21 incher

[ematthews]

You might be seeing alot of post from me right now because i just found this site the other day,so here is one more. What is the hands down best 21in walk behind commercial mower. You may ask why am i asking this.I plan on using this alot on my new business.I might be stupid for this but i am partial for buying new equipment and i just cant afford to get the 36+ mid size deck wb right now, so i will be buying a new 21in. After i settle in on the work and start making a profit i will move up to the big boys.

[lawrence stone]

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If you can afford a new 21" Toro ($900)then you can afford a used 32-36 walkbehind.

You can't make any real money using a 21. The production rate stinks.

Depending on your area you might not even need to buy a 21" mower. if you do just get a used beater for a few bucks.

Plus with a real 32-36 walkbehind you can buy and ride on a two wheel sulky and mow at 5 mph. How fast do you thing you will be walking behind a 21 ALL DAY LONG.

"The Frugal Agronomist"

[GrassMaster]

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Hello ematthews:

<b>The Best 21" Walkbehind is...</b>

A Honda, Others will say a Toro, I've never used a Toro! I think either one would be a Good Choice. I would base my Purchasing Decision on What's the Most Popular & Most used one in your Area! Because of Parts Availability & Choice of Dealers!

If Monies are avaiable, I would do as Mr. Stone says, but I would Probably get a Used 21" & a Used 32", I do believe that would be a good Combo! Because both could very easily go through 36" gates. If 36" gates are Popular in your Area. This way you have a Back up, then later you can opt for the Larger units!

In order to Survive & Reduce Stress, You Must Have Back ups of Everything? It's a Must!!!!

In my area near about all Walk Through Gates are 36", Kinda Strange because I would want a 48" gate. Also what kills me is Most Folks do not even have a Drive Through gate for Vehicles, in the Majority of Neighborhoods?

If you can't get in back yard with Truck, What do you do about Tailgate Parties? True JawJa RedNecks have Keg on Tailgate of Truck & the Remaining Few sit on each side of Tailgate with Keg in Middle until the Looser Falls off! <img src=icon_smile_tongue.gif border=0 align=middle>

What Kills me is, "The Survivors Name is Always Bubba!" LOL

GrassMaster
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[lawrence stone]

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Rule of thumb on 21" mowers is:

Buy a Honda if you are going to bag.

Buy a Toro if you are going to mulch. The Toro will bag fine but the bag does not dump as easily as a Honda.

The above are the full-blown $900+ commercial units. Not the personal pace and the Honda consumer models.

I have two 21" Toro commercials with the 2 cycle Suzuki engines (pre blade brake and zone start BS). They are both 1989 models and just a few numbers different in the serial numbers. One was bought (that one has a fairly new mower deck) new for big bucks and the other was $250 to pay off the mechanics lien at an OPE dealer for a new transmission that was installed but the machine was never picked up.


"The Frugal Agronomist"

Edited by - lawrence stone on May 15 2002 10:23:22 PM

[Zack]

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Buy a Lawnboy if you are going to side discharge. Honda's are way to heavy to be practical & can't discharge. LCO's running Honda's & Toro's are busting their azz bagging while we side blow. Much faster.
Nothing beats the production of a Lawnboy com.. Much faster than 32" belts in 90% of our backyards. Only thing that beats it is the Viking 32".

[johnhenry]

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I have all three of the big boys in 21 and what everyone has said is true. Toro Has the best cut and mulch, Honda has the best bagger,lawn boy is the lightest and if you put the gator blade on it the cut will match that of a toro. All in all I use the lawn boy the most.But I aalso agree with Mr. Stone what he said about making money. Its hard to make any real money with 21 unless you have several crews running just 21

If two experts disagree,he who suffers is the customer

[Scaper-S2k]

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I doubt I would even go commercial in the first place with your situation. Why? Well, you could spend $320 on a good 21", save the other $600 and put it towards the real machine you need! The Toro 36" mower.

If your lawns are small, you can do okay with a 21" for a year. I'm not saying I would do it, but it can be done. Heck, many people use a 44" mower and mow twice, so if you mow once with a 21", it's nearly the same thing.

Choice of mowers? Honda for longevity. Snapper (with the 5hp Kawasaki) is a great bagger and decent mulcher. I just bought another 21" Toro 6.5hp that is very light, and will mulch nearly anything with perfection. It amazes even me! Cost? $339. My other Toros have lasted 5-6 years (and still going) and not commercial. We've had all of them and currently use Snapper 21" commercials for bagging nice properties and Toro 21" mulchers for the other stuff.

Of course, we run many 36" and 44" too.

Don't Fear the Green!