Hard Knocks Small Engine Repair will be my go-to shop for maintenance and repair for as long as I have a mower. Here's why:
I have had an issue with my Ariens lawnmower for about three years that the local authorized repair place said was "fixed" the four times I had it in there, only to have the same problem occur when the mower came back to me.
The issue was the mower would stall when trying to mow uphill, but only when the gas in the tank was down by about a third (Weird, huh?). I was about to sell the thing and buy something different, but thought I would give Hard Knocks Small Engine Repair a chance at it before I did that.
They fixed it. He diagnosed the problem as having something to do with a vacuum line not working like it should on an incline. His solution was to install a fuel pump and it hasn't had that problem since. I would think that a riding lawnmower would have a fuel pump standard, but that's not the case with mine. When I got it back from them, I deliberately didn't fill the tank above about half and it mowed up my steep hill without a problem. I've mowed four times since the fuel pump installation and absolutely no problems at all. This nine-year-old lawnmower runs like new!
Hard Knocks had the mower for a couple of weeks, but they came and picked it up just at the beginning of the mowing season, when he was swamped with seasonal business. He called me about three times during the process, making sure I knew what he was doing and suggesting a fix and indicated that he had done quite a bit of research on this particular mower with regard to this issue.
I was expecting a huge bill because I had him change the oil, sharpen the blades, fix the blade release mechanism and, level the mowing deck. But all that and installing a fuel pump was less than $300. To replace the mower with a new one would be about six times that, so win! read more