Second-hand lawn mowers

We moved out to the 20-acre Wood in September 2017. At the time, this place was way out of our price range. I was a government employee making about $65k for a family of seven, and things were usually pretty tight. Well, what had contributed to things being tight has a lot more to do with a seven-year, protracted custody fight over my oldest daughter that had cost be somewhere in the ballpark of a hundred grand when you add up misallocated child support, legal fees, etc.

We couldn’t really afford it, but we so desperately wanted to get out of the city, albeit Topeka isn’t a huge city.

Anyway, the main yard area is around three acres that needs to be mowed by a rider. Coming from a standard city lot, we did not own a riding mower, and we were pretty well living paycheck to paycheck (I do not recommend moving, especially upsizing, without deep savings. We did, but I wouldn’t do it again). So, we hit Marketplace to find something.

The first year, I found this absolute piece of crap for like $250. It was way too small for what we have even if it ran, but it only ran, like, three times. Mower 1: ❌.

Somehow we limped through that first summer with a trash mower (I don't actually recall what we did), and the hunt was on for something better. Next up was a much larger mower, a Craftsman. This was actually a big mower, and the price was pretty good. Beyond anything else, it actually started and ran every time. It still does start every time now; it’s just that the rest of the tractor is garbage.

Well, it did well that first year. Big, powerful, and it mowed fast. I put it away after the 2019 season, confident I had picked a winner.

Wrong.

As I said, it still starts and runs great, but at the beginning of every season since 2020, I had to overhaul the whole mower. The front suspension is trash, so the tires kick out at opposing 35° angles (I pulled them back together with a piece of chain and a turnbuckle). The entire frame where the transaxle mounts tore, so I had to replace it. The deck tore, so I had to weld it back together (top tip: learn to be handy).

Finally, my wife had enough late last summer when it broke down again. She basically said, “John, we aren’t broke. Go to the John Deere dealer and buy a good mower.”

So, I did.

Was it cheap? No. But it is built like a tank. Most of the components that gave me fits on my second-hand mower are 2-3x thicker or larger on the Deere.

There are a lot of parallels to draw from my experience buying trash mowers.

1. You almost always get what you pay for. If you pay for a low peso service provider (content writer, web or app dev, or any other creative) to save a buck or two, you’re going to regret it.

2. Time is money. I put hundreds of dollars into parts and dozens of hours of my time into that hack of crap machine just to sell it for parts. That time would have been better spent on almost anything. We do the same with our work projects all the time. We labor over a problem setting up a website when a professional designer could have fixed it in 10 minutes.

This is still a struggle for me because I don’t want other people doing my stuff. I can easily afford to take my cars in for servicing now, but I don’t want to. But it’s silly because time spent wrenching on my own stuff takes away from other things that can generate more money than the DIY work saved.

Basically, the old adage that “you have to spend money to make money” rings totally true. Spend your money on good, high-quality things so you can focus on making more money and less on fixing your crappy wares.

Until next time folks. And if you are in the market for a mower, don’t cheap out. Trust me on this.