How about a primer on who makes what? Lots of names and colors, very few manufacturers once you go beneath the paint.
MTD...Modern Tool and Die, produces the following brands: Cub Cadet, Troybilt, Bolens, White, Yard-Man, Huskee, Ranch King, Yard Machine. And this doesn't include the "house" brands, made for Wal-Mart, Lowes, Kmart, etc. Same part nubers, with an added 3 digit suffix that indicates what color to paint that part...Cub yellow, Troy red, etc.
EHP....Electrolux Home Products, (yep, the vacuum cleaner folks), turn out the following brands: Husqvarna, Sears-Craftsman, Poulan and Poulan Pro. Same part numbers, same equipment with Husqvarna adding a 3 digit prefix to try and claim individuality...doesn't work boys, we know better.
John Deere....lots of rumors, very few hard facts. All of Deere's premium line of L&G is produced and manufactured by Deere themselves. Good stuff, and my most recommended product. And I toured a Deere plant 12 years ago and watched their consumer brand stuff rolling off the assembly line...THEIR line. Can't say these days, however.
Wheelhorse/Toro....Gone. Toro still sells tractors, but MTD builds em'. Interesting side note here however, in that Toro absolutely refuses to mention this to their customers, even going as far as spending extra $$$ to replace all the MTD part numbers with Toro nubers in the manuals....meaning you need to go to them to get belts, blades, etc. Unfortunately for them though, once you get those belts, blades, etc removed they are stamped with the MTD numbers and brand....again, nice try. By the way, this applies to Toro's with steering wheels.... Toro themselves, build their commercial ZTR's, and they are good stuff.
Simplicity, Snapper, Murray.....all owned by Briggs and Stratton. And while the top of the line Simplicity's are superb machines, equal to Deere I would say, Briggs has begun combining assets in an effort to streamline manufacturing. So the lesser priced consumer stuff is pretty unremarkable at best, and downright shoddy at worst.
