Encore zero turn mowers

cbs123

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Hey guys,

I own a small dealership for zero turn mowers, as well as blades, belts and other parts for many different mowers, and a repair shop. I was approached today by a salesman from Encore and he gave me a program and pricing on the mowers. The price looks good and so do the specs. I believe I've heard these mowers are mfg. in China, is that correct? Anybody got any experience with the brand? Its hard to compete with the big box stores with price, so we normally attract customers for a quality mower and service after the sale. I'm tempted by these mowers for their lower price and possibly gaining some customers looking for cheaper alternatives. Just curious how well they hold up.

Thanks
 

7394

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(bump), I have never heard of the brand. But I live out in the sticks.

 

bertsmobile1

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Encore went belly up around 2010
Some of the old management made some sort of a deal with a Chinese company Jiangsu World Plant-Protecting Machinery to make World Lawn products in the old Encore plant in Beatrice NE .
Originally they were assembeling the mower from sub assemblies but now days I think the only thing done in the USA is sticking the Encore badges over the World Lawn ones.
The original ZTR's were exact copies of the old Encore units , just badly made .
Everything I have see is a badly made mower that looks exactly like a top quality one from a distance .
Their SP mowers look identical to Hondas , from a distance, right down the the Honda red colour of the enlarged blower housing on the Chinese made B & S engine.
The mower is junk
The only ZTR I used to service was again a piece of junk.
All show & no go
The spindle housings for instance have perfect welds on the top where they are visible to the buyer and chook poo welds underneath where you can't see them till you get it home
Same story with all of the frame welds , text book perfect on the top and 1st year apprentence fail underneath.
Add to that a plain High carbon steel blade that snapped right through the mounting hole, taking both other blade with it and 2 spindle housings.
The supposedly Kawasaki engine came from the shop fitted with a Stens oil filter & aftermarket air filter .
So unless the quality of what is sold in the USA is substantially better than what is imported down here I would run a mile naked through wild blackberries before I took them on.

To cap it off, when I went to the importer for parts, they asked me to bring the old ones so they could match them up then told me to pop the seals in the spindle bearings and put better grease in there are the grease used by the bearing factory is rubbish.

Now you might be a people person & enjoy dealing with irate customers and be so bored that you welcome endless warranty work .
Google "World Lawn Mowers" for a rough idea of the current quality.

I thought that they had died a natural death but checking now shows as Encore being a division of World Lawn

So have a big think about taking them on.
Down here the ZTR's are 1/2 the price of any comparrable specification ZTR so that should give you an idea of the quality.
 

7394

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Wow..............
 

bertsmobile1

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Encore used to be good mowers
But like a lot of small operators they were stuck in that zone of not being on the top shelf to justify the high price and being too expensive & too low a production to compete at the other end.
Others will know for sure but from memory they originated from another brand that got taken over.
Commercial grade ZTR sales have dropped off now that the market has gone through the transition from tractor style to ZTR style which created a peak in demand.
So now it is just the replacement of existing ZTR's that have done their hours.
So the big market is in domestic ( cheap ) models and you can't do that from a small underfunded factory.
All of those horrid RTZ Husqvarnas & the disgusting Craftsman / McCulloch / Poulan variations flooding the market with cheap trash.

ZTR's are big so don't squeeze into shipping containers very economically .
But frames do so the go is to ship the frames & other assemblies from China so they can be bolted together in the USA, branded "Made in the USA " for the patriots
 
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