PSA - Terrific Forum for Getting Advice & Guidance on Repairing Your Garden/Outdoor Small Engine Equipment E.g Mowers, Trimmers

Hi,

I thought I'd take a second to post up a sensational and little known Australian forum i stumbled across a few years ago when I was trying to repair my lawn mower.
https://www.outdoorking.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/forum_summa…

It's free to be a member, but you need to upgrade your membership to a full member to post, make replies etc - very low price of $USD6 for 5yrs. My understanding is this just covers their server costs etc - no-one's living the high life on that!

I live rural and have a load of mowers, chainsaws, trimmers, etc - and finding info on the maintenance etc on all of these was a nightmare. You could track it down eventually sometimes but it meant going through OzB or Whirlpool where sometimes the advice was questionable etc. Likewise getting shop manuals on the equipment was tricky.

I've found this forum (Outdoorking) seems to have guys who know about absolutely everything I've thrown at them so far - and they've easily saved me hundreds of dollars in repair costs if I've had to go and have done at shops. So as much as anyone I hate to have to pay for being able to post on a forum but I'd happily pay significantly more given how good their advice has been and how rapidly they reply.

Anyway I know we're all trying to save money these days - and if you can glean info, advice and feedback from that forum for free (by browsing existing subjects) or have to pay barely more than a dollar a year for the ability to post up your issues , it's well worth it IMHO.

It's members are almost exclusively Australians, they've an online shop associated with the site, which stocks just about every part you could need and they're a very nice bunch of people to boot, who go above and beyond for little more than a THANK YOU to assist others having issues with their garden gear - other than being a member there I've no affiliation at all but it's a terrific way to save a buck on an area than many of us often have issues in.

One of the best specialist forums I've found in the last decade - have saved me countless hours and dollars.

Cheers, Nick

Comments

  • An Australian forum that costs in USD?

    • I can only assume their server costs are in USD - they're not running the forum to generate some epic profit.

  • Just need a similar site for PD i30 fob replacement.

    • Funny you say that as I had to do EXACTLY that several years back. 2017 PD Elite came with only one key when we bought 2nd hand - and realised that if we lost the one we had we'd be up for thousands to have the ECU reprogrammed.

      Very tricky problem to solve on the cheap - as the dealers are charging near a thousand for factory key and programing and 3rd parties couldn't do wherever I checked.

      • As in a Hyundai i30 Premium Diesel 2017?

        • As in PD Elite diesel 2017, yes.

          Got it sorted in the end though but was a tricky one.

          • @Daniel Plainview: I have the same vehicle. I had an accident on the M1 last year, where some debri flew up and hit the grill, and part of the Badge. I briefly looked at the wreckers and some i30 grilles were $200-300. Guess how much the final cost was?

            • @BewareOfThe Dog: On a side note, I bought some keyfob covers on ebay, as one is looking a bit worse for wear. I'd suggest getting one or 2, as changing the battery can be a b&^%$.

              • +1

                @BewareOfThe Dog: Nice find - not sure ours get much wear as they never come out. All that said I despise these proximity style keys, glad I managed to find a way to get one that worked on the cheap as the quote from the dealer was near $1,000 and in the end I got a factory OEM key from a 3rd party and had the dealer do the programming (as they were the cheapest quote on this service alone by a long way).

                I think in total it ended up costing around $250, maybe a fair bit less but took me ages to find a legit supplier amongst all the bodgy ones.

            • @BewareOfThe Dog: Hmmmm not sure I'm guessing an amount that made you wince when you saw the final bill?

      • +1

        @Nikko

        Did you know there are Men's Sheds, and similar clubs where they have regular groups/afternoons where this is all they do?

        Even if you don't have one near you - you could probably ask their advice online/skype etc?

        Also, might want to consider also trying bigger international forums with more eyes and possibly expertise (by volume)?

        good luck.

  • That online store you mentioned they have is insanely slow, I just timed it and it took 12 seconds for a page to load.

    • +1

      Likely….I've never used it, seems to specialise in very obscure parts - but I'm not recommending either way on the shop - as I have no experience with it, the forum is my SOLE recommendation & purpose for this thread/PSA as it's superb.

    • egads….12 seconds! /s

    • +1

      It's not fast but I've used them a few times, real fast delivery & they always seem to have whatever parts I need.
      And yep, the forum is great

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