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Riding mower question. HELP!

Hydrostatic transmissions are convenient to drive but the longevity tends to be poor. They lose fluid and die, or they just stop propelling the tractor, won't go up hills, etc. Since a new one usually costs half the price of the tractor or more, a lot of them get chucked when it goes out. The manual transaxles aren't as slick but they're simple and reliable. I got my 7 year old Craftsman from a father in law who's rough on tractors and it's still going strong.

Find a good used one on that auction site or CL and slap it in if you want to keep the tractor.
 
Time is precious, and grass needs mowed when it needs mowed, letting it go for whatever reason just makes more work. Fixing a mower/ tractor every other week gets old and sucks.

Keep repeating that and in no time you will convince yourself (as did I) that buying a new one is the way to go. Best decision I ever made was ditching the JD 420 with a twice rebuilt Onan in need of another rebuild and lots of hours and picking up a new kubota B2320. Cost me the equivalent of a small car payment for 5 years (though it was interest free). For the past 7 years I have a needed tool that works when I want to use it and will most likely outlast me. Just wish I would have got the front end loader.
 
JT88K5 said:
Time is precious, and grass needs mowed when it needs mowed, letting it go for whatever reason just makes more work. Fixing a mower/ tractor every other week gets old and sucks.

Keep repeating that and in no time you will convince yourself (as did I) that buying a new one is the way to go. Best decision I ever made was ditching the JD 420 with a twice rebuilt Onan in need of another rebuild and lots of hours and picking up a new kubota B2320. Cost me the equivalent of a small car payment for 5 years (though it was interest free). For the past 7 years I have a needed tool that works when I want to use it and will most likely outlast me. Just wish I would have got the front end loader.
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I fought to keep a Husqvarna 26 horse mower going mowing an acre at my house, 1 1/2 acres for my mom and and my daughter's lot in town, plus mowing around the farm because I thought it was saving me money. I spent a small fortune every year on repairs. I finally bought a Kubota BX25D with a 60" mower deck. Not only does it not need many repairs, I get done so much quicker and it uses a fraction of the fuel. I should have bought it years earlier even if it would have meant borrowing some money.
 
My overall goal is to do just that a small tractor. Not a riding mower, but that's 4 years away before that financially feasible. Hence trying to get this newer mower my dad have me going.

It's amazing how much just having a 4 wheeler helps me get stuff done. A small tractor would help even more
 
Well, with a 40 acre farm, I basically have two types of mowing. My old 8N did the field mowing with a PTO mower. But 8Ns were not really designed for moving PTO use. The primary use for the PTO was as a belt drive power supply.
The hydraulic pump was driven by the PTO shaft. So, when you pushed in the clutch to stop the PTO, you lost hydraulics. If I bogged down the mower, I had to stop, get off, disconnect the drive shaft, crank the tractor back up and lift the mower out of whatever stalled it.
Then I could drive away, stop and hook up the mower again.
Plus, the lowest gear on the tractor was a little too fast for mowing in really heavy stuff.

That last part was what kept me from mowing the yard around the house with the tractor. You had to max out the throttle to keep the mower spinning fast enough to cut, which left you spinning around the trees and house way too fast for safety.
So, I bought a Snapper rider.
After a while, the PTO mower started showing signs of impending failure. Gear box was going to have to be rebuilt, drive shaft needed new bearings, and the frame was cracking in a few places.

While I was pricing a new one small enough for my 8N to handle, I discovered the joy of self powered pull behind mowers. I bought a 5 foot brush mower from an outfit called Rough Country. It had about a 20 horse Briggs on top of the deck, with a centrifugal clutch which drove a belt.
The belt drove a shaft that went down through the deck and spun a 5 foot blade. They said it would cut up to a 3 inch pine tree, and it would. I could hook it behind my 4 wheeler, and cut the field, or food plots in the woods. Since the onboard motor ran maxed out regardless, I could gear the pulling vehicle down and run at whatever speed I wanted.
A friend of mine saw it and bought him one. A couple of years later, he bought a tractor with a belly mower, and gave me his pull behind for parts. I fixed it up. You could adjust the pull bar to position the mower from a full mower width off to either side to straight behind.
For a while, I put both mowers side by side behind my 4 foot cut Snapper, with them shifted to either side. 14 foot cut width with one pass!
The mowers finally mostly wore out, but would still be usable. The company seems to be out of business though, and I have no source for a single 5 foot long mower blade.
The pull behind mower companies that are still out there, use a "bush hog" type blade system, with two swinging blades on a center disk or shaft, I had considered trying to convert my mower over to that system, but now I have the Mahindra with the big Brown PTO mower.
Its more than enough to do the field and food plots, and I can put the tractor in low range and mow at what ever ground speed I want with the engine running at correct PTO speed. Plus, since its a live PTO and live hydraulics, I can do height adjustments or even push in the clutch and stop the tractor while the mower keeps spinning.

But, since you already have a 4 wheeler, consider a self powered pull behind mower. Tough, fast, and can cut a large area fast. The final cut is not bad at all. About the same as a regular riding mower I would not mow a golf green with one, since its not up to the task of a finishing mower, but it will get the job done.
Try to get one with electric start. Its nice to pull up to someone, kill the 4 wheeler and mower, talk with them for a while, then just crank back up and go on without getting off the 4 wheeler.
 
If I can't fix the Craftsman for cheap I have considered this. Biggest problem with this is the fact my 4 wheeler is a Polaris, an older sportsman. Locked rear diff, not selectable. It tears up the grass.

Plows snow awesome though
 
Back when I had a 600 series Ford tractor,I too didn't care for the first gear speed,it was just too fast,especially with a loader on it,and I was always slipping the clutch to slow it down...in my opinion those old Ford tractors were only good for plowing a field at high speed,not so much for loader or mowing use--unless they had the optional Sherman gear reduction box,then they were much better suited for chores requiring slower speeds and more power..

The newer riding mowers hydrostats are pretty crappy units in most cases,they do not seem to last long and die quickly if you try pulling heavy carts full of wood or dirt or plow snow with them..the K66 model transaxle has a very poor reputation,and I was shocked to see a brand new riding mower at Lowe's that had a PLASTIC cased transaxle !..what's next ?--nylon gears ?...talk about junk!..

I have a 1990's Yard-Man by MTD with a 20 HP Kohler Magnum and a Hydro-Gear hydrostat--that is the only one I've had that the hydrostat has never shown signs of fatigue or lost speed,or its ability to climb hills after it got warmed up...that tractor has been sitting for 3-4 years since I got several 1960's vintage Sears Suburbans,which are built like tanks in comparison..but I do like the hydrostat for mowing,it makes for much easier control in tight spots when I need to turn around ,beats clutching and shifting gears..

I would scan craigslist daily for any "donor" tractors--up here I see at least one a day being given away that someone let sit too long,or the engine died for various reasons..or go to a local mower repair shop and ask if they have any good used "take outs" in their junk pile--some places strip tractors for parts and sell things like transaxles pretty cheap,often they'll keep ones they knew were good to install in customers tractors...scrappers here often sell transaxles cheap too,but the suck part is its not really possible to test one until you install it..
 
My Husqvarna had a k46 transaxle. I thought it was on it's way out until I put synthetic oil in it. Evidently the manufacturer recommends synthetic, but the lawn mower manufacturers put regular oil in them to save a couple of bucks.
 
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