Honda Select Drive

[oillogger]

I think you're going to like the HRX. My issues with mine were that it was very hard to pull back on when trimming. But if you didn't have that trouble with your HRR, then you should be fine. The Honda is more susceptible in dusty conditions which sounds like you don't have. The other reason my HRX was aggravating me was it was very hard to restart when the engine was warm in cold weather. When it came time for leaf pickup here in michigan its often cold.
Be aware that changing the belt on the HRX is an involved process and not at all like the HRR. Give yourself more than a few minutes.

Thanks, I'll still be researching a little more while waiting to see if a HRX end of the year deal becomes available. My old mowers will end up going to a local men's drug rehab center that cuts grass for support. My Toro has given me more trouble with the wheels locking up when backing up than the Honda but neither was than bad and I never had a problem when restarting either mowers during our mild winters. I have a neighbor that cuts his grass every Saturday like clockwork. 2-3 years ago it snowed here and that neighbor was cutting his grass with snow covering half of his yard and bagging it too?!?!?!. Out of the last 40 years it has only snowed here 4-5 times unlike other places I have lived. The land here is almost all fine black silt. Rock hard when dry and mushy as pudding when wet. The land was created over thousands of years by sedimentation from flood waters. When my yard is soaking wet my mower tires will sink in the dirt(silt) along my fence bottoming out the mowers to the deck so cutting the a strip next to about 300' of fence is tough 5-6 times a year adding another 15 minutes and a workout for those cuttings. I also use my mower in the winter to chop up leaves but also to bag pine straw for mulch to put around trees. Bagging pine straw with your mower is a heck lot easier than raking.

 

[oillogger]

I am very interested in purchasing a Honda HRX217 mower. The only issue I have is it has Honda's Select Drive. I already own a Honda HRR216 and am fond of the Honda Smart Drive system. I rather have the Smart Drive from the Honda HRN217 on the Honda HRX217 than the Select Drive the HRX217 now comes with. After looking at the Select Drive mechanism a while I am wondering if you could cut off the downward wingtips tips of the V shaped Select Drive engagement lever (GRIP, CLUTCH (UPPER)) , turn the speed control all the way up, and basically end up with basically a smart drive system. Is this an crazy idea or am I on to something? Also, after looking at the parts diagrams of the HRX217 and the HRR216 it appears it may be possible to just swap out the parts as the top end of the connecting cable looks to be the exact same. Fellows, please let me know what you think.

I have been looking at swapping out the Smart Drive controls on my old mower to replace the Select Drive controls on a HRX217 which may be my next purchase. I finally noticed the obvious. Duh! Honda Select Drive pivots from the bottom and Honda Smart Drive pivots from the top. Too bad or it would have been doable to replace the Select Drive with Smart Drive controls.

 

[oillogger]

My Honda HRR216 deck is developing more holes on top around where the last three inches of the blades spin. Every time I use the mower I believe another small hole appears so the steel deck is rotting away over a large area and a new deck is outrageously over $300. Replacement steel decks for the newer Honda mowers are far cheaper. Today I will finally order a new Honda HRX217YKA. My fingers are crossed I will for the most part love the new mower for 10+ years. After that this old fart will pay to get my lawn cut. In 2-3 months I will provide an update of the pros and cons after a few times at bat. The first time I use the new Honda HRX217 will probably be next week to cut a 40'x40' area under a pine tree to pick up the pine straw to use as mulch. I will probably start cutting my lawn late February when I really get to see how the mower performs.

 

[oillogger]

Yesterday I used the Lowe's Chat window to check on my Honda HRX217VKA mower order as it never showed any status change since ordering 4days before. The computer chat said my mower had been delivered two days prior. I finally got a real person chat and they stated it would take 5-7 business days for delivery when the website had stated 1-4 business days. The person also stated the charge on my credit card was only pending when my credit card website clearly stated it was processed. About one hour after the live chat ended I had a well known brand delivery truck show up with the mower. Today Lowe's website still shows my order as only being placed. I'm not saying in any way to avoid purchasing from Lowe's but to be aware you may get worthless information on order status.

Yesterday, all was fine with the box and packing. Setup went was quick and easy. Cranking for the first time took four pulls and I ran the motor for 3-4 minutes. 5 minutes later the mower cranked with 1 pull. Today I cut a 40'x40' area under a pine tree to pick up pine straw. Took 3 pulls to start the mower today and only picked up half a bag of pine straw since this was the third time I had picked up pine straw. As expected from reading about other folks experience the mower only needed the lower speed setting. Later on it will slow down as the belt will slip a little more once polished on the pulleys from slippage and the drive cable and belt stretches out as they both break in. The plastic engine cowling and the Nexite deck are dust magnets from the static electricity. Other people complained the rear wheels height was hard to adjust but I did not find that to be the case. The Honda Select Drive ended up not being an issue at all for me since I was able to vary the speed the same way as I did with the Honda Smart Drive on my 12 year old Honda HRR216. My only concern currently is if the Honda GCV200 engine with more usage will continue to require multiple pulls to start when the GCV160 on my old mower starts on one pull about 49 out of 50 times. I'll post again with an update after my new HRX217 had a few actual times at bat cutting my lawn.

 

[Scrubcadet10]

Good luck with your new mower!

 

[oillogger]

Good luck with your new mower!

Thanks!

 

[oillogger]

The weather here has been crazy as it was in the rest of the nation. It has been either too wet or too cold to cut the few winter weeds in my yard. During this time I did some testing with starting my new Honda HRX217YKA mower. I am retired so I have the time and with a engineering degree the desire to experiment. On warmer days of 60F and above it would take 3-4 pulls to start the mower. The colder days took more pulls until the coldest day where I discovered a method that helped. One cold day it was about 25F and I had been attempting for a while to get the mower to start without success. I noticed that when I paused a minute or two between pulls the motor would weakly try to start on only the first pull after the short wait. Finally I waited about 5-7 minutes. It started on the first pull after the longer wait. A few days later the temperature was around 38F. I did two pulls and then waited 2-3 minutes. The mower started on the first pull after the wait. I know the first two pulls puts fuel into the cylinder. I am assuming the longer wait between pulls allowed the fuel to become vaporized better and is why the mower starts on the first pull after the wait. When the mower starts a small amount of black smoke is released at first indicating a initially rich mixture. If someone knows better or has another possible explanation I would love to hear it. I remember reading a limited number of reviews where they stated the mower would never start on the first pull and one person stating it always took 4 pulls to start. The next few times I try to start my new mower I'll do the first pull and wait a short while before trying the second pull. I bet the warmer the day the less wait time is required. There is usually something else I can do for 1-4 minutes before the second pull. Tomorrow I may be able to cut my winter weeds since it has not rained in the last 3 days and the temperature will be in the 60's.

 

[bertsmobile1]

For a hydrocarbon to go from liquid to a gas requires energy to be adsorbed.
Th rate of thermal transfer is proportional to the difference in the temperatures .
Thus the heat transfer rate is slower on colder days so it takes longer for the vapourised droplets to become gasses in colder weather

 

[oillogger]

For a hydrocarbon to go from liquid to a gas requires energy to be adsorbed.
Th rate of thermal transfer is proportional to the difference in the temperatures .
Thus the heat transfer rate is slower on colder days so it takes longer for the vapourised droplets to become gasses in colder weather

That is the physics class information you where learn about the characteristics of the transition of a material between the three physical states. Thermodynamics courses takes a deeper dive. My question is exactly what basic action is occurring during the longer wait times between engine pulls to enable the mower to start on the next pull. I am guessing/assuming there is some liquid fuel in the cylinder is that is transitioning to vapor which would ignite easier and of course that transition process would speed up as the temperature increases. I also questioned if the auto choke is not increasing the fuel to air ratio enough for starting which would help support my liquid fuel vaporization assumption. There may be some other bluntly correct action going on I have not considered. Regardless, thanks for your reply.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Only gases can burn
Thus the contents of the cylinder can not go bang unless the fuel droplets created in the carburettor venturi have undergone a phase transformation to turn into gasses.
I don't really know what else you could be needing to know.
The longer wait times allows more heat from the engine to be transferred into the fuel\Do you want R values and 4th order quadratic equations .
I have no idea what the latient heat of vapourisation for fuel is as I have no idea exactly what is in it.
Neither Benzene nor Tollunene can vapourise at under 15 C and then the rate it will depend upon the rate head can be adsorbed and the partial pressure of the vapours and the equilibirum value between the gas & liquid state at cylinder compression.
Then it has to be adjusted to account for the film strength of the droplets and any surface tension modifiers present