On Aug 19, 1:16*pm, Jay Chan wrote:
On Aug 19, 6:45*am, (Herb and Eneva) wrote:

* What`s the best way to store a lawnmower for the coming winter?
Should I change the oil now or wait untill spring? What about sta-bil?
Last year I started all of the small engines once a month. That seemed
to work but sometimes was a real pain. What do y`all do?

I prefer to change oil as a part of the winterizing, that includes
filling up the gas tank, sharpening the blades, replacing the spark
plug, fogging the engine, checking/replacing the air filter, cleaning
the lawn mower. *Then there will be very little chance that I may
forget to change the oil when spring comes.


It also gets the old oil, that can have nasty stuff, like water in it,
out and leaves fresh clean oil in contact with the metal for the
winter.

Regarding gas, there are 3 schools of thought on this:

1 - RTFM and do what it says, which applies to oil and the other
issues as well

2 - Add stablilizer, fill and make sure it runs long enough to fill
the carb. Easiest way to do this is to just add the stabilizer to the
last can of gas you buy near the end of the season. The thinking to
this approach is that some mowers have gaskets which may dry out
without gas and then leak later.

3 - Run it dry

Fogging the engine is a good idea. And if it's a rider with a
battery, put a battery tender on the battery or else be prepared to
buy a new battery every year or two.




The alternative is to simply fill up the gas tank for winterizing and
then do all the other tasks in the spring. *I don't like this
alternative because after getting stuck inside the house for the
entire winter, I much prefer to start doing yard work right away when
spring comes instead of doing all those chores first.

The down side of doing all those chores during winterizing is that the
date of the "last mow" may be in late Fall, and the temperature may be
falling. *Cleaning the lawn mower with cold water can numb the
fingers. *Sharpening the cold steel blades can also numb the fingers
if the work area is not heated. *Therefore, we need to do the "last
mow" earlier rather than later.

I have been using this approach for the last 3 years. *I have no
problem with the lawn mower or other small engine equipments, and I
can start the lawn mower in the first pull. *Before that, I didn't
standardize on one approach and tried various approaches (like doing
some in the Fall and the rest in Spring). *The result was not pretty
because I tend to be forgotful and get confused easily. *This might
have something to do with _me_ instead of any problem with the
approach that I tried. *Knowing who I am, I prefer to stick with a
standardized approach that does all those chores in one setting.

Jay Chan