Push Mowers

[Harold R]

It seems like push mowers are made cheaper every year. The last one I bought was from Sears, a 22' cut with a 5 HP engine. It has what I find aggravating, the safety bail on the handle. I understand the need, but the bail itself had plastic mountings, and the cable that runs down to the kill switch is exposed to dirt and grit while mowing. Another gripe is the starting. Standing behind the mower, by design, the pull cord is routed through the handle about knee high. To start, one hand on the bail, the other pulling the cord, either overhand at an angle such that the cord rubs, or underhand that just feels weird. So, while starting my second season mowing with it, the cable to the safety switch snapped and the pull cord broke. 2 year old lawn mower.
Last week I was discussing with my Dad how I wish I could find an older style mower that was more dependable. He said he had one I could have, but needed work. He thought it had a bad coil, but wasn't sure. It failed to start one day after about 10 years of use, so he rolled it in the shed and used another he had. It had sat for about another 10 years before I brought it home a couple weeks ago. I pulled the cowling off, sanded the rust off the flywheel, rotated the engine and got a spark at the plug. I cleaned the carb out good, put the cowl back on.....no start. I unplugged the off/on switch, pulled the cord and it nearly started. Turns out the switch,with copper connects inside had glazed over and needed cleaning. Now it runs like a top.!
Very easy to start, much quieter, and more comfortable to mow with. Doesn't have all the safety gadgets, and it does require an oil/gas pre-mix, but I like this one very much. I think Lawn Boy even painted and decaled models for Cub Cadet.

[Rudi]

Harold:

I agree. The new mowers are more of a PITA than anything and cost a bundle. The Lawn Boys were always a lawn mower that I wished I could afford but were always just a bit out of range for our disposable income budget so we usually ended up with some kind of lower to mid range MTD product. Those were they type you get what you paid for.

I just got a couple brochures on the IH Push type Lawn Mowers and they do appear to be Lawn Boys re-badged as IH. Makes sense.. IH couldn't build everything. I think also Dan Overcash has a bunch of these IH badged mowers from Lawn Boy and he was one of the first to clue me in on that little factoid.

Nice to see another old mower come back to life. Enjoy the Lawn Boy.

[Barnyard]

Rudi is right, Dan has several of the Cub models that were made by Lawn Boy. He found one about twenty miles from me that I picked up for him last year. Too bad I didn't see it first. It was a nice one.