I have a 2006 Husqvarna GTH2448 (Briggs) bought new, I use at home, which is 35,000 ft. to cut. It has 1200 hours on it. Then I have a 2011, GTH2654 (Kohler) at our land in the country (ten acres). I bought used with 300 hours on it two years ago. Which I use to cut the back four acres, 200,000 ft. It has 450 hours on it. The 06 has been cutting my grass, hauling around an Agri-fab leave vac, aerator, etc, for 18 years now. I've replaced the voltage regulator once and that's it. Plus, nothing on the 2011.They both are garage kept and get spindles greased every 10 hours and oil at 40. Maintenance is the key to a long life. I believe Husqvarna makes a very good garden tractor. Better than most, including JD. I do prefer the Kohler engine by a little. Not as loud and runs very smooth, plus lots of power. I would search for one about ten years old, 400 hours or so, garage kept. You should find a nice one for $1200 or less. The new ones are coming out with plastic hydro transmissions. With a 48 inch, you will probably cut your grass in 20 minutes. 13,000 ft. is nothing. My 54 inch cut four acres in two hours. The back four is 400 by 500 feet, plus uphill and downhill.
Looking for advice re: purchasing a reliable lawn tractor
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BubbaSam
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What about Honda? Their engines seem to be bullet proof. Am I wrong?
Toro / Briggs and Straton - 20 plus years and still going. Speaking as a consumer not commercial. The key is maintenance. So many other mowers out there are also good but if not maintained properly you should not rate as a bad choice. Does smoke a little on high grass but other than that is fine. Direct drive never touched. Axles, bearings, wheels, blades, filters, oil, recoil and more were the items changed over the years,
It's really not about maintenance.
It's more about not neglecting and or abusing it.
The two often get mixed together though because if someone changes their oil once or even twice a year then they are fairly unlikely to run it low on oil which is actually abuse and or neglect from letting it get low in the first place.
This is what shortens the life and causes problems.
With the transmissions, there's really not much you can do because the vast majority of them are sealed for life and not supposed to have the fluid changed or checked at all.
Spindles are mostly the same way as the majority of them don't have grease fittings at all so they're going to last as long as they're going to last and longer under ideal conditions.
Abused them by hitting everything that just might happen to be hiding in the grass and you will impact and shock these bearings and cause them to fail earlier.
Most people who really love to maintain their equipment convince themselves they are benefiting themselves and getting extra life and or saving money when in fact, with most pieces of equipment made in the past 25 or so years if you were to take 50 identical items and treat them all different ways or maintain some excellent and not do a thing to the other ones but bare minimum, the people who did nothing would actually come out of head because they wouldn't have spent the money on things maintenance wise and they would be replacing them very close to the same time as the other people and having the same kinds of failures.
Now, don't get me wrong because I run a shop and make money for maintaining things but let's talk about push mowers for a minute.
I have to first also say that I'm basically half price or less of every other shop in my area so it's not as bad with me but with the average shop.....if one buyer buys a brand new $600 Honda lawn mower let's say and another person buys the same mower.
The first person takes their mower in every single season and gets a general maintenance/annual service / tune up (don't get me started on the word tune up because I think it's evil word and I will not use it with customers and I train them all not to).
The other person doesn't do anything to their mower but top off the oil when it needs it.
They may take out the air filter and dust it off or even replace it but that's very minor in most are capable of doing that and this certainly would not constitute proper maintenance.
The average ticket price to get that more done the average shop in the country is between 125 and 175.
It doesn't make much difference what they do or how many points of inspection and checks they put on the paperwork to make it sound like a better value and you don't always get more things done and adjusted properly by paying more but that's the average spread.
So let's go with 150.
In 4 years that person has spent $600 in service and they have a four year old mower.
The other person could throw their mower away right then and go out and buy a brand new $600 mower and they would be dead even except one person would have a brand new shiny mower with likely a longer life expectancy and the other person would have a four year old one.
It's highly unlikely that even with no service that tomorrow will be shot and not working properly and not able to keep going at year 4.
Most people get five to seven years without so much as a no start problem or whatever else and a lot of people traditionally have gotten 10 to 15 years out of the mower.
So playing the numbers and if you were a betting person, the most cost-effective way of doing it is not to service one at all!
Now I must note that this would have worked great up until about 2012 to 2015.
Unfortunately everything has shifted here lately and the price of lawn mowers is no longer flat with them jumping up greatly recently and they will probably continue to rise by a set percentage every other year or so so this messes up the fact of being able to buy that brand new mower for the same price you did before but for 20 plus years the prices were flat.
There's also the problem that 5 years from now mowers probably won't be made as well as they are now and they are not now made as well as they were five years before.
So we're in a constant state of degradation of quality and increase of prices.
Still, since the price of service keeps going up too, the most cost effective way is to do as I said but it worked far better up until about 2015.
Do the math.. try to prove me wrong.. y
You can't!
I have had thousands of customers and I get people that bring me mowers every year from their first season or second season on and I get other people that bring them when it's been three or four years they figure they might want to get it checked out and I have other people who only bring me the mower because it no longer starts and runs well enough to cut grass.
I have seen far too many lawn mowers that were 13 to 17 years old that still had a good number of years left in them but they certainly had not been maintained as well as they should have been or some people would.
The numbers don't lie.
Huhh? If your referring to the old Tecumseh Peerless transmissions, I never had the seals just fall out like that unless the end of the axle shaft that surrounds those seals has broken off, too (from extreme abuse or accident). There is a plug on the top of the transaxle to add oil. Both the manual and hydro Peerless were some of the best and toughest transaxles that were made. Plus, they were completely rebuildable. Now if your referring to a newer Tough Torque or some other gearbox, then yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised at all! Any mower with a plastic transaxle case should be avoided like a disease!
He needs to be careful about lumping them all into one category too.
Even though at one time the Craftsman's were basically a Husqvarna even though the company they owned was called ayp at the time... Now, the majority of Craftsman riders are going to be made by MTD so people should not think that Craftsman's today are rebranded husqvarna's as most are not.
Regardless, and here's the funny part about people with their brand loyalty or bashing brands because of one bad....all of these brand mowers share the same basic engine and transmissions.
Only a handful of engine options out there and only two or three maybe four, transmission options out there.
It is true that this is usually the deal-breaker on a more that's been on for a number of years when there's a problem because if it is an engine or transmission issue it's usually not cost-effective to repair.
But before anyone goes making buying decisions based on brand etc, they better get down underneath them and start taking pictures of the tag on the transmission and look up the numbers to see exactly what model transmission it is.
The engines are a little easier to ID.
The k46 transmission is probably the most common one on lawn tractors over the past 20 plus years and I'll have to say I'm not a fan!
Sure, plenty of people had their entire ownership of these mowers for 15 to 20 plus years and the transmission was still working like it was supposed to when they replace the mowers but there's still been too many failures etc on these things because they're barely up to the task.
They are a light-duty transmission and they're designed to be permanently sealed with readily accessible fill port and no drain, replaceable external filter etc.
The same goes for many of the hydrostatic transmissions when they go with the 21/2200 or even 28/3100.
They make much better robust ones but of course they skmp all they can.
Peterplocket
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Hi Buddy D, Pleased to read your message re JDs! I'm on the point of buying one……costing me not much less than £2500! Previously I've had a Husqvana with B & S engine. Lasted over 20 years with very little trouble: one new cutting deck, a few new batteries and a few new starter motor gears - the bit at the top of the s. motor. Other than that, it’s been fantastic! Have any other readers got sad stories about JDs? I'd love to know before I part with my cash!
I see this thread has grown quite the legs and so I ASSume it’s already been pointed out - and @buddyd , I am not one to try and “talk you into” another John Deere but,
THERE IS A LOT OF DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE “E” SERIES JD’s you see lined up out in front of the chain stores VERSUS THE “X” SERIES (“true“ John Deere products) AT JD DEALERS …
I worked in the service department of a JD dealer for a couple of years, primarily in the lawn and garden area. We sold the same tractors as the big box stores, plus the bigger real John Deeres. Everything on the E and 100 series was cheaply made, but cost as much to service or replace as on the big ones. I tell everyone to never by a John Deere that starts with a 1 or has an E in it. Same holds true for their big tractors, by the way. Just because it comes from the dealer doesn't make it a classically tough John Deere.