"I did not know much about ridding mowers when I bought this machine. If I had it to do over, I would look at other machines. I might still buy the Troy Bilt, but I would have looked more. My machine had way too many safety features, and it made my machine hard to use. I would definitely have a hydro-static trans no matter what brand I would choose. I modified my machine and it now works better, at least for me. My grass catcher would plug up constantly, so I modified the blades. It now hardly ever plugs up. I liked Kohler engines, so that was a plus. I have had to rebuild the mower deck twice. It would be nice if it was a little better made."