CEO of Husqvarna Calls it Quits on Lawn and Garden Tractors (Petrol), says U.S. is Too "Challenging".

[RandyT]

who says it only has a service life of 200 hours.?

That comes from surveys done by the mower manufacturers. The average riding mower is ran 38 hours/year and is replaced every 4.5 years, and the average push mower is run 12 hours/year and replaced every 3.5 years. So doesn't necessarily mean that the mower is worn out in those low hours, just the people are trying to keep up with the Jones's But that whole schedule sets up the precedence for manufacturers to build their products on those replacement averages.

Now I work on several customers mowers every year that are pushing 750+ hours. So not unusual for several of my customers to run over 100 hours/year.

 

[RandyT]

You're partially right -- earlier in the thread someone gave details on the manufacturing arrangement but the Craftsman and Husqvarna lawn tractors and garden tractors were one in the same other than color schemes and option packaging. Both of those brands made numerous iterations on the same basic models that only differed in the combination of features. If you didn't find the combination you wanted in a box-store Husqvarna model you could probably find it in a Sears model or a dealer-only Husqvarna model. I know some folks thought the dealer-only models were special but they were just an option-matrix away from what you could get at Lowes or Sears. Even the pricing was mixed up. When the Sears models were on sale they were a good value but at full price they were not competitive.

I guess I am not surprised Husqvarna couldn't make it in the market. They had way too many models. When I was shopping them years ago, I couldn't believe how many different variations there were. I was looking at a GT-52 model at Lowes and had to call Husqvarna to have them explain the subtle differences in the various GT-52 models at Lowes and dealers. Even right now their model lineup still has 22 models, and that is down from what it was. They had more variations than Deere but lacked a clear tier system and naming scheme to sort the models, instead using a complicated alpha-numeric system that wasn't even thorough. Add to that the limited availability of some of the better models and it always had me wondering what their marketing strategy was.

The Craftsman products were more related to the Poulan/Poulan Pro line than the Husqvarna branded products at least in the beginning. Craftsman has been made by Roper/Poulan/AYP/Husqvarna, MTD, Simplicity, Murray, Snapper pre Briggs purchase, Briggs, Dirty Hand tools for some of their tillers(which is no longer in business),

 

[sunandsand]

RandyT: "So doesn't necessarily mean that the mower is worn out in those low hours, just the people are trying to keep up with the Jones's"

Now that has to be the most hilarious and damning statement I have heard in years. This is consumerism gone utterly bat-**** berserk. I just don't know how I'm going to face my neighbors, I'm a total disgrace to the community - I was seen publicly mowing my lawn using - gasp - LAST YEAR'S MOWER!!!!!! Talk about a walk of shame! (Well maybe a ride of shame.) I'm never going to be able to show my face again, I'm shattered, my reputation is ruined, ruined, I say . . . the horror, the horror . . . this will get me into the National Inquirer for sure, Ripley's Believe it or Not, and also Madam Toussaud's Wax Museum of Horrors, front row center.

On the other hand, that means I can probably get another 500 to 750 hours out of the Husqvarna From Hades, AND if I decide to blow it up in the interim, I can probably get a good deal from RandyT on one of those disgraceful obsolete hand me down relics with low hours because I evidently have no shame and am perfectly willing to use last year's model to mow my lawn.

All's well that ends well ;-)

Best Regards,

Mike/Florida

 

[s219]

The Craftsman products were more related to the Poulan/Poulan Pro line than the Husqvarna branded products at least in the beginning. Craftsman has been made by Roper/Poulan/AYP/Husqvarna, MTD, Simplicity, Murray, Snapper pre Briggs purchase, Briggs, Dirty Hand tools for some of their tillers(which is no longer in business),

I wasn't talking about general power equipment, which had many sources over the years. I was being specific to the riding mowers and garden tractor models. This was most obvious with the GT models -- they were nearly identical between Craftsman and Husqvarna except for colors and styling. I took that to mean that there was not a lot to differentiate when they were probably trying to save costs by sharing the platform. As sunandsand mentioned, even the parts numbers cross-match.

 

[RandyT]

RandyT: "So doesn't necessarily mean that the mower is worn out in those low hours, just the people are trying to keep up with the Jones's"

Now that has to be the most hilarious and damning statement I have heard in years. This is consumerism gone utterly bat-**** berserk. I just don't know how I'm going to face my neighbors, I'm a total disgrace to the community - I was seen publicly mowing my lawn using - gasp - LAST YEAR'S MOWER!!!!!! Talk about a walk of shame! (Well maybe a ride of shame.) I'm never going to be able to show my face again, I'm shattered, my reputation is ruined, ruined, I say . . . the horror, the horror . . . this will get me into the National Inquirer for sure, Ripley's Believe it or Not, and also Madam Toussaud's Wax Museum of Horrors, front row center.

On the other hand, that means I can probably get another 500 to 750 hours out of the Husqvarna From Hades, AND if I decide to blow it up in the interim, I can probably get a good deal from RandyT on one of those disgraceful obsolete hand me down relics with low hours because I evidently have no shame and am perfectly willing to use last year's model to mow my lawn.

All's well that ends well ;-)

Best Regards,

Mike/Florida

Part of the issue is people trying to keep up appearance with their neighbors. Part of it is manufacturers building their equipment to those intervals. When Briggs came out with their no oil change push mower engine a few years back it was designed for a 125 hour life expectancy which should last the normal consumer 10 years. And those exact figures came straight from Briggs. A few years back Snapper announced that they were going to start building their rear engine riders with a 5 year life expectancy.

So because of consumerism the equipment manufacturers have responded by reducing the quality of their products to meet that short replacement interval. So in other words, since they will be replacing that riding mower in 4.5 years, they will built it to last 5 years.

And people want to know where the quality went. Consumers are only getting what they asked for.

 

[KennyG]

That comes from surveys done by the mower manufacturers. The average riding mower is ran 38 hours/year and is replaced every 4.5 years, and the average push mower is run 12 hours/year and replaced every 3.5 years. So doesn't necessarily mean that the mower is worn out in those low hours, just the people are trying to keep up with the Jones's But that whole schedule sets up the precedence for manufacturers to build their products on those replacement averages.

Now I work on several customers mowers every year that are pushing 750+ hours. So not unusual for several of my customers to run over 100 hours/year.

Wow! I must not know any average users. Maybe my friends are smarter or cheaper.

 

[RandyT]

@KennyG There is a lot of people that have 2-3 year old equipment that when they go to start it in the spring, and it doesn't start gets pushed out to the road side and they go to their local box store and buy another one.

I am the lawn equipment service center for my local Menards. I would stay 75% of the push mowers that customers bring me because they just purchased yesterday or this morning or last week, and have fuel tanks half full of water. My local store also brings me their returns to repair and send back to the store where they are sold as refurbished at a large discount. I would say that out of the last 10 push mowers that they have delivered 6 have went to the scrap yard. No oil starts and runs, bent blades, crankshafts, decks, axles, etc. And stuff like that effects the statistics for mower longevity. So the people that keep their riding mowers and other equipment for 20 years get downplayed by the 50% that goes to the scrap yard due to customer damage.

 

[Gem99ultra]

All this brand-bashing makes me so depressed, and unsure of my sanity. I'm a member of the guilty party that owns several Husqvarna brand power tools including a pair of Husqvarna mowers.

My old 'dilapidated' mower is a Rider 155 with well over 2500 hours (20 years old) on it, and it still cuts like a champ, i.e. golf-course smooth cut. My 'new' mower is a GTH26V52LS with 250 hours (10 years old) and while it cuts like a bush-hog, it doesn't cut as smooth as the golf-course quality of the Rider.

I'll shamefully admit, neither mower has had any engine problems at all. I burnt the clutch out of the 'new' mower cutting 2' high wire-grass. My failure to clear the clogs of weeds during the hay baling exercise surely caused the clutch to break; my fault, not Husqvarna's.

Perhaps I bought the last two good mowers Husqvarna sold, I just don't know. But with the new knowledge gleaned from this thread, I'm inclined to just never buy another Husqvarna anything. Very good unbiased comments. Thanks for the education guys.

 

[two_bit_score]

One thing I got educated on in this thread is that Husky and Craftsman mowers are the same. SO, I guess I might have a Husky mower in the form of the about 20 year old Craftsman mower I still have. It still runs and was cutting well until about a week ago when my brother was using it and something gave away holding the deck on one side and it dropped.

I haven't looked at it to determine what the problem is just yet but that thing has had the snot beat out of it over the years. If we can fix it and keep it going another season we will.

I have two Troy Built riding mowers and the Craftsman rider. They mow 5, soon to be 6, places. These are augmented for trimming by a Honda walk behind, 2 Kobalt (battery), and 2 generic walk behind mowers with the B&S engines. The B&S engines are pure junk and I'm phasing them out.

I like the Kobalts but do not like the way Lowe's stands behind the blades. They don't carry replacement blades in stock. I found that these mowers are built by greenworks and you can order blades from them. That is inconvenient and shipping charges apply. Lowe's should stock blades for the mowers they sell, especially when it is their OWN brand.

 

[RandyT]

@two_bit_score If the craftsman model number starts with 917 then Husqvarna it is.