A couple favors you can do for yourself. First, sign up for the Craftsman Club, you can find the information on the Craftsman website. Second, wait until nest week to buy your mower. Third and final is to find one of the salespeople in your local Sears that you can talk to and build some kind of working relationship with. Remember through the process that all mowers are going to be similar, but the stores that sell them have different ideas of service. All of them, however are bound by the terms of the manufacturer's warranty unless it is overridden by a separate contract. Sears is the only store I have found that makes an actual repair plan available to the public that covers normal wear and offers replacement under so many different conditions while offering the service to be done in-house rather than through an "authorized service center" which may take you miles further than returning to the store you bought the item at. If you build that relationship this week, ask your salesperson if there are any special sales coming up on the mower. (Inside tip: there is a "VIP Event" scheduled for Sunday May 3 from 6-9 PM.) As a Craftsman owner and Sears employee, I think that you would do well with the Craftsman item #37640, based on what you said about your lawn. If you'd like the convenience of a Key Start, upgrade to item #37659. Best Wishes!

Two things: First you probably need to adjust the clutch on the drive side tighter. If a little loose, the rod will move past a detent and stay engaged. If tighter, you can't get past the detent, yet still engage the wheels. I used to get comebacks from people complain the clutch wouldn't "lock-on". By the same token some folks like yourself prefer to use thumb pressure and not stay "on". In both cases the correct clutch adjustment is key. Second, as previous poster states, there used to be a little "hairspring" on the control rod, where it connects to the clutch rod. Not sure it was optional, but many early Tru-Cut's and almost all Starlite's (predecessor to the Tru-Cut) came with the spring. The spring was light enough that thumb could easily overcome, yet still provided some assistance when disengaging. Been so many years, I don't know if there is still a part number.

askgi - Repost of Slammer's Buying Guide... 1. Carefully evaluate the size mower you need and buy at least one size larger, given gate and storage door considerations. Work with reputable Dealers who can provide product choice assistance, product predelivery prep and aftersale service at competitve prices. 2. NEVER buy a mower from ANYPLACE that will not let you test drive same or at least a similar model. Ergonomics are just as important as performance and capability. 3. DO NOT base your purchase on price or brand name alone! Do proper research and find all of the available models that fit your criteria and haggle, save, or trade to get the right equipment for the job. Do not compromise! Dealer support after the sale is also important. 4. Understand your property and it's impact on your choice of equipment. Mowing slopes, obstacles, future landscape projects, winter use, attachments, etc. can all have a significant effect. If you follow these three tips you will end up a happy camper with just the right unit for the job. If you disregard this advice you may end up with one or the other of the following problems: A. Buyers remorse. Stuck with a piece of junk or simply a unit inadequate for the task at hand. Or.. B. A teed off spouse when you start shopping for another tractor just 3 - 6 months down the road because you didn't buy the right unit in the first place. Enjoy the experience! PS: just a personal comment- Cubs (the 2000 series) are the only ones around with shaft (beltless) drive; deeres have a strong rep on being a value machine over time. A number of the posts made on such forums are sometimes overly critical of the product line in question and more a matter of personal frustration and venting... take all with a grain of salt. Good luck.

IDrive: NEVER EVER BUY A WD IDRIVE! Heres my story. Two doors, each purchased directly from WD local store (company owned). First installer shows up, its her 2nd job since being hired! I ordered IDrive ( HUGE MISTAKE) She had never installed an IDrive before, or a Wayne Dalton system. She had worked for other door companies. After 3 hours a 2nd installer arrived. He was to be with her orginally, but overslept (or somthing to that effect). Ok so by 3:00 pm the have the tracks in and the door panels installed. Inform me that the next day the opener guy will be here to install IDrives! Two days pass...still no installer. Finally, after rearranging my schedule they guarantee me he will be there. Since I have a garage full of tools ( more on that later) I make arragnements to have someone at my home. Again a no-show. Finally I call WD corporate. Within an hour I get a call from the local store: He will be there first thing in the morning. Another day lost, as I am unable to have someone at my home to cover for me. Well at least he shows up. Within 15 minutes he askes me who installed the doors? WD , I say, and he begins to argue with me! Turns out the install was so far out of plumb and that the I drives, he said, would not work. Mostly it turns out the overhead tracks needed to be fine tuned and raised/lowered. How do I know this? Heres where it gets fun. I tell the guy how upset I am about the service and he goes banannas on me. Ranting and raving, complaining about his drunk manager and on and on. I finally tell him he has to leave. I take pictures of the install and the subsequent repairs. I then redo the install myself. I complain to WD headquarters but to no avail - its a local issue and they will have a district manager call me. After about four hours I have the door tracks perfect. I have the openers still sitting there so since no cooperation from WD I go ahead and install them. Not that difficult to do and overall I'm pretty satisfied. Now about the refund for WD failure to install. Make a long story short: Small claims court, pictures are invaluable! Local WD must pay me for my time etc.! Corporate has to cut the check. I get a call from the office asking why they were cutting me a check for a court ordered settlement? Check you own phone records and complaints. To say they were rude isn't even coming close. They send the check ( yes it cleared). Three months later the west door IDrive acts up. I call customer service and a very knowledgeable lady walks me through the set up and viola - works perfect. Two months later the east door acts up. I call again (since I hadn't written down the entire sequence). Again the door works but she asks what part number on the circuit boards I have. Turns out WD knew that an entire production lot was faulty and I have the faulty circuit boards. They agree to replace one. This means I must use the orginal installer -their own company store. Guy shows up, muttering about IDrive crap and POS they are. Within 40 minutes he has the board installed and its working OK. He then trys to collect a service call fee from me. 20 minutes of arguing he learns this was under warranty. And he is ticked at me! Two months later...yep you guess it; the other door fails. I call WD. This time its entirley different. They have my phone number attached to technical service calls. And due to my sucsessful small claims action against they, they bar me from any help! Even their technician was stunned. So much so, he told me, once again what to do and sends me a new circuit board, under warrnaty. He tells me that they have nothing but problems with IDdrives etc. He was sorry that I had been treated so shabbily. He actually apologized for his coporate bosses actions! I install the board upon its arriveal (took about 20 minutes) and for a year both doors worked fine. Then, once again the west Idrive fails. I call tech service ( why bother with the local store?) and they tell me they are not allowed to provode me with any help (phone number). OK..I say - no problem. I wait a week and call from my neighbors house, and with the information taken from the 2nd circuit boards I am able to talk with a service tech. I am told that lot of boards was defective and that I could get a new board under warranty from the local company owned store. I had to chuckle, as the tech had no idea what I had been through. Of course I tried to get the borad from the local store and they refused. Oh I am still, as of this writing under warranty. For the past year one IDrive does not work. I am having the same reocurring problems with the second unit. Fortunately, I only need 1 side of my garage to open. Recently I called the local store and talked with the secretary. She knew who I was and I asked if there was any way I could get the door repaired. She informed that the manager had been fired, and she would figure a way for me to get it serviced as she knew how screwed I had been. She said aI would have to pay a $75 service call though. I described the problem: the motor is running but no engagement: thus no opening or closing. Local gal is qutie familiar with this problem too - motor shaft most likely has broken. "Happens all the time". Oh and before someone says the door is out of balance... its not. I have held off as I am planning on remodeling my home and will address the issue by going with another brand. Now the kicker: I am a licensed General Contractor in two states, Florida and California. I have over 30 years experience in all phases of construction. I have never had to take any supplier to court - ever! In fact, I have never had a lein filed on me, or been sued, and only once have I fired a subcontractor during the course of a project (drinking on the job). 30 years of business! The way I was treated by Wayne Dalton was disgusting. I urge you not to buy the IDrive - it is a piece of junk - even their own employees know this, and for that matter any Wayne Daltin product - period. To this day I am unable to get customer service to assist me via phone; a clear violation of their own warranty and guarantee. Despite WD firing the manager (who was resposnible for the faulty install) and the subsequent small claims suit - they hold me responsible. Remember their corporate philosophy that Wayne Dalton has for its customers. Thanks for reading this. Oh and by the way, our company no longer uses Wayne Dalton products, and I have convinced several other builders ( the local builders assocation) to not use their products. That wasn't all that hard to do --thanks WD. Somewhere in Florida.... As for what we've been installing: Liftmaster. No customer complaints or call backs. Average home value of install: 3.2 mil. Way to go Wayne Dalton!