Toro Turfmaster 30" Review

I purchased the Turf-Master as a kind of replacement mower for my Cub Cadet G1336 Walk Behind mower. For the money I was spending I was a bit skeptical at first and more so buying it sight unseen. The Turf-Master is basically a cross between my 1336 and a rear-bagging self propelled mower, it's a lot easier to handle even at 167 lbs than a 400 lb WB mower. It's a perfect mower for residential yards and has the best cut of any self-propelled push mower I've seen or used, it gives the operator the best of both worlds. Unlike the the larger WB it gives the operator the option of being more of a detail mower along with a 30" cut with considerable time savings over the the standard 21" mower and the wheel height adjusts are fantastic.

To those who are thinking about the Exmark 30" that is basically the Toro I would say check the mowers out carefully because there are some differences between it and the Turf-Master, Like the Turf-Masters Bull Nose Bumper, Deck skid Plates and Wheel Adjustments gives the Toro a leg up on the Exmark in ease of use only because it to is an excellent mower.

In closing if you are hesitating on the purchase of The Time-Master, Turf-Master, or Exmark 30" don't hesitate any longer, You wont be disappointed.

I have found one problem with the Turf Master mower. I don't know if it would be a problem for everybody or not but when they designed the mower they made it with 1/2" increments for the height adjustments and I find that It's always cutting to high or to low. Personally I think the 1/4" increments would have been a lot better.

Yeah that would have been better!

I just purchased the Turfmaster mower today, it runs great, self propelled works great but when I engage the blades to cut it sounds like the belts are flapping its real annoying, anyone else experience this?

Did you make sure the belts are the correct size?

soldiers40 wrote:I just purchased the Turfmaster mower today, it runs great, self propelled works great but when I engage the blades to cut it sounds like the belts are flapping its real annoying, anyone else experience this?

First off let me say welcome to the forum soldier40. I don't believe your problem with your Turfmaster is the belts. When you engage the blades the noise is real light at first and gets louder as it goes to fully engaged right? Mine does the same thing so I took the cover off and watched everything and I believe it's the blade brake that's making the noise but it seems to get a little better with time. The next time I go down to the shop I'm going to have a talk with the mechanic and see if there is an adjustment that we can make, I'll let you know what I find out. It seems to be a common problem but it also doesn't appear to hurt anything. The thing you may have to adjust is the self propel cable and you can do that at the handle of the mower by loosening the cable support nut and sliding it forward toward the mower to tighten or back and away to loosen. The belt will stretch some after some use which is natural and you can adjust it to your desired rate drive control. I'll be at the shop late Monday after I get through mowing to pick up some things and I'll try to find out something then and I'll post what they tell me to do, if anything can be done.

thanks I appreciate that alot, take care

Well I hope it helps and would you believe I still haven't made it to the shop yet. If things go right I have to make a mulch run for a client Wednesday afternoon and I go right by the shop so I'll stop then for my parts and hopefully know something that I can post Wednesday night

FWIW, I have used my new Turfmaster twice now. I have also experienced the flapping/knocking noise when I engage the blades. Although it does not eliminate the noise, I have noticed that if you engage the blades SLOWLY, it seems to minimize the noise.

Still getting used to the weight of the mower, (replaced my 21" Lawn Boy), but so far I love it. Great cut and have yet to bog it down mowing. My only complaint is that on a bank with the blades engaged, it seems to lack a little power to pull the mower up the hill.

mhbarker wrote:FWIW, I have used my new Turfmaster twice now. I have also experienced the flapping/knocking noise when I engage the blades. Although it does not eliminate the noise, I have noticed that if you engage the blades SLOWLY, it seems to minimize the noise.

Still getting used to the weight of the mower, (replaced my 21" Lawn Boy), but so far I love it. Great cut and have yet to bog it down mowing. My only complaint is that on a bank with the blades engaged, it seems to lack a little power to pull the mower up the hill.

You can try adjusting is the self propel cable and you can do that at the handle of the mower by loosening the cable support nut and sliding it forward toward the mower to tighten or back and away to loosen. After you use the mower a while it will need a little adjustment after belts stretch or get broke in.

I will give that a shot. I will be mowing for the third time this weekend, so I think it will have had the time to stretch by now. After this mowing, I will need to replace then engine oil. What oil are you running? My dealer recommended a straight 30W oil, your thoughts?

mhbarker wrote:I will give that a shot. I will be mowing for the third time this weekend, so I think it will have had the time to stretch by now. After this mowing, I will need to replace then engine oil. What oil are you running? My dealer recommended a straight 30W oil, your thoughts?

For oil I use Mobil 5000 10w30. I run it in all my mower engines, Kawasaki, Kohler and Honda and I've never had a problem. There's nothing wrong with 30w but I'm a real stickler for using and doing what the manual says to do. I change oil and oil filter every 50 hours.

To kind of continue the review of the Turfmaster I've heard a lot being said people about the mower not handling the high grasses and wet grasses and that bog down and are under powered and I can say that just simply is not the case. It wasn't to many days ago that we went through a tropical storm and here we ended up with 2 1/2 inches of rain and sense then we have been averaging about the same on a daily basis since that time.

I mow daily, 70 plus lawns a week and for the last couple of weeks in extremely wet conditions, so wet in fact that as I cut the grass with the Turfmaster it leaves muddy black tracks between houses and my foot prints do the same because of the muck that's under the St Augustine grass. I can truthfully say that the Turfmaster handles tall grass and extremely wet conditions better than any self propelled mower I have ever owned. I in fact just this morning mowed 9 lawns with the TM and one lawn had an inch of standing water on it and the mower never had an issue with the 5 inch Bahia grass or the water.

I purchased a Turfmaster 2 months ago I like the wide cut , I like the motor , I like the wheel adjustment. I don't like how only one back wheel pulls , If the blades didn't have the slots cut in them it would bag better, I don't like opening the trap door to put the bag back on (I built a catch that hooks the plastic handle on the trap door and holds it open while I have the bag off  I LOVE THAT) I cut quite a bit of steep slopes and find a traction problem , and it's a heavy pig to push it also bottoms out alot on not perfectly smooth lawns. but on a perfect lawn look out , It'll be hard to beat

CUTTERofGRASS wrote:I purchased a Turfmaster 2 months ago I like the wide cut , I like the motor , I like the wheel adjustment. I don't like how only one back wheel pulls , If the blades didn't have the slots cut in them it would bag better, I don't like opening the trap door to put the bag back on (I built a catch that hooks the plastic handle on the trap door and holds it open while I have the bag off  I LOVE THAT) I cut quite a bit of steep slopes and find a traction problem , and it's a heavy pig to push it also bottoms out alot on not perfectly smooth lawns. but on a perfect lawn look out , It'll be hard to beat

I agree it's a heavy mower, fortunately I don't have to worry about hills. Possibly it would bag better without the slots in the blades but you would use the mulching ability of the mower, it all has pros and cons I guess. It all depends on what type of mowing you're trying to do I guess.