Garden Tractors for the Small Country Place

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The engine should not blow more than a brief puff of smoke (Many older engine models-especially, 8hp and larger singlecylinder Briggs & Stratton engines in my experience-will smoke briefly at the start even when newly broken in.). Once warmed up, the engine should run smoothly and accelerate and decelerate smoothly (out of gear).

Drive it around. Smoke-especially on deceleration-suggests a worn engine. Steering should be tight, but easy to operate. A clutch-equipped machine should go through the gears relatively smoothly with the engine maintaining a constant pull (but automatically varying speed). A hydrostatic (automatic transmission) should progress evenly with the engine maintaining a relatively constant speed. Mower controls and power take-off and hydraulic controls should function easily and without jerks, clanks, or lurches. If the machine has been sitting for a while, you can expect controls to hang up, but a squirt of penetrating oil on pivot points and cables should free them up. If not, hidden corrosion may require attention.

The mower deck will vibrate-but should thrum along smoothly once at full speed. A grinding sound or jerky vibration can mean bad pulleys, worn belts, or failing mower-deck bearings. The larger the model, the more autolike it should drive. Exhaust should be clean and sweet-smelling (except for diesels, which stink and can blow black smoke due solely to bad tune).

Beware of the blue smoke that indicates burning oil-which means a worn engine. Look underneath for dripping engine or tranny oil and inspect around axles and wheels for worn dust boots or black grease coming out of ruptures in permanently lubed, sealed bearings.

Push hard on the top of the front tires. If the wheels cant over and you hear squeaking, the front end may be seriously worn.

Finally, the larger and more costly the machine is to purchase and maintain, the more carefully you should consider how well the machine meets your real needs. Be sure you know its condition and have proven the validity of title and other documentation. Always check vehicle and engine numbers against the documentation.

Safe Operation

A rotary mower blade-several pounds of flat-bar steel sharpened at the ends and revolving at 2,000 to 3,500 revolutions per minute, only a few inches from the ground, and contained in nothing but an open-bottomed shroud of thin steel or brittle cast aluminum—can be a savagely hazardous implement. Though every new mower comes with an instruction booklet that leads off with pages of safety warnings and safe-operating instructions, Americans don't read manuals-and forget or ignore them if they do, and, each year 10,000 people are injured and several, (small kids by and large) are killed by lawn mowers.

A mower blade can hurl rocks at lethal short-range velocity. Hands and feet can be injured when a barefoot or sneaker-wearing walking-mower operator slips on wet grass or when anyone not wearing body armor upends, slips under or is overrun by a mower ...typically, when pulling the starter rope or adjusting a running engine on an un-wheel-blocked mower, or operating the machine on too much of a slope.

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