I know dozens of people that just keep buying the older big box store mowers (Murray, Poulan, Craftsman, etc) and use em up and throw em away every couple years. They swear it's cheaper that way, but I'm not so sure about that..
My old Simplicity 7119 (repowered) doesn't cost me $250+ every couple years or so.. It does all of my mowing (about 2-3 acres total), tilling (about 1 acre of tilling several times a year), driveway and dirt grading, snow moving, and pulling brush, etc.. It does better grading work than my dad's WD45 does.
Here's an old picture before I sourced a NOS Simplicity seat for it.
Once I get my Allis 720 and 616 going I'll never look back at little mowers/tractors ever again. Here's the 720 the day I was hauling it home. I don't have any pictures of the 616. It's the same tractor for the most part, but much more rare. I have two 60" fabricated decks, a front end loader, two 5ft tillers, 3pt spring tine cultivator, 3pt disc, 3pt single bottom plow, front dozer blade, 3pt rear blade, 5 or 6 sets of turf tires of different design, a set of narrow rice tires, a rare front bumper, several sets of weights, 4 or 5 spare hydraulic cylinders and hoses, extra 3pt arms, a 720 parts tractor, etc.. I have very little invested in all of this so far. I just had to jump on deals and be willing to drive 2 or 3 hours when they popped up.
These things are complete workhorses for their size.
After a little work.. It's progressed a good bit since these pics were taken.
If you didn't know, these were modeled after the Allis 180/185/190/210/220 series tractors and were built by Simplicity. They have a true drop housing (cast iron with very large bull gears) rear axle just like their bigger, farming brethren. Very similar to the WD tractors but different brake systems. They have a 3 speed gearbox with hydro drive. Front and rear hydraulics, with an optional 2 circuit front hydraulic system that I'll be installing. Right now mine is single circuit on the front. The best part about them is the rear 3pt hitch and the front implements actually have down-pressure, unlike many other smaller tractors. Hell, even the WD's didn't have down-pressure. They relied on implement weight. Some day, I'd like to fabricate and add my own power steering to them both as well. It's not a hard conversion to do.
My father has a 210 Landhandler he uses, and I plan to have a custom decal made for my 720 that says "Lawnhandler"
Here it is after pulling it out of the mud near our pond.. I told him not to get so close, but he didn't listen. lol
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