bgsengine wrote:KE4AVB wrote:bgsengine wrote:By the way - That is not a John Deere - That is an AYP/Husqvarna/Crapsman/AKA Boat Anchor.
Sabre was a economy line of lawn equipment produced by Deere & Company from 1995 until 2002. Many of the same equipment was also sold under the Scotts brand name.
Ah - thats it.. Brain fart - mixed up Sabre with Scotts, must be - I could swear I have seen , in person, a Scotts mower built on an AYP platform - but then again it may not have been the same Scotts as the ones Deere made, now that I think of it - much like Ryobi - there's the ones made by MTD, then there's the same ones made by TTI
In any case, I still say that the Sabre (and the Scotts) are not really a Deere - they're just cheap mass market junk hiding behind Deere badges... just like the L and LA series - they are no better than your average MTD or AYP machine..
An update to this:
Actually... I just today ran across the machine I was thinking of - The Craftsman machines supposedly built by John Deere - The build, the hood, the deck linkages, etc are all identical to a Deere L110 I also serviced recently - However, on a parts lookup for the unit, I noted that all the part numbers are *ALSO* AYP/HOP part numbers that we can order from Dixie Sales - and they are identical parts to the Deere parts I happen to have on hand - exactly identical (Mower lift handle, springs, gas tank, steering system is identical to the whole pedestal I pulled off a junked Deere, etc.) - and MUCH Cheaper. that is why I believed that many of those mass market Deere units were in fact built by AYP - the parts are entirely interchangeable and this deck uses AYP Spindle kits. I can sit the Deere parts and the AYP parts side by side, and they are exactly identical. - I can pull the whole deck off that AYP Sears and it fits up perfectly to that L110 sitting in the yard waiting for pickup. - There's little to no difference between that L110 and the 917.289223 craftsman unit that I can find, other than the paint job and decals.