TORO LX425 Lawn Tractor

by Guy Moberg
(Fond du Lac, WI)

The mower caught on fire and was totally destroyed shortly after I finished cutting the lawn. My neighbors came running when they saw the smoke. The gas tank exploded about ten minutes after I got off the machine. Luckily, no one was hurt, but this could have been a life threatening event.

TORO claims there was nothing wrong with this machine and refuses to stand behind their product. All I ever did was cut grass and mulch leaves. I did not modify anything on this machine and was only used as designed.

I have repeatedly tried for the past four months to get Toro to understand that there is a design problem in this machine, but they refuse to listen. They claim there is nothing wrong with this mower.

I am a retired mechanical engineer who worked with machines of all kinds for more than 30 years, and have dealt with machine failures for all of those years. If this event had taken place at some company, OSHA would be investigating this because of the potentially life threatening consequence. Since OSHA doesn't apply to consumers, I have filed a complaint to The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture and Consumer Protection.

This isn't just about the replacement cost; I never expected Toro to replace it since I used it for two summers. I did expect they would want to find out why it failed and pay maybe half of the replacement cost.

Toro refuses to engage in any part of these expectations.

These statements are true. I have records of correspondence with Toro and four witnesses to this event.