Let’s not kid ourselves – landscape contractors love power. If 18 horsepower is good, then 22 is better. Well, they’ll be excited to know that Briggs & Stratton introduced a new, 31-horsepower, air-cooled power plant for commercial mowers at the 2002 Green Industry Expo.
“Engines haven’t kept up with products’ demands,” observed Phil Cappitelli, a product engineer for Briggs & Stratton’s Vanguard division. “There are a lot of three-stage, iron-block engines that are too expensive, but that was the only way to provide this sort of power until now.
“We’re excited to offer an affordable engine that delivers unmatched power,” he added.
The V-Twin engine, which goes into production next June and will start showing up on mowers for the 2004 model year, is made of an aluminum block to reduce weight and deliver the power-to-weight ratio that manufacturers desire.
“We worked with a lot of our customers, the mower manufacturers, so they had significant input into the design of this engine,” Cappitelli explained, adding that the engine will feature a standard two-year warranty.
Briggs & Stratton plans on developing additional models to round out the series, including liquid-cooled models and some with, yes, you guessed it, even more horsepower.
The author is Editor/Publisher of Lawn & Landscape magazine and can be reached at bwest@lawnandlandscape.com.