I am the proud owner of about 10 working lawnboysn(+ several parts mowers) and a few toros, all 2 stroke. It makes me sick thinking this is the end of two strokes. I recently purchased a craftsman for about $350 that was not half as good as any of my old lawnboys or even toros. Really just a bad mower all around from the deck to the drive system to the motor. I can not say anything good about it. I consider myself lucky that I know what a good mower is and was able to return it. If you look at the longevity of the good two strokes if taken care of properly they more then make up for the air pollution. We now have a bunch of overpriced junk mowers that will take more energy and produce more pollution taking them in to be repaired or to the scrap yard. Not to mention the wasting of energy and resources making more junk mowers to replace the junk mowers that died and shipping them from god knows where. This throw away society is the cause of our pollution not the light weight powerful easy to repair two stroke.
Planned Obsolescence
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ditto,
lotta "cookie cutter"stamped pos' out there
some of the blame prob falls on chain stores, they effictively murdered the mom&pop
shops that always had parts for quality items
lotta "cookie cutter"stamped pos' out there
some of the blame prob falls on chain stores, they effictively murdered the mom&pop
shops that always had parts for quality items
I definitely agree big business has a role in all this- not the pollution controls- but the throw away mowers. Part of the prolem with toro buying lawnboy and lawnboy losisng its identiy. Getting away from the lighter simpler mowers to the heavier junkier mowers. All though they kept the f engine going for a while at least they were not completely stupid. That was a bad merger in my mind for the pushmower. It decreased competition in the quality mower market(competition is the only balance a free market has). Where's the SEC when you need em.
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5,142 Posts
I'll have to disagree with you on the misconception most people have about Toro's buyout of a BANKRUPT company. OMC went bust and anybody could have bought LB.
IMO Lawnboy finally received a descent drive system when Toro took the helm.
One of the best push mowers I've ever used (and believe me, I've used them all) is a "heavy junkier" Toro.
SEC?? I hope your kidding? Please, there is plenty of competition in the mower market then and now.
I definitely think that the toro was an excellent mower I have two and probabley will soon have three (all the older two strokes-as that is my obvious bias). For my purposes packing mowers around to several different places to mow and repairing them when they get beat up or neglected it is very hard to beat the ease and convenience of parts for a lawn-boy(simple effective design). The suzuki engine is an excellent engine (smooth and quiet) and the decks were very durable but you have to admit that the current crop seems to fall short of the pre merger quality both in build and longevity. I understand toro has to compete and make money in the current market place to stay in business I just long for the good old days.
I often wonder what was the downfall of OMC. Maybe someone can enlighten me. Could it have been that the mowers lasted too long and were too durable- although I believe this would have effected the toros in the 80 and early 90's as well.
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I also wonder why they went Bankrupt/ended the mower line. Such a great product that everyone bought....
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While competition went with a drive system that was driven by belts and pulleys etc LB was still dabbling in capstan drive systems that weren't cutting it especially in the commercial line. I know LB was working with some primitive trannys, Toro had a proven design that was working. That is just my huntch..I don't know for sure.
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Surely, self propel alone didn't kill the whole company.
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No..I don't think so (thats the only thing I can think of off the top of my head) I'm sure there were lots of factors that I have no clue about.
I remember seeing some info on the internet about the bankruptcy a couple of years ago but you might have to Google deep to find it.
I wonder if Bald-guy know anything about it?
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I used to do grounds maintenance on a camp here in Pennsylvania and we had Murrays and lawnboys to do the trim work. The lawnboys did a great job and lasted real long but the SP Murrays never slipped like the capstan drives on the LB's. I had to mow rain or shine so I appreciated the SP that worked best!
I agree the drive system was outdated- a case of OMC trying to stay simple and light without putting tread on wheels and making the other necessary changes for an effective drive system. I have to think they were trying to update that system with the M design although toro had them by then and it is hard to tell what is lawn-boy and what is toro. OMC was getting away from there strength of simple light weight mowers that did not need a drive system by trying to compete with the demand for self propelled. This probably did contribute.
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The OMC company failure was due to several things;Lawnboy was not one of them (great product). OMC evinrude outboard marine division introduced a 'NEW' Ficht fuel injection system that failed and bled BIG $'s. I had a 90hp on a pontoon boat & went thru 2 in 18 months;1st 1 warranty & 2nd one I had to eat ;they folded into bankruptcy. George Soros was involved,too, if your going to google search. I literally pushed an ole lawn boy until it needed new wheels and never had a problem with the engine. I was a 12 yr old kid makin pocket money.:thThumbsU
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I'd have to agree with bbrighty in that many factors are typically involved with the downfall of a company, great product or not. Any shooters out there? I think all of us would agree that Colt's "Python" was/is one of the finest revolvers ever produced. With bluing a mile deep, unparalleled craftsmanship and a trigger like glass. Put several rounds through one and you'll wonder, endlessly, how they went out of production. Well, its all business. My father-in-law ran a landscaping company for nearly forty years. He said, "At one time, I probably had 18 Lawn Boys. I loved those things - light, durable and easy to fix. Nothing else compared. I would stop whatever I was doing, if I saw one at the end of someone's yard, throw it in the back of the truck, you could always get them running again, pretty easily." I'll bet it had less to do with the product and much more to do with management.
I'm certainly not saying that it was the cause, probably a number of factors, but I do recall reading a bit (don't know what it was, this class was about 8 or more years ago) that around 1930, durable goods were hurting a number of companies and, in a very small way, contributed to the depression. The "problem" was that companies would build something like a tank. Yes, it was expensive and they made a good return on selling it, but, instead of it lasting only a few years (like we are all used to now), it just wouldn't break. If it did break, the consumer could fix it or take it to be repaired locally. The consumer didn't see the need to buy the newest model if the one they already had was going to work just fine. Companies found it hard to stay in business when they built a product that would last for 25 years. They found that if they made it cheaper, with a planned obsolescence if you will, they would be able to continue to sell to the same consumer over and over. It was a matter of finding the line between quality and cost, making sure it lasted long enough and worked well enough that the consumer would want to buy from them again when that model stopped working. Think about these LB's (and other quality mowers for that matter)... Most of you can find one someone is throwing away, spend a few bucks and have a mower that works pretty dang well. That is great for you and for the used market, but (if LB was still in business and not part of Toro) it is not really that great for the manufacture unless they figure it out and put a focus on building parts for folks to restore their mowers instead of putting it all into new mowers, etc. Now, I'm not saying that every company went under or every company hurts from building a higher quality product, but I do know that it does hurt some of them, probably those with management issues to begin with. Sorry, rambled a bit, no coffee yet.
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