MTD Troy Bilt Trimmer and Rider
#1
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MTD Troy Bilt Trimmer and Rider
I do not like MTD products and especially MTD Troy Bilt products. I dont recommend them to my customers and typically tell them to buy anything other than MTD. That being said, I kind of have to eat my words. I have had a Troy Bilt string trimmer now for three years. It is a TB32EC. I have not had any problems with it until last week when I had to replace the upper shaft assembly. It has plenty of power and starts very easy when it is warm. For cold starts, I use the electric starter and it starts right away as well. One of my customers has a Troy Bilt Pony rider for the eight years I have been in business. It gets serviced every year. It has only needed normal maintenance items in those eight years. I would say that is a pretty good track record. Maybe MTD Troy Bilt is getting better ???
#2
Nope. Every once in a while I still see a Yugo on the road too... same concept. For the person with the small, level, no roots sticking up, regularly maintained yard, they do okay. The flimsy decks can warp if you hit a Georgia ant hill. Replacement parts are high. But that's what they were designed to be... they weren't trying to make a top notch product, they were trying to make a thousand dollar riding mower and fool people into being confident in their purchase by slapping the trusted "troy bilt" name on it. The problem is that people who need a three thousand dollar mower cheap out and buy the thousand dollar mower and then cuss it for breaking every time they use it. I always recommend paying a couple hundred more to get the base line AYP mower from Sears or husquvarna.
#3
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I can't say much about the MTD Troy Bilt's in particular because I have only looked at them a few times in the stores, haven't had the "pleasure" of actually working on one, but, as for MTD in general, they fall into the category of what I often refer to as clones. By that I mean that products built by quality manufacturers are engineered, designed, and built with reliability and serviceability in mind. Lesser priced products, or what I call clones, are built only with sales in mind, and more often than not servicing them appears anyway to be the furthest thing from anyone's mind. They look at what is needed, whether tines, a mowing deck, etc., provide it, and they're done. Sure, they all till the soil, mow the lawn, chip leaves and branches, or whatever it is for a while. But any such device needs to be maintained and eventually serviced, and I think that is where the lack of real engineering and design is significantly noticeable. It starts with simple things like changing oil, spark plugs, or belts, and worsens the farther you get into them.
#4
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I bought a Troy Bilt Pony tiller, pull cord broke twice in the first year.
Customer brought me a week old Line trimmer to work on, the dogs on the recoil starter had broken.
I could not believe that they had used tiny plastic dogs so small I had to lay them on a piece of paper to see them.
Customer brought me a week old Line trimmer to work on, the dogs on the recoil starter had broken.
I could not believe that they had used tiny plastic dogs so small I had to lay them on a piece of paper to see them.
#5
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Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: USA
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Unfortunately, I bought a Troy Bilt string trimmer TB32EC also. Worst piece of equipment I ever owned. It lasted slightly over two seasons. Poor trimmer head design lead to constant clogging from tall grass. I spent more time clearing the head than trimming. Eventually, it overheated from constant clogging and scored the cylinder/piston and would not hold compression.
#6
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I own 4 Stihl FS90R trimmers that get used everyday at least 3 hours a day and all of them start every time, one of them is 5 years old.
Only thing I've had to replace is a trimmer head because it wore out.
Only thing I've had to replace is a trimmer head because it wore out.
#7
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Tomick - I forgot to mention that I replaced the original head on my TB32EC with an "Ugly Head".
#8
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Yep, looks like the "Ugly Head" would have cured the clogging problem. Never thought about replacing the trimmer head. Learn something new everyday, but in this case to late.;-(