Garden Tractors for the Small Country Place

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During the height of the federal government's late and unlamented spate of regulation, several agencies took on the lawn mower industry-initially demanding that every rotary mower be equipped with blade clutch brake, dead-man switch, safety interlocks, and a remote electric starter among a full array of idiot-proofing devices that would have put the cost of an ordinary walk-behind mower at $500. Hearings featured acerbic exchanges between ivory tower regulators and flag waving Defenders of Free Enterprise from the Milwaukee small-engine industry who demanded the right to produce mowers that an average homeowner could afford and would produce enough profit that the manufacturers could remain in business.

The resulting compromise regulations satisfied nobody. Today, a few full safety models are sold by LawnBoy, Honda, and a few others for around $500. But, most mowers sold are still little 3.5hp $100 "throw-away" models that seem intentionally designed to frustrate their owners even more than preregulation designs. The rope-starter pull-handle is located awkwardly up by the push-handle that's fitted with a bail that must be held closed to disable an ignition-cutoff/blade-brake-release switch.

The bail must be squeezed while starting and running the mower. The regulators refused to permit any bypass of the safety system ...so a homeowner can't work on a running engine ...unless the safety kill-switch is permanently wired "off "...which is what most DIY-inclined owners do ...effectively negating the safety feature. Since there is no off-on switch on the engine, the sparkplug wire must be pulled off the hot engine plug to stop the engine, rendering the mower even more dangerous than before. A partial solution offered by the engine makers are mower power plants that can not be adjusted; they are designed to resist even the most horrible abuse for the two-year warranty period with no attention whatsoever. Unfortunately, their cost-effectiveness and longevity beyond that time is questionable even if well maintained, as repair of the most common problems entails replacing the whole carburetor.

Riding mowers and lawn tractors are also fitted with a set of safety devices that can be equally frustrating ...or life-and-limb saving. Most obvious is a spring-loaded ignition cutoff located under the seat of most riders and smaller tractors. Enabling key-ignition from recoil starter or battery-powered starter motor when weighted with about 90 pounds, it cannot be started and taken for a potentially hazardous joy ride by a small child-even if the little darling manages to hot-wire the ignition switch. Other interlocks and cutoffs are devised to prevent engine start or forward motion with mower or accessory engaged. Deadman switches can require an active foot or hand on the throttle.

Don't deactivate or override any of them! Two fingers on my right hand are shorter than they ought to be because I deactivated some frustrating safety switches once. However, do familiarize yourself with the cutoffs - especially on older tractors bought used. In my experience, more failures to start or go are due to faulty interlocks or safety switches or broken cutoff-connecting wires than to major mechanical problems. I suspect (can't prove) that many power equipment makers resented government-enforced idiot-proofing so much that they put minimal resources into satisfying their demands. In other words, early safety switches tended to be badly designed and made cheap, so may be prone to early failure. Also, an earlier owner may have deactivated switches... ineptly. Nothing makes you feel more foolish than to call (and pay) a servicing dealer to haul the tractor to the shop, and find the problem is a 98Q pressure-switch that broke and shorted out, simply jammed open, or the plastic housing split and let water in, or bare contacts got clogged by a leaf or glued together by a nesting mud-dauber wasp.

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