Hello everyone

[sweagles]

Hi. I just bought a used Craftsman 50" 22.5 hp. Model Number 917.250551. It starts well and drives ok ( steering is a little loose). It has brand new tires. It came with a 44 inch snow blower which was attached and demonstrated when I bought it.Got it home and removed the blower and attached the cutting deck. All three belts ( tractor drive, mower primary and mower secondary) were pretty old and cracked up but I had to try it out. After about 10 mins of cutting very long grass, the primary mower belt and the tractor drive belt broke. Now I'm waiting on new ones. I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with this model good bad or otherwise. Seemed like it worked ok during its short debut on my lawn. Have to admit I was pushing it kinda hard through the long grass so I take the blame for the broken belts. Any info is appreciated. Thanks.

Stan

 

[BlazNT]

Old age is what broke your belts. Heavy use will normally only give you slipping belts.

 

[sweagles]

Thanks for the reply. I have all three belts on order and will replace them as soon as they come in. I will also order a drive belt for the snow blower as well. I'm pretty sure the mowers deck was not used for a few years and just sat. The fella I bought it from had a fairly new lawn tractor that was set up for cutting and i suspect he just used this one for blowing snow. I hope the new ones last well cause at around 60$ a belt, I feel they are somewhat expensive.

 

[BlazNT]

I got around 200 hours out of mine and I think it really did not need replacing just did it because I did not want to have it break while mowing. I have the belt as a spare.