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My daughter purchased the above lawn mower today at Lowe's, in Winchester, KY. I helped her assemble it. We then tried it out, in her back yard. We found it has a serious problem. The drive wheels in the front rotate backwards. What's up with that? How do I fix that?
Thanks
Herman Kidwell

By taking it back to Lowe’s, no reason to play around with it. Then go to a Toro dealer and look at the Recycler series. For about the same amount of money or less you can get a better quality mower.

Agreed. Craftsman ain't the same Craftsman we all grew up with. Someone bought the name and branding rights from Sears and is simply re-branding cheaper mowers.

Do your daughter a BIG favor. Go get the Toro at a dealership.

Call number listed in the owner's manual, on telephone, the old fashioned way, might be a very simple "fix". Take back to store if no help there.

Cusser said:

...might be a very simple "fix".

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I'm sure it's simple... most likely the V-belt is twisted the wrong direction.

Rivets said:

By taking it back to Lowe’s, no reason to play around with it. Then go to a Toro dealer and look at the Recycler series. For about the same amount of money or less you can get a better quality mower.

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Thanks, for you reply.

Born2Mow said:

Agreed. Craftsman ain't the same Craftsman we all grew up with. Someone bought the name and branding rights from Sears and is simply re-branding cheaper mowers.

Do your daughter a BIG favor. Go get the Toro at a dealership.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply...

Born2Mow said:

I'm sure it's simple... most likely the V-belt is twisted the wrong direction.

Click to expand...

Thanks, for your reply.

Cusser said:

Call number listed in the owner's manual, on telephone, the old fashioned way, might be a very simple "fix". Take back to store if no help there.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply. It has been taken back to the store to store to exchange it.

It could very well be a simple fix but my question is, Is this an indication of problems down the road? As a service tech I can fix this, but as a consumer why should I deal with this type of quality?

Cusser said:

Call number listed in the owner's manual, on telephone, the old fashioned way, might be a very simple "fix". Take back to store if no help there.

Click to expand...

That's a "Racy" photo for LawnMowerForum ...But I guess it's not all work!! We need some play!

Rivets said:

It could very well be a simple fix but my question is, Is this an indication of problems down the road?

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Hard to pinpoint the exact fault. The OP said he assembled it. No telling what all that entails. Then the store obviously does some assembling. Do they have a mower guy, or did they grab a "stock boy" and say, "Do this !"

Obviously it's got to go back to the store unless the OP is capable of flipping the v-belt around. How utterly discouraging for the OP and his daughter.

mmoffitt said:

That's a "Racy" photo for LawnMowerForum ...But I guess it's not all work!! We need some play!

Click to expand...

Mower was taken back to the store. They replaced it. The replacement worked just fine.

Thanks to all who replied.

Herman Kidwell

Rivets said:

It could very well be a simple fix but my question is, Is this an indication of problems down the road? As a service tech I can fix this, but as a consumer why should I deal with this type of quality?

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You complain about quality, and your experience may lead you to that but my experience is different. I have 55 years service experience and have seen the cheap ones outlast the expensive ones at times. Every model, no matter who made it, has it's strengths and weaknesses, some worse than others. The Toro you speak of has a few weak issues and if treated with caution may not become an issue, but normal use can become an issue where repair is difficult and expensive. Also, I just paid $90 for a part worth $5, $150 for a belt, $170 for a carb, $85 for a flat idler with metric dimensions. Every ball game is out there. Cheap is not always bad.

VRR.DYNDNS>BIZ said:

You complain about quality, and your experience may lead you to that but my experience is different. I have 55 years service experience and have seen the cheap ones outlast the expensive ones at times. Every model, no matter who made it, has it's strengths and weaknesses, some worse than others. The Toro you speak of has a few weak issues and if treated with caution may not become an issue, but normal use can become an issue where repair is difficult and expensive. Also, I just paid $90 for a part worth $5, $150 for a belt, $170 for a carb, $85 for a flat idler with metric dimensions. Every ball game is out there. Cheap is not always bad.

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Kinda like the guy who smokes two-packs a day, drinks a fith of scotch and lives to 100 and then you have the tea-totaler who drops dead at 42 while out for his daily jog.... You just never know!!!

VVR, I’ve been working on small engines since the early 60’s and in shop situations since the early 70’s. I’ve also worked on just about every brand, like Maytag, Fairbanks Morse hit&miss, Singer and Briggs letter series engines, upto today’s EFI models. From that experience I base my opinions and IMO today’s lowest end Toro’s are better than the MTD and Husqvarna units built for the Craftsman brand name. My experience has lead me to recommend certain brand names which I feel will offer the best bang for your buck. My experience also tells me you get what you pay for. Cheap units do at times out last a more expensive model when you have a small postage stamp, flat lawn which can be mowed in 20 minutes, but will never last as long as you seem to have experienced on the average suburban lawns here in the Midwest. Just my opinion which isn’t worth the time it took you to read this, but remember I was a long winded instructor also.

Well I have only been doing this for money for a short time ~ 8 years now but what I can say without any fear is I tell customers that their mower either can not be repaired or the repair will exceed the replacement cost regularly for the bottom end mowers and very rarely for locally assembled ( or earlier locally made ) mowers or quality imported brands like Honda, Toro & JD .
Husqvarna made an attempt to enter the local market but their walk behinds gained such a poor reputation that they exited the market very quickly .
I do not fully blame the manufacturers as a big part of it is the "I want everything & I want it for free " mentality of the buying public.
Aussies seem to be a bit more savvy than Americans as sales of the top end Honda 3 Speed Self propelled @ $ 1800 ( Aus ) are quite strong which is amazing considering the bottom end rebadged Husqvarna ride on sells for $ 1599 .
So once one of them has gone down the path to ruin ( high volume low margin ) they have no option but to make the mowers cheaper every year.
This is most noticeable by the thinning of the steel pressings used for the bases where now days the powder coating top & bottom is near twice the thickness of the steel.
The base plate is then computer controlled spot hardened and you see this in things like cracks that form a full circle around a bolt hole rather than radiating out from the centre.

Thus when some one asks me for recommendations the first question is how long do you want the mower to last .
Then convert the purchase price to yours of your time worked to pay for it then ask yourself just how good a mower that is 1/2 to 1 days wages is likely to be .
Most of the cheapies will be lucky to out live the 2 year warranty.
Now we probably get a lot more $ 25 ( USA ) chinese imports down here rebranded & sold for $ 200 than you do over there , but my message is anything less than $ 600 ( Aus ) , which is about $ 400 US is throwing your money down the toilet .

HAving said that , a cheapie from 20 years ago would e on par with a middle order mower from today.
Mowers from the 60's, 70's , 80's & some 90's will run forever but from then on in it is down hill all the way.