John Deere Rider Purchase

[Elias40]

After several months of looking at reviews from different mowers purchased by others, we ended up buying a John Deere D160 48" lawn tractor. All brands have quality issues, some woefully so.

This mower was ordered from a local JD dealer. If you buy from a big box store, makes no difference. The quality of the unit remains the same. The reason we went with the dealer was to support the phony local economy. But after this experience, I would have risked renting a U-haul trailer, went to Lowes, and dragged the
machine home myself.

Paid around $2800 for the machine, not really needing one that big, but trying to buy up in quality, which is futile.

The first thing you are going to have to do, is take the tractor apart. Why? because it will be delivered to you having quality issues not covered by their warranty and need to be corrected before the first mow, or you will be stranded, broke down in the field, and expensive. This mainly has to do with the front axle/wheel bushings having been greased using the best grease you can find.The other issue is the mower spindles and the grease used there as well. The company uses general purpose grease - in my case, two different colors, both the red and tan. perfectly good grease for toys, but not for a dangerous device such s a lawnmower.

John Deere is expecting you to have a tool box as the first thing the consumer is to do is adjust the guage wheels. 15mm bolts. self locking nuts. Miserable using ajustable wrench and pliers.

We will quit now. If interested we will start a new thread John Deere repair in another part of the forum to elaborate more.

 

[SeniorCitizen]

After several months of looking at reviews from different mowers purchased by others, we ended up buying a John Deere D160 48" lawn tractor. All brands have quality issues, some woefully so.

This mower was ordered from a local JD dealer. If you buy from a big box store, makes no difference. The quality of the unit remains the same. The reason we went with the dealer was to support the phony local economy. But after this experience, I would have risked renting a U-haul trailer, went to Lowes, and dragged the
machine home myself.

Paid around $2800 for the machine, not really needing one that big, but trying to buy up in quality, which is futile.

The first thing you are going to have to do, is take the tractor apart. Why? because it will be delivered to you having quality issues not covered by their warranty and need to be corrected before the first mow, or you will be stranded, broke down in the field, and expensive. This mainly has to do with the front axle/wheel bushings having been greased using the best grease you can find.The other issue is the mower spindles and the grease used there as well. The company uses general purpose grease - in my case, two different colors, both the red and tan. perfectly good grease for toys, but not for a dangerous device such s a lawnmower.

John Deere is expecting you to have a tool box as the first thing the consumer is to do is adjust the guage wheels. 15mm bolts. self locking nuts. Miserable using ajustable wrench and pliers.

We will quit now. If interested we will start a new thread John Deere repair in another part of the forum to elaborate more.

You don't have a pickup truck or a trailer and all the tools you have are a miserable ajustable rench and pliers but some how you took the blade spindles apart to discover it only had general purpose grease of two different colors. You've also learned buying bigger doesn't necessarily improve quality. WELL DUH.

You can't handle lawn tractor ownership so I suggest you return it for a full refund and hire your lawn cut.

Not interested in a new thread. sorry.

 

[Elias40]

You don't have a pickup truck or a trailer and all the tools you have are a miserable ajustable rench and pliers but some how you took the blade spindles apart to discover it only had general purpose grease of two different colors. You've also learned buying bigger doesn't necessarily improve quality. WELL DUH.

You can't handle lawn tractor ownership so I suggest you return it for a full refund and hire your lawn cut.

Not interested in a new thread. sorry.[/QUOTE

]Sorry, I need to clarify:

I have more tools than really necessary, including pnuematic operated impacts, ratchets along with a 5 horse compressor.
But, if you purchase a new machine, aren't you supposed to use it after checking the fluids, etc, without having to ahnailate it first?

Guess I am barking up the wrong tree.

 

[possum]

I do not think it is barking up the wrong tree as much as not knowing what the barking is about. Is the mower giving some kind of problem? Did the wheels fall off? Did the spindles go out? The deck fail to provide a decent cut? There is little difference between a cheap lawn tractor and an expensive lawn tractor other than an upgraded engine and bells and whistles. More quality comes with the more commercial type units in the five to twelve thousand dollor range. i would imagine even the best units come with standard lubricants. Most shops use standard lubes. Most techs use standard lubes. Most professional lawnkeepers I have talked to use standard lubes. Most farmers I have talked to use standard lubes.

 

[mullins87]

He's right about having to adjust the gauge wheels, and using an adjustable wrench on them would be a pain at best. However, the reason why you have to adjust the gauge wheels is because the dealer can't possibly know how high you will cut your lawn, so the wheels need to be adjusted to ride at the proper height. When I bought mine, I even had to level the deck. It wasn't off much, but enough that I could see it. The battery on mine was bad, but the dealer gladly swapped it out and apologized for the trouble.

All mowers, regardless of how they are priced, will have occasional issues when delivered by the dealer. The 100 series JD's are their entry level, therefore they don't receive the level of setup the more expensive models get. Don't worry about the grease they use, just use whatever you think is best. Follow the maintenance schedule, or more often, and that mower will give you many years of good service.

 

[Elias40]

Thanks mullins87 for helping me out. Mine arrived with no grease whatsover on the axle pivot. How do I know? Because I tried to use the grease gun, and it wouldn't take. Maybe it was because I wasn't using a genuine John Deere grease gun filled with fouercent green grease? Just kidding. The grease zerk had been painted shut. I replaced the zerk fitting, and it fixed the problem. It was quite involved, but we will let others figure that one out. I am not going to sit here and waste my time elaborating, because the extremely few who would become (proud?) owners wouldn't appreciate the info anyway.

My wife bought this mower for my 54th birthday as I have no money for such nonsense. It was just that the old Ariens RM1032 was taking too long to cut the 400'X400' property we are staying at, causing me to drink too much beer.

The other house we were renting, the lot was half the size, so the RM1032 was fine.

The silliest part about it, is that we are renting this house as well. Scumbag renters is all we is. ha ha.

 

[Rivets]

Even though I am not a JD fan, I think you have got a bad dealer. The items you talk about should have been checked by the dealer during set-up. A good reputable dealer should have done the following.

1. Set-up unit
2. Check all lubricants and lug points.
3. Add fuel and top off fluids.
4. Level deck to customers specs.
5. Test unit.
6. Take time to review unit with the customer.
7. Make sure customer is happy with follow up call, if not fix it.

Most good dealers do this included in the selling price, but some do charge, depending on the size of the unit. Sometimes it may take an hour to do this. Please do not bash dealers or manufactures based on your bad experience with a bad dealer. We all have them and they do make us look bad, but the good ones will stand out. Our Motto is; it takes 20 great customers experiences to overcome one bad experience. Make the customer happy if at all possible.

 

[Elias40]

Even though I am not a JD fan, I think you have got a bad dealer. The items you talk about should have been checked by the dealer during set-up. A good reputable dealer should have done the following.

1. Set-up unit
2. Check all lubricants and lug points.
3. Add fuel and top off fluids.
4. Level deck to customers specs.
5. Test unit.
6. Take time to review unit with the customer.
7. Make sure customer is happy with follow up call, if not fix it.

Most good dealers do this included in the selling price, but some do charge, depending on the size of the unit. Sometimes it may take an hour to do this. Please do not bash dealers or manufactures based on your bad experience with a bad dealer. We all have them and they do make us look bad, but the good ones will stand out. Our Motto is; it takes 20 great customers experiences to overcome one bad experience. Make the customer happy if at all possible.

Some of that they did. But, s zerk being painted over should have been caught before leaving the factory. I am not really a fan of JD, or any of the others, really. It was just a few weeks prior to ordering the tractor, I got parts to fix my wife's friend- her machine, and they were very helpful and friendly. The sales side of the operation seemed totally different. I thought JD company was supposed to ask me for a satisfaction survey. Haven't heard a word from them. The whole situation from start to finish was sort of strange. Thanks Rivets for your input.

 

[mullins87]

They must have made some changes from the LA series to the D series. The zerk on my axle pivot is fairly easy to get at. I'm sure the change saved them $0.50 and not adding any grease was just a bonus. It's obvious you maintain your equipment as most people wouldn't have even looked at a zerk for at least the first year or two.

 

[motoman]

I read about your experience with some amusement. Why , because so far your tractor has not required an engine teardown. I reacted to the "big green" locally because I was put off by a kind of smug arrogance at the dealer. So I blew off part of my foot by buying a craftsman INTEK 24...the rest is history. I should have bought JD...but I have enjoyed the therapy of this forum.