airplanemechanic
Diamond Member
- Nov 8, 2014
- 22,646
- 19,106
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I had such a unique, and ultimately bad experience doing this, I wanted to share it with others.
I've been doing research for a long time about lawnmowers. I bought one when I bought this house in 2011 and still have that mower, but it's been giving me more and more issues. I finally decided to splurge and get a new one. Now, which one to get?
Well I was walking in Lowes with my dad buying some crap for something, and we wound up walking by a big ZTR inside the store (not out in the parking lot). I was shocked at the price, a 54" Toro Timecutter Max with 23hp Kawasaki engine, welded deck and 5 gallon fuel tank for $4099.00 I thought that was quite reasonable for such a large machine with the Kawasaki engine. So I began to research this machine, and compare it to others in the same size range. I quickly realized that this was the cheapest one, with others being MORE expensive and having a Kohler engine, not even the MUCH more desirable Kawasaki. The reviews were generally pretty good. Some things were really odd, like some people reporting that their machine ate the $130 deck belt on the first time using it. I figured that was simply an assembly defect and I could avoid that by simply checking the routing of the belt before I mow the first time. After a couple of months I go to the Lowes website and it was still there, same price. But when I googled it, I found it CHEAPER at Tractor Supply, and it was the "Havoc" edition. Got a little more bling-bling on it but the same machine. It was cheaper when you added the machine to the "cart" and checked off "pick up in store" it took $500 dollars off the price. I was like wow. Now this machine is $3699.
So I go back and forth on whether I should drop this much on a lawnmower and I finally bite the bullet and purchase it. I called the store immediately the next morning so they would know that I couldn't go pick it up. I am a truck driver, I'll be gone for weeks, just put it inside in the back and I'll grab it when I get in. He was very nice and accommodating and held it for me for almost 3 weeks. Nice guy when it came to that aspect.
However, I noticed that when I made the purchase, that the tax offset the "savings" of 500 dollars. I thought that sounded like way too much tax. I know the tax rate in my dads parish is 9%. But if you take 3699 x 1.09 you get a number quite a few dollars less than the 4095 I was charged at check out. I call TS customer service and they tell me tax is automatically calculated and it is what it is. I told them that they got it wrong, I paid tax on the FULL purchase price of the mower, not the reduced price. The manager told me to bring it to his attention when I picked it up. I did, showed him the math, he checked it over and refunded me over 70 dollars in cash that I overpaid in tax. He admitted I was absolutely right and he had no idea how they arrived at the massive amount of tax they were charging me on this purchase.
Fast forward to the actual pick up date. I give him a heads up that I'm coming, thinking that he'll use that time to make sure that the mower is 100% ready to go. Well, I arrive in my car before my father who brought his truck and trailer so we could get it to my house. When my dad arrives, the guy goes to start it, and it's dead. Battery is shot. Well he jumps it with a jumper box, and it starts but stops almost immediately. It's out of fuel. He puts JUST ENOUGH to get it out of the warehouse and onto my dads trailer. We finally get it home, and of course it's dead. I have to charge the battery of this BRAND NEW MACHINE for 10-15 minutes to start it to get it off of the trailer so my dad can leave. But of course I have to add gas too, as it ran out as we were maneuvering it for tiedown.
I decide to start checking things before the first mow. This guy had the battery hooked up wrong. It wasn't backwards, but how he had the connector ON the battery with the cable was the most whackadoodle thing I'd ever seen. You couldn't tighten the wingnut, you could wiggle the negative terminal. So I had to totally redo it, and I fixed it and put it right. Ok, that problem is solved.
I read the owners manual and they tell you how to level the deck properly. It should be 2 5/8" in front and 2 7/8" in the rear of the deck when the deck is set to the 3" setting on the deck height adjustment. I measure it, it's WAY off. It's 2.25 front and 2" rear. So I have to do this crazy method of leveling the deck and I finally get it right. Ok, next problem solved. All of this on a BRAND NEW machine.
While it was sitting at TS I asked the manager if it had a hitch. He said that model comes with one, and they put it on as a courtesy and even took a pic of it on there for me. Nice guy. Or so I thought. My machine now has a grand total of 1.4 hours and at 1.0 the hitch fell off, or almost completely fell off. Now the hardware that mounted it is gone and I'll have to find new hardware. I don't need the hitch but I would like to have the original hardware that held it on. Well that's now long gone.
I had read horror stories about buying machines from big box stores but I figured it couldn't be that bad. But even doing my due diligence I've still had more issues than I could have ever imagined with this purchase. But the mower mows really well, and is so much more powerful than my old riding lawnmower, even with only 1 more hp. That Kawasaki has twice the torque and YOU CAN FEEL IT. Since my yard this time of year is more dirt and dust than grass, I mow at a very low engine speed to try to keep the dust down.
Overall, I got the machine at a really good price and spent some of the savings on an upgrade for the intake over the stock paper filter, using a canister filter kit that fits the "fancier" engines but fits this one as well. If someone wants to buy a machine from a big box store, that's ok, you'll save a TON over a mom-and-pop lawnmower sales place, just be very careful and check it over VERY well before you begin mowing with your new machine.
You can see the upgraded canister air filter on top of the engine. It did not come with that.
I've been doing research for a long time about lawnmowers. I bought one when I bought this house in 2011 and still have that mower, but it's been giving me more and more issues. I finally decided to splurge and get a new one. Now, which one to get?
Well I was walking in Lowes with my dad buying some crap for something, and we wound up walking by a big ZTR inside the store (not out in the parking lot). I was shocked at the price, a 54" Toro Timecutter Max with 23hp Kawasaki engine, welded deck and 5 gallon fuel tank for $4099.00 I thought that was quite reasonable for such a large machine with the Kawasaki engine. So I began to research this machine, and compare it to others in the same size range. I quickly realized that this was the cheapest one, with others being MORE expensive and having a Kohler engine, not even the MUCH more desirable Kawasaki. The reviews were generally pretty good. Some things were really odd, like some people reporting that their machine ate the $130 deck belt on the first time using it. I figured that was simply an assembly defect and I could avoid that by simply checking the routing of the belt before I mow the first time. After a couple of months I go to the Lowes website and it was still there, same price. But when I googled it, I found it CHEAPER at Tractor Supply, and it was the "Havoc" edition. Got a little more bling-bling on it but the same machine. It was cheaper when you added the machine to the "cart" and checked off "pick up in store" it took $500 dollars off the price. I was like wow. Now this machine is $3699.
So I go back and forth on whether I should drop this much on a lawnmower and I finally bite the bullet and purchase it. I called the store immediately the next morning so they would know that I couldn't go pick it up. I am a truck driver, I'll be gone for weeks, just put it inside in the back and I'll grab it when I get in. He was very nice and accommodating and held it for me for almost 3 weeks. Nice guy when it came to that aspect.
However, I noticed that when I made the purchase, that the tax offset the "savings" of 500 dollars. I thought that sounded like way too much tax. I know the tax rate in my dads parish is 9%. But if you take 3699 x 1.09 you get a number quite a few dollars less than the 4095 I was charged at check out. I call TS customer service and they tell me tax is automatically calculated and it is what it is. I told them that they got it wrong, I paid tax on the FULL purchase price of the mower, not the reduced price. The manager told me to bring it to his attention when I picked it up. I did, showed him the math, he checked it over and refunded me over 70 dollars in cash that I overpaid in tax. He admitted I was absolutely right and he had no idea how they arrived at the massive amount of tax they were charging me on this purchase.
Fast forward to the actual pick up date. I give him a heads up that I'm coming, thinking that he'll use that time to make sure that the mower is 100% ready to go. Well, I arrive in my car before my father who brought his truck and trailer so we could get it to my house. When my dad arrives, the guy goes to start it, and it's dead. Battery is shot. Well he jumps it with a jumper box, and it starts but stops almost immediately. It's out of fuel. He puts JUST ENOUGH to get it out of the warehouse and onto my dads trailer. We finally get it home, and of course it's dead. I have to charge the battery of this BRAND NEW MACHINE for 10-15 minutes to start it to get it off of the trailer so my dad can leave. But of course I have to add gas too, as it ran out as we were maneuvering it for tiedown.
I decide to start checking things before the first mow. This guy had the battery hooked up wrong. It wasn't backwards, but how he had the connector ON the battery with the cable was the most whackadoodle thing I'd ever seen. You couldn't tighten the wingnut, you could wiggle the negative terminal. So I had to totally redo it, and I fixed it and put it right. Ok, that problem is solved.
I read the owners manual and they tell you how to level the deck properly. It should be 2 5/8" in front and 2 7/8" in the rear of the deck when the deck is set to the 3" setting on the deck height adjustment. I measure it, it's WAY off. It's 2.25 front and 2" rear. So I have to do this crazy method of leveling the deck and I finally get it right. Ok, next problem solved. All of this on a BRAND NEW machine.
While it was sitting at TS I asked the manager if it had a hitch. He said that model comes with one, and they put it on as a courtesy and even took a pic of it on there for me. Nice guy. Or so I thought. My machine now has a grand total of 1.4 hours and at 1.0 the hitch fell off, or almost completely fell off. Now the hardware that mounted it is gone and I'll have to find new hardware. I don't need the hitch but I would like to have the original hardware that held it on. Well that's now long gone.
I had read horror stories about buying machines from big box stores but I figured it couldn't be that bad. But even doing my due diligence I've still had more issues than I could have ever imagined with this purchase. But the mower mows really well, and is so much more powerful than my old riding lawnmower, even with only 1 more hp. That Kawasaki has twice the torque and YOU CAN FEEL IT. Since my yard this time of year is more dirt and dust than grass, I mow at a very low engine speed to try to keep the dust down.
Overall, I got the machine at a really good price and spent some of the savings on an upgrade for the intake over the stock paper filter, using a canister filter kit that fits the "fancier" engines but fits this one as well. If someone wants to buy a machine from a big box store, that's ok, you'll save a TON over a mom-and-pop lawnmower sales place, just be very careful and check it over VERY well before you begin mowing with your new machine.
You can see the upgraded canister air filter on top of the engine. It did not come with that.
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