That's weird all right! Glad to hear it was just a clump of grass and not some critter moving around in there!!

I also was waiting for the line where he told about the big rat that had got up in there. Darn.

I know - it could have at least been a snake or giant spider. Then it probably would have ended with gun fire.

Yeah, he'd have to use a shotgun with bird-shot, so the pellets would go thru the mesh, and not tear a big hole in it! ;0)

Damn! Good point! I could heve shot up a very expensive bag.

I wonder how many people wash their grass catcher bags? Every once in a while I do, but I always thought it was because I'm strange.

I wash my mowers, bags and all, more than I wash my vehicles. The vehicles stay out in the weather and the mowers rest in a nice shed. There's method to my madness - cars are designed to be weatherproof - mowers aren't. Plus, I like to keep them looking like this as much as possible:
{{gwi:126956}}

too bad...no 2 strokes or staggered decks in the fleet....

Used to be. I eventually came to dislike them and they went bye-bye.
{{gwi:131910}}

A lot of people don't like the Easy Stride drive system Sax. What did you think of it? That V engined "Green" series is a hard to find mower too.

You gave up the 10550...geesh. That is a great machine. Why did you grow to dislike them??????

I can tell you why I grew to dislike 2-stroke Lawnboys. The last 2 (1994 and 1996 models) I had were problematic. I guess if you like to tinker with things they are ok, but I just want to pull the cord and go. I bought a 4-stroke Lawnboy with Tech engine in 2004 and never looked back. It has the Easy Stride system. Some like it, some don't. I like it, but my yard is level. I think on a sloped yard the old self-propelled system might be better.

Why the dislike. Did you rejet?

Why problematic?

The 10201 with 'V' engine was the only mower I ever had that could destroy itself. They used a lot of 'Tri-Round' thread-forming bolts in it and they tended to come out, causing bad things to happen. I'm amazed that it was still running enough to sell, even though I had worked the whole thing over a number of times. And the green top - it was black. I painted it with Dupli-Color engine paint.

The 10550 was in my view the best 2-cycle LB they ever made in terms of durability, but it just didn't have the 'soul' of the old ones with under-deck muffler. The main problem though was the 'Easy-Stride'. I thought it would drive me crazy. My yard has some inside corners, a ditch with culvert endwalls and lots of 'push-pull' situations. In some of these areas it was impossible to smoothly work the mower back and forth. It was jerky and would fail to clutch out most of the time especially when I was pulling back against a slope on a hot day. Those were dangerous times because I thought a lot about throwing it out into the street and shooting it until it caught fire. Now before you go and start giving me operating instructions on Personal Pace, I already know them and could easily write a pamphlet on the subject. But this thing was spawned in hell, believe me.
I also had a 10323 before I got the 10550, and really liked the 'Variable Speed', so I knew what I was missing with the 10550.

Plus, with all of them, you have to deal with washing and oiling the air filter and the general finicky and flimsy nature of the governor plus just general crappiness, like coils going bad, crummy wheels, etc. Wow, I almost forgot another biggie! I hate the offset wheel! I couldn't even use an offset wheel mower at several places in the yard, and had to go get another mower to finish up. I suppose I'll always miss not having a LB 2-cycle mower around, but at the same time I really enjoy the completely predictable and boring reliability of the 4-cycles.

"Why the dislike. Did you rejet?
Why problematic?"

Didn't rejet either one. They both ran alright when you could get them started, but that became a problem. The self-propelled mower had 4 sheathed cables and all broke or froze up and would have cost over $100. to replace and that was just for the cables. Unlike a lot of folks here, who I admire by the way, I've never had the patience to fiddle with things. I like things to work without fiddling. When they don't I just go out and buy something that does work. I know that costs me money, but so be it.