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Riding lawnmowers

runamok151 said:
You looking for a riding mower or a garden tractor? There is a difference and tractors are considerably more $ for what may look like a similar machine. Mowers are really just for mowing and may have a hitch to pull a lawn sweeper or small yard cart. Tractors will have beefier hydros and transaxles, will be able to pull a heavier wagon and may be able to run small implements like snow blowers, loaders, sweepers.

2nd ? How much do you have to mow and how often? Riding mowers usually only go about 2 mph and are good for 1 or 1 1/2 acres. Much larger than that and you may want to look at a zero turn. I'm mowing 4 1/2 acres now. It was taking me up to 8 hours to mow everything on my JD D110 w/ 42" deck. I just sold that and bought my neighbor's old Cub Cadet Z-force S w/ a 54" deck for $1100. Went from 2 to 5 mph and now it only takes me 3:15 to mow the property.
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I’m looking for the tractor although I have no plans for plows or other stuff. Just mowing a hilly 1acre lot and maybe hauling around some rocks in a small trailer. I admit I’m kinda stuck between wanting a nicer riding mower with fuel injection (CC XT1 or xt2) and an older tractor that might be able to do a bit more than mow.

Here’s the JD I was looking at.
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Looks beat...probably not very well taken care of, keep searching!
 
Hydrostats in newer riding mowers dont last long in hilly yards..seen many with the K46 Tuff-Torque ones fail in 2 years ,just the weight of a full bagger attachment and hills can fry one rather quickly..
 
diesel4me said:
Hydrostats in newer riding mowers dont last long in hilly yards..seen many with the K46 Tuff-Torque ones fail in 2 years ,just the weight of a full bagger attachment and hills can fry one rather quickly..
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That's what I'm worried about... I put a bagger on my new Cub Cadet and it definitely groans going uphill
 
Guys on the tractor forum say the best thing to do to make one live longer is to change the fluid to synthetic motor oil--I used Mobil 1 15W-50 in my John Deere L110 .

It was working OK as it was,but when I noticed all the plastic cooling fan blades had been sheared off,I figured the original fluid was probably overheated,and with 450 hours on it,it was "due" ..

Had to pull the transaxle right out and flip it upside down to drain it,no drain plug,and the "filler" is just a plastic plug you cant access without dropping the transaxle and taking off the pulley & fan blade..it was not designed to be "user friendly" as far as upkeep ,or being able to add any fluid should it have a leak at the axles,etc..
Made to fail is more like it..
 
Does the transaxle work better with 15w50 in it? Would that make it last longer?
 
It does seem to pull stronger ,at least in forward--reverse is a bit slow,but if I stomp on the pedal harder it'll back up more forcefully..

Most hydrostats are set up so the linkage in reverse doesn't move the control lever as far as in forward for safety issues,and I think that is the reason,I had to tweak the linkage on my Yard-Man tractor to get it to back up a hill --once I made the linkage have equal travel in both directions,it goes just as fast and pulls much harder in reverse than it ever did..once they get some hours on them the pump pressure drops some,and you need "full travel" on the control lever to get the maximum pulling power back..

I may have to do that to the L110 too...

The synthetic motor oil is supposed to resist high temps and losing viscosity better than the original fluid,which in most cases is just regular 10W-30 or some type of hydraulic or ATF fluid..the thicker viscosity helps keep the pressure higher and lubes better too..

It only took me about 15 minutes to drop the transaxle in the John Deere--never worked on one before,but it was simple--worst part was taking the steering colum bolt off to replace the drive belt,the belt runs around it,and the whole underside of the unit was packed so full of grass clippings it took a crowbar to poke it all out--filled a 5 gallon pail up!..it had the original drive belt,and no one bothered to clean under the "skid plate"...

The belt had rubbed against the grass so long,it was charred !..was lucky it did not ignite and burn it to the ground!..
Replacing the belt made a big improvement on how strong it pulled also...the idler pulley that tightened it couldn't move to its full travel due to the packed in grass clippings..
 
I know a few guys who use a pull behind mower with a quad...
It works ok,but they say it is tough to go slow enough even in first gear (not sure if they have a low range on their quad)--and the engine on one of the quads is air cooled and doesn't like putting along slow on hot days..
A quad with low range and a liquid cooled engine would be best for pulling a tow behind mower..4WD would be nice too,if your mowing rough terrain..
 
Too hard to go slow and steady on a quad. 2-5 mph is not the range a quad does well in.
 
Traction and durability are usually the first concerns with mowing a lot of hills. Never really heard any issues with something running out of power or stalling on hills as they lose traction and spin out first. You can help overcome the traction issue with more aggressive tires and weight, but that is when you get into the durability concerns.

I have an '97 John Deere 425 garden tractor with loaded 26" ATV tires and the factory locking diff which can handle some really steep hills and ditches, but you will have a hard time finding an half-way decent one in your price range. I also run a snowplow on mine after loading up another 300 lbs. of weight on it, and it will pull my 2,000+ lb. 18' steel deck car hauler trailer around the yard easily.

Zero turns are great for mowing grass but steep hills and ditches are their nemesis. The larger quality brand Z-turns can handle decent hills but again good luck finding one anywhere close to the sub-$1,000 range.
 
I have the John Deere to mow only with,I use the old Sears Suburbans as the yard mule,and to plow snow & drag logs with..

The J-D is a joke compared to the old Sears ,its no "tractor",its a riding mower,and some things like the hood on it are as fragile as an egg shell,the chassis is only 1/16" thick ,it is not meant to do anything but mow..the Kohler Command 17.5 HP engine does run nice though..
It is nothing like the "real" J-D from the 60's and 70's like the one pictured above,those were real tractors,..They do sell a plow and snowblower attachment for the L110,but I bet it wouldn't last a winter pushing snow or snowblowing..transaxle would die first,then the "frame" would start cracking..
 
82355 said:
Get a zero turn. Lawn tractors suck.

Martin
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This. Never owned one until here. Will mow circles around any lawn tractors I have ever owned. Mowing 2.5 acres weekly. Timed it yesterday, 1:10 to do it all.

Cub Cadet with a 25 horse Kawasaki, 50 in cut. My lawn tractors would not have mowed this in 5 hours with as slick as it is. Goes up some short slopes along the street at 2:1 slope. Also pulls wheelies on hard pack. So that's a win.

Come borrow mine if you want to try one.
 
My neighbor has been mowing my yard in about 20 minutes with a tractor so it’s not so huge that time is a big factor. I though the zero turns had trouble with big hills and valleys. Mine is only a ~25degree slope, with a drainage pond running down the lowest portion in the back. The zero turn seems like overkill in this case?
 
Brought home the cub cadet 1863 linked earlier. It’s definitely got some wear and tear but runs and mows well enough that I can have some fun fixing it up and getting the lawn/weeds kept under control. At most, there’s only 1/2 acre of grass to keep under control. Deck has some rust, but so did my K5. I like the hydraulic deck and has rear wheel weights for better traction. Not sure if I need the weights yet, but better to have them I guess.
 
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