My dad bought a base model Troy-Bilt push mower new in 1995 for $99 best I recall. At the time I was in middle school and made money in the summer mowing lawns. I was kinda disappointed in it at the time. It was really heavy compared to most. No self propel, son of a bitch was like pushing a Jeep.
When Mrs. Conductor and I moved in together in 2005 I took it with me. Our first house had a small yard and it was my only mower. After moving into our current house with 4 acres to mow in 2013, I bought a Kubota BX2370 and the push mower sat. I gave it away in 2015. I wasn’t overly choked up about it. The Kubota is only slightly heavier and much easier on the back.
Regardless, the damn thing ran 20 years absolutely trouble free. I changed the spark plug in it a few times and changed the oil every couple of years, and it started on the 2nd or 3rd pull until the day it left. I never followed up on it, but it wouldn’t surprise me a bit if the damn thing isn’t running to this day.
That's pretty good, I guess taking care of a mower pays off.
All the time I hear people saying how mowers never last for them, but these are the kind of people who leave them in the elements and don't do regular maintenance.
Neither my dad or I took good care of this mower, but it had some minor issues when we got it and figured it was on it's way out anyways.
Turns out it had just needed some maintenance but by the time I started to care about it the damage had been done and 6 years later I'm surprised it's still ticking at all.
After having switched out the tanks, muffler, proper gas cap, and a few other parts from that other mower I'm thinking the problem probably was the carb.
I thought about trying to get this other going, but the carb bowl was completely full of a white calcium build up like substance and I lost the main jet anyways so I wasn't going to bother with it.