Weed Eater S165H42A Lawn Tractor review

And I thought Weed Eater just made string trimmers...

A riding lawn mower was one of our first major purchases after buying a house with a large yard. We decided to look at Sam's Club because they tend to have great deals on many products and we purchased this Weed Eater Lawn Tractor for about $850 in 2001.

What I like about this Weed Eater Riding Lawn Tractor:

• It sure beats push mowing over an acre!

• Simple to use--You don't have to push in a clutch to change speed. You simply push the motion control lever farther forward or backward.

• Most of the important items on the mower are clearly marked.

• No pull cord to start! I've used quite a few push mowers, and it tends to be a great aerobic workout to get them started. With this lawn mower, I just get a workout walking back to the house to get the key if I forget to bring it to the shed.

• Lights--just in case I run out of daylight, I can easily turn on the lights by turning the key counterclockwise one notch. (I know it's not the safest idea to mow in the dark, but sometimes I just want to get the job done.)

• The gas tank is easy to find and fill. You can also see the fluid level without opening the tank.

• The oil is easy to find, check and fill. The cap even lists the recommended type of oil to use.

• The attachment lift lever allows me to quickly choose and adjust the cutting height.

• The 16.5 HP engine is powerful enough for cutting some pretty high grass and the throttle is easy to adjust.

• The 42 Inch blade span speeds the mowing process greatly when compared to our push mower.

• We have needed very little maintenance on the mower. I am very careful to check the oil level and gas level before getting on the mower.

• This mower will continue to cut while in reverse (I know that a safety feature of the newer mowers is that the blades will automatically turn off, but it certainly makes mowing quicker and easier.)

What I don't like about this Weed Eater riding lawn mower:

• It doesn't mow the yard by itself. (I don't think this is anywhere near the price range for lawn mowers that do that!)

• It is easy to ruin the blade if you set the blade too low (I found that setting it on three will help ensure that I miss any tree roots that have a history of putting the mower out of commission.)

• It is very difficult to start the mower at the beginning of the season unless I remember to use Sta-bil fuel stabilizer in the Fall.

• Something fell off the bottom front of the mower that resembled a really big black rolling pin. I have no idea what its purpose was but I've been mowing for about two years without it, so I guess it's not an absolute necessity.

• If I shift my weight a bit too much, the mower will begin to lose power. This is a safety feature, and I suppose I would like it if I needed it for safety purposes.

• I would highly recommend that if you purchase a riding lawn mower that you have some sort of ramp for getting it off if you bring it home on the back of a pickup truck.

• The black nobs on the motion control lever and attachment clutch lever tend to try to twist off and I lost one in the yard a few years back.

• The engine tends to backfire if I forget to move the throttle to the slow position and allowing the engine to idle first before stopping.

• The  motion control lever does not return to a slower position when depressing the clutch/brake pedal. This can make for an exhilerating take-off if you quickly lift your foot off the brake!

• The blade must be disengaged when starting the mower. (I know this is a safety feature and have learned to check this lever first when starting the mower.)

• Uneven ground is tricky. They recommend to not to mow on slopes greater than 15 degrees and not to drive across any slope. That's a bit hard to do when the yard has numerous slopes. If I am mowing on a slope, that is usually the time when I run out of gas, and it is not recommended to stop on a slope.

• The gas tank has a seam near the top that began leaking about a year ago. If I forget and fill the tank near or above that line, then I end up with a WET shoe.

• It is much easier to get in close on the left side of the mower. The right side blows the grass and sticks out further. I have found that it helps to start the first couple of rounds blowing the grass to the inside and then to turn around and blow to the outside so I'm not mowing the same grass over and over.

UPDATE on 3/21/10:

Well, this spring my trusty mowing steed didn't want to start. It only ended up being the spark plug, but my husband had the socket wrench in the truck where he was at work, so I looked into all sorts of possibilities. I was browsing through the owner's manual and it actually had quite a few trouble-shooting tips. One thought was that it might be the air filter. Since I had had the same one since 2001, I thought I might need to get one. I took the owner's manual with me to the parts store thinking that the part number would be in there. It has loads of part numbers. Well, the air filter part number wasn't. I called the 800 number on the front of the book and was told that they would need the number off the Tecumseh motor to be able to tell me part number for the air filter, and that was after going through a lot of waiting. One guy at the 800 number kept asking if I had access to the internet and I told him that the store only had intranet--he was no help at all. Another person was more help, so I'd advise you that if you ever plan to get an air filter for this mower, you'll need the number off the motor. Since I only needed to clean the spark plug, I didn't get an air filter. My yard is happy again, and so am I!

My Viewpoint:

If you are looking for a riding lawn mower that is dependable and can mow lots of grass, you may want to consider a Weed Eater. I found found our Weed Eater riding lawn tractor to be useful, powerful, and have used it since 2001. Regular maintenance, properly adjusting the cutting height, and using a fuel stabilizer makes using a riding lawn mower much easier and can cut down on unexpected repairs later.