The life span of a lawnmower depends on a lot of different factors. Like How it's run and if it's used properly or not. How often it's run and how well it's maintained. In many cases and ways mowers today are built far better than than they used to be.
Are you taking too many meds or something ?
Built better ?
No bushes on control shafts where they bear against each other or the body
No tie rod ends on steering linkages.
No bushes on steering linkages.
Light duty (6200 series) deep ball races on spindles in place of high duty ones ( 6300 series) or better still tapered rollers.
Non serviceable ball races on wheels in place of tapered rollers
No grease nipple on caster housings.
Cast alloy spindle housing in place of fabricated steel ones
Plastic idler pulleys that add heat to belts rather than take heat out of the belt
Spot welds in place of seam welds
Pressed decks with no drainage holes so they rust out is a few seasons if you don't keep them dry.
Thinner steel used every where
Direction controls with no adjustment on the hydro's in place of separate forward , reverse and max travel adjustments.
And I haven't even started on engines.
Lots more power, at the cost of sacrificed reliability and longevity.
You obviously get your jollies by looking a spec sheets and running numbers and doing comparisons, nothing wrong with that
And you are looking mostly at commercial mowers which mostly are built to a substantially higher standard than domestic mowers
I actually get under them to fix all the problems that don't appear on the spec sheets.
Customers come in with 20 to 30 year old mowers and all I do is change the consumables and the occasion bush, belt or pulley.
Customers come in with 3 year old mowers with the deck dragging on the ground because all the lift linkages are flogged out oval
Done 2 mowers 18 months old with the lift arms fractured through because the mower hangs on 3 arms with no stabilizer so it shakes left right till the arms fracture.
The lift arms are welded to a rod which simply passes through a hole in what passes for a chassis with no bush, no way of lubing it without turning it upside down and no way of replacing the lift rod.
Lst time I had to do this repair was on a JD 242, a residential mower, being used commercially for 5 years so no complaints about that one fracturing but even that had grease points for the lift arm which is accessible.
Then we have springs locking into holes that end up cutting a groove through the bodywork till they fall out.
Not a big cost to do a spot hardening on the material for 0.020" to 0.040" so the anchor point is stronger than the replaceable item , the spring.
And this applies to almost every mechanical PTO fitted to all modern mowers ZTR & tractor right across all brands that we get down here.
This all gets covered up by ever increasing power to cut ratios so the mug in the drivers seat thinks it was money well spent.
Way back in the side valve days mowers had a power to cut ratio of about 4 or 4" per horsepower.
Now days with the "better" engines we have all OHV and fuel efficient it has come down to 2.5 and there is even a Chinese temporary landfill mower with a 21 Hp engine on a 36" deck or 1.7.
My 1966 Cox 8hp 32" will happily ( a bit slowly) chug its way through 4' tall grass
Put anything modern through the same grass and the deck chokes, no matter how slow or high you set the cut.
I test each and every mower than passes through the shop so have a real bum on the seat comparison, between whatever my customers bring in and that is apart from what I see underneath.
SO no Rick you are 100% wrong they get cheaper & nastier each and every year and if you put your brain to work it will become blatantly apparent they you can not make a better product cheaper each & every year.
Do you do a better quality of service each year and reduce the price you charge your customers ?
SO if you can not do it with the aid of all by your faster, better cheaper equipment what makes you think a factory can do the same making the gear you are using ?
