Riding lawn mowers

[Whitpirate]

lotta green and yellow kool-aid drinkers out there, never understood it myself

Friend of mine has a 14 year old Kubota tractor.  Went to buy some parts.... can't get 'em, don't make 'em anymore, we can sell you a new tractor sir....


I own 3 John Deere.  Bought parts for my 1961 yesterday and ordered another.  Case closed for me.

If it ain't green, it ain't mean.

[MIKEXRAY]

I would worry about horse power.  My friend had an 18 Hp  rider and the engine was always bogging down in longer grass. I made the decision based on using his to get a bigger engine.  I got the 22  or 25 hp ( can't remember )  and am really glad I did, no sputtering through long grass &  It powers through everything. Mine is a 42 inch and plenty big . Good luck,   Mike

[Happy Gilmore]

My Dad bought a Craftsman(I think 20hp) about 4 years before he passed away. That was 6 years ago. Mom's still mowing with it once a week. Their lawn is about 1/2acre+ and another 1.5 of pasture. I mow around the sprinkler heads with it then take out the old 1962 JD with brush hog. I mow whenever I go visit. It still starts up and mows as good as the day he bought it. I think it was in your budget range for price. Not sure what they are now.

It's never had a problem, has hydrostatic drive which is really nice and mows right through high grass in the pasture with no problem. Mom can operate it easily.

When I worked as a ranch hand for a while, we had a top of the line JD with four wheel steering, big deck etc. It was a royal POS. Constantly had issues. Had electrical bugs, a hydrostatic problem, broke a part on the deck and couldn't get a replacement forever. Spent more time at Huperts than mowing grass one summer.

[Special T]

I have had a couple of craftsman mowers. I had a couple of rock choppers. one i used, the other i used as parts. I now have a much newer one that is 24hp 48in deck.  They are not the most burly mowers however aftermarket parts are availabe on the internet for half the price of buying through sears. If you service them each year or 2, change the oil, filter, sharpen the blade, the only real thing you willl wear out is the mowerdeck... I don't think anyone makes one of those cheap. 

[Happy Gilmore]

I have a 12hp Craftsman I bought from a friend for $150. Still runs great but I broke a piece on the deck and haven't fixed it yet. Pulley froze up. I cleared the pasture in front of my house with it. Ran through rocks until the blades were flattened and mowed down all the salmon berry bushes with it...tough little machine. I beat the tar out of it until the pulley froze up. I think the mower was about 13 years old+ when I bought it. Smokes a little but, still runs like a top. Smokes a little more when I ran all my old boat gas through it......about 8 gallons...it didn't seem to mind at all.

[Boss .300 winmag]

The biggest thing IMO is preventative maintenance, at least once a year pull the deck, clean it, hit all the grease points, change oil and all filters, sharpen blades or replace them when worn out, and keep it clean out of the rain. See lots of riding mowers outside in the rain, just can't imagine how many problems these people have with their mowers. Go team green LA-125 series JD.

[BigGoonTuna]

a funny thing about mower decks...most of them have grease zerks on the blade spindles, well, those are largely put there for the benefit of the old timers that like to grease everything.  anyhow, both the bearings in those spindles are usually sealed!  the shaft has a hole in the center, so all you're doing by greasing is filling up the cavity with grease.

it's not always the case, for example commercial zero turns generally have tapered bearings that require greasing, but your run of the mill craftsman doesn't really require it.  in fact, the one place that should have a zerk, the pivot point where the belt tensioner is located(and frequent cause of thrown belts), rarely has one.  usually takes a bunch of PB blaster and a mallet to get back in working order...

[splitshot]

  hey,  what is wrong with the old push mowers.  no noise, no gas, no oil, no start, and they are cheaper.  you can not let the grass grow very long cause then you need to invest in a goat.  mike w