Home-owner class riding mowers brands change owners like a baby changes diapers. This fella at this link pretty well keeps up on all of them:
https://todaysmower.com/riding-mower-brands/
I include the below C&P because it is interesting, and is what I found when researching a new rider earlier this year. I had had a Cub Cadet... a piece of junk... but I learned that the model I had was only produced for one year, 2009. I settled on a Sears Craftsman unit, not the Craftsman SBD. I thought I wanted a zero turn (JD) but a close neighbor has one, I borrowed once. If your place is like mine, yard, pasture and small hills... well, if the grass was the slightest bit wet, it didn't do uphill. Too much pushing for my likes. Altoz, commercial, makes a track driven zero turn, but at their lowest end price of $13k, ain't happening for me. Pk, back to the Today's mower page.
Latest update 4/24/2019:
In summary: Husqvarna, MTD, and Briggs & Stratton make most of the riding mower and lawn tractor brands sold by retailers here in the United States. John Deere still makes all of their lawn tractors and zero-turn mowers. There are around 40 additional manufacturers of zero-turns and specialty mowers. The Zero-Turn market is huge so there is always a new manufacture or three trying to make their mark.
Many of the old independent names that have been around for years have now been bought and merged into huge corporations. There are even a couple of “American” names that are used solely by Chinese manufacturers. Of the 89 brands I can find, many are owned by the same few companies, but some of those names have moved from one manufacturer to the next making it hard to sort it all out.
I’ve included the smaller companies because many of these market locally at trade shows and county fairs. Just about all of them are high-quality machines and they may be the right mower for you. I also included the commercial mowers (mainly zero-turns) because some of you may be tempted to purchase a used “commercial” machine and it would be nice to know if you can still get parts. Commercial mowers can greatly reduce your mowing time, (as much as 80%) but you need to be aware that they are considerably more expensive to repair
Briggs & Stratton: The other big mower manufacturer. Go to
https://www.basco.com/our-products/residential-products-and-engines.html to see all of the companies they own. They also make spec mowers for other brands including Massey Ferguson.
Murray: Murray is Briggs & Stratton’s “affordable” economy line. You’ll find these at your local WalMart and other price competitive retailers.
Briggs & Stratton Mowers.B&S doesn’t make mowers under that name but they do make snow blowers and many other products.
Craftsman: Riding Mowers & Tractors
As you know by now Craftsman was sold to Stanley-Black & Decker. Although there is a lot of talk about the tool lines – not much is being said about the Lawn & Garden side. So let’s break the Craftsman Lawn & Garden down.
In the last 18 months, Craftsman has changed. There are now two Craftsman brands. Craftsman at Sears is the brand you knew and loved in the past. Craftsman SBD is new and owned by Stanley Black & Decker. So – I’m going to spend more time here explaining what Craftsman is than talking about the mowers. If you understand all the different “Craftsman’s” you will be better at deciding if a Craftsman is the best mower for you.
Last year Stanley Black & Decker purchased the Craftsman name from Sears. As part of that sale, Sears is still able to sell Craftsman branded merchandise but the products will be different than the Craftsman products from Stanley Black & Decker. Let me explain how that affects Mowers.
Craftsman at Sears: Mowers sold on sears.com and Sears Stores are still the products you are familiar with. The mowers have not changed for 2019. They are warrantied and serviced through Sear Repair Services. All parts for these models and all parts for the older Craftsmans are available through searspartsdirect.com. Sears Hometown Store, Sears Outlet, and Ace also carry these mowers as independent retailers. This includes Craftsman Professional mowers. You can find the Craftsman and Craftsman Professional mowers at Sears.com
Craftsman SBD: The mowers from Craftsman SBD (Stanley Black & Decker) are new. Currently, these Craftsman branded mowers are sold at Lowes and Amazon. It appears Craftsman SBD also took ownership of the website craftsman.com. There you can find warranty information and where to get repairs for your mower. It appears parts and service will be done through their ServiceNet Website. The model numbers are completely different. You will have to get parts, warranty work, and service through Stanley, Black & Decker. Lowes is not responsible for warranty repairs to Craftsman products. Stanley, Black and Decker (SBD) is.
Besides buying the Craftsman brand Stanley Black & Decker also purchased a stake in MTD last year. What that means for you is all of the mowers, lawn tractors and snow blowers that have the Craftsman SBD name will be made by MTD.
Craftsman Lawn & Garden at Sears does make up a SIGNIFICANT portion of sales so I extremely confident that Craftsman L&G will only get stronger over the next 10 years. That said, Craftsman Sears sells a riding lawn mower for every homeowner lawn in the U.S. Everything from a 30-inch rider to a 60 in heavy-duty zero-turn. They have the largest nationwide service network and you can easily get parts for their machines going back 10, 15, 20 years and more. But, they have never manufactured their own products and have always “spec’d” their mowers to the unique wants and needs of the Sears shopper.
Craftsman SBD at Lowes and Amazon has not adopted this “mower for everyone” approach at this time. They primarily sell inexpensive lawn and garden tractors and inexpensive entry zero-turns.
Here are the Craftsman at Sears mowers, and who manufactures them for the 2019 year:
Craftsman T1000 series: Manufactured by MTD. Red color
Craftsman T2000, T3000 series: Manufactured by MTD. Red and Black color
Craftsman 30 inch Rider: Manufactured by MTD. Red color
Craftsman Zero Turns: Manufactured by MTD Red color
Craftsman Pro: MTD Built. They are Black/Yellow in color.
Craftsman SBD at Lowes and Amazon are also made by MTD.
NOTE: Sears.ca: Sears Canada is a separate company. They spec their own products under the Craftsman brand. Sears Canada went out of business in 2017. I have no information on how to get parts or service for that equipment.
CRAFTSMAN™/MC. Sold by Sears.ca. Both MTD and Husqvarna make these mowers. Red or Black color
CRAFTSMAN PROFESSIONAL™/MC. Sold by Sears.ca Usually Husqvarna. Black/Yellow in color.
John Deere: As far as I can tell John Deere currently does not use any other brand names to market their mowers (used Sabre in the past) I do want to point out that all the lawn tractors and zero turns are made in the U.S. They are made in at least three different locations. ANYONE who tells you their 100 series is made by someone else or their zero-turns are made overseas does not know what they are talking about. The lawn tractors and zero-turns you see at Lowes and The Home Depot are the same riding mowers you see at the dealer. The dealer just has more dealer only models available. The 100 series sold at the Dealer Stores IS THE SAME TRACTOR AS SOLD AT THE BIG BOX STORES!
John Deere is a worldwide organization and many of their parts and products are made outside of the U.S. They currently use Briggs, Kohler, Kawasaki and have their owned line of branded engines in the residential mowers.
The 100 series Deere’s are made in Greenville, TN. The 300, 500 and 700 Series are made in Wisconsin
There are also Golf and Commercial Divisions that cater to those customers.