I agree with s-tre. I just bought a 20066 Toro Personal Pace last Sunday at Home Depot. Good price... $349, which is about 20 dollars off the list. Just tried it out today and I was a little disappointed the first time out. Maybe I just miss my old Snapper 6 speed bail bar mower, I don't know. But S-Tre is correct, bumps or roots will cause a small jolt, and a choppy motion forward because of imperfections in the yard, but not too bad. It is hard to keep momentum on turns also, going around small circles you end up pushing with short back and forward motions. The mower does cut very well, although the bag dumps a lot of clippings when you pull it off to empty. Now here is my real issue. With this thick St. Augustine grass we have in Florida (Floratam), the personal pace is a pain in my back. There is a slight pressure you need to maintain pushing your arms down while your legs move you forward. In this tall thick grass, and it does strain your middle back if you're used to a mower pulling you along. I know you folks in Nebraska are thinking what a wimp, but it's true you guys up there have that thin short stuff, this lawn is so deep and thick you can loose a small dog in it. If there were a way to adjust the sensitivity on the personal pace drive train this may still be a good mower for Florida. I am seriously thinking of returning this for a variable speed bail bar mower.

Drake, does your mower have the blade brake clutch? You can tell by looking at the top of the engine, is the starter handle there or is it on the handle bar? If you have the blade brake clutch model then it will start with the blade dis-engaged (starter handle down on the top of the engine and not on the handle bar) When starting the mower without the blade engaged excessive smoke from the drain down oil in the crankcase and choke posititon will come up through the hole in the deck that the muffler outlet pipe uses to discharge the exhaust under the deck because the fan action of the blade is not pulling it out the grass discharge port in the deck. For this reason I put a spring clamp on the blade brake bail (top bail on the handle) to hold it down (engaged position) while starting and warming up the engine. When I first got my M I too saw smoke coming up around the engine and thought that something was wrong, however it was not. After a few minutes of running the smoking stops and all is normal, with the blade engaged I don't get the smoke around the engine at start up as the blade air mixes with the exhaust and dilutes the smoke. Smoking at start up is normal for most all two-cycle engines. I hope this helps.

"I didn't realize I'd have to spend so much, but I'll share the news with DH, and tell him I consulted the experts!" Sandy, it doesn't take an expert to recommend an upper level, commercial quality, mega-buck ztr for an acre of grass. Where the expert comes in is to be able to recommend a ztr that doesn't break the bank unnecessarily but still has good components and proven performance.......that's why I recommend a ztr JUST LIKE I HAVE.......a John Deere EZ-Trak 425 with 48C deck, $3999 out the door. OK, maybe I overstated my expert inference a little, and maybe I'm only half serious. But the other half is very serious about resisting overkill if it means the difference between getting one and not! LOL! Bill

The last push mower engine with iron sleeve briggs made was the Pro 850. According to briggs website looking at the repower list there are no iron sleeve engines being built for push/self propelled mowers today. All that is left is what's on the shelf now either installed or in a box that all there is. Regardless what engine oil one buys today the oil bottle states to change it after 1 year regardless of miles/hours. All full synthetic long interval oil states this including Mobil and Amsoil. So does this mean Briggs engines should simply be scrapped each year or did Briggs come out with some super duper oil that lasts much longer than a year???...lol Fact is Briggs joined the "Planned Obsolescence" club and screwed all it's customers.