My commercial buddy runs 900series Deere's, he told me at 2500hrs you'll start spending money. I got a 06 Toro Z master with a 72in deck and 29hp Kohler with around 1800hrs, had to replace the cam gear last year, common problem with them. I bought this Toro because it's hydraulic drive, just a pump and motors, all off the shelf stuff besides the deck is 1/4in thick and the edge is 1/2in.
How many hours do machines really last?
- Thread starter Hexa Fox
- Start date
My guesstimation from what I have seen is that with GOOD maintenance Briggs can go 1000 hrs, Kohlers maybe 2500 and I have seen some Kawasaki powered equipment with nearly 4000 hrs.
I have seen a lot of mowers come in. Usually, they have never had an oil change. Most of them are borderline worn out by the time something serious goes wrong. Serious means something costing about 1/4 of a new mower price. They usually have 1000 to 5000 hrs. on them. So, there is no realistic way to say how many hrs. a mower should last.
Any mower has to have certain preventative maintenance done on them to keep them running as long as possible.
Some preventive maintenance is as follows.
1. Oil change at least at the beginning of mowing season. Depending on if it is used to cut just one yard or several yards.
2. Grease all steering, deck, and axle fittings.
3. Remove engine top cover and blow out start of each season.
4. Note any rust and use either sand blaster or antirust chemical to remove rust clean and paint.
5. Check, sharpen or replace blades every 8 to 10 uses for normal yards. But this depends on how rough the area your cutting is. Normal yards are level and have very few things that the blades hit but a rough yard there may be many roots and other things above the ground that the blade hits and this quickly dulls the blade.
5. Clean deck, engine, and transaxles every use.
6. Wash mower every month.
If this inspection is done in a timely fashion and taken care of then your mower will not die due to parts becoming weaker or breaking causing more damage and will last a long time.
I have an old mower that truthfully, I don't take care of as well as I should. But I furnish it my neighbor to cut his and my yard and he keeps it in his shed. So, I don't have much access to it. It is a 52-inch cut Husqvarna. I had traded for it, and it had about 500 hrs. Now it has about 950 hrs. I have had it about 3 years, and it was used when I got it. It has had only the starter and a deck belt gone bad. It is keep clean and serviced but not as good as it should be.
Any mower has to have certain preventative maintenance done on them to keep them running as long as possible.
Some preventive maintenance is as follows.
1. Oil change at least at the beginning of mowing season. Depending on if it is used to cut just one yard or several yards.
2. Grease all steering, deck, and axle fittings.
3. Remove engine top cover and blow out start of each season.
4. Note any rust and use either sand blaster or antirust chemical to remove rust clean and paint.
5. Check, sharpen or replace blades every 8 to 10 uses for normal yards. But this depends on how rough the area your cutting is. Normal yards are level and have very few things that the blades hit but a rough yard there may be many roots and other things above the ground that the blade hits and this quickly dulls the blade.
5. Clean deck, engine, and transaxles every use.
6. Wash mower every month.
If this inspection is done in a timely fashion and taken care of then your mower will not die due to parts becoming weaker or breaking causing more damage and will last a long time.
I have an old mower that truthfully, I don't take care of as well as I should. But I furnish it my neighbor to cut his and my yard and he keeps it in his shed. So, I don't have much access to it. It is a 52-inch cut Husqvarna. I had traded for it, and it had about 500 hrs. Now it has about 950 hrs. I have had it about 3 years, and it was used when I got it. It has had only the starter and a deck belt gone bad. It is keep clean and serviced but not as good as it should be.
perimeterlandscaping@comc
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all stand on mowers on the market generally have the same major components, the hydrogear transmissions are industry standard. the floating deck bolts and throttle lines all use the pivoting eye bolts on the ferris.
frequent fluid changes are the key to a long mower life. both on the transmissions and the engine. also never running the engine at full throttle extends the life substantially. keep the knob backed off to 3//4 power and just take your route a little slower. as the engine and transmissions get up in hours, more frequent oil changes are required .its a small price to pay for all the power and effortless work they do compared to walking the yards.
coils go bad on all v twins. at the very least youll be wire wheeling your coils to get them to fire if not replacing them. the camshaft sees a lot of abuse in those engine configurations so eventually youll have to rebuild it with a new camshaft and the probably have to rering the pistons if your desperate and cant afford to replace your engine.
other than that, store your gear indoors and keep everything under lock and key at all times. im at 1400 hrs on my kawasaki fx
1slow5point0h
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I’m on year 4 with my Hustler 60” and a Kawasaki FR730V and just hit 70 hours yesterday lol. Assuming it’ll last me quite a while with no more than the 1.x acre I mow and occasionally a family member’s yard. I change the oil at the recommended intervals and the air filter as needed.
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KM Richards
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Meh, with proper maintenance probably around 20k hours to maybe 30k hours.
I have a 2006 Hustler mini fastrak with over 1600 hours . It has a Honda 16 hp motor, non serviceable hydros and only thing I’ve done is routine maintenance. Only issues I’ve had is change coils on motor twice , a couple of idle pulleys , new tires , blades and batteries. Not bad for 17 years and it still runs good. Also have a Honda HR215 self propelled mower I bought in 1989 , just had first in shop work done in it . They did a tune up , she starts first pull like new .
Buy quality ,take care of it and it should last a long time .
Buy quality ,take care of it and it should last a long time .
GrumpyL5030
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Nice photo of your old garden tractor. Resembles my old Bolens 1886. If I ever put it back together, I'll post a pic of it on here too.
How long do you WANT it to last?
I've got a "narrow" 27 inch blade rider made by MTD (a Yardbug) that I use in a couple of large suburban gated yards. It's 23 years old. It's a residential mower, with too many control cables to count, but it's such a pleasure to use, because its fast, all steel and has a grass catcher under the seat, (did I say it's really narrow?). Its Briggs 11 hp engine is quite reliable, but it's also somewhat of a maintenance headache. It leaks some oil and the control cables are a real pain to adjust every season. But I will keep fixing it as long as someone keeps making parts for it. How many hours are on it? Heck if I know, but if I had to guess.... 20 years x 6 hrs a week x 25 weeks a year is 3,000 hrs. That's crazy for a residential mower that I grabbed for $300 bucks 20 years ago.