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My 14 year old son would like to upgrade his lawn mower. He has been using an old snapper self propelled 21" mower that mows fine but is slow and outdated. It was what I used before he started to take up lawn mowing. He Wants something that allows him to mow yards faster and to be able to cover more yards. He can not drive and is just mowing yards on the street we live on right now and a couple other ones such as his grandparents and some other family friends. He Is looking to spend max of about $800. He wants a mower that has somewhere from a 32"-40" deck. He is not looking to buy new but to buy used off of Facebook marketplace. We have been looking and we have a good Idea of what he will end up getting but we just would like to have some input from some more people who have more experience in this area. some of the mowers that we have seen as good candidates are the cub cadet 800cc, cub cadet 760cc, and the mtd pro 1366 bandit. The ideal setup would be to have a walk behind with a sulky that he could get a good few seasons out of it until he Is able to buy a new mower of higher quality. All I need is a good suggestion of a good mower to buy that fits in that idea. If possible a link to a mower on the Facebook marketplace near the Louisville, Kentucky area. Thank you!

No suggestions on a mower for your son...But, congratulations on having a son who is willing to get out and work. So many kids today can't get off their cellphones or away from the TV long enough to even think about mowing a lawn. I started out pretty much the same way....over 60 years ago....just riding my bike around the neighborhood, and using whatever mowers the neighbors had. At the minimum, this helped give me a good work ethic.

deminin said:

No suggestions on a mower for your son...But, congratulations on having a son who is willing to get out and work. So many kids today can't get off their cellphones or away from the TV long enough to even think about mowing a lawn. I started out pretty much the same way....over 60 years ago....just riding my bike around the neighborhood, and using whatever mowers the neighbors had. At the minimum, this helped give me a good work ethic.

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Agree 100%, Sorry no help on a mower for him tho.. Be proud of that young man..

The Toro personal pace seem to get a good write up whenever this question comes up
The wide area walk behinds tend to be quite expensive and then you have the problem of the places where they can not fit.
The wider decks usually give a poorer cut & tend to scalp on anything other than a dead flat lawn.
FWIW all of my commercial customers use old 3 speed HRC21's
The 3rd speed on these mowers was supposed to be for transporting the mower, not mowing.
However if you keep the blades very sharp it cuts well at that speed
Now it might be different over there where you have to use bar blades but down here we use swing backs on a disc.
These blades are only 2mm thick so even when blunt are sharper than most bar blades.
The one of them that has a government contract to cut pensioners laws at a discount can knock over better than 20 lawns a day in high summer .
These are the Hondas with the CV & CXV 190 engines with the solid drive shafts.
You should be able to find some that predate the manditory blade brake which add a lot of weight for absolutely no benefit.

oh never mind. That wouldnt be an option for him but he has tried that self propelled system where you pushed it down but he said it was unnatural and uncomfortable for him.

See a Toro 33 inch 9 hp walk behind in Columbus Oh for $500, looks real good. Facebook marketplace. I don't have any other info.

tom3 said:

See a Toro 33 inch 9 hp walk behind in Columbus Oh for $500, looks real good. Facebook marketplace. I don't have any other info.

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I do not see the toro mower in Columbus

Funny, my 14 year old started a mowing biz this summer. How many yards is he doing? Two pieces of advice:
1) GET INSURANCE FOR HIM! See my thread on this forum.... He broke a car window today, and it's gonna cost us a pretty penny.
2) Buy once cry once. My boy has saved his entire life and was able to buy his own mowers, and I helped him with a blower, trimmer and edger, and lawn cart. He first bought a nice used JD 54" residential mower for $2800 this spring, and as he added 16 larger open properties, he found out he needed a commercial mower, after his ZT broke a valve and needed a new motor. He fixed that one, and sold it just yesterday (at a loss), and since picked up a more pricey, but nice used commercial ZT.

Now, this machine advice may not apply to your boy, if he's only mowing a few small yards, and a cheap, decent quality walk behind might be a good fit for him, if he's mowing close to home. Just sharing my son's experience.

But, I really recommend getting insurance, regardless though, after my experience today. Good luck to your son, that's awesome he has a work ethic!

wesg543 said:

I do not see the toro mower in Columbus

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Browsing through Marketplace general merch. I'm not into Facebook. Maybe this will bring it up:


https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/482701355872595/

tom3 said:

Browsing through Marketplace general merch. I'm not into Facebook. Maybe this will bring it up:


https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/482701355872595/

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thank you that is a little far and looks a tad bit outdated

Jimbo45 said:

Funny, my 14 year old started a mowing biz this summer. How many yards is he doing? Two pieces of advice:
1) GET INSURANCE FOR HIM! See my thread on this forum.... He broke a car window today, and it's gonna cost us a pretty penny.
2) Buy once cry once. My boy has saved his entire life and was able to buy his own mowers, and I helped him with a blower, trimmer and edger, and lawn cart. He first bought a nice used JD 54" residential mower for $2800 this spring, and as he added 16 larger open properties, he found out he needed a commercial mower, after his ZT broke a valve and needed a new motor. He fixed that one, and sold it just yesterday (at a loss), and since picked up a more pricey, but nice used commercial ZT.

Now, this machine advice may not apply to your boy, if he's only mowing a few small yards, and a cheap, decent quality walk behind might be a good fit for him, if he's mowing close to home. Just sharing my son's experience.

But, I really recommend getting insurance, regardless though, after my experience today. Good luck to your son, that's awesome he has a work ethic!

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Thank you I will look into the insurance and the mower advice was helpful, thank you!