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Cub Cadet XT2 / John Deere X350
#2
gotomow
gotomow
#5
gotomow
gotomow
#14
Z
zadok
Z
zadok
Cool, yeah got it! Correct on the techs... I have several friends who do small equip work for a living... But of course everybody has their opinion (and so do I!)
Dunno what's out there for vert shaft stuff. I did have a B&S Vanguard twin that, according to the manual, had roller bearings on the PTO end. Back in the day you would see sleeve bearings get out of round a little but as long as the oil seal remained intact, never worried too much about it, same with cf end-play. I mean these were engines that had hours on them so no worries...
I've always enjoyed this stuff.. I've been looking around a little and IMO it seems you've got to spend around $4k or so to get into something a little closer to "commerical grade," I mean with nice 10ga or better, or fabricated decks, etc. Dunno again about engines these days as B&S ditched their Vanguard series for who knows how long the current cast-sleeve ones will last. I've seen the Vanguards go thousands of hours, running full synth oil and "real" gas, if you know what I mean
Dunno what's out there for vert shaft stuff. I did have a B&S Vanguard twin that, according to the manual, had roller bearings on the PTO end. Back in the day you would see sleeve bearings get out of round a little but as long as the oil seal remained intact, never worried too much about it, same with cf end-play. I mean these were engines that had hours on them so no worries...
I've always enjoyed this stuff.. I've been looking around a little and IMO it seems you've got to spend around $4k or so to get into something a little closer to "commerical grade," I mean with nice 10ga or better, or fabricated decks, etc. Dunno again about engines these days as B&S ditched their Vanguard series for who knows how long the current cast-sleeve ones will last. I've seen the Vanguards go thousands of hours, running full synth oil and "real" gas, if you know what I mean
#15
C
cruzenmike
Briggs did not ditch the Vanguard engines. They are moving production from Japan to the United States this year. The Japanese made Vanguards I read were manufactured by Daihatsu which may be owned by Toyota. It would be no surprise as to why they may be so reliable. 12 years and 550 hours on mine and it is purring like a kitten!
The issue with these engines is that there simply isn't anyone testing each engine on a bench under the most rigorous of conditions and doing so without a bit of bias. if someone were to grab let's say a handful of each make of engine, Kawasaki Briggs Kohler and throw them onto a bench and then test each one for up to a thousand hours under full load and then letting the load go and then with or without oil changes being done and then getting them up to full temperature or sometimes low temperature/high temperature intermittently and then being able to see which one either has the most internal wear or which one fails first might give us some idea as to which of these engines is actually the most durable or most reliable. But at the end of the day all that we can go by is the experiences of those who share them and since each person uses and cares for their equipment in different ways not one person's experience is going to be the same as another. My Grandfather had three Toyota cars that all got over 240,000 miles without any type of major engine malfunctions. In fact he actually had one car, a 1984 Toyota Supra that had over 330,000 miles on it and all it ever need replacing was a water pump and the normal wearable items. So, was it Toyota that made good engines or was it my Grandfather that just took really good care of them?
C
cruzenmike
Cool, yeah got it! Correct on the techs... I have several friends who do small equip work for a living... But of course everybody has their opinion (and so do I!)
Dunno what's out there for vert shaft stuff. I did have a B&S Vanguard twin that, according to the manual, had roller bearings on the PTO end. Back in the day you would see sleeve bearings get out of round a little but as long as the oil seal remained intact, never worried too much about it, same with cf end-play. I mean these were engines that had hours on them so no worries...
I've always enjoyed this stuff.. I've been looking around a little and IMO it seems you've got to spend around $4k or so to get into something a little closer to "commerical grade," I mean with nice 10ga or better, or fabricated decks, etc. Dunno again about engines these days as B&S ditched their Vanguard series for who knows how long the current cast-sleeve ones will last. I've seen the Vanguards go thousands of hours, running full synth oil and "real" gas, if you know what I mean
Briggs did not ditch the Vanguard engines. They are moving production from Japan to the United States this year. The Japanese made Vanguards I read were manufactured by Daihatsu which may be owned by Toyota. It would be no surprise as to why they may be so reliable. 12 years and 550 hours on mine and it is purring like a kitten!
The issue with these engines is that there simply isn't anyone testing each engine on a bench under the most rigorous of conditions and doing so without a bit of bias. if someone were to grab let's say a handful of each make of engine, Kawasaki Briggs Kohler and throw them onto a bench and then test each one for up to a thousand hours under full load and then letting the load go and then with or without oil changes being done and then getting them up to full temperature or sometimes low temperature/high temperature intermittently and then being able to see which one either has the most internal wear or which one fails first might give us some idea as to which of these engines is actually the most durable or most reliable. But at the end of the day all that we can go by is the experiences of those who share them and since each person uses and cares for their equipment in different ways not one person's experience is going to be the same as another. My Grandfather had three Toyota cars that all got over 240,000 miles without any type of major engine malfunctions. In fact he actually had one car, a 1984 Toyota Supra that had over 330,000 miles on it and all it ever need replacing was a water pump and the normal wearable items. So, was it Toyota that made good engines or was it my Grandfather that just took really good care of them?