I am thinking of buying a Murray riding mower from a neighbor. He's
gussing it's about 5 years old. 46in. cut, "Big Tires, not the turf
ones", 2 cylinder 18hp. What do you guys think about this? He is
asking $500 for it. He said that the center bearing on the mower deck
is seized and will need to be replaced. He said he replaced the
outside ones last year for about $20 a pop. Now he is dissabled and
can't use the mower any more. What do you guys thing? does this sound
like a good deal or no?

Thanks,
Adam

(Adam) wrote:

I am thinking of buying a Murray riding mower from a neighbor. He's
gussing it's about 5 years old. 46in. cut, "Big Tires, not the turf
ones", 2 cylinder 18hp. What do you guys think about this? He is
asking $500 for it. He said that the center bearing on the mower deck
is seized and will need to be replaced. He said he replaced the
outside ones last year for about $20 a pop. Now he is dissabled and
can't use the mower any more. What do you guys thing? does this sound
like a good deal or no?

It is a basic mower. The Murray Lawn Tractors have about average
reliability. The main thing is the engine. It should be a cast iron
engine or at least have cast iron sleeves. Kohler makes very good
engines.

A 21 HP Murray (Murray Select 465600x8A) with a 46 inch mower new is
$1400 new. They don't cost very much. In fact they are the least
expensive lawn tractors.

--
Pardon my spam deterrent; send email to
http://home.earthlink.net/~rhodyman

Murray is the name brand that is marketed for Home Depot. It's a reliable
mower, but I would at least price out what they're going for new before you
agree to that price. If the center bearing has seized, look the entire mower
over carefully for other signs of owner neglect.

Dave

"Adam" wrote in message
om...
I am thinking of buying a Murray riding mower from a neighbor. He's
gussing it's about 5 years old. 46in. cut, "Big Tires, not the turf
ones", 2 cylinder 18hp. What do you guys think about this? He is
asking $500 for it. He said that the center bearing on the mower deck
is seized and will need to be replaced. He said he replaced the
outside ones last year for about $20 a pop. Now he is dissabled and
can't use the mower any more. What do you guys thing? does this sound
like a good deal or no?

Thanks,
Adam

In article ,
"David J Bockman" wrote:

Murray is the name brand that is marketed for Home Depot. It's a reliable
mower, but I would at least price out what they're going for new before you
agree to that price. If the center bearing has seized, look the entire mower
over carefully for other signs of owner neglect.

Dave

"Adam" wrote in message
om...
I am thinking of buying a Murray riding mower from a neighbor. He's
gussing it's about 5 years old. 46in. cut, "Big Tires, not the turf
ones", 2 cylinder 18hp. What do you guys think about this? He is
asking $500 for it. He said that the center bearing on the mower deck
is seized and will need to be replaced. He said he replaced the
outside ones last year for about $20 a pop. Now he is dissabled and
can't use the mower any more. What do you guys thing? does this sound
like a good deal or no?

Thanks,
Adam



The center bearing went out on our 20 year old 44" IH Cub Cadet 149's
mower deck. $90 a pop. We got a whole new deck for $200. Apparently
there was too much fabrication involved in replacing thold ones, so
there would have been a monster labor charge too.

I regard the Murray brand as the generic mower brand. They'll cut the
grass, and at 46" it'll do it fast. But don't hope to walk in to Sears
or John Deere or IH and get a part for it.


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In article , says...
(Adam) wrote:

I am thinking of buying a Murray riding mower from a neighbor. He's


Low end lawn tractors - If you take real good care of it and replace things when they break
you will probably get another 5 years out of it before the transmission wears out or the
engine cooks.


Steve

In article , says...
(Adam) wrote:

I am thinking of buying a Murray riding mower from a neighbor. He's


Low end lawn tractors - If you take real good care of it and replace things when they break
you will probably get another 5 years out of it before the transmission wears out or the
engine cooks.


Steve

"Adam" wrote in message
om...
I am thinking of buying a Murray riding mower from a neighbor. He's
gussing it's about 5 years old. 46in. cut, "Big Tires, not the turf
ones", 2 cylinder 18hp. What do you guys think about this? He is
asking $500 for it. He said that the center bearing on the mower deck
is seized and will need to be replaced. He said he replaced the
outside ones last year for about $20 a pop. Now he is dissabled and
can't use the mower any more. What do you guys thing? does this sound
like a good deal or no?

Thanks,
Adam

Hi:

The murray tractors are indeed the "el cheapos" of the market. However I've
found them very inexpensive to rebuild. I recently found an entire blade
housing assembly with bearings and spindle for $8.00 closeout at home depot.
I also found a set of blades (3) for 8.00 also. It's pretty easy to fix
these things with the exception of the drive belt to the transmission. That
being said $500 for your mower seems steep to me. Unless it was very good
condition I'd look else where.

I bot a fixer upper for $200 locally but it needed roughly $90 in parts. I
also bot another 80's model off ebay for $26 without an engine. I found a
used engine on ebay (18 hp twin cylinder) for $200 delivered. With another
$30 in parts I have another good looking 46 inch cut mower. Try looking at
mfgsupply.com for cheap parts.

Stergil

Uh...Walmart sells Murray also..........




"David J Bockman" wrote in message
...
Murray is the name brand that is marketed for Home Depot. It's a reliable
mower, but I would at least price out what they're going for new before
you
agree to that price. If the center bearing has seized, look the entire
mower
over carefully for other signs of owner neglect.

Dave

"Adam" wrote in message
om...
I am thinking of buying a Murray riding mower from a neighbor. He's
gussing it's about 5 years old. 46in. cut, "Big Tires, not the turf
ones", 2 cylinder 18hp. What do you guys think about this? He is
asking $500 for it. He said that the center bearing on the mower deck
is seized and will need to be replaced. He said he replaced the
outside ones last year for about $20 a pop. Now he is dissabled and
can't use the mower any more. What do you guys thing? does this sound
like a good deal or no?

Thanks,
Adam

The murray tractors are indeed the "el cheapos" of the market. However I've
found them very inexpensive to rebuild.

Do you think its cheap to fix them cause there are so many of them out
there....and hence a big availability of "parts"?

On Tue, 27 Apr 2004 wrote:
The murray tractors are indeed the "el cheapos" of the market. However I've
found them very inexpensive to rebuild.
Do you think its cheap to fix them cause there are so many of them out
there....and hence a big availability of "parts"?

I can't speak about the riding mowers/tractors, but I can share my
experience.

I had been getting royally fed up with spending $125 each year at the
local repair shop for my old Toro. The final straw was when it had to go
in twice in two months at $125 each time. [It turns out the repair shop
has problems getting employees who don't put the till up their nose, but
that's another issue...]

I was at Wal-Mart for something else, and saw that they had a Murray for
$90. I bought it, over my Significant Other's protests that I shouldn't
waste my money on such a cheap piece of junk. She wasn't convinced by my
counter-argument that if it worked for just one year before it broke and I
discarded it, it was $35 cheaper than fixing the old one.

Well, it's 5 years later. I have abused that Murray terribly. I've never
cleaned it. It's still on its original spark plug and oil. I haven't
even bothered to put in gas stabilizer or drain the tank.

And, guess what? Come the start of spring, I top off the tank with fresh
gas, push the carb spritzer button a few times, pull the cord...and it
starts!

It may be a cheap piece of junk, but it's a reliable piece of junk. And
it cuts the grass. It does not have multiple speeds or motor assist on
the wheels, but so what. It just works.

One thing did break on it; the plastic handle on the pull cord. A dab of
superglue and that problem was fixed.

That Murray was the best $90 I've spent.

-- Mark --

http://staff.washington.edu/mrc
Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate.
Si vis pacem, para bellum.