Toro Grandstand What I Don’t Like:
I like 95% of the Grandstand but there are three items I would like to see improved.
First the parking brake. If you have ever had a parking brake that clamps the tire for an extended period of time you know what I mean.
It works great the first few months. Then after the tires get worn or the one day when both of the tires are just about flat the brakes just won’t work.
It is also designed for just one size tire. When you have to replace the tires and you can’t find the exact ones the bar brakes will give you problems. If the new tires are just a little smaller the brakes won’t hold and if they are just a little bigger, you will have to take the brake system OFF the mower to get the tires to work.
(I know the engineer who designed the brake and the supervisor who approved the design it will most likely argue with me, but it will be an aggravation to the owners of the Grandstand over the years.)
I would like to see the bars that clamp the tires with a little more offset and spring-loaded so the brake works just as well on an old set of tires as it does on the brand new ones the engineers used to design the brake.
Of course you won’t need to use the parking brake that often. Keep your neutral adjusted so the machine will sit still with the engine running and always use the built-in tie down’s when you transport the Grandstand and the poor parking brake design is a mute point.
Second the oil reservoir is smaller than I would like. I know the engineers would never have guessed why I would like a larger oil cooler and most of you would never guess why either.
Why is it too small? I need all the oil cooling capacity I can get because I like to run Acrease wing mower on the larger properties. If the property has more than 5 acres of relatively unobstructed lawn or there are lots of trees I run a wing mower. I build a tow hitch to fit the stand on or zero-turn that I can remove quickly.
Wing mowers allowed me to greatly reduce my mowing time on the larger properties and saved a lot of time mowing under trees on those properties that had windbreaks etc.
Pulling a 60 inch commercial wing mower puts a lot of strain on the drive systems and a larger oil cooler on a well designed mower like the Grandstand is good enough to keep the drives running for years.
Third, I would like to see a movable forward grab bar for the operator’s controls. I would like to use this movable bar as a “cruise control” when I have to mow slower than usual.
That’s it, just three small items I would like to see changed on the Toro Grandstand.
You can read more about the Toro Grandstand in the next post, here engine & deck review and here Toro Grandstand first review
When you get your own Toro Grandstand be sure to come back here and tell us what you like and don’t like about it.
