Apples and Oranges – April 10, 2024

3 minutes

photo/graphix spwilcen

Likely should have worked websites before my hunt for a new Little Red. 

I was pleased with Little Red’s performance. Best mower I’ve ever owned save one.  That “best” was a John Deere.  Arm-and-leg purchase as you would expect from a “Lookit me, ma! I’m driving an almost-tractor!” Self-propelled, though, not a rider. A rider on Nashvegas yard slopes would have severely tested the roll cage. Battery start. Heavy {expletive-expletive}. Served on Nashvegas hills for over ten years. Three years in, it stopped charging. Played mechanic and diagnosed necessary repairs to magneto. Parts? One-quarter bazillion dollars. Pull starter still serviceable.  No brainer.

Mowed not only my yard but the empty lot next door, and routinely did neighbor’s yards, for recovering surgeries, vacations, and husbands unexpectedly gone for the weekend.  When it went, that JD, it went in style, rod through the head.  Enter Little Red. Same Nashvegas hills. Little Red a mite smaller, but what pluck!

Two tough winters after the relo for Red. Not sure yet what happened but with the convenience of time, I’ll figure it out.

Finding a new one not easy.  BBTS A has models AB, AE, EG, and AY. BBTS B has models AC, AD, AD2, AF, and AX [all the same brand].  Different drive configurations, engine displacement, discharge/mulch options, yank or battery start, swath, warranties, and deck height adjustment mechanics. Did I mention price? Classic apples/oranges scenario.

There was no “current model” Little Red. Closest was an inch narrower, 10cc smaller engine, hard plastic instead of metal height control, fixed-rate ground speed. The price was indeed new and improved, $150.00 more for less. 

Save only el-cheapo brands [last maybe one season if you are lucky] no more side discharges. Ralph Nader’s legacy, maybe?  I’ve whacked grass long enough I’ve walked behind most brand names. Some I will avoid for country of origin. Most for durability. Some for cutting finish. Save finding JD at half price, I knew what brands I’d accept.

Electric?  [Snort! You jest!] Recharge rates, [sooner or later] battery replacement, electricity [is not free], and somewhere someone is burning something to make electricity [so stick your eco-argument into that dark place].  [Cord? Get real.  Live wire, spinning blade, clumsiness. Whoops!] Anyone gonna tell me the net energy conversion rate coal/gas/hydro/wind/solar to electricity is 100%?  Not likely.  Thermodynamically every time you convert [save atomic, maybe even then] you lose something. Prove me wrong.

Anyway. Initial purchase price says a battery mower is the Trainer Slick of lawn care. Three, four, and five hundred dollars premium for electric. For what?

Decided.  No plastic.  Larger engine than I wanted.  Correct drive configuration. Acceptable discharge/mulching options. [Self-]assembly scheduled for this evening. Tomorrow, pending expected overnight rain, I’ll mow the front lawn.  I’m more than a day behind now. Everything slides, levelling, rolling, fertilizing, weed-killing fence row, re-soiling the “new” garden space, and fence and stone garden perimeter barriers to foil hippity-hoppities.

Should you miss me a day or two here at spwilcenwrites, listen carefully.  You might hear choice words from the yard – there’s landscape block, mulch, and topsoil to haul. Old sod to remove…