Originally Posted by Dcuda69
Originally Posted by fastmark
Briggs killed themselves many years ago. I was a professional landscaper from 1969-82 and I used up lots of Briggs motors. Honda came along and their products would last three or four times longer with zero problems for about the same cost. Briggs refused to change. Now there are lots of other brands besides Honda that are better than Briggs and they still have not brought up their quality. They just don’t last as long and they made them cheap. I won’t own another Briggs product the rest of my life. They’d still be in business if they made a piece that would compete with a Honda. I kept my last Snapper and put a Honda on it when I stopped mowing commercial. I’ve had it for 25 years. Starts first pull. I would have had three or four Briggs motors on it by now.


I have a Simplicity 16 hp Vangaurd 44" tractor. Bought new in 04. It's been almost flawless. 700+ hours...1 coil and a PTO. Other than that....oil/filters and batteries. Still runs and cuts like new! Nothing wrong with a good Briggs......have another on a 8 yr old Simplicity snow blower...starts on 1 or 2 pulls everytime.

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My experience is with the smaller 3.5 to 6 hp motors. When I was using up the 4hp many years ago, the Briggs just had the cheap foam air cleaner that you kept oiled. They would not improve it because they could sell more engines. The customers wanted a better filter. Honda came along with a paper filter so Briggs had to improve. The retro fit kit for a Briggs made it last twice as long. I was a good American consumer and resisted a foreign made engine as long as I could. The last Briggs motors I bought were on the Troy built string trimmers. I went through 4 of those crappy things in a few short years. I can fix anything but gave up trying to keep them running.