Buying Advice Honda HRR216PKA push lawn mower

[mucksiegooma]

This mower doesn't have an adjustable throttle control. Therefore it must has some sort of governor. Has anyone experienced any problems with these mowers, as far as the operating speed is concerned? I was going to buy this one and then got cold feet because I read on the forum about users who were having problems with the internal governors on these mowers.

Any comments would be appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[robert@honda]

This mower doesn't have an adjustable throttle control. Therefore it must has some sort of governor. Has anyone experienced any problems with these mowers, as far as the operating speed is concerned? I was going to buy this one and then got cold feet because I read on the forum about users who were having problems with the internal governors on these mowers.

Any comments would be appreciated.

Thank you.

All Honda mowers, fixed or adjustable throttle, have a governor device to regulate maximum speed; this to protect the engine from going too fast and potentially destroying the engine. The fixed throttle designs are usually found on mowers with the blade bolted directly to the crankshaft, and a flywheel brake is used to quickly stop the engine (and blades) when the controls are released. Adjustable throttle models (with an actual throttle lever) are usually only found on mowers with a blade-brake clutch (a.k.a. "Roto-Stop") as this allows the operator to release the control lever, the blades stop, the engine continues to run. They can then use the throttle control to manually slow down the engine before the remove the grass bag to empty, or to walk around and remove a branch, Frisbee, etc. out of the mower's path.

The same basic design of the governor and its parts has been unchanged on Honda OHV GX-series engines for nearly 30 years. The more "modern" GCV engines (introduced in the mid 1990s) use nearly an identcal set-up, but also feature an internal timing belt and more shared parts between the horizontal and vertical shaft models. All but one of Honda's current mower line-up uses a GCV engine and properly maintained, it will lst for many, many operating hours and years of service. Governor failure is very rare. 99% of the governor issues I've seen are when they are disassembled and not put back together properly.

 

[mucksiegooma]

All Honda mowers, fixed or adjustable throttle, have a governor device to regulate maximum speed; this to protect the engine from going too fast and potentially destroying the engine. The fixed throttle designs are usually found on mowers with the blade bolted directly to the crankshaft, and a flywheel brake is used to quickly stop the engine (and blades) when the controls are released. Adjustable throttle models (with an actual throttle lever) are usually only found on mowers with a blade-brake clutch (a.k.a. "Roto-Stop") as this allows the operator to release the control lever, the blades stop, the engine continues to run. They can then use the throttle control to manually slow down the engine before the remove the grass bag to empty, or to walk around and remove a branch, Frisbee, etc. out of the mower's path.

The same basic design of the governor and its parts has been unchanged on Honda OHV GX-series engines for nearly 30 years. The more "modern" GCV engines (introduced in the mid 1990s) use nearly an identcal set-up, but also feature an internal timing belt and more shared parts between the horizontal and vertical shaft models. All but one of Honda's current mower line-up uses a GCV engine and properly maintained, it will lst for many, many operating hours and years of service. Governor failure is very rare. 99% of the governor issues I've seen are when they are disassembled and not put back together properly.

How does Honda prevent bent crankshafts when hitting a stationary object with the mower blade?

 

[robert@honda]

How does Honda prevent bent crankshafts when hitting a stationary object with the mower blade?

Interesting thought...I spoke with an engineer about this, and he tells me there two forces to deal with when a blade hits an object. First, there's the obvious axial twisting of the spinning crankshaft. This could be addressed with some kind of shear pin, much like is used on a snowblower auger, but won't work on a mower for the second reason (force), and that's the distance between the bottom of the engine and the blade itself. This "moment arm" will always cause a bending force to be applied, so even if you could resolve the twist part with a shear pin or other sacrificial part, the blade is still going to want to be pushed upward, and the father away from the bottom of the engine, the greater the bending force will be, and with enough force, even a robust, heavy crankshaft will bend.

FYI, in snowblower the auger is supported on TWO ends, unlike a mower blade, which is only supported on one end.

I understand some commercial Toro models have a special bushing that reduces the moment arm distance, the idea is there would be some reduction in the bending, but not sure how successful it may be (was?).

 

[LawnBoy97]

You know, why don't manufacturers just make blades with crumple, or bend zones. Kind of like modern cars, especially race cars that have crumple zones for safety. That way, all you have to replace is a blade when you hit an object, instead of tearing into the engine. I don't mean that it would be bendable enough to bend at the slightest impact, but instead, just impacts that have the same force to bend the crankshaft. I don't know, just an idea:confused2:

 

[exotion]

You know, why don't manufacturers just make blades with crumple, or bend zones. Kind of like modern cars, especially race cars that have crumple zones for safety. That way, all you have to replace is a blade when you hit an object, instead of tearing into the engine. I don't mean that it would be bendable enough to bend at the slightest impact, but instead, just impacts that have the same force to bend the crankshaft. I don't know, just an idea:confused2:

That is hard a blade is supported in the middle with x amount of inches on either side x is a lot of leverage on the fragile balance of a crankshaft.

The simple solution is don't hit stationary objects. That's like walking into a parked car.

 

[lawn mower fanatic]

...The simple solution is don't hit stationary objects. That's like walking into a parked car.

Well I was mowing grass and there were these pebbles I couldn't see and I hit a few of them. I didn't damage the crankshaft but I did chip the blades.