Bought two new mowers and weed wacker
 

My White L-12 rider shot the starter drive ring, starter bendix, transaxle, All blets need replacing, batter is dead and shot, choke cable and such is busted. And the deck bearings need replaced.

My Murry high wheel was abused by my daughter last year. It has a bent crank, blade and the whole rear wheel mounting system to the deck of the mower is toast.

My poor weed wacker has flown out of the back of the truck several times in the wifes care, and the head bearing is worn out.

So faced with the above mentioned pile of junk for yoard machines. I was forced to go by new stuff.

Picked up a Yardman 38" rider. Turns out its the updated White L-12 less the deck wheels. It has a 13.5 hp OHV engine and a host of other upgrades.

The push mower I got was a down grade so to speak. Same 4 HP. Just standard wheels and 20" cut.

Weed Wacker is the newist model of my old feather weight.

The thing that caught my eye real fast. Is all the new stuff use's half the fuel of the older machines. The fuel use of the old machines was the same every time. having owned these machines for 10 years one gets to know these things. I was very happy that the new riding mower has 2 more HP and used half the gas. The push mower and weed eater use half as much also. There state of tune was great. All started first pull or key start. And my pattern and time is the same.

I almost bought a cordless weed eater. But thoughts of my laptop and cordless drill batterys came to mind. So I didnt get it. A electric push mower for my trim work is out of the question. And the fear of battery failure on a cordless mower ruled them out.

Im going to salvage the engine a tires from the rider. Only thing wrong with the 11.5 hp, I/C Flat Head Briggs is the starter gears. The engine its self is very tight.

psy

Haven't heard any real bad info on the Yardman equipment - They cut well and are pretty easy to maintain .

I don't consider your push mower a 'down grade' (maybe not as fancy ) as a 20" 4 hp is light, easy to push,fairly quiet and very miserly with fuel . My mower is a 3.5 hp , a pint of gas lasts 3 mowings!! (yeah its a very small yard)

Got a cordless trimmer as a Christmas gift -Ryobi IIRC- good choice on passing it up !

13.5 hp? May as well put that in a car!

my mower is a 21hp cub cadet it eats an insane amont of gas prolly 5-7 gallons every mow. understand its about 2 acres of lawn the outher part we just let grow

lol most mowers are all made by the same company (its just like how GM owns a whole lotta car companies that will slap thier own stickers/badges on it)

but yea my MTD 14.5hp rider's batery finnaly went dead after 6 years. but ive never addeds stabol or anything i just park it for the winter and come next spring pull out the choke and crank
starts right up.

we have one of those old murry 20" cut 3.5hp pushmower that looks like it hit a grenade but still starts up every spring within 3 pulls...(its held together by sheetmetal repair patches and screws)

we also have a pushmower with the tlaler rear wheels
that my mom hit somethign that bent the blade 90* down. its still confusing as hell but the mower still runs but has a nasty knocking noise but its been liek that for several years now.

the fuel usage could be because the carb was misadjusted on the old stuff. but yes i can agree that the newer model engines have had some changes that make them more effecent.

it sounds like the mowers engine is defently an upgrade, being an over head valve design, also v-belts are extreamly ineffcient, so if your new mower has fewer belts, or better designed tensioners you are going to save alot of energy that way as well.
we have a Toro Care-free electric mower that has a small deep cycle battery, I think it's about $30 for a battery, and this one is on it's 3rd year, we've pluged the charger in to a kill-a-watt meter (check your libery) and if I remember right it costs less then 15 cents to charge it from fully drained, we mostly use it to trim around the garden, trees, and other small areas, it's a great mower, extreamly simple, you have a battery, a motor with the blade on it, a switch to turn it on, and a thermo overload protector, keep the blade sharp and it will mow all kinds of tall grass.
we also just picked up a sickle bar mower that should alow us to cut the grass less often, because it dosn't care how long it is, it just shears it off at the set hight, and has a 4.5hp engine that runs at a fast idle as it hardly has any load even cutting thick tall grass and weeds.