John Deere Owner Check-In --- Read This First!

[Heinz W]

Hello all. Another newb here. Bought my first JD mower last Spring for my 3 acres, and first ZTR. A 48" 740R. Awesome machine, worth every nickel for the time it saves. Really love everything about it. Cut quality, speed, maneuverability, and build quality. Hope it lasts me 20 years, and I think it will. It gets the same non-ethanol gas that all my small engine equipment get.

 

[BSI]

Hello, fellow JD lawnmower people. I got a JD JS63C. I bought it from Home Depot in roughly 2005. It mows well. The drive system IMHO is rather poor. Without the drive system operating on this mower I am out of luck because the JS63C is heavy and my lawn is hilly. JDs part system for the JS63C is poor. No problem with engine parts (Briggs and Stratton) but everything else is a hassle.

 

[cruzenmike]

Just purchased a 2021 John Deere X380 48" earlier this week. Not my first Deere, but my first NEW one. I shopped many other mowers, extensively, and ultimately landed on the Deere due to their quality of cut, overall reliability and great dealer network.

 

[Woundedknees]

GREETINGS to all John Deere mower owners! ?

If you're new to the forum, please reply to this thread and introduce yourself and your mower (that is, if your mower have a name ?). maybe attach a photo or two of your mower and show off your pride and joy.

Also, if you haven't done so already you can upload a user avatar (picture under your user name). You can do so by clicking on settings and "edit avatar" or just click here.

Please be helpful and friendly to all other John Deere owners (how could you not, right?) and if you like this forum, tell your friends about it. :biggrin:

We want to make this the best resource for John Deere mower owners, and to do that we need your help! Questions? Experiences? Stories? Data? Photos? Articles? Links? Cool John Deere stuff? Post it here!

Last but not least, please let me know if you have any suggestions for the site. We'd love to hear them.

I'm new to JD ownership. I grew up riding my grandfather's steel wheeled popcorn popper.
My JD is a new to me 2012 X-324. It had 610 hours on it, and had been well maintained by previous owner through the local JD dealer. It came with a Cyclone Lawn vac, plus the powered JD 3 bag grass catcher (Plus a new motor for the catcher, 7 Oregon blades, and the JD mulching system)... The Cyclone even had a new, electric start motor installed over the summer.
Not bad for $2300!

Prior to this, most of the property was mowed weekly by my 89 year old mother-in-law. She did it for recreation!

The 4 wheel steering is especially nice, since I maintain my family's 7 acre homestead, which includes a lot of trees to mow around.

 

[paulbagley]

New member, I've had a 316 for 16 years and have used it for mowing and plowing snow. The past 4 years I've mowed with a Simplicity with a slightly larger deck and better lift. The 316 was still used for plowing snow and other more rugged work, and I have 5 hp lawn vacuum attachment on the deck for fall leaf pickup. This fall I bought a 320 for snowblowing and mowing. It was well maintained until two years ago when the owner went into assisted living and the daughter began using it. Still a nice machine, just needs some maintenance. I will probably have questions as I get this 28 year old machine ready for winter.

 

[toddsyr]

I've been a member here for a few weeks or so now but just found the "welcome" thread.
First time John Deere owner which is also my first yard tractor.
The last thing I owned for mowing was a "big box store" Troy Bilt riding mower.
As most here already know, the difference between a riding mower and a lawn tractor is a few thousand dollars.
There is also a big difference in the quality of the product.

Anyhow, a month or so ago I bought my John Deere X570. It's bigger than I need for our property, JD recommended the 300 series
based on our yard size. After reading a LOT of reviews I went with the X570.
I read many items about the 300 series having issues with the rear axle getting too warm after a couple of hours use.
I don't want anything to do with that. The only complaint I read about the 570 was that the headlights aren't bright enough.
That will not be an issue with me. I don't work nights.

Going from a 30 inch cutting deck to a 48 inch deck is saving me a lot of mowing time.
What used to take an hour or so now can be done in 35 minutes. I'm still a working stiff, up to 60 hours per week.
ANYTHING that can save me a half hour in a day is worth good money to me.

The only gripe I had with my X570 was the deck was not adjusted properly by the factory or the dealer.
It would cut the grass to just over 3 inches when it was set to 4 inches, the maximum height.
That has been addressed, both by the dealer and the good folks on this forum. Now my Bluegrass sod is much happier.

Well, just wanted to say hi to everybody and give a formal introduction from the Syracuse, NY area.

Todd K Stearns

 

[farmermark]

Hello people, new to the site and today brought my first John Deere mower, now I am a bit old school so I brought a 285, for a steel to be honest, not working, but in better than average condition for age. 987 hrs on the clock. I have spent 2 hrs on it and got it working, which when I picked it up it wouldn't even turn over. All pretty much electrical issues but it has cut the lawn this afternoon, albeit I have had a few head scratching moments lol. All that aside I am very happy with my purchase and once summer is over and the grass is left to go wild, the plan is to fully restore her back to new condition over winter.
So I no doubt will be asking some random questions on here in the future and if I can I will willingly help others when there having a bit of a head scratch themselves.
My other mower is a JD S690i combine with a 40ft cut if that counts lol.
So there you go, that's me, a crazy farmer, who will inevitably need help at some point from all you experts on 285 mowers.
Thank you in advance.
pics to come in the future.

 

[winmod21]

Hello to all here. Looks like a nice forum.
Have been trying to play mechanical nurse to a 2003 John Deere GT225 lawn tractor w/48" mower deck over the last 4 years.
The quality of the cut is still beautiful, even though 2 of the 3 spindles have some big cracks and chunks missing. :~\

Notwithstanding lots of other issues; mostly starting problems with the [ Kohler CV15S-41571 15hp OHV engine w/Walbro carb # 75 3349 1205393 ], as well as engine dying problems (of which I must've accidentally fixed recently - by resetting the gap btwn the ignition module and the magneto on the flywheel).

* New problem & reason I joined this forum: I'm looking for a new 'Fuel Shutoff Solenoid' (that screws into the bottom of the carb bowl); the red wire broke on ours - right where it comes out of the bottom of the cylindrical solenoid. Tons of 'em on the Brazillian River website, all from China, and the weird thing is...the pic of the Kohler solenoid/kit at the JD dealer's...looks the same as the short/squatty cheap looking China ones !:~\
But our Fuel Shutoff Solenoid is one of those longer (perhaps 1 3/8" long) ones, with the single wire coming out of the bottom, and with no rubber bumper on the top of the little vertical piston rod.

Any suggestions? Tried jackssmallengines .com but they only have the whole carb kit. Found a few others, but they're all the short/squatty looking ones. Thanks so much for any & all suggestions.

* If I wasn't supposed to jump right into all my problems—right here on this "read this first & introduce yourself" thread . . .
then please allow me to introduce myself as I apologize.

Hmm, Is my low post count not allowing me to post pic's? Every pic I've tried to post - looks like it's loading, but then says: "The uploaded file is too large"; same for zipped file.

 

[9tango]

GREETINGS to all John Deere mower owners! ?

If you're new to the forum, please reply to this thread and introduce yourself and your mower (that is, if your mower have a name ?). maybe attach a photo or two of your mower and show off your pride and joy.

Also, if you haven't done so already you can upload a user avatar (picture under your user name). You can do so by clicking on settings and "edit avatar" or just click here.

Please be helpful and friendly to all other John Deere owners (how could you not, right?) and if you like this forum, tell your friends about it. :biggrin:

We want to make this the best resource for John Deere mower owners, and to do that we need your help! Questions? Experiences? Stories? Data? Photos? Articles? Links? Cool John Deere stuff? Post it here!

Last but not least, please let me know if you have any suggestions for the site. We'd love to hear them.

H

 

[bertsmobile1]

Hello to all here. Looks like a nice forum.
Have been trying to play mechanical nurse to a 2003 John Deere GT225 lawn tractor w/48" mower deck over the last 4 years.
The quality of the cut is still beautiful, even though 2 of the 3 spindles have some big cracks and chunks missing. :~\

Notwithstanding lots of other issues; mostly starting problems with the [ Kohler CV15S-41571 15hp OHV engine w/Walbro carb # 75 3349 1205393 ], as well as engine dying problems (of which I must've accidentally fixed recently - by resetting the gap btwn the ignition module and the magneto on the flywheel).

* New problem & reason I joined this forum: I'm looking for a new 'Fuel Shutoff Solenoid' (that screws into the bottom of the carb bowl); the red wire broke on ours - right where it comes out of the bottom of the cylindrical solenoid. Tons of 'em on the Brazillian River website, all from China, and the weird thing is...the pic of the Kohler solenoid/kit at the JD dealer's...looks the same as the short/squatty cheap looking China ones !:~\
But our Fuel Shutoff Solenoid is one of those longer (perhaps 1 3/8" long) ones, with the single wire coming out of the bottom, and with no rubber bumper on the top of the little vertical piston rod.

Any suggestions? Tried jackssmallengines .com but they only have the whole carb kit. Found a few others, but they're all the short/squatty looking ones. Thanks so much for any & all suggestions.

* If I wasn't supposed to jump right into all my problems—right here on this "read this first & introduce yourself" thread . . .
then please allow me to introduce myself as I apologize.

Hmm, Is my low post count not allowing me to post pic's? Every pic I've tried to post - looks like it's loading, but then says: "The uploaded file is too large"; same for zipped file

It is a file format problem
Upload the photo to your computer
Resize it to around 12" on the long axis and adjust the resolution to 72 dpi then SAVE it .
That photo will display 6 to 12" on computer screens.
Web hosts see the RAW format used in cameras as 4 times the size the file really is and a 500 kb photo will display on a 30" screen quite well so no need for 2-4 Gb file .
Image resolution on digital devices has gone the way of tininess did for phones where they got so small no human could use them.
Photo resolution is so fine now days the eye can not see 75% of the detail in the image till it is enlarged 1000 times.

As for the solenoid, for now just chop the end off it .
When you shut down, pull the throttle to the lowest position, count to 5 then turn the engine off.
The solenoid provides no useful function other to stop the unburned fuel accumulating in the muffler then going Bang a minute after the engine has stopped.
It does act as a back up should the magneto kill wire fail to shut down the engine but that is a 1 in 10,000,000 event.