April 2010

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

DynoTech : Low HP = Successful Class Action lawsuit

Sorry guys, I'm talking lawnmowers here!

I bought a 6.5 HP Toro 22" walk-behind rotary mower several years ago. While I enjoyed the variable speed rear wheel drive, the engine pissed me off. I've been mowing lawns for over 50 years. I know what a 5 HP rotary mower engine acts like because I've used a Murray 5 HP mower for about 20 years. Since I'm getting too lazy to push a mower on my hilly one acre lawn, it was time to upgrade to a self propelled, more powerful unit. But this new 6.5 HP Tecumseh engine was all BS--bogging down where my old 5 HP Murray would have happily chawed away. It just annoyed me. And since there's no way I can dyno test a vertical output shaft engine, I couldn't verify my suspicions. I even talked to my pal Dan from Lennco in Hilton, NY about having him test my engine with his hydraulic go kart dyno which works in all positions, but never got around to doing it.

Recently I ran accross this website https://lawnmowerclass.com which proves that my assessment of the "6.5 HP" Tecumseh engine was correct. Not only was Toro BS'ing the consumer, but so were many of the other mower/ engine manufacturers. In the complaint, Tecumseh reported to CARB that this particular engine is actually less than 4 HP!

So because this one guy was even more pissed off than me and had big $ to spend on lawyers, all of us comsumers are getting refunds from the manufacturers thanks to the successful class action lawsuit! In my case, it looks like I am entitled to a refund of $35 which equals about 10% of the cost of the machine. I will apply for my $35 and report back.