Hello. New to the forum and snowblowers in general. I have a TRS24 I just picked up, and it's in pretty good shape and runs quite well. From what I see here and on donyboy's site, I'm fairly sure it's a Murray. Just out of curiosity, I'd like to know how old it is. Here's what the data plate says:

Serial number: *M0TR24A130744
Second line: TRS24 WBSB
Third line: Deere and Company Moline, Illinois Made in Canada

Can anyone come up with a build date from this info? THANKS!

Probably sometime between 1989 and 1999. Only way for you to find out for certainty is to contact JD. That's what I've done for my machines in the past. Go here: They will get back to you within a few days.

https://www.deere.com/en_US/docs/htm..._deerecom.html

And yes, built by Murray most likely.

Last of all, can you get a few photos of your TRS24? I've not seen any of the TRS, just the plane jane 524 that preceded it. I work on one of em.

Thanks! I'll take your advice. I'll post some pics tomorrow if it's not raining.

if the engine is the original, you should be able to narrow down the machines age from the engine tag.

I believe it is the original engine - Tecumseh HSSK50. How can I tell the age - from the serial number?

Yup, if you look around the area where the top of the recoil starter housing attaches to the engine there may be some stamped in numbers like HS50 or HSSK50 and then some numbers and letters, may be on a sticker applied on the starboard side of the housing. It's a Murray with very small design differences spec'd by JD. For future parts searches cross reference a similar Craftsman 536. model, or Murray and add "MA" to the part number, or Briggs numbers as they bought out Murray. The parts will be way cheaper than getting the "AM" John Deere parts, and usually quicker to get. Some 2000ish Tecumseh powered blowers on Craftsman and Murray have a date on the decal near the choke/key/ and throttle. It would be interesting to hear what John Deere responds if you send them an email regarding it My experience with my own and about 6 others went from immediate date confirmation to "that is an invalid model number." When I sent them a picture of the "M" number label and JD nomenclature they responded they don't keep detailed information on homeowner products. Best advice I can give is like others have noted on here. Find the JD part numberJohn Deere - Parts Catalog and then google that number for other part number hits. I know on mine the bushings and friction wheel crossed to Simplicity and Toro at a fraction of the cost of JD.

Thanks for all the good info. Guess I was right that it is a Murray. I still need to work on finding a Sears 536.XXX clone to use as a starting point for any parts searches I may have in the future. I'm sure I'll eventually hit on one. I have found the JD online parts catalog to use as another starting point, even though I probably will buy the parts elsewhere. I did do the e-mail to John Deere and will hopefully get a response from them. The tag on the Tecumseh engine reads as follows: HSSK50 67336M (D) 3216B. Anyone have the decoder key for this?

The middle numbers are the serial number to look up parts for the HSSK50.
Tecumseh HSSK50-67336M - Tecumseh 4-Cycle Horizontal Engine Diagrams and Parts List | PartsTree.com
The last set is the date code. It's a goofy date code though. The "3" is the year, as in a decade that ended in "3".....'93. '03. The 261 is the numbered day of that year, so September 18. The letter at the end is shift or production line.