How to Choose the Best Mower and Avoid the Worst! Lowes Mower Buyer's Guide

hey y'all thanks for tuning back into chicanic I hope everybody's having a great week it is that time of year again guys if you have not already mowed you're fixing to have to mow because the grass is growing and the most common question I get asked is what kind of mower would I buy what kind of mower what kind of zero turn and to tell you the truth even though the shop gets in like 2 000 pieces of equipment every year and hundreds of those are riders for repair I see Riders when they're broken I don't see them when they're you know at their Peak Performance or I'm sure there's some mysterious unicorn Rider or zero turn out there that never breaks down I've never but I do know what to tell you to stay away from and today I'm taking you to the Big Box store and we're going to go over every mower they have for sale and I'm going to tell you what I would buy and what I would definitely stay away from but before we get into today's video if you're a fan of saving time money and frustration while fixing your own Small Engine equipment while watching in-depth tutorials you've come to the right place because that's what I do I upload a couple times a week and if that sounds interesting hit that like button smash that subscribe don't forget to hit the notification Bell and please leave a comment I love to redo the comments and I'll reply to all the early commenters now before we head out to the store though I got to give full disclaimer here I am never going to buy a brand new mower because they are just super expensive and I have so many people give me their old mowers I turn trash into treasure all year long in fact I got a 72 inch Hustler out there that I use for my field that a customer sold me for like 500 because they didn't want to put the money into it to repair it but you are going to be shocked when you see what I got this week so I brought these two home today you all saw this one in a short little video I don't think I posted it to YouTube I think I just put it on Facebook whenever it was a Saturday when we were driving by the shop and pulled up and this thing was just sitting out front and ended up a customer dropped it off so I didn't think what are you doing didn't think it was going to end up being ours but it had the whole bag kit the pieces are still at the shop I got to bring them home but uh customer called said they wanted us to look into it but they thought they had a blown up engine it turns out they do so I happen to have an engine that I'm going to uh be swapping out for this one and I think this is going to be a really good Trash to Treasure project I think I'm going to be able to make a really good amount of money off that thing but this thing I'm super excited about a customer gave us this this week and the reason that he did he said he only paid like a few hundred bucks for it a few years ago got his money's worth out of it I think we put a solenoid on it last year and it looks like somebody put a PTO on it recently I mean that thing looks brand new not sure but it's been serviced and everything is good for you know on the majority of the engine unfortunately though um what we think happened and what we're pretty sure about the magnets came off of the flywheel and then um the alternator is broken so it needs a new alternator and flywheel and unfortunately that's about 450 worth of parts right there so the customer did not want to put the money into it to replace those Parts Plus the labor that it was going to take he was pretty excited I think about just getting a new mower so this thing looks dirty but it actually is in really good shape I mean I can get all this cleaned up pretty easily and you know I could spray paint those gas tanks black again clean this all up and it will get it looking almost brand new again so pretty excited about this x mark zero turn I mean this thing's got a 60 inch deck and everything on the deck is still in really good condition so uh I think this one's gonna go for a pretty penny too unless I keep it so first off let me start out by saying I had some tremendous sticker shock when I showed up here first off this mower for 1939 is the cheapest ride-on mower that they have at Lowe's and it was forty dollars cheaper a week ago when we were theirs but the crazy thing about it is is this Craftsman 30 inch rear engine rider which is actually made by MTD is same as the Troy Bill and same as the Murray that was out in the last couple years used to be 899 dollars so this mower has more than doubled in price that's insane so some of the brands that you're going to find at Lowe's they've got the craftsmans which are actually just Troy-Bilt MTD mowers they've got a full line of the Husqvarna they've got the John deers like they've had but they're also starting to carry a lot of Zero Turns they've got the John Deere zero turns they have a full line of the Aaron's Zero Turns which are pretty nice looking Zero Turns and then they've got the Craftsman line which like I said before are just troy-bilts foreign [Music] now the first thing to catch my eye right off the bat was these Aaron's Zero Turns I mean they're pretty sweet for the heavy duty homeowner they all come with fabricated decks welded instead of the stamp decks and if you don't know what that means the stamp decks are like a sheet metal that is pressed into shape they're fabricated they're welded so um they're a much much stronger metal which means you're going to be able to have much stronger spindles on them I mean if you have a stamped deck which is is real weak you're going to have to have a weak spindle that way if something you know hits your blade and it breaks you'll want to break your spindle before you actually break the deck so the heavier Duty deck you have the stronger spindle you have the stronger pulleys and everything lasts a lot longer they also all came with Kawasaki engines on them and when it comes to the larger twin cylinder engines I mean you're you're pretty much as long as you take care of it and maintain it you're going to have your engine for a long time when it comes to the Kohler Kawasaki or the brakes um Kawasakis are pretty good engines now though these Craftsman mowers look pretty nice once again check these out guys they have one that's got a fabricated deck on them but the rest of them are all stamped decks like I said before these are made by MTD so they're just troy-bilts with the Craftsman names on them they have very flimsy decks they do have spindle issues they are not heavy duty at all they just you know look big and bad but you will have issues with them another thing I thought was really odd about all the Craftsman zero turns and riding lawn mowers was that they've changed to a smaller size battery um it's not the regular the regular battery that's been on everything for as long as I can remember it's much smaller and I I don't understand it's like they they left the hole put an insert in the hole to make you know a smaller uh size for this battery to fit in and I'm not you know that knowledgeable when it comes to batteries so if any of y'all out there know the difference or or this is some new technology I don't know about leave a comment below because I don't know what's up with these tiny batteries it's just gonna be one more thing I have to stock at the shop [Music] now for the price point John Deere's they're always good I mean if that that's what you want to get I'm not going to knock John Deere at all they have a even though they do have stamp decks on a lot of these they have a good spindle design that's going to last you a long time you're probably going to go through bearings before you go through the actual housing now when it comes to the Troy-Bilt or the husqvarnas whenever it's got legs that holds it on to a stamped deck you're going to break those legs a long time before you ever go through a bearing a lot of people worry about greasing and then stuff like that but actually if I don't know where you're at but here in Arkansas we grow rocks so a lot of times you're going to definitely blow a leg out on your spindle before you ever have to worry about a bearing but the John deers they're not like that they have really good spindles the only thing I do see wrong here is that a lot of them have those easy change oil filters on there and it's just FYI when you go to change your oil it is sixty dollars there is no aftermarket for that you have to get the John Deere brand you know I like spinning six seven bucks on a filter and some oil and saving you know 70 percent so thank you now if you're tired of gas and oil and all that noise whenever you're mowing your grass don't worry because a Craftsman MTD has come out with this five thousand dollar forty two inch battery powered riding lawnmower check it out now I wonder how much the battery is to replace on that thing when it goes out I bet it's probably at least 70 percent of the cost of the whole riding lawn mower but I would uh be wary of keeping this thing in my garage if I were you only because of the past you know recalls with all this battery powered equipment catching on fire so I would just you know give it a little time and see what it does I mean this was last year's gie Expo whenever the brand new Dewalt zero turn they were showcasing caught on fire and they had to dig a hole and bury it yeah so be wary of this equipment guys now the Craftsman riding mowers they have all their price points at you know what size engine and deck that they have um and of course if you're going to get one of these riding lawn mowers make sure that you get a twin cylinder because most of these had the Kohler twin cylinders on it and then they go straight down to the single cylinder Briggs engines which if you've seen any of us griping here on YouTube about uh Briggs and Stratton camshafts it is because of their single cylinder engines having issues it might last you 10 years it might last you six months you never know when that camshaft is going to go out and the problem is because it's just not balanced correctly it's you know if you've got a twin cylinder it's got that counterbalance of the flywheel and the crankshaft and all that it's not going to have the issue that that single cylinder is so I would definitely stay away with from any of those single cylinder engines [Music] thank you I mean this one's got an 11 and a half horsepower engine on it that's what they put on rear engine Riders I I just don't even get that now I know a lot of you are going to have to buy this cheap 30 inch uh Craftsman mower from Lowe's because it's just the cheapest one it's in your price point a lot of you cannot afford to spend that much money on a mower but I do want to let you know over here where the mulch cover is on this uh riding lawnmower the biggest issue that I see with these and I'll make a video on one when I get one in the shop and show you Hands-On but there is a safety switch right where it claps clasps towards the back end of the deck here and they will get debris stuck between the safety switch and this cover and if you for some reason it's running fine one day and it just doesn't start has no power whatsoever definitely check for debris there because every single one that comes in the shop that's the issue now these also have steering issues the way the steering is designed it's got a gear that slides back and forth on the a steering shaft and it is a very very poorly made they wear out if you do lots of turning which everybody does do lots of turning when they're using their riding lawnmower and you will have issues with that too so now I wanted to go over to Tractor Supply and check out their Toros Toros have always been a really good mower or zero turn but they were temporarily unavailable at my local Tractor Supply so I didn't go over there and look at them but I do want to say the Toro company Toro also makes xmark and Exmark is like their commercial line it's the same thing with the errands and the Gravely like Aaron's as heavy duty homeowner and Gravely is more for commercial the Toro and the xmar I think Toro is more for heavy heavy duty homeowner and the x-mart is for commercial because I mean both of them are still really good Motors the x marks are one of my my favorite mowers there is but and skagged skag if you're looking just drop a dime on a mower and you know you want it to last you a lifetime and something that's super easy to work on go for a skag I mean that's definitely my top one mower is this gag and Nexus x mark but I do want you to be super wary of something if you're trying shopping at Tractor Supply or Lowe's for one of these riding lawn mowers Now tractor supply carries the brand Cub Cadet but Cub Cadet is also made by MTD it is the same as the Troy-Bilt same as the Craftsman so whenever you're looking at these mowers you I mean if you have a color preference if you like yellow and black instead of red and black just you need to see what you're looking at because it's the exact same mower the only difference is the hood and maybe the seat but everything else from the frame the deck is exactly the same the drive system is exactly the same the Cub Cadet at Tractor Supply is 2600 and the exact same mower at Lowe's is twenty seven hundred dollars under the Craftsman name so there's there's really virtually nothing different between these two mowers other than the seat in the hood it's probably got the same exact 23 horsepower Kohler on it both of them are 46 inch cut exact same spindles exact same belt exact same transmission so what would I buy if I was going to buy a brand new riding lawnmower today I told you what to stay away from anything that has a single cylinder on it don't even look at it so you're going to want to look for something with a twin cylinder on it now if it's a Husqvarna or one of the craftsmans you know that you're going to have deck issues most of those are all stamp decks and they're really bad about breaking spindles because they have those legs when it comes to the engine if you've got a twin cylinder and you maintain it it's going to last you a long time I am still going to buy a John Deere if I was going to buy one today I would try to stay away from the easy oil change but I'd definitely go for something with a twin cylinder on it and like I said even though John Deere's had the stamp deck they have a better design spindle which won't cause you as many issues if I was going to buy a zero turn though they do have a John Deere zero turn there it does have the stamp deck though but the good spindles and it's got a twin cylinder engine on it for about 3 200 dollars but I still don't know if I'd buy that one because for five hundred dollars more you can get one of those errands with a Kawasaki on it heavy duty I mean those things look pretty sweet the spindles look like they're really well made the same as I'm talking with the John Deere like a flat surface instead of legs if I was buying a zero turn from Lowe's I would get the errands so that's it guys hopefully this video will save you time money and frustration in the future if you haven't found me on Facebook yet find me at facebook.com me on Instagram at the real chicanic or find me at chicanic.com where you get your own t-shirts hoodies and long sleeve shirts thanks guys and have a great day [Music] thank you [Music] [Music]

Channel: Chickanic

Views: 847,406

Keywords: steel, stihl, echo, red armor, oil, trimmer, weed, eater, blower, hedge trimmer, how to fix, dyi, briggs, honda, kohler, Husqvarna, shindaiwa, craftsman, Murray, murry, Troy-Bilt, cable, broken, no fire, John Deere, Deer, Deck, belt, Spindle, blades, seal, rider, transmission, Briggs, Intek, camshaft, chipper, shredder, log splitter, carburetor, rebuild, MTD, Remington, Simpson, Small Engine, Chickanic, will it run, engine, poulan, locked up, Coocheer, adjust, fine tune, Mantis, tiller

Id: 3CKFI5chrDA

Length: 16min 4sec (964 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 09 2023