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Hey Guys, I am hoping someone here might be able to give me some helpful advice about my problem.

It is a fairly long story so I will do my best to get to the point

Roughly 2 years ago now I bought a Husqvarna YTH2754T brand new with the intention of cutting a 5 acre block, it was my first mower so I went in with just the research I could do online.

The 5 acre block is on a hill side which is quite steep, about 20 degrees for most of it. For safety I only drive the mower up and down the hill and at first that worked great. Initially I was wrapped with the mower and didn't mind that fact that it takes a little over 3 hours to mow the property.

However before long (6 months) the mower started slowing down when going uphill and before long would start to stop. If I let it sit for about 30mins it would drive up the hill at a decent pace for about 15mins before slowing right down again and failing shortly after.

At first I thought the belt was slipping so I replaced that, the problem still persisted. I checked numerous other things and spoke to the dealer, no one had any useful information for me.

In the end I forced them to replace the hydrostatic drive under warranty. Upon getting the mower back I was wrapped as it flew up the hill once again. This lead me to believe that the original hydrostatic drive was either defective or in another 6 months time the replacement would also suffer the same fate.

So here we are 6 months later and the mower is slowing down again going up the hill and showing all the same symptoms as last time. On level surfaces the thing fly's around without a problem but as soon as you aim it up even a slight incline it slows right down to a crawl. That's the other thing it doesn't matter if it is a 5 degree rise or a 15 degree rise it just slows right down.

Having read quite a few threads on these forums users are suggesting changing the oil but I have been told by numerous dealers that this is a non-serviceable part.

WELCOME to LMF...
As you have discovered that trans-axle will not tolerate a heat load for long...
The first symptoms begin when the hydraulic oil cooks and looses it's ability to lubricate the internal parts... then as it is forced to operate it will cook internal seals and finally destroy itself....

I don't think you can add external coolers OR a large oil reservoir to that lawn tractor... but that is what is needed to operate that machine in those harsh conditions...

The trans-axles on Many lawn mowers are not designed for easy service... there is nothing that is completely Non-serviceable, some things are just designed to be easily serviced... others very difficult...

If you sill have any warranty... have another replacement and then either sell it or use it on a flat area...
If your warranty is up... you have only a couple choices...
Try to do an oil change first... Use a good synthetic engine oil 5W 40, or 15W 50 ... in the trans-axle... Your first challenge will be getting most of the cooked oil out....
fill it with fresh "Synthetic Motor oil" Mobil1 15w 50 OR Rotella T6 will work fine... if the internal parts are not too damaged, you will have an operational mower again... BUT don't use it on any continuous hill climbing job... .... Good Luck, you need something better designed to take that kind of load & get rid of the heat...
:smile:KennyV

Hi Kenny,
Thanks for the reply and you have confirmed what I had suspected. I guess my next move now is to purchase a new mower. Any tips of what I should be looking at for my work load?

I'm not sure what your commercial lines are there... but with the conditions you are describing, I'm going to guess you could get a lot of good use from a regular gear driven tractor OR a mower designed for commercial duty... How is the market on good used, top line equipment there?

For a hydraulic driven system to take that on a regular wkly routine, it will need a large oil reservoir, to help dump the heat & have the needed oil... The smaller drive systems on residential mowers, are likely to be short lived....

What type grass are you mowing? How short are you trying to keep it? I'm just curious as this will have little to do with the type tractor you will need to climb the hill... :smile:KennyV

I mow about once a week in spring and summer. I keep it quite short and never let it get very long.

Is something like the John Deere Z425 (Z445) any good for what I need or is that also to light duty.

I will look into second hand commercial mowers and see what I can come up with. I am just trying to work out what kind of model I should be looking for.

What about this Parklander zero turn which is advertised as a commercial mower. It is said to use twin hydro gear pumps but that doesn稚 really tell me a lot.

PARKLANDER PERFORMANCE COMMERCIAL ZERO TURN GARDEN TRACTOR NEW 2012

Five acres is a fair amount of grass to cut. Is grass cutting all you do? Another option would be a farm tractor with a PTO mounted mower. They have finish mowers that do a decent job. Depending on the size of the tractor they can be arranged with a mower mounted under the center of the tractor. Just another thought.

Yeah I am looking at tractors now, looks like I would have to budget for at least $15K. I was hoping to get something that would do the job for $10K if possible.

I don't know how the prices are in your country but here good used tractors can be had at a resonable price. For example, just last year I sold a 1980, Ford 1900 with 1,600 hours for $4,500.00. This trator had a 1/3 yard bucket. It was a 30 hp, 3 cyl diesel and I know it had the ability to do the type of work you would be doing. Something like that with a 60 inch finish mower would have been well under your price range. Again I have no idea on the prices where you are.

Paul

CoolBreeze said:

What about this Parklander zero turn which is advertised as a commercial mower. It is said to use twin hydro gear pumps but that doesn稚 really tell me a lot.

PARKLANDER PERFORMANCE COMMERCIAL ZERO TURN GARDEN TRACTOR NEW 2012

Click to expand...

I am not familiar with that name, BUT their statement..."THIS IS THE BEST COMMERCIAL ZERO TURN ON THE MARKET"... has to be a big stretch of the truth... Anyway I do hope there are a Lot better commercial machines there...
They say that it is using "HYDRO GEAR PUMPS AND ROSS WHEEL DRIVE MOTORS"... Check how serviceable the hydro system really is... Is there a convenient way of draining the Hydraulic oil? is there a common oil reservoir, oil cooler and oil filter...
From the pictures it looks to be a medium duty residential grade mower...
A big part of durability , IS serviceability... if it looks like it was designed to be readily serviced it likely will be... I'd check with the local commercial mowing guys and see what they are using & what they would Like to be using... :smile:KennyV

If you are cutting short, could you use a gang cylinder, reel set... ?

KennyV said:

If you are cutting short, could you use a gang cylinder, reel set... ?

Click to expand...

Probably yes.

I will do some more research as to what is available here.

I am a commercial dealer n carry many brands but it sounds like a snapper pro s200 or ferris is 2000 or scag turf tiger is what i would recommend n u will not ne diss satisfied athenslawn.com

Thanks, I ended up getting a Hustler X-One and I am extremely happy with it.

Yes good mowers just traded on one for a scag he was happy with it but said had alot of hydro problems but i told him thats not even a hustler part its made by vendors and are on hundreds of other brands

KennyV said:

WELCOME to LMF...
As you have discovered that trans-axle will not tolerate a heat load for long...
The first symptoms begin when the hydraulic oil cooks and looses it's ability to lubricate the internal parts... then as it is forced to operate it will cook internal seals and finally destroy itself....

I don't think you can add external coolers OR a large oil reservoir to that lawn tractor... but that is what is needed to operate that machine in those harsh conditions...

The trans-axles on Many lawn mowers are not designed for easy service... there is nothing that is completely Non-serviceable, some things are just designed to be easily serviced... others very difficult...

If you sill have any warranty... have another replacement and then either sell it or use it on a flat area...
If your warranty is up... you have only a couple choices...
Try to do an oil change first... Use a good synthetic engine oil 5W 40, or 15W 50 ... in the trans-axle... Your first challenge will be getting most of the cooked oil out....
fill it with fresh "Synthetic Motor oil" Mobil1 15w 50 OR Rotella T6 will work fine... if the internal parts are not too damaged, you will have an operational mower again... BUT don't use it on any continuous hill climbing job... .... Good Luck, you need something better designed to take that kind of load & get rid of the heat...
:smile:KennyV

Click to expand...

It should be a TUFFTORX trans axle. if you go to their website, they have changed their stance on unserviceable. They sell all that is needed to rebuild or change the oil. I have changed mine several times and it is fairly easy if you are mech. inclined. youtube has several videos on how to service the unit.