Well are you ready for the new Kohler?

[KE4AVB]

Boy this is a stupid looking and sounding name. Why mess with a well known name just for the heck of it. Kohler is now Rehlko.

Rehlko and we will start seeing these engines in the near future.

[Scrubcadet10]

weird looking set up... looks over complicated.

[bgsengine]

Hmmm....

The company became a stand-alone entity in May 2024 when Platinum Equity completed a transaction with Kohler Company to establish then-Kohler Energy as a stand-alone business.

Sounds like corporate spin on the theory (mine) that Kohler engines were becoming unprofitable and a drain on Kohler company's resources - Kohler focusing more on home & resorts and the like, so sold out to get that load off their books and let someone else deal with the headaches. Of course, Kohler company which is still operating under their brand would want to distance themselves (They won't sell the brand rights, obviously, so of course they had to come up with a new name for the new company...But obviously some college educated dumbass (Just because you have an MBA doesn't mean you have any damn common sense!) thought it'd be a great ideal to just anagram the letters.. how stupid...)

Just like what happened with Briggs & Stratton and Tecumseh - they just cannot compete effectively with the China built clones, small service shops becoming more and more scarce, so whole industry moving to "throw parts assemblies at it or throw it away and replace it" mentality, following in the footsteps of Auto industry which also has become increasingly modular (Can't just get a $120 Heater core any more, have to buy a whole $800.00 module) I saw this coming years ago (just look at my posts in the middle 2010's, I probably have mentioned it enough) so I'm glad to be out of the business. getting to where about the only way to get a box store machine fixed any more is you have to know somebody that'll work on 'em in their spare time out of their backyard or shed.... assuming they aren't trying to make a profit on anything. Now with the new battery powered equipment starting to flood the market as well, there's exponentially less need for service as well - (About all that can be done is change out a blade, replace a battery, replace a switch, replace wheels, which anybody with basic tools can probably do well enough.)

[KE4AVB]

Yes it looks like Kawasaki is the only good engine series left now with parts easily available.

Just last year I got in a two yr old Briggs engine that normally be under warranty that I couldn't even get parts for. Briggs had subcontracted it out and that plant went under leaving all the customers without parts and those that were still under warranty were simply screwed by Briggs as Briggs would not honor the warranties.

Next few years are going to be extremely challenging for the small shops as we survive on the scrapes left over. I lost nearly half my normal business this year alone as things simply became unrepairable due to the lack of replacement parts.

Just recently finished up a Gravely here that was missing two brake pull off springs. Actually one was there hanging there. Gravely/Ariens wanted $30 piece (customer price $37.50 plus shipping) for them and the customer nearly had a heart attack at the price of two simple springs. Well I brought a spring scale and found the spring rate and ordered a set of springs from McMaster-Carr and I got him out of the shop at $20 each. I could had charged less but had to recover some the tool cost.

And in July I got two seats from Sears at $95 each plus shipping. Last month I went to order another seat and they wanted $180 plus shipping for the same seat.