Troy Bilt Background

18 years ago

I have had a Tory Bilt tiller (7hp, Kohler) for many years and it is unbelievably reliable and sturdy. My friend bought a new tiller recently and it is nothing like mine and not reliable. What happened? I remember that they were never sold in stores, but only directly from Troy Bilt in Troy,NY. It doesn't appear to be the same company as it used to be. Can anyone fill me in on why the slide in what used to be a premier mfr?

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Comments (4)

yungman
18 years ago
They change hands, I believe they are own by MTD.

They are not high quality, they are ok only. They are sold in Lowes.
green_valley
18 years ago
Yeah good companies selling good products get bought by investment houses and or rivals for the name. Slap a sticker on a Chinamade and boom the margin just went up.

This happened with Emglo air compressors. A fine contractor compressor. DeWalt wanted in the compressor game to round out it's product line so they bought Emglo. At first they painted the real Emglo yellow but within a year they had the 100% Chinamade imitation that is no better than the Chinamade Pepboys 79.00 compressor.
Ruined em I tell ya.
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yungman
18 years ago
Dewalt stuff are really bad without the help of China!!!! A while back, I bought a complete set of 18V tools...Drill, circular saw etc. and 12V right angle drill. The battery all burn on the charger after very little use. The cost of replacemant were so high I end up buying the whole set of Ryobi 18V for less than the replacement batteries of Dewalt. I used the Ryobi set for doing earthquake retrofit which is very heavy duty work and it survived.

If you are into buy cordless tool, stay away from Dewalt. Two sets of batteries burnt on me. It cost an arm and a leg to buy. Now I have whole set of Dewalt tools with no battery.

Back to Troy Bilt, they are not the worst, not the best. More expensive than the dispossable Weedeater and Homelite and Ryobi stuff, not as expensive as the commercial stuff. In the middle of nowhere. I have the 4 cycle trimmer. Not comfortable to use because it is too short. The engine is good. I won't buy any more of their stuff.
davefr
18 years ago
The old Troy Bilts were manufactured by Garden Way Mfg in Troy, NY and sold direct to the consumer. The quality of these tillers was legendary.

I'm not sure what exactly happened but I assume Garden Way couldn't compete due to their high manufacturing costs and I'm sure the consumer direct model wasn't embraced by the consumer who wanted "cash and carry" retail. (ex: Sears, Home Crapo, etc)

Garden Way threw in the towel and declared bankruptcy. MTD bought the remaining assets (primarily just for the brand name Troy Bilt). Garden Way originally offered a lifetime warranty on the tillers frame but that went "poof" after the MTD buyout.

The current crop of MTD Troy Bilts are "toy" compared to the GW versions. It's a disgrace to even see the name Troy Bilt. I assume MTD contracts out to the lowest bidder in China.