I purchased the first and only (so far) lawn tractor I’ve ever owned in July 2001. It’s a Honda H2113, with the hydrostatic transmission. No frills to speak of other than that, but I added a switch for the headlights and an hour meter.
I took meticulous care of it for the first few years I had it. I cleaned it carefully after using it. I changed the oil about twice as often as the maintenance interval. I had about a three-hour routine I went through preparing the deck for winter storage. Got me?
But it seemed like something was always up with it. Only one was definitely my fault. You know those knotted lengths of rope they sell as dog toys? Ran over one of those and had to replace the deck belt. That wasn’t too hard.
It’s had other problems, though, that were really irritating considering what I thought I was paying for with a Honda GX engine. Needed a starter once. It’s on its third main seal. Early on, it was a pretty roundly mediocre Honda ownership experience, particularly given its rather light residential duty. It continued to be unimpressive until I changed my ownership approach.
I started neglecting it.
I change the oil when I think about it, and if a whole season goes by and I don’t think about it, then so be it. (I do check the level every fourth cut or so, and add as necessary.) I change the air filter when the engine stops running. Spark plug too. I spray WD-40 in appropriate places a time or two during the year. Winterize? Yeah, right. I park it whenever I’m done with it for the year and walk away, my only nod to storage prep being that I use Sta-Bil in the gasoline without exception. (Well, and I pull the key out. Heh.)
Never gives me a problem now. Well, I did have to replace a U-joint in the shift linkage late last season, but an 11-year-old, constantly moving part? No biggie. It wouldn’t start today—its 2013 coming out—but putting the battery on the charger for three hours fixed that. (Actually I think it’s only its second battery, which is pretty impressive.)
I have this passive-aggressive relationship with it where I start the season thinking “OK. I need you to start and run for 2 hours 12 to 15 times between now and Halloween. Deal?”
So far, it’s a deal.
You might also like:
- Apple finds another way to flip its customers off
I spent thousands of hours on Apple ][+ and Apple /// computers before I ever touched a PC (or a Mac… - Doe vs. 2004 Odyssey: Is this the end for the current Leamobile?
Lots on my mind today, and just as I got ready to set something down for you Lea hit a doe on the wa… - Seven dozen blog posts I’ve written in now-abandoned locations
I’m always giving my friend Carol Marks good-natured grief for reinventing herself so often with new… - Ill-placed nostalgia and the Windows 8 Start screen
It’s pretty hard to find a carburetor in a new car anymore. Outside the third world, it may be impos… - The Internet again saves me hundreds of dollars
Behold the relay I replaced to restore proper operation of my wife’s van’s windshield wipers: Thanks…
Unfortunately, i’ve had the opposite experience. I bought a Murray riding lawn mower used for $300 a few years ago. It’s run pretty well, but I started having mice/rats nest in it. Well I went the route of neglect this winter season with it. So when I pulled it out yesterday to finally get my first cut in, it wouldn’t start. The starter turns, but nothing else does.
So I start to take it apart and see what the problem is. I’ve got two of the screws out of the blower cover so that I can lift it up enough to see what’s under it. All I see are eyes and tails. 5 rats were nested inside on top of the cylinder housing. I scare them off and get the rest of the blower cover off to assess the damage.
They were right on top of the ignition coil which was already pretty rusty, but they decided to chew the wire for it anyway, to the point where I can’t splice it back together (not enough slack length). They had also chewed a set of yellow wires under the steering wheel that I’ve yet to figure out what they’re for, but I could repair those probably.
But the top priority problem in the whole system is that the starter’s gears aren’t engaged with the motor. I don’t know how this starter is supposed to work exactly, but the gears are sitting too low, and there’s a spring that’s pushing them down. So I’m assuming there’s some mechanism that’s supposed to be pushing the gears up, so they’ll actually do something productive, but is not doing its job. I’m wondering if the chewed yellow wires have anything to do with that.
But my summary of the situation is it’s effectively totaled for my purposes. It’ll probably cost $100, maybe a bit more just to get the parts if I end up having to replace the starter along with the ignition coil. And even then, I don’t know 100% that it’ll work. I was already anticipating selling it to get a little bit of money back and put that toward something new, so now it just looks like I’ll get even less money for it… Crap.
Yipes, man. I’m sorry. I ran some mice out of our shed one year. Stopped having a problem with them when I started sealing grass seed in locking containers.
I read this aloud to Jeff so he could laugh at it. We bought a Craftsman riding lawnmower from Sears in 1990, and he had the same bargain with it for the last few years. The engine finally gave out when it was old enough to drink.
How do you get away with only 12 to 15 mows?