From a "marketing angle", the OEM of any product can utilize "creative" labeling or titling (naming, or describing the product) as an alternative to actually making improvements to a product. The company I worked for in the 1970's produced an engine for medium duty trucks. It was a V-8 Diesel. The engine was prone to lots of "small problems" (oil leakage, heavy smoke, difficult starting and some other things). The engine was introduced as "DV 550" (Diesel, V-8, 550 C.I.D.). After a few years on the market, the consumer became all too familiar with the "problems" and sales of the engine declined. Next, the same engine was renamed as a D-??? (insert applicable horsepower to fit specific rating chosen as it was offered in 3 choices of HP (example...D-190 ). Sales rose (somewhat). After a couple of years, sales sagged again (as people realized that this was the same engine). The last "title" bestowed on this engine (to my knowledge) was "9 Liter". Once again sales bounced up slightly only to fall again after the consumer found disfavor with the product. The point here is that with a lack of "Industry Standard Nomenclature" rules to cover how an OEM presents the product in the market, it can be called, or described as "whatever sounds attractive" to the potential buyer. Most of the time there are no "Bold face lies" in the labeling, you just have to peek under the camouflage and then comprehend what you see. Often (in corporate affairs), the "Sales Engineer" is the most highly revered of all "engineers".

This is all great and dandy but how can we apply this info? How can you compare older mowers (before 2008) to the newer ones (2008 onward) to make a decision on what to buy? I have decided to summarize the pertinent information in a very concise way so any consumer can have a starting point for comparison in a SIMPLE way. First, if you have an "older mower" you need to know its effective HP based on its operating RPM. Example: Want to know the actual HP of your older mower? Older mower is 6 HP. Multiply by 0.85 = 5.1 HP ("Real" HP) 0.85 = 3060/3600 (to convert from tested RPM to actual RPM) Too hard to calculate in your head on the spot? Try multiplying by 0.8, then add 0.3 to your answer. This is a close approximation. Want to know the torque of your older mower? First, make sure you know the "real" HP of your motor (as above). Then use the "real" HP as follows: Older mower is 5.1 HP. Divide by 0.6 (or multiply by 10 and divide by 6) = 8.5 ft-lb. Want to know the HP of a newer mower? Newer mower is 7 ft-lb torque. Multiply by 0.6 = 4.2 HP Remember, this is only to give you simple way to do a comparison but it is based on a few assumptions. (They are not important, just to keep it simple.) Don't bother trying to compare size or displacement of a motor shown in cc's for the simple reason that even B & S has the same 190 cc motor that is sold as a 6.75 ft-lb torque model all the way to an 8.5 ft-lb torque model. I hope this helps someone. It sure did for me when I had to buy a new one yesterday. (I registered on this forum just so I could share this.)

***"push mower with a little 3.5 Briggs Vert. crank engineWhat type of governor am I thinking about?"*** Dave, most all small Briggs engines in the 3.5 HP category have an air flow governor instead of a centrifugal governor. Air flow governors employ a "vane" (think of the vane as being analogous to the main sail of a sailboat) to catch the cooling air flowing from the "flywheel fan" on the crankshaft. The vane mounts on a pivot pin at one end. The vane is placed directly in the air flow plenum of the fan housing. A "calibrated spring" (this IS the "governor spring") pulls the vane "into the wind" as the wind tries to blow the vane away. The air flow and the calibrated spring accomplish a sort of push-pull balancing act. That is a general description of the operation principle. The control of RPM is like this: A stiff wire link connects from the vane to the throttle shaft bellcrank on the carb (may go through some linkage to get there). This throttle shaft bellcrank also has a spring that connects to the manual throttle control that the operator uses to select a certain RPM (actually, an "approximate" RPM). This spring, and the governor spring connected to the vane, play "tug of war", so to speak. The operator (human) moves the engine speed control to request higher RPM, this puts more tension on the manual control spring. The increased tension on the manual spring pulls against the tension of the governor spring. At this point, the manual spring is "in control" of the throttle shaft bellcrank, and the throttle shaft pivots to open the throttle "butterfly" further which allows more air/fuel to enter the engine "and away we go"....the engine RPM increases in response to the new throttle position. Well, the increased RPM also causes the fan to move a greater volume of air, which means that the governor vane now faces into a wind (sailboat time) of greater velocity and volume. With the more powerful wind pushing harder, the vane "regains control" of the throttle shaft bellcrank and stabilizes the throttle at the new, higher RPM setting. Because this type of governor uses two springs in a "tug'o war" fashion, the governor does have the capability to be "somewhat" self compensating and can react to a drop in RPM (lower fan output) by permitting the manual spring to pull the throttle bellcrank again because the slower fan speed has weakened the strength of the vane and thus, the governor spring is weaker too. The manual spring can once again open the throttle, and, hopefully, the engine RPM will recover and power the blades through that heavy crop of grass that grows over "the septic tank" (thank you Erma Bombeck, R.I.P.) Some of the "econo-box" engines of today have eliminated the operator's "manual" control cable and instead have the throttle manual control "locked" in the "max governed speed" position. The push-pull tug'o war still takes place, but the operator cannot choose to run the engine at lower RPM than the OEM and EPA will allow.

Enduring - Does your Bellwether have a smooth finish or is it very wavy? From what I can tell in your pictures, all of the shiny parts in your tub look very smooth (I'm looking specifically at the first picture in your 12/14/13 8:47am post). Looking at the reflection off of the corners and faces of the tub, it doesn't look like there is distortion in the finish? I'm asking because we have purchased a Bellwether and it's waiting for us at Home Depot. We've been by to pick it up but left it there because we weren't sure about the finish. We saw a Villager tub at HD (they carry the Villager in-store, but the Bellwether is special order only) and it had such an odd finish. Like giant orange peel. Perfectly imperfect and very strange looking. Like they hadn't waited long enough for the enamel (or whatever the white stuff is called) to settle before it set. The finish of the Bellwether they've got for us is a bit better but still quite odd. Now, I'm not looking for a perfect finish - I'm after the vintage, been there forever kind of look, and I absolutely love the way yours looks. But I'm worried about putting this tub next to smooth subway and porcelain hex tiles and having it look wavy and strange. I've attached a photo. The lighting at HD isn't great, but I think you can see where the finish is uneven by looking where the light is reflecting vs. not - it's splotchy rather than an even transition between reflection and no reflection. Does yours do that? Your pictures sure don't look like it but it's hard to tell. Thank you so much for your time! I really want to be able to use this tub as the price and look are right. And it's one of the only CI 30x60 tubs on the market - we really don't have the extra 2" for a 32" tub, so I want to make this work, but I'm not sure if I'm being too picky.