Toro mowers

[Steve B]

I was given a Toro mower yesterday, saying that it needed a carb kit. I am
familiar with working on these. I have not touched it yet.

What is everyone's opinion of Toro mowers and their equipment? I like the
Hondas I have. They start easily and run well.

Never had a Toro, so just wanted to check.

Steve

[Doug]

I bought a new one many years ago and it was great. I'm not up to
date on the more current ones.

[tom]

"Steve B" <ste...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:jnon76$noa$1...@speranza.aioe.org...

My Dad had one years ago and even with a sharp blade it did a
horrible\ragged job of cutting grass. When I inherited the task of mowing
their yard I'd haul over my trusty old Snapper before using their Toro.

[Don Phillipson]

"Steve B" <ste...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:jnon76$noa$1...@speranza.aioe.org...

First, identify the engine. Our Toro mower (2008) has a
Honda engine.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

[Joe]

We run a fleet of Simplicities of several vintages and have a Wheel
Horse/Kawasaki waiting in the shop with ignition problems. Toro bought
the W H brand and produced it with some changes. Not a very robust
machine. The commercial people here (Midwest) are hung up on John
Deere (OK but overpriced) so overall the high end is Kubota and the
second tier is Simplicity and John Deere, with Toro, Husqvarna, MTD,
and the rest for lighter service. By the time the new price tops $5K
any machine will be pretty decent.

Joe

[Frank]

I had one several years ago when Toro was living on its reputation.
It was a lemon, always in the shop. I went to Lawnboy which was OK
but now have a Honda that I like best. Honda is fairly consistent but
lot of companies cycle up and down in their quality so I think you
need direct input of a mower shop.

[Mr. Austerity]

If it has a B&S engine you can probably get the diaphragm at Lowe's.
Clean the carb up put the new diaphragm in and mow. I've got a couple
of Toros sitting out in the shed, I don't care for all the self
propelled, bag the grass stuff they have on them, I usually use an old
walk behind propelled by me.

[RonB]

I have owned three Toros, two self propelled walk behinds and one
small garden tractor/mower. From a quality and durability standpoint
they were all pretty good. In fact the tractor was quiet good.

HOWEVER - when I did start repairing things parts cost was very high.
I was also using standard Briggs powered equipment at the time and
carburetor replacement cost was about 3-4X the cost of a Briggs carb.
I replaced a steering tie rod on the tractor at a part cost of about
$50 and this was 20 years ago. About four years ago I bought a 23 HP
John Deere tractor/mower half expecting the same kind of cost mark up
but it has really been very reasonable. Besides, if you buy a Deere
at a dealer (vs big-box) the keep you on a discount list - at least
the local guy does.

RonB

[Bob F]

The snapper stands the grass up better. The toro mulches well. At least thet is
the case for mine.

[Doug]

On Tue, 1 May 2012 06:07:57 -0700, "Steve B" <ste...@gmail.com> wrote:

Yesterday I just saw one landscaper with a well used Toro tho it
looked like he uses it for smaller / lighter duties because he also
had one of the big commercial mowers as well.

[cl...@snyder.on.ca]

On Wed, 02 May 2012 06:28:59 -0500, "Doug" <noemail...@msn.com>
wrote:

The alloy deck Toros were good machines. That's going back a ways.
Not sure what the new stuff is like.

[Duesenberg]

Honda's are sometimes sold at Costco. I wonder if they are built to
Honda's same standards or not.....

[k...@att.bizzzzzzzzzzzz]

Does Costco have their own SKU?

[Duesenberg]

I'm not sure. My boss purchased a Honda at Costco for $200 less than
the local sales shops but he seemed a unimpressed with the quantity of
plastic that Honda used in the Costco model.

I mean he got a fantastic price and AFAIK, the engines are exactly the
same. But around these parts Costco sells Honda lawn mowers for about 1
month and once they are gone, they are gone.

[Bryan Scholtes]

I just bought a Toro 20332 based on lots of research. I had about $350
to spend.

PROS: the self-propel handle is SUPER comfy, far better than the Honda
paddles I tried out. Also, the dang thing really does start on two
pulls. No priming. Every time. The hose cleanout is very handy,
although I still have to clean out the nooks & crannies. The rear
drive is nice. It can go faster than I can comfortably walk if I want
it to. The engine is side valve not OHC... but then again so were all
mowers before OHC and many of them lasted 20 years.

CONS: the single blade still doesn't cut as fine as a Honda twin
blade. The deck feels thin but I haven't heard anyone complain.

If I were to buy again, I'd spend $500 and get a Super Recycler/Bagger
from the Toro dealership. Those are truly the Cadillacs. Honda may
have the big box market locked up, but visit a Toro dealer and you'll
see the really good stuff.

Sidebar: I had dinner with a Toro marketing rep this winter. He said
the residential market is dying. The buyers are extremely price
sensitive, and the top end of the market is shrinking in favor of the
middle and bottom price tiers. Since the middle market is a very
vulnerable place for any company to be (except for Craftsman which has
its own sales channel), Toro isn't sure whether it will double down on
"premium" residential, which it must do long-term in order to stay in
the game. It's Toro vs Honda in the high end residential push mower
market, and Honda has the stronger brand, at least perceptually.

[cl...@snyder.on.ca]

Are they HONDA mowers, or mowers with Honda engines??

[k...@att.bizzzzzzzzzzzz]

On Thu, 03 May 2012 09:55:51 -0400, Duesenberg <a...@123.com> wrote:

>On 5/2/2012 10:33 PM, k...@att.bizzzzzzzzzzzz wrote:
>> On Wed, 02 May 2012 20:49:48 -0400, Duesenberg<a...@123.com> wrote:
>>
>>> On 5/1/2012 12:30 PM, Frank wrote:
>>>> On May 1, 9:07 am, "Steve B"<ste...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>> I was given a Toro mower yesterday, saying that it needed a carb kit. I am
>>>>> familiar with working on these. I have not touched it yet.
>>>>>
>>>>> What is everyone's opinion of Toro mowers and their equipment? I like the
>>>>> Hondas I have. They start easily and run well.
>>>>>
>>>>> Never had a Toro, so just wanted to check.
>>>>>
>>>>> Steve
>>>>
>>>> I had one several years ago when Toro was living on its reputation.
>>>> It was a lemon, always in the shop. I went to Lawnboy which was OK
>>>> but now have a Honda that I like best. Honda is fairly consistent but
>>>> lot of companies cycle up and down in their quality so I think you
>>>> need direct input of a mower shop.
>>>
>>> Honda's are sometimes sold at Costco. I wonder if they are built to
>>> Honda's same standards or not.....
>>
>> Does Costco have their own SKU?
>
>I'm not sure. My boss purchased a Honda at Costco for $200 less than
>the local sales shops but he seemed a unimpressed with the quantity of
>plastic that Honda used in the Costco model.

Quantity of plastic? Did he compare it to one at HD? (trying to think of
what's plastic on mine).

>I mean he got a fantastic price and AFAIK, the engines are exactly the
>same. But around these parts Costco sells Honda lawn mowers for about 1
>month and once they are gone, they are gone.

That's sorta the way Costco works.

[k...@att.bizzzzzzzzzzzz]

On Thu, 3 May 2012 11:16:20 -0700 (PDT), Bryan Scholtes
<bryans...@gmail.com> wrote:

>I just bought a Toro 20332 based on lots of research. I had about $350
>to spend.
>
>PROS: the self-propel handle is SUPER comfy, far better than the Honda
>paddles I tried out. Also, the dang thing really does start on two
>pulls. No priming. Every time. The hose cleanout is very handy,
>although I still have to clean out the nooks & crannies. The rear
>drive is nice. It can go faster than I can comfortably walk if I want
>it to. The engine is side valve not OHC... but then again so were all
>mowers before OHC and many of them lasted 20 years.

My Honda starts on one pull, every time. No priming. I didn't like the
paddles at first either, until I figured out how to set them. Now I don't
think I'd give them up.

The problem is that my lawn just got 4x bigger and my knees didn't get any
younger. ...off to Sears this weekend to buy a tractor (gotta figure out how
to get it home).

[Duesenberg]

> Are they HONDA mowers, or mowers with Honda engines??

Honda Mower with Honda engines. Might have been a 190 engine. I
remember it being stashed in the warehouse for a few weeks. He told me
at the time that for years Costco sold a few Hondas in spring.

[Fake ID]

Costco had a write-up in their magazine promoting a Snapper mower.
Given that, I'd be suprized to find a Honda mower this year since
they'll carry at most 1 model. But a big national chain, different
regions could get different inventory. I remember seeing a Honda
branded mower at one point and intended to get whatever they had the
next time mower month rolled around. Unfortunately, they went 2 years,
I think, without any mower at all.

The Snapper I saw had a B&S 190cc motor. It bears a strong resemblance
to various MTD brands (Yard Machines at Home Depot, something dark green
at WalMart, and probably a couple others). But the Snapper deck has
more metal in the front and back than the MTDs. Actually, the YM
sitting powerless in my shed has *no* metal on the back plane--all
plastic, no way that would last. Somewhere I read that Snapper uses
thicker sheet metal, but I've never been able to judge that in person.

m