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If the oil is changed regularly, can a lawn mower last forever ?

My friend in Canada has a 1992 Tecumseh 3.5HP Push Walk Behind mower that has about 10,000 hours on it (probably more), has never been rebuilt, and is still running fantastically.

I know engines were made better back then, so that has something to do with why it still runs like new, but surely if I keep up with the servicing on my 2011 Mountfield 2.6HP Self Propelled Walk Behind mower it could last as long, if not longer ?

jmurray01 said:

If the oil is changed regularly, can a lawn mower last forever ?

My friend in Canada has a 1992 Tecumseh 3.5HP Push Walk Behind mower that has about 10,000 hours on it (probably more), has never been rebuilt, and is still running fantastically.

I know engines were made better back then, so that has something to do with why it still runs like new, but surely if I keep up with the servicing on my 2011 Mountfield 2.6HP Self Propelled Walk Behind mower it could last as long, if not longer ?

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10,000 hours at 19 years old? HORSE SQUEEZE...that calculates to just under 1.5 hours of mowing EVERY DAY. NOBODY puts THAT kind of hours on a push mower!!!!! So tell us just how he knows it has 10,000 hours running time? In mowing 5 acres here I put a measured 85-90 HOURS for the entire season on my tractor, and the one year I kept a record I put about 65 hours total on my two push mowers. 150 hours in 7 months mowing season works out to 1.4 hours per day, but NOBODY is going to be mowing 365 days a year.

For what it is worth, I have a 1990 3.5 hp Tecumseh walk behind pusher that began burning oil at about 6 years old, despite regular service. Your mower may be a good product, but you can forget about it lasting that long. Regular service, or not. When my JD 318 was new, they told me the engine (Heavy Duty twin cylinder Onan gasoline) would give up to 1800-2000 hours before a rebuild. At 1200 it began burning oil, despite perfect service at regular intervals.

Sorry to let you down, but 10,000 hours....HORSE PATOOIE.

The short answer to your question is NO. NOTHING lasts forever, no matter HOW OCD you are about the maintainence.

I agree with JD......I think ya got an extra zero in there, bud.......unless you're using METRIC hours, then it might be different. :wink:

JDgreen said:

10,000 hours at 19 years old? HORSE SQUEEZE...that calculates to just under 1.5 hours of mowing EVERY DAY. NOBODY puts THAT kind of hours on a push mower!!!!! So tell us just how he knows it has 10,000 hours running time? In mowing 5 acres here I put a measured 85-90 HOURS for the entire season on my tractor, and the one year I kept a record I put about 65 hours total on my two push mowers. 150 hours in 7 months mowing season works out to 1.4 hours per day, but NOBODY is going to be mowing 365 days a year.

For what it is worth, I have a 1990 3.5 hp Tecumseh walk behind pusher that began burning oil at about 6 years old, despite regular service. Your mower may be a good product, but you can forget about it lasting that long. Regular service, or not. When my JD 318 was new, they told me the engine (Heavy Duty twin cylinder Onan gasoline) would give up to 1800-2000 hours before a rebuild. At 1200 it began burning oil, despite perfect service at regular intervals.

Sorry to let you down, but 10,000 hours....HORSE PATOOIE.

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It was used by his father for years and it covered around 10 hours every week when he lived at a property with very large lawns. It is now only used for about 1 hour every week.

jmurray01 said:

It was used by his father for years and it covered around 10 hours every week when he lived at a property with very large lawns. It is now only used for about 1 hour every week.

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So, what does the hourmeter say? And just FYI, NOBODY IN CANADA MOWS YEAR AROUND. NOBODY !!!!

That is remarkable service out of that piece of equipment. I certainly would think it is the exception rather than the rule. If I can squeeze 1800 hrs out of any piece of aircooled equipment, I consider myself very lucky.:biggrin:

JDgreen said:

So, what does the hourmeter say? And just FYI, NOBODY IN CANADA MOWS YEAR AROUND. NOBODY !!!!

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I never said he did mow all year round. It is probably a little less than 10,000 hours when I think about it, but not much less. There is no hourometer fitted, I just added it up using rough calculations.

jmurray01 said:

I never said he did mow all year round. It is probably a little less than 10,000 hours when I think about it, but not much less. There is no hourometer fitted, I just added it up using rough calculations.

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ROUGH INDEED.....VERY FLIPPING ROUGH. May I suggest you stop trying to convince us somebody actually has a 10,000 running hour push mower? If they were built THAT GOOD BACK THEN, everybody would still be using theirs.

I don't know how big of a lawn you are mowing, but changes are you won't be putting over 50hr. a year on your push mower. That would give you 20 years for 1000 hrs. Maybe the engine will last but what about the rest of the mower? I think you said the frame was plastic and that gets bridle with age. That will be time to throw away and buy new. I don't think we are talking about a commercial mower that cost thousands of dollars or however your money is called in Scotland.

Ok I'm going to be blunt Their is no way in hell that he has 10,000 hours on a air cooled engine
TOTAL BS

Black Bart said:

Ok I'm going to be blunt Their is no way in hell that he has 10,000 hours on a air cooled engine
TOTAL BS

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Yeah, HORSE SQUEEZE HORSE PATOOIE....:laughing:

Black Bart said:

Ok I'm going to be blunt Their is no way in hell that he has 10,000 hours on a air cooled engine
TOTAL BS

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Who cares, you know and I know it's just a untrue story. I am sure this is not the first one you have ever heard. 10,000 hrs on a water cooled engine without any overhaul would be pushing it. Wouldn't that be like a 1,000,000 miles on a big truck?

OK guys, Jesus Christ!

Maybe I got the calculations a bit wrong but it does have a lot of hours on it.

I'm surprised I haven't been bombed yet the way you guys are acting.

Oh and for the record there is a truck that has 1,000,000 miles on it.

It is common around here to take the miles divided by 50 to get the hours but is only a rough estimate. Semi tractor trailer rigs are common with over a million miles on the engine. Irrigation engines do some times make close to the 10,000 mark and I have seen some John Deer farm tractors with 10,000. But never have I ran across a small gasser with a claim of 10,000 lol. There is less than 10,000 hours in a year. Even in 20 years it is tough to be mowing for over a year.

I'll overlook the math error.:smile: Heck, this is just a friendly place to talk about lawnmowers and related equipment, after all. My all-time high hour engine candidates are the diesels and heavy fuel engines found in commercial vessels. A lot of the slow-turners (less than 500 RPM) go 25,000 hrs. or more. But they do live a much better life than a lawnmower; centrifuge-cleaned oiling systems in addition to media filtering, almost constant inspection, steady state load for days on end, fresh water cooled,etc.:licking:

I guess the the point I was trying to make who cares how many hrs on a push mower. I guess you would have to rig up a hour meter somehow to know or keep a log every time you use it? jmurray01 wants his well liked mower to last forever . Who knows what is forever. I have two toro's push mowers that are over well 20 years old but have very few hours on them seeing they are just trim mowers. We are just talking about a homeowner throwaway mower. When it is worn out throwaway and buy new 1 year or 50 years. I guess I am not a saver when it comes to anything mechanical.

A while ago I started a thread on TBN asking:

If a tractor has one operating hour on it, about how many miles does that correspond to as compared to a road use vehicle? There were many different opinions suggested, but if I recall right, a majority of them thought one running hour on a tractor was equal to about 35-40 miles. If I use that calculation, my near-900 mile JD has about 32000 to 36000 miles of operation on it.

BTW, I used to drive medium-duty straight trucks up to 30 tons GVW for a living. Even the low end of the diesel engine range (Cummins 5.9, 3208 Cat, Navistar DT-466) etc would easily go 350,000 miles before a rebuild, with proper maintenance. A million miles of operation on a semitractor diesel is considered a low figure.

If we calculate the 3.5 mph walking speed most push mowers have, we end up with 35000 miles of walking for 10,000 hours of use. At the equator, it is close to 25,000 miles around the earth. At a 20 inch cutting width, how many acres would you mow during one trip around the earth?

Yes you guys, I am being silly here. :laughing:

JDgreen said:

A while ago I started a thread on TBN asking:

If a tractor has one operating hour on it, about how many miles does that correspond to as compared to a road use vehicle? There were many different opinions suggested, but if I recall right, a majority of them thought one running hour on a tractor was equal to about 35-40 miles. If I use that calculation, my near-900 mile JD has about 32000 to 36000 miles of operation on it.

BTW, I used to drive medium-duty straight trucks up to 30 tons GVW for a living. Even the low end of the diesel engine range (Cummins 5.9, 3208 Cat, Navistar DT-466) etc would easily go 350,000 miles before a rebuild, with proper maintenance. A million miles of operation on a semitractor diesel is considered a low figure.

If we calculate the 3.5 mph walking speed most push mowers have, we end up with 35000 miles of walking for 10,000 hours of use. At the equator, it is close to 25,000 miles around the earth. At a 20 inch cutting width, how many acres would you mow during one trip around the earth?

Yes you guys, I am being silly here. :laughing:

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DAM How many axles did you have under that straight truck that you could Gross 60,000 lbs.

Black Bart said:

DAM How many axles did you have under that straight truck that you could Gross 60,000 lbs.

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10 wheel straight truck, tandem rear axle, Chevy C-65, 366 gas big block, 5 speed/2 speed rear, 24 foot van body on the back. Michigan law permits 16,000 -18,000 pounds per axle and it was used mainly to deliver full pallets of copy paper. With no load the springs were stiff enough to shake the driver apart even when belted in. The GVW for commercial trucks is always higher than the legal weight limit they can carry.

JDgreen said:

10 wheel straight truck, tandem rear axle, Chevy C-65, 366 gas big block, 5 speed/2 speed rear, 24 foot van body on the back. Michigan law permits 16,000 -18,000 pounds per axle and it was used mainly to deliver full pallets of copy paper. With no load the springs were stiff enough to shake the driver apart even when belted in. The GVW for commercial trucks is always higher than the legal weight limit they can carry.

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Ok you was talking what the tag said not what you hauled.

I know for years we were allowed 72,000 on 5 axle tractor trailer then they raised it to 80,000

I hated to go to Michigan in the spring that dam frost law I was legal everywhere but Michigan paid a few big fines up their.:frown:

JDgreen said:

10 wheel straight truck, tandem rear axle, Chevy C-65, 366 gas big block, 5 speed/2 speed rear, 24 foot van body on the back. Michigan law permits 16,000 -18,000 pounds per axle and it was used mainly to deliver full pallets of copy paper. With no load the springs were stiff enough to shake the driver apart even when belted in. The GVW for commercial trucks is always higher than the legal weight limit they can carry.

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Now if you got your 1,000,000 miles out of that 366 Chevriolet without a OH you were runing on luck. It wasn't much more then a HD car engine. Almost like 10,000 hrs. a a push mower.

reynoldston said:

Now if you got your 1,000,000 miles out of that 366 Chevriolet without a OH you were runing on luck. It wasn't much more then a HD car engine. Almost like 10,000 hrs. a a push mower.

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Sarcasm will get you nowhere with this old fart !!! :laughing::laughing: The truck belonged to my employer, wasn't my problem to fix it.

The truck 366 was a big-block GM engine used from the 1960's thru 1990's on GM medium-duty trucks and school bus chassis. It was engineered for torque, not horsepower, and proved to be very durable. Some hot rodders think because it is a big block, they can get cheap horsepower from one. Doesn't work that way.

I know all about them seeing I was a Chevriolet Truck mechanic back in them days. When I started it was the 348 truck engine 409 car engine. As I remember they didn't hold up very well in a truck. We are still runing a 454 in one of our older pickups. A real good gas hog.

reynoldston said:

I know all about them seeing I was a Chevriolet Truck mechanic back in them days. When I started it was the 348 truck engine 409 car engine. As I remember they didn't hold up very well in a truck. We are still runing a 454 in one of our older pickups. A real good gas hog.

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You missed mentioning the 396, 402, and 427.

My '93 Airstream has the 454 gas big block, you ain't telling me NOTHING about gas mileage....:laughing:

They weren't HD truck engines and I didn't work on cars. But I remember the 261, 292 truck engines. They put the 454 in the pickups and motor homes. I sure hated working on the motor homes because they built the body around the engine. Chevrolet was just getting into diesel engines when I started working on Fords.

jmurray01 said:

If the oil is changed regularly, can a lawn mower last forever ?

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One needs to service more than just the oil to maintain any motor.

Sammy the Red said:

One needs to service more than just the oil to maintain any motor.

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Yes, one does, but the oil is the main thing.

The spark plug doesn't need changed more than once every few years at least, and the air filter can just be cleaned once a season.

If it moves, it wears. If it wears, it eventually wears out. That being said, I wholeheartedly agree that the best oil one can find, and the other preventive maintenance mentioned, will go a long way towards making our uh, "treasures" survive just one more season.:biggrin:

It seems like with a little luck and good maint. and the deck doesnt rust, i dont see why a push mower wont outlast the original owner. Thats not to say it wont have a few new parts on it when its done! Everlasting probably not, very long lasting oh yea.

I repair mowers for a living and I have seen some old old mowers still going. One if my customers that is religious about service has had her mower around for 25 years an it is on it's third set of tires and no engine rebuild yet.

I hear you Mister Mower, good point! If a person wants to they can make anything last a long time but not without some effort, its a matter of pride with me, plus i am a tightwad and want to get my moneys worth out of everything I buy.

I can't resist another chance to sing the praises of two-stroke engines. :laughing:

I have several two-stroke Lawn-Boy mowers that have lasted more than 25 years. There's picture below of a 1977 commercial Lawn-Boy that belonged to an owner of a lawn care company. He used it for hundreds of hours a year for over 30 years and it's still in good shape. Engine's fine (but I don't know about rebuilds) and the alloy deck is scratched up but undamaged. The front wheels are not original.

If a two-cycle engine is properly lubricated -- use a good two-stroke oil to mix with the gas -- the engine stays very well lubricated at all times. A four-stroke, on the other hand, will sometimes "starve" for oil when operated on a slope.

1977 Lawn-Boy model 6255:

jamesslcx said:

I hear you Mister Mower, good point! If a person wants to they can make anything last a long time but not without some effort, its a matter of pride with me, plus i am a tightwad and want to get my moneys worth out of everything I buy.

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Just from the "Lions Mouth" here....:laughing::laughing: For what things cost these days it is only common sense to make them last as long as possible, by giving them proper maintenance and care. Back in '73 my dream vehicle was a 4X4 Suburban, but the $5000 price tag was out of reach. By the time I could afford my dream truck, the sticker had ballooned to $45,000....you better believe it gets washed, waxed, and babied now that I finally own one. You are not a tightwad, nor a cheapskate, What makes the whole situation saddest, IMO, is that they design so many things today so cheaply, even with proper care, they have limited service life.

Two-Stroke said:

I can't resist another chance to sing the praises of two-stroke engines. :laughing:

I have several two-stroke Lawn-Boy mowers that have lasted more than 25 years. There's picture below of a 1977 commercial Lawn-Boy that belonged to an owner of a lawn care company. He used it for hundreds of hours a year for over 30 years and it's still in good shape. Engine's fine (but I don't know about rebuilds) and the alloy deck is scratched up but undamaged. The front wheels are not original.

If a two-cycle engine is properly lubricated -- use a good two-stroke oil to mix with the gas -- the engine stays very well lubricated at all times. A four-stroke, on the other hand, will sometimes "starve" for oil when operated on a slope.

1977 Lawn-Boy model 6255:

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Most of the commercial Lawn Boy mowers I have seen have had that big fuel tank.

Two-stroke I really like that mower. JDgreen as usual what you said rings true to me, me and the Lionsmouth think alike! Ha ha, you all are the greatest!:thumbsup:

I have 27 lawntractors - majority of them were hugely used and abused - severely. My oldest is a 1970 550 toro and the 'newest' is a 2003 murray - but i did buy a brand new White LT12 back in '92 .

My toro is 40 years old - it still runs - i cant say how many mowing hours are on it because it hasnt mowed since i got it back in the 90's (PO was trying to use it for trail riding) - you gotta admit for a 40 year old aluminum block oil slinger motor with its original electric starter - never been cracked open is impressive( i think) - i thrashed the heck out of it once i got it running for a good couple years, summer, fall and winter - its had some other issues, but the motor has never failed. I plan on returning it to part time mowing status once i get a deck engagement setup figured out ( that part was missing) .

My '92 white has mowed 2 acres of yard ( 4 hours a mowing) , pulled stone, dirt and mulch for 19 years- for a couple years i mowed the neighbors 3 acres - ive changed the oil regular ( 2 x a year) motor is totally original ( cept reg maintence parts) except for the starter- its needed normal wear things over the years ( replacement front axle, mandrels, belts) - still has the OEM deck with no rust holes.

My 82 dynamark has its original 11HP aluminum splash motor, again unopened , has the original factory painted deck ( with a few minor rust spots- no holes) and the factory OEM blades - lil worn but still good- the mandrels have been replaced tho. This tractor was seriously abused before i bot it, think the only thing that really saved it was the front axle spindle bushings were broken and starter gear was stripped off .

Some tractors i have had water up to the top of the carb, my 86 GTII did - i cleaned it up ( pulled the heads and carb only- replaced the starter) - runs excellent and strong for a motor that abused and 26 years old- also an aluminum block/oil slinger.

Age and abuse and use should also play a part of motor longevity - im not saying a mower would last years w/o replacing at least something, but still running with original motor should say something for its toughness - i bet no new tractor today would last even half as long as cheep as they build them nowadays.

Im just hoping to get at least 10 years out of my 2003 murray's 16.5HP OHV motor......

Hi everyone, yea Dangeroustoys56, it seem to me the older mowers were "built to take a lickin and keep on tickin" I bet your 2003 will last you a good long time!