dyt4000 with hydrostatic trans kohler engine will not cut in reverse.

[MowManMow]

I bought a brand new Craftsman 2006 4500 & AYP was about the only mowers left to allow reverse mowing without first doing the Hokey Pokey dance.

I figured AYP would change theirs to a button too & may even change their replacement ignition switches to include a reverse "button" so I bought an extra ignition switch to have on hand for future ignition repair. They never changed them, I think its still the only brand allowing for easy reverse mowing, idk if thats true? Sure seems like it?

Although a rider gets used to the button like I did my FIL 110 JD, until then its an added distraction looking for reverse buttons. I understand the reasoning and always keep safety switches on.

Like mentioned here they really can't fix stupid no matter what they add to the equation (or manuals), this is true!
People who mow near other People/Pets & remove safety switches are quite ignorant about the dangers a mower will cause.

I've lifted mowers off of its riders.
I've searched yards for parts of riders fingers (he lost 2 1/2) reaching for a stick while sitting on it.
As a young boy I watched an older man push mowing slip & lose his own foot who later lost his leg due to infection.
Shorty mowed home & business yards his entire life before it occured.

So yes I learned pretty young to "never" mow near anyone/thing that moves on its own & to pay close attention to what your doing operating any machine.
I can wait for safety, I actually returned on a different day to mow if thats what it takes.
My suggestion is just read this.
You can read it again to the person who expects you to mow while they fart around in their yard:

Health & Parenting

Here you'll find parenting tips and informative information including expert parenting advice for each age and stage in your child's development.

www.webmd.com

 

[Gord Baker]

Mowers with a Button can be fixed by removing the switch and connecting wires. Same BS that requires the stupid foot pedals for forward and reverse instead of a handy lever that also acts as cruise control.
Thank the STUPID people of the world for all this BS.

 

[MowManMow]

Enigma-2
That old mower hedge story has popped up many times over & over through the yrs. Sometimes with changes to it here & there but so far nobody knows if its really true or not?

Seems to be older than the net so some actual leg work will be in order to prove if its true/false by getting court records from it all. If somebody knew the county it all occurred in maybe one could learn the truth then.
They say most stories have a grain of truth somewhere in them but is that saying even true? Who knows..lol

Fwiw Snopes don't know the answer yet?

Lawn Mower as Hedge Trimmer

Plaintiff who cuts off fingers using a lawn mower as a hedge trimmer sues manufacturer.

www.snopes.com

.

 

[cuckoochris]

It's a wonder we're even allowed to have snow blowers at this point.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Yup. I took a required class on liability years ago. One example was for the warning on "no toes under deck". This was due to several people loosing one or more toes that had gotten under a mower deck.

Backstory: a retired guy in Florida wanted to go golfing, but had to trim his hedge first. His three pals stopped to pick him up and he told them he had to trim the hedge first. So these four geniuses put their brains together and figured out if they lifted the electric lawn mower over the hedge, they could just walk along and trim they hedge in a couple of minutes. So the three lifted up the mower and the homeowner flipped it on. Fingers went everywhere. So they sued the manufacturer. And won! Seems the manufacturer put a warning in the mower to keep toes from under the deck. But never told us not to put your "fingers" under the deck.

Court ruled that the manufacturer was at fault because he "should have foreseen all possible conditions that are consumer could use the product". That ruling is the reason you get a owners manual that has the first five pages of dangers, warnings and cautions. It's known as "failure to forsee".

Stupid is assumed.

The problem has 3 roots

Firstly there are too many lawyers so they end up being ambulance chasers and because they are always suing a big wealthy defendant courts have no problems making a ruling in their favour where as a jury of 12 normal people would have told the plaintiff it was their own fault for being so stupid .

Next there is the uniquely USA overt religiousity where it is taken that every one is the image of their deity so to put it in Frank Zappa's words "He made us to be just like him so if we are all dumb then God is dumb and maby even a little ugly on the side ".

Finally there is still collective guilt amongst the bureaucracy about the wholesale adoption of the principles of eugenics where hundreds of thousands of supposedly sub standard Americans were instutionalized or sterilized to prevent them breeding dumb children and when that was debunked the tendency was to swing laws too far in favour of dumb people .
Fortunately down here we have a liability clause called contributory neglegance which generally knocks the stuffing out of idiot compensation claims

 

[DELTASCIENCES]

I have an older (probably 2000 or so) Craftsman DYT4000 mower with a kohler single piston engine and hydrostatic trans. The issue is it stalls if the pto is engaged and you pull it in to reverse.
One shop told me that it is by design and another shop told me that it is a problem with the transmission.

So my first question is: Is this by design?

and my second question is: How can I make it cut in reverse? I absolutely love this mower, I've had it for 5 years and use it daily If for nothing else then as transportation to and from the house and barn, cut the front andb ack yard once a week and plow my driveway. I've used to to move severl crs and trucks I was rebuilding as well as move my 10' enclosed trailer around the yard. My LT1000 can not move those things.

I just wish it would cut in reverse like the LT1000 does..

THATS A SAFETY AND YOUR 1000 HAD IT SOMEONE BYPASSED IT. THE safety features were put in place 40 plus years ago when 2 mental giant picked up a running push mower to use it to cut the top of the hedge and lost there fingers. i wont work on mowers that are disabled for obvious reasons. the fact they are not obvious to you leads me to believe you need all the saftey switches.

 

[MowManMow]

THATS A SAFETY AND YOUR 1000 HAD IT SOMEONE BYPASSED IT. THE safety features were put in place 40 plus years ago when 2 mental giant picked up a running push mower to use it to cut the top of the hedge and lost there fingers. i wont work on mowers that are disabled for obvious reasons. the fact they are not obvious to you leads me to believe you need all the saftey switches.

It wasn't bypassed because if it dies when trying to mow in reverse its working just as it should do.
He finally figured out the AYP units aka: Husqvarna/Craftsman/Poulan Pro mowers don't have buttons or levers to reverse mow like all other mowers have you do. Instead AYP mowers have "two" run positions on their ignition switch.
All you do is turn the key backwards one notch to the spot that has a tiny mower pic with an arrow under it. Its just like setting your ignition to ACC on your car ignition. You just leave it right there, then you can mow backwards/forwards all day long just like any old style mower does. You never touch a thing, just mow. Only AYP mowers are like this as far as I know, both my 2006 Craftsman mowers have it, it is factory I bought them brand new.

 

[enigma-2]

Enigma-2
That old mower hedge story has popped up many times over & over through the yrs. Sometimes with changes to it here & there but so far nobody knows if its really true or not?

Seems to be older than the net so some actual leg work will be in order to prove if its true/false by getting court records from it all. If somebody knew the county it all occurred in maybe one could learn the truth then.
They say most stories have a grain of truth somewhere in them but is that saying even true? Who knows..lol

Fwiw Snopes don't know the answer yet?

Lawn Mower as Hedge Trimmer

Plaintiff who cuts off fingers using a lawn mower as a hedge trimmer sues manufacturer.

www.snopes.com

Thanks for sharing this. Although it's been 40 years ago (or so) it had a big influence on me. This was at a National Marine Manufactures Association seminar. (NMNA used to represent recreational boat manufactures in the United States, which became the BIA years later. Back in the 70's my company had a contract to conduct inspections for the Association at each of the boat manufactures. I needed to be certified and attending seminar training was considered mandatory.) The seminar was back in the early 70's, believe it happened around 1973 or 1974.

As I remember it, the gentleman who delivered the lecture was involved in manufacturing liability (don't remember if he was a lawyer or not, but I believe he worked for a law firm, relayed this occurred back in the 60's and if I remember correctly, in Florida. He gave the city and year, but I've long since forgotten what he said exactly). He presented it if it had actually occurred and he had personal knowledge of the event. I tend to remember one slide showed a newspaper clipping of the event.

What I took out of it was the sentence "failure to forsee" which I've used to good advantage in helping clients over the years. Helping them to see what liabilities they were opening themselves to was a rewarding part of my job.