cheap 4" carbon fiber grinding disk and sharpen up the edges of each of those small steel hammers.. Doesn't take long. Just remove the screen and you can sharpen them up while they are still mounted on the machine. My yard has about 50 palm trees and 20 giant birds that I need to tend too myself along with tons of other tropicals, so this 12PT10 has come in real handy for creating my super mulch pile.. Beets putting out 12 or 15 cans each week overfull of fronds and cuttings.

Lary, These are forward rotating tine machines, not counter-rotating tines. All of the old Horses were this way. Bill, The number you posted is just a casting number, not the serial number. Look below the T-handle and clean all the gunk off to find a serial number. Parts that you need are readily available from a bunch of sources, including MTD (who took over for Troy Bilt) Jenice, If you have the 6HP Tecumseh engine, you dont have all of the model number. What you posted is the "spec" number. Your model number is most likely HH60. Use that model number, and you shouldnt have any problem finding the carb kit. The recoil starter may be a little bit harder to find.

So let me ask ... What is wrong with the lawn chief - is it something(s) that is simply going to be cost prohibitive to fix ? Compared to laying down $2,$3,$4k down on a new tractor with a blade (or snow blower attachment). After all - you already have the blade (or snow blower attachment). Thats not going to be cheap to replace with a new ride. You may also wish to factor in, with regards to buying used there is a 50/50% chance that your going to be repairing someone else's problem(s) on an already expensive purchase. Even if its the motor that's non-repairable - with a little hunting you could still easily replace the motor somewhere around $300-$700 ... Plus fix a few other things that might be broken or near worn out ? If yours is fixable at good price (compared to the $4k new option) then why not fix it? Some (a lot) of the box store units are not going to survive your routine (at least like your lawn chief did). Fix the lawn chief ? Whats wrong with it ? either way - good luck to you.

Hum, I read there to be some improvements in 1990+ vintage Yamaha, maybe a CD electronic ignition like the one I just replaced. Oh, on rethinking the $2,500.00 USD was for 9.9 HP 4 cycle, I'd bet a 20 HP would be at least $3,500 - a guess only. I got the boat/engine out for a test run this afternoon, it was a little hard to start, started and died when the choke pushed in.. got better. Ran well a both partial and wide open, but wouldn't idle at low rpm without dieing. I recalled I had screwed the idle jet screw on the carb before determining the engine had no spark. So, when I got back to the dock I stood in my hip boots with the engine in the lake and adjusted the idle screw... seems best at about 4 turns out ... much more out than any past engine I've worked on. It now seems to idle well at low rpm. I took sandwich and beer (not allowed, so I didn't really do the beer part if this post is read by a NJ Ranger :( ) and fished for a couple of hours, mostly trolling with a large swim-bait. I got nothing and didn't see much on the sonar either. I didn't use a down-rigger so the swim bait was likely no more than 20 feet down, the fish I saw were mostly 35' or more down.. also threw a jig several times. Any tips on a web site that give good advice on best hooks and rigging for swim bates?