DIY Lawn Striper vs Toro Lawn Striper vs Checkmate Striping Kit 

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Clearly the Toro made the darkest better defined stripe.

Thanks brother, great review. I have two striping kits made by Checkmate. One is on a John Deere 54 inch cut, and the other in on a Ferris 48 inch cut. I mow about 8 acres a month and have used them both for years and never had any issues They do a great job!!!

Toro was the best

Man cant stop watchin your videos. Nice job. Thanks for posting !

Very helpful. I was going to wait until the Toro is back in stock because I have a Toro lawnmower but after watching this I’m going with the checkmate

I think I've seen some DIY with inset PVC End Caps - that would solve the difference in profile. You're right you can see it on your test run

Great comparison. I've had my Toro striper for about 5 yrs and its starting to give me problems.

Great video. It helped me make my decision. Thanks Grass Daddy.

Great video, Grass Daddy!

This was very helpful. Thank you very much!

Nice work! Very helpful comparison. Thanks for doing that so the rest of us lazy dudes don’t have to!

Good point about backing the Toro. Probably great for curvy stripes.

I have the Toro lawn striping kit. I did find the roller a little bit of a pain to put on the hook at first. I ended up bending the hook to open it up more. Helped a lot. I'm not really striping right now because the fine fescue in my lawn is stressing out and laying over quite a bit. Pretty annoying actually. Nice comparison video! 👍🏻

Just picked up the checkmate for my HRC good video like always! Saw this video awhile back when posted and decided to make the purchase and had to watch the video one more time.

The toro looks the best

Good, solid review for sure. I am looking to buy a striping kit for my honda hrn216 and it looks like I'll be ordering the CheckMate! Thanks for the good review.

Great vid buddy! Would love to see u add a comb to the checkmate.

Checkmate gets my money. Heavy-duty, hard rubber wheels, no plastic, no sand.

I bought a Toro 30" striper after watching one of your videos last week. I noted that you fought getting the sand in the little hole. So when it was time for me to fill mine, I put the sand in a flat box, and sat it in the sun for a few hours to dry it out. Once I did that it was VERY easy to use a funnel and fill the striper. I have 30 pounds of sand in mine, so it lays down a nice stripe. I have a Toro mower, and the 30" striper is a kit made just for the 30" Toro Mower.

Very helpful. Thank you!

i have been using the toro for three years, i love it. i have one of the best lawns of the street.

I bought the Checkmate when I saw it on your video a couple weeks ago. It installed on my HRX217 in maybe 30 minutes. My Floritam St Augustinegrass lawn won't dramatically stripe like other grass types, but I get much better stripes than just the using mower alone (mowed at 4" twice a week). Thanks for the reviews!

I've got a Honda HRX and got the checkmate striper last year for Father's day. I found the original install to be a pain, but have had no problems since, and it stripes great.

Good video. I use the checkmate and it looks great when im done. Been using 2 years and still in perfect shape.

I have the toro striper and I love it so far! I went double fat stripes this past weekend.

I have a Toro for my Troy Bilt... it fits but it was a pain at first. There's a metal piece where the hook goes through to attach it to the mower that kept bending out of shape every time I'd take it off. Eventually i just kept the nut to the hook finger tight and just remove it that way. Pete over at GCI Turf Academy is pushing these Checkmate rollers and i have no reason to doubt him!

I made one myself for my cub cadet using a 4 inch baler belt bolted to the holes in the back of the deck of the ZT1. $30 MAX does very well on our lawn, which Is mostly not grass

I had the Toro one on a 19" Troy-Bilt mower and it lasted years. It fit just fine and NEVER jackknifed. For a 19" Troy-Bilt the Toro fits great. I then bought a Honda HRX mower and the Toro does not fit well at all. The clamps are too small for the Honda handlebars. I was able to get the metal bracket wide enough and low enough to let the Honda shield open and close but it still makes the roller sit too high. If you couple this with using a higher deck height then the Toro jackknives like crazy. Never had that issue when attached to the Troy-Bilt. It is so bad I am going to ditch the Toro for the Checkpoint. Thanks for the review!

Big league lawns has a striper like the checkmate that bolts on the inside of the back wheels. No drilling. It’s the best in my opinion. Thanks for the video.

Excellent video!

I have the toro. The downside to the toro kit is when you’re going perpendicular to a slope the pivoting striping kit will start to slide down the slope going over your last pass. I found that going slower reduces that problem. It’s also not super easy to back up since it pivots. It is also harder on the mowers transmission. Doesn’t fit Honda perfectly. If you’ve got a flat yard it’ll be great.

Awesome vid, super helpful. You saved me time and money Thank you!

it's about time ,striping is about to have fun. i do 4 differenr patterns

very honest independent review. something that is getting harder to find on youtube. thanks for your time.

Great review.

mate , good vids but have some concern for your boy , i'm now 64 down in Oz , had a SCC cut out last week left a 4 " scar where the sun hits the neck V in a shirt, also numerous small skin cancers on face , be careful please of Melanoma . TC

Don’t forget the cutting height makes a difference as well.

Thanks for the detailed review

Purchahed the Chechmate back in '15 works really well, but the outer wheels are wearing down. How can i remove and install newer wheels? Nice video!

I use a 25 pound bag’a beans. $12.99 Cheap stripes, great beans. Great video! Nice job.

Will any of these fit a Craftsman mower? If so which would you recommend?

Good review! Checkmate all the way!

It may make it harder on you and the mower trans, but what if you used a heavy roller or flat stock that didn’t rotate? May be a b to navigate, but like you said it’s all about the weight. Maybe something that drags will eat up the lawn. Big cast iron drain pipe is pretty heavy.

I have the toro and I think that thing is as good as it gets, the reason is because it swivels

Mowing my lawn just like the lawn daddy but without any attachments I get a noticeable striping effect. Perhaps the grass helps to get the stripes.. The striping attachment does gives a better stripe in this video.

Maybe a little resistance on the tubes turning would bend the grass more backward and make the stripes more pronounced... possibly??

Great video but the last 2 looked better..but then again I can see only thru 1 eye

Great video.

Grass Daddy I use a checkmate on my John Deere with a 42" deck. The roller is 39" and 39 pounds. Killer stripes.

Checkmate is the way to go!

Do you have a video on how to make one thank you

Does it roll? How much does it weigh? How tall are you leaving your grass? That’s it. Check mat will do better as it gets bigger, because it will weigh slightly more.

Good day with the DYO STRIPPING KIT, I noticed that the Mower Catcher is removed, it occurs to me to ask u is it possible to fit a Kit with the Catcher on? Thx Cheers BRIAN (Western Australia).

What kind of grass is in your lawn? Do some grass types stripe better?

Would anybody please provide the link where to buy checkmate? That link you provided couldn’t find it there. Thank you

Thanks 🤠

The diy strip with that end cap sis what cause the edge to be lighter and no weight in the center

Try to narrow the outside of the caps on the DIY one, I feel like it would make the pipe lay down better on the grass

Will the toro kit work on my Ryobi electric mower?

I like that the Checkmate because it is over engineered and made with more sturdy materials.

I have a Toro can't tell you how long I had it because it's been a very long time, I get beautiful strips, as far as the wear on the roller I have, but the strips look the same as when I first got it, the only thing I had to replace if the hook that holds the roller, a bigger stronger one home depot, don't know why it took a hr. to put in the sand, did you use a funnel?

I've never seen lawn stripping kits honestly but they all look nice.

Toro brightest/darkest then checkmate. The diy would be better with internal ends the same diameter as the pvc pipe and heavy as possible. Hmmm I wonder if you were to use a steel pipe filled with sand and weld the end caps to the pipe and tips that roll in the frame? Having a heavy steel roller on the back is the idea I have on my mind. Would definitely be tougher against wear and tear and really burn in the stripes.

Great comparison vid! I don't want to mess with add-ons, how would it look to stripe with different cut heights, like one notch difference?

I have the toro roller he's right where my hook goes the Plastic Finally wore through, so I took the roller to a sheet metal shop and they Design the sheet metal the same way the plastic was designed with a hole in the middle,with rivets holding it together I had no more problems since .fyi I got 20 lbs.of sand in my roller which does a better job then the rest of them.

I mean the toro stripped because you were using it on a Honda with a wider width correct?, if you used it on a toro with correct width I Imagine the stripping would be a non issue

I just installed the checkmate on my super recycler. It seems to tear the grass when I turn around to do the next pass. The wheels roll free but the wheels end up dragging sideways on turns. Do you have that issue?

One thing about the Toro design is how it is free to pivot in more directions than the other two. I may DIY one like the Toro but with a mounting bar like your DIY version. Nice video, thanks

Great video man i like the toro better

Which one weight the most

Great video! Do I need a self propelled mower?

Had the Toro for a year and a half. Made great stripes. But the plastic connection point hole where the hook from frame attaches to the roller broke. Tried epoxy but kept breaking. Definitely wouldn't recommend it to anybody based off longevity. Ordered the checkmate and am excited to get back to lawn domination of the neighbors! Great video!

FYI. The Toro connection point plastic somehow broke even with the metal piece on it. Overall it's decent and was worth $75. Going to try the checkmate sometimes this summer.

I have the checkmate on my toro, and no holes have to be drilled, just order the one for ur mower.. same with my neighbor down the street on his commercial mower. The toro one we tried and it parts will bend and toro won’t send replacement parts they make u replace the whole unit. So checkmate all day

Probably just angle, but in camera looks like Toro had most contrast and was cleanest

My toro stripper is almost 10 plus years old and weighs over 30 pounds I filled it with lead shot

Now if you had any of them behind a Exmark you would see even a bigger difference blade tip speed of 18,500fpm. There is a lot that plays a part in lawn stripping, type of grass, length of cut, blade tip speed or roller set up, suns reflection. Point is if you have a crappy weedy lawn don't expect any good results from anything, except a steam roller ha ha.

Are there stripers that you don't require you to put on a lawn mower. My grass is near a walkway and close to the house so I couldn't make a turn, plus I have a slight hill as well.

How's your plastic deck holding up with the checkmate . Have one on another Honda but steel kinda of scared of putting it on my new one

Great video! New sub ✅

I live in eastern nc and have centipede grass. I really want to strip it. There is very little info in RU-vid on centipede. Will it stripe? By the way congrats on 5000, I just subscribed a couple of days ago.

I have an HRX217 and a Toro Lawn Striping kit. I found that the kit was making the mower do a subtle wheelie, which degraded the cut. Did you find that?

Liked your diy striping kit, good idea on the bracket parts,but how what parts did you use to get your diy one to roll? Now as for the other 2 I have a toro time master and the striping kit was around $200.00 and the Check mate was more than what want spend so I am thinking of building one,keep up the good videos !

Do you have a video on your DIY striper?

Oh yeah my mower is a self propelled Toro too.

Can you use the Toro striper when and with your bag...

Mow then roll the yard for stripes.

Ever heard of a funnel for filling the Toro?

Thanks much ordered Toro then canceled my order based on your great review. I made my own for $15 it works great

thank you.. great job.. think I'm going with check mate

El Toro laid down the nicest stripes 🐃

Great video! Was looking into lawn strippers and your videos nailed it! Much appreciated! Since then bought Lawn Stryper which is exactly same manufacturer as Toro but about $20 cheaper. Just wondering has ANYONE found an easy way to take this darn thing off an on. My mower is NOT self propelled so I use it for the front then go nuts trying to take it off for the rest of the yard lolo. Again many thanks for your videos !

Nice vid

How to get the best stripes... have a leveled lawn.

What do you think? Have you used either? Both?

To make it even,cut the tops off the caps and slide them all the way down it.

What are the prices?

Toro looks the best imo

I think the toro make a sharper edges than the rest