Riding lawn mowers

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Had a Craftsman (a 1995 model I believe) that required major repair about 2X per year. A friend dropped off an older (1998?) John Deere 650 Hydro needing major repairs. I decided to junk the Craftsman & fix the JD. It too requires a major repair occasionally, but by far is better than the Sears. I have about 10 acres to mow.

I did a performance/fuel economy tune on it posted here: Small Engine Secrets (Part 1) | Ecoceptor
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Some keep mentioning the Husqvarna mowers and showing repairs made to them. That's all well and good if that's what you want to do, repair **** all the time. My father owns a Husqvarna rider and I've had to use it to mow his place for him for a couple years now. That is, when I can keep it running. This mower of his is a total POS and I refuse to repair it again, so its sitting in the barn while my Toro gets transported from my place to his every time I need to mow his place. Yes, that's time consuming and a bit of work but it is FAR less stressful than constantly repairing the POS Husqvarna mower of his. My Toro works and works well without the constant breakdowns like his Husqvarna.

As I said previously, most of the common riders are made by MTD. Most of them are only slightly better than JUNK when NEW. Husqvarna fits in this catagory quite well. I would even rate Dad's Husqvarna as a bigger POS than the MTD rider I owned prior to my Toro zero turn. So yes, I went the cheap *** route with MTD too until I got fed up with the constant repairs needed just to mow some grass. At least I finally wised up to the cheap sh*t and got out of that type of mower.

If you want to constantly repair your mower, buy an MTD brand such as the Husqvarna and others.

If you want to mow your lawn and then get on with other things in life, buy a BETTER mower. $1500 to $2000 does NOT get you a top line mower. Spend a few bucks more ONCE and your life will be easier for years to come.

The Toro was about $4000, probably more now. But as they say, you get what you pay for.

Just my .02 worth
 
Bigdummy said:
Ive had Sears,Husky, and Husqvarna.....I always keep em greased and clean seamed like they wear out faster!
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If you want longevity, a good commercial zero turn is the way to go, especially if you mow a bunch of yard.. I bought mine in 2006 and it still runs and mows great.

Only drawback is they are pricey. I paid 6000 for my Toro in 2006.
 
69DodgeMan said:
If you want to constantly repair your mower, buy an MTD brand such as the Husqvarna and others.
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like the other brands husqvarna has the MTD style and real style ya get at their dealers. my Husqvarna is awesome. heavy duty ***** with the Kawasaki motor on it and 60" cut.
 
I have a 5’ Kees mower/Husquvarna and a Lazer Z-4’ both are zero turn, spindles are greasable belts, tires and once in a while a non greasable idler pulley will go bad but they are great mowers. I don’t mow with them all the time I have a neighbor that uses them when I can’t do it. I will never go back to the old tractor type
 
abodyjoe said:
like the other brands husqvarna has the MTD style and real style ya get at their dealers. my Husqvarna is awesome. heavy duty ***** with the Kawasaki motor on it and 60" cut.
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I guess I've never seen the "real style" Husqvarna's then. Dad's is a 48" cut tractor style with a 23 hp Briggs & Stratton engine, so its the MTD type rider tractor.

Actually, now that I think about it, my Toro dealer also sells Husqvarna. So that is probably the "better" Husky's you are talking about. Yes, I agree, the Kawasaki engine's are very reliable and strong. I was a bit leery of that engine when I first bought it as I had no prior experience with them. But this 23 hp Kawasaki has made a believer out of me.

So once again what you're saying is, to get the good stuff you have to go to a "dealer" and spend more than you would buying the cheaper stuff (MTD) at say Lowe's, Home Depot, etc. I agree!
 
Dad has early 70's Gravley, rider great machine, last year we replaced the Koler engine with a 22 HP v-twin Honda, its a beast of a mower.
I bought him a new John Deere for is birthday and he said, I guess you are not working on my Gravely no more.
That Gravely is tough, he wore out the original engine, bought a new replacement Koler, wore it out, then I put the Honda engine on it.
I bet it the old rider had an hr meter on it, it would be over 20,000 hrs.
 
My John Deere Hydro 650 has a Kawasaki flat-head engine. It would backfire when I shut it down. It turned out to be a dropped valve seat. I pushed it back into the head, staked it, and it has worked great ever since. Looked for pics I know I have, but came up empty.
 
I have had a couple of commercial grade mowers. In fact we have an old Husker z turn right now. Better engines, and heavier everything. I bought it used.
 
Wheel Horse for me after I gave up my walk behind Gravely's 'cause of back surgery. 1991 520-H with 60" deck, 1995 520-H with snow blower, 1992 416-H with 48" deck, 1985 414 8 speed with 7500 watt generator and my original 1973 10 Horse 8 speed with 42" deck and John Deere leaf vacuum. These tractor are tough if you maintain them. Would never buy a dept. store tractor!
 
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340demon72 said:
Wheel Horse for me after I gave up my walk behind Gravely's 'cause of back surgery. 1991 520-H with 60" deck, 1995 520-H with snow blower, 1992 416-H with 48" deck, 1985 414-12 8 speed with 7500 watt generator and my original 1973 10 Horse 8 speed with 42" deck and John Deere leaf vacuum. These tractor are tough if you maintain them. Would never buy a dept. store tractor!
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Yes, Wheel Horse was always a good brand. Of course, they are now Toro.

Toro bought them out back in the '90's IIRC (it was actually 1986). A neighbor was an engineer for Wheel Horse in South Bend at the time and took his retirement when the merger happened.
 
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I've actually never washed under the deck of mine in almost 20 years.

Told ya it's been borderline abused.
 
jos51700 said:
Pull the deck and have it bed lined. It's money well spent.
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its funny you say that. Ive done raptor bedliner to mine and 2 of my dads. Best decision ever made. Plus you can do it yourself
 
I wouldn't think you'd want the rough texture of bedliner.
I wire wheel mine as bare as possible, then 2 coats of por 15/ and then whatever I have sitting here, the last 4 decks have gotten 2 coats ea of forest green Industrial Rust-Oleum on top of that, just because the can was getting old, I had about a 1/2 gallon left in the can from when I built my utility trailer, and it was gonna go bad if I didn't use it up somewhere.
That can of Rust-Oleum was 11 years old
Don't care what brand of mower as you don't see the bottom of the deck very often anyway.
Has left a slick shiney coating when dry, which makes for cleaning and scraping much easier,
This is why most decks rot out, most these days don't ever clean the bottom off, besides mowing wet grass. Not to mention the thin ness of the sheet metal most stamped decks are made of, these days.
I see more newer ones coming with fabricated decks/ most of them sturdier than any stamped deck in years and years
 
I don't need a zero turn or anything large, so I picked up a used Cub Cadet rear motor mower for $900. Runds great and fits through a standard 32" gate. I use the hose attachment to rinse under the deck every other mow. My only complaint has been some uneven mowing patterns, but I think it just needs a sharper blade.
 
Un-even mowing on one swipe, it a blade issue, bent or spindle bearing.
 
If you do the bedliner like i did you can actually reduce it and spray it basically smooth or leave texture. I did the first one 10 years ago and it still looks perfect
 
So are you guys saying that If I buy a John Deere mower at a John Deere dealer, it will be better than the John Deere I buy at Home Depot? Because I bought a JD at Home Depot about 7 years ago, and after only 5 years the motor detonated.
 
i think i told the story before, but one day me and the wife were walking downtown and we past by a tractor supply company
i needed a riding mower and as i was passing by, i was looking at the prices
they were all in the 1000-1300 dollar range, but one was marked $500
so i went inside and asked what the deal was

turns out they had sold this one (a Huskee LT 4200) earlier in the season (i think this was around october) and the brakes had gone out of it
so they fixed it under warranty

then a month or so later, the brakes went out again
they fixed it again, but the owner didnt want it anymore so they took it back

now it was for sale for half price, but no warranty

i told em if they tossed in a 1 7/8 ball and enough gas to make it home i would take it
that was about 13 years ago

in those 13 years i have replaced 2 batteries, the blades a few times and one steering ball joint




volaredon said:
That can of Rust-Oleum was 11 years old
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i love that stuff, thats my favorite paint
 
Mt Craftsman was a customer return.

Was $800 when "new" ones were $1250. It did come with the standard Sears warranty.

No idea why it may have been returned. It's been the best mower of any I have ever owned in any style.
 
My buddy owns a lawn tractor and zero turn place. He sells cub cadet gravely and a few others. He told me and showed me the difference between a cub cadet from the box store and his inventory. No way would i buy from them after that. And tbh its not that much more expensive to get it at the dealer than the ones at lowes etc
 
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