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Honda vs Snapper quality of cut
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Posted by greg9933 Oregon (My Page) on Mon, Jun 16, 08 at 12:04
| I had a Snapper hi-vac commercial, Robyn engine, which I used for 8 seasons before selling it. I'm getting older and the machine was getting really heavy. Bought a Honda HRR216 w/ hydrostatic drive and blade brake. Great machine, except I cannot seem to acheive the quality of cut that I had with the Snapper. I changed out the quadracut blade set for the Honda "bagging blade" which helped a little, but it's still not as good as the Hi Vac. I've also noticed the Honda does not bag leaves and such nearly as well as the Hi Vac did. Any ideas on how to improve the cut of the Honda or do I need to go plunk down the $$ and get back into a Hi Vac? |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Honda vs Snapper quality of cut
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| What are the specific problems you are having. |
RE: Honda vs Snapper quality of cut
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| The lawn does not have the smooth, finished look with the Honda that it did with the Snapper. Blade on the Honda is razor sharp. |
RE: Honda vs Snapper quality of cut
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| Not sure what that means, but you might try one of those high lift blades, maybe a gator. |
RE: Honda vs Snapper quality of cut
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| Well, it's a moot issue now. I bought a Snapper Hi Vac today with the OHV Briggs engine. The Honda is for sale on Craigslist already. |
RE: Honda vs Snapper quality of cut
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| Greg, Talk about ironic-- I bought a Snapper Hi-Vac a few weeks ago to replace a Honda Harmony with a seized transmission. The Honda used to cut grass perfectly-- the lawn looked great after every mowing. But my Snapper mows raggedly, the lawn looks uneven afterwards. I've tried both the Ninja mulching blade and the regular HiVac blade using the bag. The Ninja has the worst results, but the HiVac blade is also a mediocre performer. If the problem is not with the blade design, since you experienced happy results with your Snapper, I'm wondering what else it could be. My blades seem to mount securely and evenly in the mower deck and I adjust my wheels properly. Did you ever figure out how to get your Honda to mow well? Just wondering here in southern NH,
Andy |
RE: Honda vs Snapper quality of cut
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greg9933
"HRR216 w/hydrostatic drive and blade brake"
"The Honda is for sale on Craigslist already" Can't recall that a HRR216 was ever made with a hydro tranny. You might want to check this out and correct your Craigslist posting if necessary. The buyer might be a little upset if thinks he's buying an "HX" and doesn't get what he paid for. |
RE: Honda vs Snapper quality of cut
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| Amazer-Unless you live in Oregon and have the same type of grass as he does it is hard to tell what the problem is. Different mowers work better in different situations (grass type, mowing height, mowing frequency, blades, mulch/bag/side discharge, etc.). |
RE: Honda vs Snapper quality of cut
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| Well, my lawn grass isn't that weird. It's medium-width blades (not quite as you'd see on a nice golf course) that when mowed with the Honda looked really even and smooth. The Snapper leaves the lawn looking a bit ragged, despite the fact that the blades are new and appear level within the mower deck. I've tried the Ninja mulching blades without a bag and the regular HiVac blades with the bag-- neither give anywhere near as nice a cut as the Honda's twin mulching blades did. But the fact that my Honda's transmission seized up after 6 years of normal use (takes about an hour to mow our lawn) ticked me off enough that I wasn't about to go buy another Honda. Fixing it would have cost almost $300 because of its hard-to-reach tranny, unlike the Snapper whose tranny is outside the mower deck and easy to access. Anyway, this is a real mystery-- guess I'll just have to live with it. As an afterthought: some people have complained online about the Snapper's B&S engine as having too slow a speed, but I'm not sure what they mean. I wonder if they think that the blade doesn't spin fast enough on a Snapper-- could that be it? |
RE: Honda vs Snapper quality of cut
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| I have 2 snappers one with a briggs quantum engine (hi-vac)and I have to mow slower with this one. The engine does not have the power to go fast and give a decent cut. my other one is an older commercial (rear bagger) with a robin engine. It mows much faster and never bogs. I can run with it and still get a great cut. It climbs hills much better as well due to different type of self propelled. The snapper hi-vac disc drive does not climb too well. It spins much easier and loses traction too often. i have a problem with the commercial model taking off on it's own wehen trying to pull backwards. makes it tough to mow in tight areas. Put it on the stretch though and it is fast with good cut. The Hi-vac is a way better bagger though. |
RE: Honda vs Snapper quality of cut
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| milo2000, For many years Snappers have featured the same disc drive system. I thought even the old Snappers had the disc drive system for propulsion? |
RE: Honda vs Snapper quality of cut
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| Bottom line…..for a finish cut, nothing cuts as well as a Honda. This is especially true with the Honda twin blade mowers. I have tried them all and Honda has the most even clean cut available. Nothing cuts as nice as the HRX. |
RE: Honda vs Snapper quality of cut
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| "Bottom line…..for a finish cut, nothing cuts as well as a Honda. This is especially true with the Honda twin blade mowers. I have tried them all and Honda has the most even clean cut available. Nothing cuts as nice as the HRX." I have a new Honda HRC217 and two Snappers and I prefer the Snappers. It really doen't matter what kind of mower one has, as long as the blade is sharp, the deck is clean and one doesn't expect the mower to do more than it is designed do! |
RE: Honda vs Snapper quality of cut
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| My commercial Snapper is a rear bagging model that does not use the disc drive. It has an aluminum deck and does not bag as well as the hi-vac but mulches better. It is a 3 speed and the top 2 speeds are very fast. Much faster than my hi-vac and the robin engine does not bog at all like my other B&S Quantum engine. It is much heavier over 100lbs but is solid with ball bearing wheels that have grease zerts on them. The drive unit is a belt with a pulley and the transmission always has some resistance when pushing or pulling. It is not for a grandma it takes a strong person to operate it. My hi-vac is much easier to use but wont't go as fast without bogging down. I will see if I can post a picture. |
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