I was in Menards this morning, and took a look at the lawn mowers, and I seen one at first I thought it might be one of MTD's Chonda's but then I seen the "PRO" in the valve cover and knew I was looking at a Kohler Command Pro, Not sure why they'd even bother sticking one of these on one of their machines, even the el cheapo Chondas and the small Briggs OHV (125-163cc,) will generally outlast the deck when used residentially, and I wouldn't even think about using an MTD made mower commercially, but I guess the option is out there if you want a flimsy MTD machine with an overkill Industrial/Commercial engine with an oil filter that's an option now, also this is the first time I've seen a Command Pro used on something that isn't a $1500+ commercial mower.
Troy-Bilt mower with Kohler Command Pro
- Thread starter blufeb95
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I was in Menards this morning, and took a look at the lawn mowers, and I seen one at first I thought it might be one of MTD's Chonda's but then I seen the "PRO" in the valve cover and knew I was looking at a Kohler Command Pro, Not sure why they'd even bother sticking one of these on one of their machines, even the el cheapo Chondas and the small Briggs OHV (125-163cc,) will generally outlast the deck when used residentially, and I wouldn't even think about using an MTD made mower commercially, but I guess the option is out there if you want a flimsy MTD machine with an overkill Industrial/Commercial engine with an oil filter that's an option now, also this is the first time I've seen a Command Pro used on something that isn't a $1500+ commercial mower.
Might the engine be some kind of 'watered down' Pro?
I saw it at Menards and noticed it has a EPA certified 500 hours sticker on it.
Cub Cadet is an MTD brand. No better, no worse mower wise. I bought my younger sis a Cub Cadet push mower when she moved in my old house. It's on 1/3 acre. I used it once after I set it up for her. Very nice mower. Push model, she's 6'2" and doesn't need self propelled. I really like the handle shape on her mower.
Probably the same reason they will stick a Honda GCV160 on cheap box store mowers like Cub Cadet. I'm willing to bet that Kohler is still made in China. Their other push mower sized engines are Chinese Honda Clones.
The MTD mower are useable and I'm 6'2 as well, I like how the newer ones allow you to adjust the upper section of the handle in 3 different positions of which the highest one is actually around hip height for me, unlike the Husqvarna one's I've tried in the past where they had a setting that was way too low and another that was still too low. I've never messed with a Toro to know whether their handle system is any good. While I like that aspect of the MTD mowers, the decks are super thin, if you don't keep the grass clippings cleaned off the deck they rot pretty quickly, and on the self propelled models the plastic front end that retains the transmission and wheels starts pulling loose from the deck after long usage.
Without the rebate this mower is $550 before tax, that isn't cheap. Besides the engine, it is basically a cheap throw away mower with a flimsy deck like every other MTD product. I do notice that every so often MTD will put slightly more expensive engines on one of their product lines in an attempt to market it as a more upscale brand.
I would never recommend MTD to anyone. If you want a cheaper mower, the Husqvarnas (non-AWD models) are a good value and built slightly better than the MTD. If you want a more expensive mower, the Hondas (while you can get them) or Toro Super Recyclers are the way to go.
For $30 more they have the 23in Troy-Bilt XP that comes with the 190cc Briggs OHV engine, I think it's still the professional version with the cast iron liner and not just the aluminum bore 875EXi, but I think these motors can either be splash lube or pressure lube and since it doesn't have the little thimble oil filter on it, it's probably just splash. The 23in deck seems to have less plastic to it and the edge of the deck looks like it may be designed to be a little stronger but I don't know if the steel is any thicker than the 21in ones. Husqvarna hasn't made push mowers in over 3 years now. Your choices are largely MTD or Toro for "affordable" consumer lawn mowers any more, the steel deck Blackmax mowers at Walmart that I think are made by Murray\Briggs&Stratton are probably okay, definetly wouldn't buy any of the China junk from Powersmart or Pulsar or whatever other cheapy no-names with poor quality decks with a Chonda engine.
How is that 190cc B&S engine?
Probably pretty good on a push mower, they were pretty underwhelming when they shoved them on the 30in timemaster, many people swapped them for a 223cc Briggs or a 224cc Kohler, like most engines but they should last pretty good if you take care of it.
My Troy Bilt tb130 with Honda GVC160 is I don’t know 10-15 years old. Starts every year, never had an issue with it.
I was in Menards this week and I didn't pay a whole lot of attention the last time I was in there, especially since the Mowers are on display high up and in an aisle where you don't really have a whole lot of room to step back, but I realized, this actually has a manual choke on it, that's pretty nice, you don't see that very much on modern push mowers no auto choking system that can break or primer system that can potentially have issues down the road like the Briggs Quantum had, if I work on a Briggs Quantum with the primer I try to avoid removing the air filter housing as they have a tendency to warp and never seat correctly again if you remove them and then the primer won't work. There's no throttle level, but honestly if a mower doesn't have a blade brake clutch, I don't see why you'd ever need to idle it. My gramps said he was talking to a small engine guy several years ago and apparently a big reason why they stopped putting them on mowers is that Briggs was doing a lot of warranty work and the problem was that people were not running the engines at full throttle while mulching and they were burning them up.
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