Opinions on Honda 160cc commercial vs Briggs 190cc semi-pro

lawnboy101

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  • / Opinions on Honda 160cc commercial vs Briggs 190cc semi-pro
Greetings, new member from the Pacific North west. I currently run a full time solo lawncare business that specializes in smaller properties and am looking to get away from Honda trim mowers, due to cut quality on bi-weekly accounts. I'm looking for the BEST bagging mower out there and have repeatedly read that Snapper is the the way to go. The Honda twin blade just leaves behind too many stragglers even with the blade sharpened once a week on longer grass because of the blade design. Unfortunately, weekly mulching accounts are harder to come by and only make up about half of my properties, and bi-weekly accounts often require bagging. I don't mind bagging providing my customers have a city yard waste disposal can.

My question is in regards to the biggest differences in both build quality and cutting performance between the 160cc commercial snapper mower and the semi-pro model with the Brigs 850. I know with Honda, a lot of people prefer the Semi-pro HRX-217 with it's larger 200cc motor over the commercial HRC-216 with the standard 160cc engine. I myself prefer the HRX simply because of the extra power, and the HRX does just fine with commercial use. In fact, I actually see far more HRX mowers being used by businesses in my market than I see HRC mowers being used. They're also about $400 cheaper. Is this the case with Snapper trim mowers? Can the cheaper semi-pro model with it's larger 190cc engine be used for commercial duty, and is the cut quality as good. I have never been a fan of Honda's 160cc commercial engine because of the lack of power in taller wet grass, which I deal quite a bit with in the spring here. I also do property clean ups for a Realtor that sometimes require the removal of knee high grass. A Honda HRC with it's twin blade designed for mulching will not blast through a property like that when bagging at anything past crawling speed. How does the commercial Snapper do on these types of properties when bagging with it's high lift blade?
 

slomo

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  • / Opinions on Honda 160cc commercial vs Briggs 190cc semi-pro
I have an older cherry, hardly used Commercial Snapper with the Honda GXV160 commercial engine. With a single mulching blade, the engine is weak. BUT, I have Tifway Bermuda. Cousin to Bermuda with super fine grass blades. Dense grass, check. Lot of guys talk dense grass like St. Aug and such, lol. St. Aug is easy to cut. Anyway, I would get the Briggs without thinking about it. Way more grass cutting torque.

Far as the deck goes, like you found out, Snapper Hi-Vacs are the world standard at bagging IMO. In over 40 years of mowing with many different brands, nothing gets close to a Hi-Vac. Attach the air lift kit to the blade and look no further.

slomo
 

bertsmobile1

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  • / Opinions on Honda 160cc commercial vs Briggs 190cc semi-pro
If your customers are fertalizing & watering their grass really well you are wasting a valuable resource by tossing those clippings in the bin .
I am not familiar with the USA Hondas as the local ones have swing back blades & a large blade disc so never ever leave an uncut blade behind.
We do not get Snappers down here either .
However what does happen to my commercial customers who use mowers with pressed steel bases is they are forever cracking around the handlebar anchor points.
If the mowers you are looking at all have cast bases then go with the Snapper by all means.

Down here the Hondas are set to 3200 rpm which makes them very quiet ( major selling point ) but a bit on the gutless side in long grass and slow to respond to the governor
For the commercial customers I wind that up to a full 3600 rpm and for them that equates to an extra 2 to 3 yards a day, well worth the extra noise & fuel consumption.

As for engines.
I loathe the new B & S engines .
I have had nothing but trouble with that mongrel plastic carb which seem to have a mind of their own and now days represent 100 % of all the repair warranty work I do .
I have given up on them & now just fit replacements & hope the one I get is good .
Now this could be very biased as naturally the good carbs never come into the workshop but the duff ones seem to have a plethoria of problems .
 

slomo

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  • / Opinions on Honda 160cc commercial vs Briggs 190cc semi-pro
Is it too much trouble to install a full metallic carb and a choke/throttle cable? Stop all the fancy "works on paper" upgrades that FAIL in the field.

slomo
 
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