So where do you get your replacement blades at?

SidecarFlip

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I replace my blades every fall just like clockwork. I typically mow about 7 acres of various varieties of grass and weeds on sandy loam and that eats my blades up so I just replace them every fall efore I put away the mower for winter.

I have always gotten my blades from Agri-Supply (ASC) as they seem to have the best pricing of anyone. Even factoring in ship cost they come out less expensive than TSC and way less that the local mower shop.

I always get Oregon blades in the high lift variety. I tried the Gator Mulcher blades with mixed results. I don't mow every week and the mulcing blades seem not to like taller grass.

I've been buying all my consumable parts from them as well. Spindles, pulleys tune up parts all come from them.. I get my oil locally as well as my belts.

So, where do you get your stuff at and are you satisified with the prices?


Might add that I have made some beautiful knives with used blades. Wonderful steel for knife making.

Bert... ASC ships offshore too.
 

bertsmobile1

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Nice to be thought about Flip.
I can fly to the USA for less than $ 10/kg but freight costs $30/kg then we get slugged with a "clearance " fee of anything up to $ 250 + GST on everything + courier from the city to me again anything from $ 10 to $ 50 or an 60 mile round trip.
So packages have to be under 10kg to allow them to go through the post, but post to OZ now days starts at $ 25.
SO to be economic I need to bring in stuff by the pallet load and I don't use a pallet of blades ( or anything for that matter ) a season.
Being a legitimate business I buy at wholesale rate then price match to what is on offer on line .
I also get trade from a lot of USA retailers .
Then there is warranty.
Because our government is not in the pockets of factories there is a mandatory 12 month warranty on all parts fitted during a service or repair.
THus my local suppliers actually cover everything I buy for 12 months from the time I buy them & I have to carry the difference between my purchase date & selling date.

I am not one for scouring the web for the cheapest possible price.
Ultimately this is a fools errand because the small locals end up going broke.
The small local stores employ a lot more people that the big and if the locals end up on unemployment benefits then they have no money to pay me to fix their mowers and will do it themselves.
On a personal level I find the greed of modern people disgusting, we demand everything for the cheapest possible price thus everything gets downgraded to the price we are willing to pay.
This is the reason why modern mowers only have 1/3 the service life of older ones, fridges are lucky to go 5 years , cars are just about obsolete as you drive off the lot.
And the real disgusting thing is the most greedy are the ones who can afford to pay the tiny bit extra.

I buy most of my food from local suppliers and spend as much of my money locally as I can, the local servo is 12¢ / litre dearer than the servo 8 miles away in town , but I buy from the local & he gets me to service his mowers.
It is almost beyond belief that Aussies will desperately search for hours to find everything a few cents cheaper then toss away $ 72 ( average spend ) a week gambling and that excludes the stock market.
The idea that their boss should do the exact same thing ( find some one to do their job cheaper ) never enters their tiny greedy minds and they squeal like stuck pigs should they get retrenched or their jobs go to labour hire or get offshored.
 

Darryl G

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I usually get blades from my dealers but have also ordered them from landscaperpro.com and jacksmallengines.com

They're cheaper on-line but I deliberately buy things from my dealers so they recognize me as a valued customer in case I need priority service for some reason.
 

SidecarFlip

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Bert:

I sell stuff to your countrymen all the time. My biggest customers are where you live. It's nice because when it's winter here it's summer there and I sell motorcycle related accessories so when my domestic customers have their bikes put up for the winter, my Australian customers are getting out and need parts. Most of my stuff don't weigh that much. my heaviest shipment is 12 pounds and most are less than 3 pounds and I use USPS flat rate shipping as much as I can. I have a Geneva distributor and he got me wise to shipping stuff. he once told me "it ll comes in on the same plane so you might as ship the least expensive way and USPS has been the last expensive way fot a long time.
 

SidecarFlip

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I usually get blades from my dealers but have also ordered them from landscaperpro.com and jacksmallengines.com

They're cheaper on-line but I deliberately buy things from my dealers so they recognize me as a valued customer in case I need priority service for some reason.

I see your point ans I do the same thing. I buy most of my not made in my shop items from the same California distributor and have for a long time. All my other items I see, are made in our short run machine shop as fill in / make work items when work is slow. I have to keep the crew busy and my product line does just that so it works out well for us.

However as an individual, I ship price and delivery on mower parts and ASC beats them all hands down. I buy ag parts from them for my farm tractors as well. The stock blades and parts for just about anything that cuts the grass.

Not mesnt to be a plug for them, I just did some shopping around for parts years ago and found them to be the least expensive.
 

itsgalf

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So there's a BX Exchange at a nearby military base that throws garden supplies in clearance when they don't sell. So there's a lot of 20", 22", and 46" blades (mostly Oregon) that went on clearance for 75% off. So yeah I've taken advantage of the $3-$4 blades. :O
 

bertsmobile1

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Bert:

I sell stuff to your countrymen all the time. My biggest customers are where you live. It's nice because when it's winter here it's summer there and I sell motorcycle related accessories so when my domestic customers have their bikes put up for the winter, my Australian customers are getting out and need parts. Most of my stuff don't weigh that much. my heaviest shipment is 12 pounds and most are less than 3 pounds and I use USPS flat rate shipping as much as I can. I have a Geneva distributor and he got me wise to shipping stuff. he once told me "it ll comes in on the same plane so you might as ship the least expensive way and USPS has been the last expensive way fot a long time.

Yep. USPS is what I get all my suppliers to use.
Post takes 8 to 10 days
UPS take about 3 weeks & cost twice as much
DHL is a disaster, take 3 weeks then put the parts into bond , charge a customs clearing fee on everything regardless of weather it is a duty free item or not.
Ebay parcel is by far the worst but I can not complain about them because about 1/3 take so long to arrive I get a refund then 4 weeks latter I get the goods.

The problem with all the freight companies are they are run by clots who walk around with silly smiles on their faces , both hands in side the pockets of their $ 2000 shinny suits .
None of them has ever delivered a single item and they are all hooked on technology that they do not understand and actually impeeds the flow of the freight.
Then because the technology is so fool proof they employ fools to deliver it , most who can not read English who navigate using their smart phones because they do not know the roads in the delivery area.
If there is no 10' sign reading "Bert's" they can not find the place regardless of all of the dead mowers sitting in plain view in the front yard.
When they do find the place they pull up out the front, see the chain on the gate , key a "no access" into the data terminal then drive away.
The fact that the gate has a slip latch never occurs to them.
Because this is an outer metro area by the time a delivery is attempted it is usually with a 4PL or 5PL who gets paid $ 4 to drop the package so why bother.

As to seasonal riding, the weather is fairly well the same as CA so we ride all year round except the HD posers.
The only time I do not ride is when the gusty westerlies hit, some where between July & September, usually go for about a month, direct off Antartica and gusting up to 80mph
This weekend is the Girder Fork Rally, around 3000km, 2 weeks latter will be the BSA International , around 4000 km
 

jekjr

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My local dealer sells Oregon blades cheaper than any place I can find them any where else for my Scags. There is a parts store here that is normally close in price to his. Plus they sell many brands that he doesn't have so they are cheaper than anywhere else on the others.
 
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