[john hall]

You can drop $100 to $1,000 on a push mower, and I am not certain there is more bang for the buck by spending more money. The Troybilts I have worked on all cranked real easy but were notorious for the self-propel unit going out. Anything with a Briggs or Honda engine is probably fine. You may be able to get a good deal off CL, especially if you don't plan on using it a lot long term. 25 years ago I used to run one sold by ECHO--it was the same as Homelite and Jacobsen. It had a cast alum deck. I ran it in severe places (rough hillsides) for about 3-4 years. It had a 2 cycle engine and was self propelled. It was certainly one tough piece of equipment--I rolled it down hills a couple times and cracked the deck twice from hitting stuff. I have no idea why they quit building those, haven't seen one in ages.