Wow, I'm shocked to even hear a positive comment on here about the troy-bilt 33"! I have one, my 2nd one in 6 years. I really like the machine. Yeah it's had it's ups an downs. My old one used to have a problem losing the drive belt if you were moving it without the drive engagued, like off the trailer, and hit a bump. off came the damn belt... I just always made sure to keep some sort of pressure on the lever as I'm unloading, never had the problem again after that. Yeah I also lost a pully, well the whole spindle once actually! The bolt on the top of the pully some how came loose and unscrewed itself. Not visible from the topside because as it loosened the spindle and blade were dropping! I was mowing fairly high but noticed that it was really cutting unlevel! LOL. Easy fix, tightned bolt... If you his something hard you can slip the timing blet the connects the blades, you do that and the blades will contact each other. it only takes being about two cogs off and they hit. Oh, shift linkage was coming loose on mine too last summer, simple, loose bolt again.
As for bagging I have made (modified) a set of blades that are high lift for a 36" Bunton walk behind. I don't know how I came up with them in particular but they had a nice sail that wasn't too tall for the deck and a 5/8" center hole that I could take my die grider and make the hole the same shape as the factory blades. these blades mulch, discharge, and bag 400% better then the factory blades!
One feature I love on the machine is the deck height adjustment. infinatley adjustable with a simple crank handle. I will say this tho, My deck cover hasn't been on mine in a long time. Reason, the crank handle is a large screw rod and needs some lube periodiocly! If you don't shoot some wd-40 on it it will eventually start to seize up and strip the threads. Been there, done that.
Humm, well my old one I had broken the handle on a few times, re-welded and added braces finally and worked fine. The new one has extra bracing on it, so not a problem. There is a funny problem with the bolts at the top of the handle that connect then together with the control panel, they are small, but shouldn't really have pressure on them. Well somehow it twists when mowing and I have exploded the head right off of one bolt or another many times. I even drill out the holes for 5/16 bolts, grade 5 or 8 it it still happens eventualy! Another simple fix, but irritating...
All in all I don't use it that much anymore. about ten or 12 times a week and only for fenced back yards. Overall a good machine, but needs some mods to make it work efficient. I goose up my govenor a bit too, run 3,800 to 4,000 rpm. speeds the blade speed up as well as ground speed. makes 4th gear, the only gear I ever have it in pretty quick! Yeah, many will say you can't run an engine over 3,600 rpm, but I have for years and haven't blown up one yet. same goes for my 23hp kohlers, both are running at 4 grand and run perfect with 1,000 hrs on one and 2,000 on the other. older machine I sold to my parents was the same and is running at about 2,200 hrs no problems.