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How’s it going ?

So buying new house 1/3 acre and has good amount of lawn.

There is a used John Deere La 125 for $800 with bagger system. Not sure how many hours as of now , however they say it’s 3 years old

What is a good/ bad amount of hours for 3 years & how can you tell the hours.

Overall. Is $800 a lot ?

Thanks a lot ,

371.5 hrs. 4 years old. Thanks

The average is around 50 hours a year and the one you want is 92 hours per year.

No matter what you wind-up getting, IF, you're going to do your own maint., BE SURE you get the associated Manuals for your machine, Owners Guide, Parts Manual, & Service Manual, ( if available ) change oil & ALL filters annually, water is the machines enemy, (RUST NEVER SLEEPS) proper maintenance insures a long-life.. AND take good close up pics of ALL the machines info data plates & stickers, and ALL the springs ( BOTH-ENDS ) of the mower and the cutting deck also take loads of pics during maint/repairs, many manuals have pics that leave much to be desired ... Best of Luck !! .. :thumbsup:

BlazNT said:

The average is around 50 hours a year and the one you want is 92 hours per year.

Click to expand...

Thanks. And the looks of it , it’s definitely older than four years. So especially with the hours my guess it’s more like 8-9 years old

Here's a lil info ... be sure to click on the boxes at the top under pic of tractor ...

http://www.tractordata.com/lawn-tractors/000/6/3/639-john-deere-la125.html

Do not buy from a lier.

If your property is mainly level ground you might get by with that mower. The mower probably has the Tuff Torq hydro transmission and those are usually good for about 300 to 350 hours until they start to die. Will get hot and forward speed slows and can even stall on a hill, reverse goes away amost completely. I'd pass on that JD and get something new even though the expenditure hurts with all that you've got going on. Just my opinion from owning one of those hydros and replacing it $$$.

John Deer put the DOM ( date of manufacture) on the mower ID tag so before we go calling people names, ask for a photo of the plate.
The LA series used Briggs engines and they also have a date code in the serial number.
The hour meter on that model records the hours that the ignition was turned on, not the hours that the mower was running or even the blades turning.
Not uncommon for some one to leave the mower turned on accidentially for a week and run up a lot of phantom hours.
Done it myself several times myself when servicing mowers here.

Normally, I would concentrate on how the machine looks, rust, how well it runs, rust, MAINTAINANCE, oil, feel the pulleys for wear, belts, etc.

If all looked good, I would do a leak down test on the engine to see the internal "health" of the engine.


***As posted earlier, if that machine's transmission has a history of failure (even if taken care of), I'd keep away from it..

Thanks everyone on this. I told him the amount of hours versus how old he says it is ,Is way too much and especially since they stop production in 2010. He came back with yeah I’m just going to give it to family.