Best Used Mower For Homeowner Use for $1000 or under?

[bertsmobile1]

Are Kohler engines just bad in general? Or was it just the Courage? Were they good before a certain point in time? Seems most everything has B&S or Kohler. Found one with a Kohler Command Pro 15 that may be of interest if thats not something to avoid.

Kohlers are the next step up from Briggs and they command a higher price.
Kohler make cheap & nasty engines just the same as Briggs make cheap & nasty engines to go on cheap & nasty mowers which seem to be about 60% of the market sales wise.

The Courage was made to be a machine assembled engine so has a bucket crankshaft and is a wonderful design,
However there was a problem when they reverted to a cast crank ( cheaper than the forged crank )
To get the same strength a cast crank has to be substantially heavier and the extra weight created problems with some engines.
The top plate is known to come loose and then the block cracks down the exhaust side of the cylinder.
Kohler sorted this out by making the bolts a little longer & putting some blue loctite on them.

The vibrations from the heavier crank is also known to fracture the rivets in the decompressor.

OTOH slip the belts off, pull the flywheel & alternator off and the top cover comes off and the cam can be replaced without touching the crank.
If you overfill the engine with oil it dosen't pour out of the pushrod tube.
you can run them across much steeper slopes without the engine seizing.
And for me the big winner, the oil filter hangs down from the top plate so it is easy to get at and clean to change.

The problem was probably due to one one mould on the casting machine being at the thinnest end of the spec range and the latter Courages seem fairly fault free.

Down here I have only seen it happen on the larger single cylinder engines 17 Hp & over and only to the engine fitted to Husqvarnas.

 

[badninja]

I prefer Kawasaki engines but Kohler Command Pro engines are good commercial engines. Briggs & Stratton makes some good engines too such as the Vanguards. The Kohler Courage is a budget engine and frankly it shows.

Kohlers are the next step up from Briggs and they command a higher price.
Kohler make cheap & nasty engines just the same as Briggs make cheap & nasty engines to go on cheap & nasty mowers which seem to be about 60% of the market sales wise.

The Courage was made to be a machine assembled engine so has a bucket crankshaft and is a wonderful design,
However there was a problem when they reverted to a cast crank ( cheaper than the forged crank )
To get the same strength a cast crank has to be substantially heavier and the extra weight created problems with some engines.
The top plate is known to come loose and then the block cracks down the exhaust side of the cylinder.
Kohler sorted this out by making the bolts a little longer & putting some blue loctite on them.

The vibrations from the heavier crank is also known to fracture the rivets in the decompressor.

OTOH slip the belts off, pull the flywheel & alternator off and the top cover comes off and the cam can be replaced without touching the crank.
If you overfill the engine with oil it dosen't pour out of the pushrod tube.
you can run them across much steeper slopes without the engine seizing.
And for me the big winner, the oil filter hangs down from the top plate so it is easy to get at and clean to change.

The problem was probably due to one one mould on the casting machine being at the thinnest end of the spec range and the latter Courages seem fairly fault free.

Down here I have only seen it happen on the larger single cylinder engines 17 Hp & over and only to the engine fitted to Husqvarnas.

Thanks for the information guys. Excellent help. The mower I found is a 2006 Toro SFS 36 Proline Walk Behind with that Kohler Command Pro 15 on it. He's only asking $600 for that and some jungle wheels. However he says the reason being is that the blades wont engage. Was mowing one day and they just stopped. Said it happened before and he replaced the PTO clutch and that fixed it. When it happened this time he replaced the PTO clutch again but no luck. Said he has also replaced the PTO Switch, belts and blades while trying to figure out the issue. At this point he's tired of dumping money into it. Says everything else functions perfectly.

I've never worked on a walk behind and have no idea what kind of issues could occur to keep the blades from engaging. Maybe you guys could shed some light on it?

 

[bertsmobile1]

Thanks for the information guys. Excellent help. The mower I found is a Toro SFS 36 Proline Walk Behind with that Kohler Command Pro 15 on it. He's only asking $600 for that and some jungle wheels. However he says the reason being is that the blades wont engage. Was mowing one day and they just stopped. Said it happened before and he replaced the PTO clutch and that fixed it. When it happened this time he replaced the PTO clutch again but no luck. Said he has also replaced the PTO Switch, belts and blades while trying to figure out the issue. At this point he's tired of dumping money into it. Says everything else functions perfectly.

I've never worked on a walk behind and have no idea what kind of issues could occur to keep the blades from engaging. Maybe you guys could shed some light on it?

Please start a new thread " Toro SFS 36 Walk behind, blade do not engage " or similar.
If you stay here, then only the people currently responding will be alerted.
And putting it in the Toro section will also be beneficial to you and to others with the same problem.

 

[bertsmobile1]

And the last word you will hear from me as I know nothing specific about Toro walk behinds is.
Go to Toro.com.
Toro , bless their pointy little horns , have just about all of their IPL's & Service Manuals on line as a free PDF download.
Downside is there is a bloody lot of them so without the numbers off the serial plate it will be a big search
Good side is you won't have to put up with me any more .
Good luck hope you get many fruitfull hours in behind your mower

 

[badninja]

Found a Swisher Z-Max XZT 60" Zero Turn with a 25HP Briggs. It has 506 hours. Looks to be in good shape and well taken care of judging by pics. He's asking $1,250. Is Swisher any good? How about that B&S 25hp?

 

[(deleted)]

Honda has some good mowers in this range like Honda HRX217HZA, Honda HRX217VKA or Honda HRX217HYA. And also Toro TimeMaster (30") can also be a good choice. If you want larger deck you can also go for some 2nd hand product.

 

[garyao49]

I think older is better no matter what the brand is. I'm getting ready to buy a 73 John Deere 110 for $400. From the pics and talking to the owner looks to be in ex. shape. Family owner, serviced, garage kept with a 46" deck. Can't get there till next weekend so hope he doesn't sell it.

 

[badninja]

Hello gents, just thought I'd update you. I finally made a purchase.. a couple of them actually. Got really excellent deals on both. I found a Kubota G1800-S with a 54" deck I picked it up for $1000 plus a bit of gas money to have the gentleman deliver it to my house. Its a 3 Cylinder 16HP Diesel and it has all wheel steering. After looking around, I got a killer deal on it. It runs very good, steering is super tight, The mower is really clean and was well taken care of. It has some scratches and a cracked lense. But overall its been a really well kept mower. No rust at all. all in all I'm very happy with my purchase.

My other purchase is a push mower for the steeper ditches and some tight areas. I picked up an older Honda HR215. Got it for $60. Starts on first pull no problem. I need to get a cable to get the self propel working again but its not a big deal.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Hello gents, just thought I'd update you. I finally made a purchase.. a couple of them actually. Got really excellent deals on both. I found a Kubota G1800-S with a 54" deck I picked it up for $1000 plus a bit of gas money to have the gentleman deliver it to my house. Its a 3 Cylinder 16HP Diesel and it has all wheel steering. After looking around, I got a killer deal on it. It runs very good, steering is super tight, The mower is really clean and was well taken care of. It has some scratches and a cracked lense. But overall its been a really well kept mower. No rust at all. all in all I'm very happy with my purchase.

My other purchase is a push mower for the steeper ditches and some tight areas. I picked up an older Honda HR215. Got it for $60. Starts on first pull no problem. I need to get a cable to get the self propel working again but its not a big deal.

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Well done.
Get the genuine Honda cable and buy a couple of spare springs, they are prone to breaking.
Put a few drops of cable lube ( from a push bike shop) NOT WD 40 or similar down all of the cables a couple of times a season.
The throttle cable being multi strand rusts out at the dip in the bottom.