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I just picked the mower upat Johnson's ACE Hardware, Wellford SC 29385
864 539-3485. They said that Husqvarna would not honor the lifetime deck warranty. This is the second deck failure. I owned a Murray for 14 years and a Ariens for 8 years with no issues cutting the same lawn . WTF.
I Purchased a TS 348 Lawn tractor new on 8-26-2019 with a lifetime mower deck warranty from Johnson's ACE Hardware,10409 E Greenville HWY, Wellford SC 29385,
Registered it that day with Husqvarna. Model 960430230 00, ser # 121917A001120.
The small protection moon shaped metal piece at mower deck ejection area broke loose in Nov 2020. The piece of metal wrapped up blades and severely damage mower deck. I was told by Husqvarna to take it to where I purchased it.
Ed at Husqvarna Warranty dept was contacted by Ace Hardware store and warranty repair was turned down.
I was stuck with a over $1,400 repair bill.

I dropped of the mower again 12 May 23 with exact same break in weld. I stopped before major damaged occurred. I can not believe that I am going to have to buy another deck within 4 years of purchase. I will pursue reimbursement...no luck last time. Beware of B.S. warranties.

ITis an unfortunate sign of the times that Husqvarna is spending 10 x the money on advertising than it is on customer service.
From the day I started in this business I have been advising my customers not to buy any Husqvarna ride on or walk behind
While they are not as badly made or poorly designed as MTD products they are still badly made badly designed junk.
We get the both the Chinese & the USA made ones down here and the Chinese ones are substantially better made than the USA made ones .
Lifetime warranties are all BS with more holes in them than a sieve .
Rolls Royce & Honda are the only 2 companies that I know of who do actually offer a life time warranty that they honour and funny enough that warranty is reflected in the ticket price .
Sorry about your mower it hurts when you find out you you have been made a fool of .
Now if you are up for it, get a placard made up and a T-shirt warning people about the warranty and suggesting thye buy another brand from some where else and stand in front of the Ace shop all Saturday .
Be polite , call the local independent media and as many news bloggers as your kids can find for you .
With a bit of luck it will go viral and perhaps Husqvarna might just learn a lesson or at least give you a new deck
Direct actions do work particularly when they are on the web
Husqvarna spends so much money with main stream media there is very little chance that mainstream media will cover your protest
Also note is has to be done on the foot path ( sidewalk to some ) and not in the car park were you would be considered to be trespassing and can be charged .
I have organised dozens of these over the years and every one was a success .
However we have a government TV & Radio network so they can cover stories like this without fear of revenue backlash .

Kenneth Brock said:

I just picked the mower upat Johnson's ACE Hardware, Wellford SC 29385
864 539-3485. They said that Husqvarna would not honor the lifetime deck warranty. This is the second deck failure. I owned a Murray for 14 years and a Ariens for 8 years with no issues cutting the same lawn . WTF.
I Purchased a TS 348 Lawn tractor new on 8-26-2019 with a lifetime mower deck warranty from Johnson's ACE Hardware,10409 E Greenville HWY, Wellford SC 29385,
Registered it that day with Husqvarna. Model 960430230 00, ser # 121917A001120.
The small protection moon shaped metal piece at mower deck ejection area broke loose in Nov 2020. The piece of metal wrapped up blades and severely damage mower deck. I was told by Husqvarna to take it to where I purchased it.
Ed at Husqvarna Warranty dept was contacted by Ace Hardware store and warranty repair was turned down.
I was stuck with a over $1,400 repair bill.

I dropped of the mower again 12 May 23 with exact same break in weld. I stopped before major damaged occurred. I can not believe that I am going to have to buy another deck within 4 years of purchase. I will pursue reimbursement...no luck last time. Beware of B.S. warranties.

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A new deck

Kenneth Brock said:

I just picked the mower upat Johnson's ACE Hardware, Wellford SC 29385
864 539-3485. They said that Husqvarna would not honor the lifetime deck warranty. This is the second deck failure. I owned a Murray for 14 years and a Ariens for 8 years with no issues cutting the same lawn . WTF.
I Purchased a TS 348 Lawn tractor new on 8-26-2019 with a lifetime mower deck warranty from Johnson's ACE Hardware,10409 E Greenville HWY, Wellford SC 29385,
Registered it that day with Husqvarna. Model 960430230 00, ser # 121917A001120.
The small protection moon shaped metal piece at mower deck ejection area broke loose in Nov 2020. The piece of metal wrapped up blades and severely damage mower deck. I was told by Husqvarna to take it to where I purchased it.
Ed at Husqvarna Warranty dept was contacted by Ace Hardware store and warranty repair was turned down.
I was stuck with a over $1,400 repair bill.

I dropped of the mower again 12 May 23 with exact same break in weld. I stopped before major damaged occurred. I can not believe that I am going to have to buy another deck within 4 years of purchase. I will pursue reimbursement...no luck last time. Beware of B.S. warranties.

Click to expand...

Kenneth Brock said:

I just picked the mower upat Johnson's ACE Hardware, Wellford SC 29385
864 539-3485. They said that Husqvarna would not honor the lifetime deck warranty. This is the second deck failure. I owned a Murray for 14 years and a Ariens for 8 years with no issues cutting the same lawn . WTF.
I Purchased a TS 348 Lawn tractor new on 8-26-2019 with a lifetime mower deck warranty from Johnson's ACE Hardware,10409 E Greenville HWY, Wellford SC 29385,
Registered it that day with Husqvarna. Model 960430230 00, ser # 121917A001120.
The small protection moon shaped metal piece at mower deck ejection area broke loose in Nov 2020. The piece of metal wrapped up blades and severely damage mower deck. I was told by Husqvarna to take it to where I purchased it.
Ed at Husqvarna Warranty dept was contacted by Ace Hardware store and warranty repair was turned down.
I was stuck with a over $1,400 repair bill.

I dropped off the mower again 12 May 23 with exact same break in weld. I stopped before major damaged occurred. I can not believe that I am going to have to buy another deck within 4 years of purchase. I will pursue reimbursement...no luck last time. Beware of B.S. warranties.

Click to expand...

How can a deck repair bill be $1400? Why didn’t you just source a good used working deck? Read the fine print on warranties. Some manufacturers will find ways out of honoring warranty or pass the buck.

Bert hit the nail squarely on the head and I’ll add one more thing about Husqvarna. Many of the Craftsman tractors are built by Husqvarna, meaning you get the same quality with a different color hood. Buyer beware.

I have had good luck on these things writing to the Attorney General of the state, my sitting House of Representatives person, and my local state assembly person asking them all to investigate the manufacturer for consumer fraud. In this case because they sell Federally I might include the Chair of the FTC. CC the manufacturer's customer service with a copy. Can't tell you how many times someone suddenly contacts me and tells me it was a clerical mistake, and they will take care of it. You aren't complaining about the problem to them, you are complaining about mis-leading advertising that led you to buy it in the first place. Even if nothing comes of it directly, politicians get tired of getting problems like this so they pass laws stopping it as best they can, to prevent themselves from having to waste their time on things like mis-leading advertising claims.

And this is what they are using to get around the lifetime warranty

Damage to cutting equipment by way of contact with rocks, sand or other objects, rust & corrosions, and natural discoloration of paint or other materials due to ultraviolet light are not covered.

Basically most warranties are not even worth the paper they are printed on. The only warranty that gets honored is my own warranty. Oh I take that back Stens did honor their one year warranty on the spindle I brought that fail with six of installation. I just can't buy any more from and going to try the Rotary version of the JD spindles.

StarTech said:

Basically most warranties are not even worth the paper they are printed on. The only warranty that gets honored is my own warranty. Oh I take that back Stens did honor their one year warranty on the spindle I brought that fail with six of installation. I just can't buy any more from and going to try the Rotary version of the JD spindles.

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That wouldn't happen to be the JD spindle that their instructions say to pump like 10 pumps of grease into the spindle prior to installation and then the bearings fail within a couple hours.

ILENGINE says:
their instructions say to pump like 10 pumps of grease into the spindle prior to installation and then the bearings fail within a couple hours.

Question: Why pump lots of grease into a spindle housing when the bearings have seals that prevent the grease from lubing the bearings???

Most of the new spindles I see and replacement bearings do not have any grease inside. For my own eq I pop out the bearing's seal and pack the bearings before I put MY eq to use.

Forest#2 said:

ILENGINE says:
their instructions say to pump like 10 pumps of grease into the spindle prior to installation and then the bearings fail within a couple hours.

Question: Why pump lots of grease into a spindle housing when the bearings have seals that prevent the grease from lubing the bearings???

Most of the new spindles I see and replacement bearings do not have any grease inside. For my own eq I pop out the bearing's seal and pack the bearings before I put MY eq to use.

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For the most part it is a feel good measure. Really does nothing for the bearings, but in the case of the Stens JD spindle causes side loading on the bearings causing failure. If you grease them after installation they don't fail. But by their instructions the grease actually pushes the bearings out slightly and then when the pulley is installed it loads the bearings similar to having a bearing spacer that is too short.

In my case with the 6 Stens JD spindles the failure are assembly problems. First couple were assembled with a too thin of a shim washer. The last four were the M20 pulley adaptor nut not being countersinked so even the torque valve are correct the pulley adapter is still too loose and wear both the adapter and the spindle shaft to a point where things just spindle instead turning the blade.

I can't believe you would stick with Husqvarna and ACE Hardware after getting stiffed the first time.

ILENGINE says: (about grease serts on spindle housings.

For the most part it is a feel good measure.

I suspected such also to make the owner/operator feel good that they are really doing the lube maintenance procedure and doing a lot of good saving their spindle bearings but are actually just wasting lots of grease.
It might keep the spindle housing itself little bit cooler when the bearing race seizes due to no grease inside and the whole bearing starts spinning in the housing generating friction heat before ruining the spindle housing few minutes later. I've seen lots of spindle housing completely full of grease but the bearings worn out and no grease inside the roller bearing.

If the spindle housing grease is intended to actually lube the bearings why not leave the inner bearing seal off???????????

Because if they leave the inner bearing seal out with this style of bearing the grease can push the outer seal out of the bearing which causes even bigger issues. Just the wrong type of bearing for a greasable application

Some sources report some manufacturers are deleting the inner seals now so the zero grade fitting might do some good. “Sealed bearings” are not very well sealed from the harsh conditions of a mower deck.

I don’t think “more grease” is the solution when the problem is the current grease has been contaminated… because the little flimsy seal on the bearings isn’t that robust.

Kenneth Brock said:

I just picked the mower upat Johnson's ACE Hardware, Wellford SC 29385
864 539-3485. They said that Husqvarna would not honor the lifetime deck warranty. This is the second deck failure. I owned a Murray for 14 years and a Ariens for 8 years with no issues cutting the same lawn . WTF.
I Purchased a TS 348 Lawn tractor new on 8-26-2019 with a lifetime mower deck warranty from Johnson's ACE Hardware,10409 E Greenville HWY, Wellford SC 29385,
Registered it that day with Husqvarna. Model 960430230 00, ser # 121917A001120.
The small protection moon shaped metal piece at mower deck ejection area broke loose in Nov 2020. The piece of metal wrapped up blades and severely damage mower deck. I was told by Husqvarna to take it to where I purchased it.
Ed at Husqvarna Warranty dept was contacted by Ace Hardware store and warranty repair was turned down.
I was stuck with a over $1,400 repair bill.

I dropped of the mower again 12 May 23 with exact same break in weld. I stopped before major damaged occurred. I can not believe that I am going to have to buy another deck within 4 years of purchase. I will pursue reimbursement...no luck last time. Beware of B.S. warranties.

Click to expand...

First, I would recommend you contact Boiling Springs Small Engine Repair on Highway 9. They are a husqvarna dealer and may be willing to help, but I doubt it. Second, find out where Husqvarna US headquarters is located and file a formal complaint with the Better Business Bureau that covers that city. You can’t just file with any BBB, it has to be the one with jurisdiction over where the HQ is located. I considered Husqvarna when I bought my zero turn about three years ago but reviews were better on a Toro that I ended up buying. I bought a Weber grill from Johnson Ace Hardware. Seemed to be nice enough people.

That why they should be using 6204-ZZ bearings instead of the 6204-2RS ones. Those can be greased with both shields in place.

StarTech said:

That why they should be using 6204-ZZ bearings instead of the 6204-2RS ones. Those can be greased with both shields in place.

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Because the ZZ has shields not seals. Shields are open not sealed. I do not believe shields will be better for the O.P. because the problem with caged ball bearings is not "needs grease" so much as "grease got out something else got in."

Star Tech:
That why they should be using 6204-ZZ bearings instead of the 6204-2RS ones. Those can be greased with both shields in place.

Are you indicating that the internal housing spindle grease will migrate through the steel inner shield of the ZZ bearing and actually do some good????
I realize they are not true oil shielded bearings if constantly exposed to oil, but I suspected that grease probably would not get through the steel shield enough to do any good especially on the upper spindle bearing??????????
and it's easier to just pop out the plastic shield of the RS bearings for packing and re-install the shield. I can get the ZZ bearings for the same price as the RS so cost is not an issue.

Reason I ask is I had considered using the ZZ steel shield bearings and drill and small hole for the inner shield of both bearings so grease would get inside easier.

But when re-building decks now days I just pop out the plastic shield and pack the bearings and re-install and not waste grease that does no good inside the spindle housing???????????

What are your thoughts about such???????????

Yes, pop the seals out, wash the bearing, grease, reinstall the seals. Do not spin the bearing with your air hose, but it is a good thing to use compressed air to clean it out.

Yes, pop the seals out, wash the bearing, grease, reinstall the seals. Do not spin the bearing with your air hose, but it is a good thing to use compressed air to clean it out.

FWIW
I use marine grade lithium soap grease in spindle bearings
Usually zz bearings on the top & 2rs on the bottom
Grease till it extrudes from the shields
Logic is that air can get released from the cavity inside the spindle housing and if the housing is full then there is nowhere for moisture to accumulate
A hot 2 RS bearing will suck water through the dust seal as it cools down particularly if you have been using those silly wash out ports

Kenneth Brock said:

I just picked the mower upat Johnson's ACE Hardware, Wellford SC 29385
864 539-3485. They said that Husqvarna would not honor the lifetime deck warranty. This is the second deck failure. I owned a Murray for 14 years and a Ariens for 8 years with no issues cutting the same lawn . WTF.
I Purchased a TS 348 Lawn tractor new on 8-26-2019 with a lifetime mower deck warranty from Johnson's ACE Hardware,10409 E Greenville HWY, Wellford SC 29385,
Registered it that day with Husqvarna. Model 960430230 00, ser # 121917A001120.
The small protection moon shaped metal piece at mower deck ejection area broke loose in Nov 2020. The piece of metal wrapped up blades and severely damage mower deck. I was told by Husqvarna to take it to where I purchased it.
Ed at Husqvarna Warranty dept was contacted by Ace Hardware store and warranty repair was turned down.
I was stuck with a over $1,400 repair bill.

I dropped off the mower again 12 May 23 with exact same break in weld. I stopped before major damaged occurred. I can not believe that I am going to have to buy another deck within 4 years of purchase. I will pursue reimbursement...no luck last time. Beware of B.S.

Click to expand...

take it to a welding shop let them fix and modify it so it won’t break again! I feel your pain I was going to buy the big husquvarna tractor my dealer know me and that I use it like a small farm tractor he told me it’s not going to hold up even though the husky rep told me it was the heaviest garden tractor I could buy today! To get a good tractor know looking at $12K ridiculous I have a 27 year old Murray 21 hp garden tractor things a beast!

I bought a Murray 42" (?) riding mower many years ago. After welding the cracks in the deck multiple times, I had a sheet metal shop make me two decks out of 16 ga cold rolled steel. I put the wheels, spindles and all else from the original deck on one and used it for many years until the rest of the mower was trash. Never had another problem with the deck. I ended up using the spare deck for a table.

Grumpycat:
Yes, pop the seals out, wash the bearing, grease, reinstall the seals. Do not spin the bearing with your air hose, but it is a good thing to use compressed air to clean it out.

Right about spinning bearings with compressed air. Guy could even loose a finger.

But;

This is my question.

Star Tech said this about injecting lots of grease into the center spindle housing and popping out the upper plastic seal of RS type bearings
That why they should be using 6204-ZZ bearings instead of the 6204-2RS ones. Those can be greased with both shields in place.

I asked
Are you indicating that the internal housing spindle grease will migrate through the steel inner shield of the ZZ bearing and actually do some good???? I have in part drilled a small hole in the ZZ steel shields and injected grease and then seal the hole to prevent dust/dirt getting inside.
The steel shield is not easily removed nor is it re-useable.

I have a Cub Cadet that has tapered bearings in the spindle and grease fittings. Easy to grease it every two or three mowings. My mower has just over 700 hours and they are still original bearings. Never did understand putting sealed bearings in a spindle and grease fittings too. Have never tried the ZZ bearings, usually just pull the seals and tell them to grease it more often.

Kenneth Brock said:

I just picked the mower upat Johnson's ACE Hardware, Wellford SC 29385
864 539-3485. They said that Husqvarna would not honor the lifetime deck warranty. This is the second deck failure. I owned a Murray for 14 years and a Ariens for 8 years with no issues cutting the same lawn . WTF.
I Purchased a TS 348 Lawn tractor new on 8-26-2019 with a lifetime mower deck warranty from Johnson's ACE Hardware,10409 E Greenville HWY, Wellford SC 29385,
Registered it that day with Husqvarna. Model 960430230 00, ser # 121917A001120.
The small protection moon shaped metal piece at mower deck ejection area broke loose in Nov 2020. The piece of metal wrapped up blades and severely damage mower deck. I was told by Husqvarna to take it to where I purchased it.
Ed at Husqvarna Warranty dept was contacted by Ace Hardware store and warranty repair was turned down.
I was stuck with a over $1,400 repair bill.

I dropped of the mower again 12 May 23 with exact same break in weld. I stopped before major damaged occurred. I can not believe that I am going to have to buy another deck within 4 years of purchase. I will pursue reimbursement...no luck last time. Beware of B.S. warranties.

Click to expand...

Get a different mower.

Kenneth Brock said:

I just picked the mower upat Johnson's ACE Hardware, Wellford SC 29385
864 539-3485. They said that Husqvarna would not honor the lifetime deck warranty. This is the second deck failure. I owned a Murray for 14 years and a Ariens for 8 years with no issues cutting the same lawn . WTF.
I Purchased a TS 348 Lawn tractor new on 8-26-2019 with a lifetime mower deck warranty from Johnson's ACE Hardware,10409 E Greenville HWY, Wellford SC 29385,
Registered it that day with Husqvarna. Model 960430230 00, ser # 121917A001120.
The small protection moon shaped metal piece at mower deck ejection area broke loose in Nov 2020. The piece of metal wrapped up blades and severely damage mower deck. I was told by Husqvarna to take it to where I purchased it.
Ed at Husqvarna Warranty dept was contacted by Ace Hardware store and warranty repair was turned down.
I was stuck with a over $1,400 repair bill.

I dropped of the mower again 12 May 23 with exact same break in weld. I stopped before major damaged occurred. I can not believe that I am going to have to buy another deck within 4 years of purchase. I will pursue reimbursement...no luck last time. Beware of B.S. warranties.

Click to expand...

To quote Tommy Boy movie, a warranty is only as good as the people that give it…. I can take a dump in a box and mark it guaranteed…. I’ve got the spare time…

Forest#2 said:

ILENGINE says: (about grease serts on spindle housings.

For the most part it is a feel good measure.

I suspected such also to make the owner/operator feel good that they are really doing the lube maintenance procedure and doing a lot of good saving their spindle bearings but are actually just wasting lots of grease.
It might keep the spindle housing itself little bit cooler when the bearing race seizes due to no grease inside and the whole bearing starts spinning in the housing generating friction heat before ruining the spindle housing few minutes later. I've seen lots of spindle housing completely full of grease but the bearings worn out and no grease inside the roller bearing.

If the spindle housing grease is intended to actually lube the bearings why not leave the inner bearing seal off???????????

Click to expand...

When I worked at a large simplicity mower garage in the 70's. The rep said the grease zerks were in deck arbors to pump 10 pumps in the spring. To keep mosture out and keep the shaft and spacer from freezing together. To make it easy to replace just the sealed bearings. The one's that had no zeros in were always frozen together. And had to replace the whole arbor. The one's with zeros and were greased. Would practically fall apart when pulley was taken off.