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Hi everyone,

Our JD LA 120 is pushing 300 hours, so we're considering selling it and spending up to $2,000 on a used lawn tractor. Can you suggest something that would be appropriate for these conditions?

* mow 1 acre
* bag hardwood leaves from 4 acres (this is "mowed" with a bush hog)
* yard is quite hilly
* quality of cut is not a priority
* occasionally pull a trailer
* needs to last a *long* time with low maintenance
* prefer HST

Thanks for the input.

Have you ever used a Zero turn mower, how rough is the ground.
I would buy a used commercial mower bought from an individual that was never used commercially.
The dealer only wanted to give me $750 for my old TORO on trade in and it was a $7,600 mower new.

Euclid said:

Hi everyone,

Our JD LA 120 is pushing 300 hours, so we're considering selling it and spending up to $2,000 on a used lawn tractor. Can you suggest something that would be appropriate for these conditions?

* mow 1 acre
* bag hardwood leaves from 4 acres (this is "mowed" with a bush hog)
* yard is quite hilly
* quality of cut is not a priority
* occasionally pull a trailer
* needs to last a *long* time with low maintenance
* prefer HST

Thanks for the input.

Click to expand...

Your list of wants does not match your price range. Your wants list is a $3000.00 machine.

Padroo said:

Have you ever used a Zero turn mower, how rough is the ground.
I would buy a used commercial mower bought from an individual that was never used commercially.
The dealer only wanted to give me $750 for my old TORO on trade in and it was a $7,600 mower new.

Click to expand...

Yes, we've use a zero turn mower, and it was great. But we prefer a lawn tractor now.

The ground is fairly rough. We're out in the country. This is not a manicured lawn.

BlazNT said:

Your list of wants does not match your price range. Your wants list is a $3000.00 machine.

Click to expand...

Yeah, isn't that the way it always works?

Okay, what would you suggest for that price? I get the impression that we don't want the ubiquitous K46 transmission because of our hills.

Thanks.

Is your ground rougher than this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etDoBcFc7bI&list=PLmiQy0uxdzZJbn3ocNZGf2lPk-HJA20y5

Padroo said:

Is your ground rougher than this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etDoBcFc7bI&list=PLmiQy0uxdzZJbn3ocNZGf2lPk-HJA20y5

Click to expand...

In places, yes. There is also small gravel in spots.

We're not going for a manicured, striped lawn here.

If you have the time, look high and low for a JD 4XX series. There are deals to be had if you can catch one.

I was in the same boat as you at the end of 2017. Had a JD L120 with 240 hours on it and was ready to get rid of it due to new property with more mowing duties. I stumbled upon a 1999 JD 425 with AWS, 724 hours for $1500. An older widowed lady posted it on nextdoor.com and was selling it due to some maintenance items she just didn't want to spend the $$ on. I bought it 2 days after she posted. It just needed some minor TLC. It has run great all summer and saved me several thousands on what I was going to spend on a zero turn.

Sticks to inclines like a billy goat due to the widened rears. I sold the L120 for $650.

If there are a lot of hills you will need to go with one of the mower, or better still garden tractors with a horizontal crank engine.
Garden tractors have a lot stronger transmissions than mowers so they handle hills a lot better, last a lot longer & usually have an external replacable filter.
Horizontal shaft engine can happily get tipped 45 degrees with little damage, do that to 3/4 of the vertical shaft engines and it will be good bye crankshaft.
Really rough ground dictates a fabricated deck or at least a very heavy pressed deck.

SO look for a 3000 series cub cadet but if you get one of them also look for some spindles as Cub discontinued support for these mowers in 2015.
Thus commercial users began dumping them, The 2000 series are also really tough but the decks are not as heavy as you would need thus require regular panel beating.

Then there is the Bolens GTX / Troybilt Duratrac there are thousands of them out there at less than a grand.
Again a downside is that Eatons no longer support them as they got out of mowers all together because they refused to downgrade their product to a price that mower makers would pay.
However because there were so many there is a lot of aftermarket parts and a couple of single model specialist who make parts for them.
Good side is I see them with anything from 5000 hours to 36,000 hours ( when the meter stopped working ) still running like a top .

Then there are the Hondas, Honda got out of tractor style mowers back in 1997 ( for the same reason as Eaton ) yet there are thousands of them still running strong, I have several in my service run & you just can not kill them.

Do not expect to get a pristine mower for the money you are willing to spend and be prepared to either live with a few niggles or do some repairs yourself.
The bonnets on most mowers is simply cosmetic so do not be afraid of buying one without a bonnet and they tend to go cheap.

Thanks, weathda and bertsmobile1. That's very helpful.

Here's my list of recommendations so far:

• John Deere 4xx
• Cub Cadet 3xxx
• Cub Cadet 2xxx
• Bolens GTX/Troybilt Duratec
• Honda ?

Any other suggestions?

Here's what I've found within 200 miles on Craigslist:

John Deere 455 - $2,200
Cub Cadet 2166 - $850
Cub Cadet 2160 - $650
Honda 3813 - $800
Honda 4515 - $800

Comments, please? Do any of these seem particularly better or worse?

I have sent questions about them (hours, issues, etc.), but I haven't received any replies yet.


Thanks!

Don't forget to look on Facebook Marketplace too. I see a few 425's in Alabama.

The 455 you posted looks like a good price, but I would want to check it out really good. Looks a bit weathered. The skin on the 4xx series are a bit delicate, but they have good bones. Tt might be a good price if it checks out.

The 455 has the Yanmar diesel and it looks like it has the 60" deck. Would be interesting to know hours and if the gauges/dash lights work or not. Should have a temp and fuel gauge. Obviously, lots of things to check before you buy.

FYI: the 425 has the 20hp Kawi v-twin with horizontal shaft and the 445 has the same Kawi rated at 22hp but is fuel injected. All three series share the same cooling system and have the same hydraulic features (power steering, lift and 2 circuit aux).

Those cubs look like they're in good shape, but I don't know much about them.

Euclid said:

Here's what I've found within 200 miles on Craigslist:

John Deere 455 - $2,200
Cub Cadet 2166 - $850
Cub Cadet 2160 - $650
Honda 3813 - $800
Honda 4515 - $800

Comments, please? Do any of these seem particularly better or worse?

I have sent questions about them (hours, issues, etc.), but I haven't received any replies yet.


Thanks!

Click to expand...

First, when looking at used mowers, tractor data is your best friend http://www.tractordata.com/
Of the 4 you have found to date,
The JD is the only one that still has factory support, it will be the most expensive to repair but it should give many years of good service.
The pollycarbonate outer bodies get brittle & break off the mounting tabs but they are cosmetic only so you can run without them bit that makes them hard to sell.
The price is good

The Cubs will be the easiest to repair, they were commercial mowers in their day.
The electrics are a PIA to repair and are the weakest part of the tractor.
I have a lot of them in my service run.
The shaft drive is excellent the std blades will chop trees and the deck is the easiest to remove.
MTD adopted the Cub deck mount across it's entire range after they purchased Cub ( think it was the only reason why they bought Cub ).
The decks are the lightest & I weld reo bar around the front to strengthen them as my customers continually drive the decks into star pickets. bit rocks tree stumps etc which bends the deck back & fouls on the blades.

The Hondas will be the least likely to require repair, they are tough & bullet proof .
They have a much stronger deck that the Cubs ( and heavier ) blades are not as tough but there is a Gator replacement.
The only down side is mower parts, some of which ( throttle lever ) are NLA but if you are happy & handy with making a wrong parts fit, they will serve you well.
The water cooled engines have a very long life

bertsmobile1 said:

The only down side is mower parts, some of which ( throttle lever ) are NLA but if you are happy & handy with making a wrong parts fit, they will serve you well.
The water cooled engines have a very long life

Click to expand...

NLA means "no longer available"?

Thanks for all the good information!

Yes,
I have replaced 2 of them to date .
One was replaced with a generic pull out ( like a choke ) cables & the other with a push mower one bolted to the side.
Not too critical cause they have individual choke & throttle cables so just as long as the replacement can get to WFO bob's your uncle.

Cub no longer supports the old 2000 series and the spindles are becoming hard to find down here.
We could see a Stens, Rotary , Prime Line or Oregon pattern replacement.
However these are true commercial spindles so have tapered roller bearings that last for a very long time if you give the grease nipples a shot every month or so.
Most of the used ones come in with lazy work arounds for wiring problems like push button starters or toggle switch blade engagements.
Those parts are available but they take a bit of getting to.

All of them are good prices and all of them should give you a long service life if you keep the maintenance up.
The trouble is people buy them cheap then decide not to fix them because the fix is a large amount of money compared to what they bought them for.

Down here people will happily put a new engine into a low end mower that they bought new but refuse to do the same with a high end mower they bought used regardless of the fact that the high end with a new engine will outlast their new mower many times over.
I call that accountant thinking because it is all about the money and totally ignores the engineering.
Good for me because I pick up mower really cheaply and I can easily fix & sell with a new mower warranty, safe in the knowledge that they will outlast nearly every big box brand new mower.