Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss time to look at lawn tractors

I have never bought a tractor (riding lawn mower) before and am not very educated on them. I found two used Craftsman mowers in the area, each about $1100. I will negotiate the price down. One is a YS4500 Lawn Tractor, 21 hp, 46" deck with a double bagger (new in 2009) and the other is older (don't know model yet, but is gray with a boxy front), but comes with a snow plow and craftsman trailer.

I have around an acre to mow at the pond, plus using it for hauling rocks and such.

Any advice? What should I be asking?

My dad who lives on my property in the summer when not in Florida is pretty much my groundskeeper. He swears by John Deer. I've seen a lot of lesser mowers end up in the junk pile. Of course they aren't cheap but dear ol' dad bought it and he drives a Mercedes SUV.

Air cooled or water cooled? Hydrostatic trans or regular? Take a look at the air filter on them, and how the overall look of the machine is, in the not easily washed places. Take a look at the mower deck (underneath) are the blades all beat up or in good condition? Is the deck in good shape or has it been beat up and run into things?

Sit on them, are you comfortable, or are your knees up around the steering wheel?

Dad has a 2 year old Craftsman, where you have to manually shift between forward, neutral and reverse, and another lever governs how fast the machine travels. I have a JD 345 with a hydrostatic trans, and the harder I push on the pedal the faster the ground speed is. I prefer the JD over his system. My seat is further away from the pedals as well, and is more comfortable to drive.

Make sure that you can mow in reverse as well, his has a setting where it will shut off the blades if you go in reverse - that's a PITA. You can override that setting, which is how it's run.

You'll probably need wheel weights and chains to plow snow.

What service have the machines had? Oil changed regularly? Do any of the machines have an hour meter? Look for any grease fittings on the steering or front axle. If there are some, have they been greased?

I apologize. I misread your post Coach. As is par for the course Esshup has outstanding advice.

did you make a purchase yet?

Stay away from Ariens. Been here/Done that.

To get myself through college I did 2 things, drywall & landscaping in the summer, selling john deere's in the winter.

The first thing you should look for is the brand of engine, and then find out if it has a fully pressurized lubrication system. A lot of the small-mid sized lawn machinery use briggs&stratton, which when under 26HP only uses a splasher system that kinda haphazardly throws oil up into the engine. While not a bad system (certainly helps keep the price down) they tend to malfunction for owners who have steep hills to mow on, or who change directions a lot. The oil moves to one side of the pan and the splasher doesn't get enough to throw up into the engine.

A pressurized system (look for kawasaki brand engines for the best ones, or kholer, at least when i was in this business they were best...like 4-5 years ago) are just like a standard lube system with an oil pump etc.

Also, if you are going to put a trailer on and haul rocks..be careful with a small-to-mid lawn tractor, @ 21hp you might want to take it really really slow..I don't know how often you plan on doing that...but if it with frequency (like, more than once a month for a while...) you may want to look into a few more HP, at least that's how i would upsell people from the standard 19.5briggs in the value john-deers.

best of luck.
-skinny

A 46" deck with 21HP sounds about right..i bet with a 21 you could upgrade to a 48 without any issues.

That's a nice piece right there. If you can pony up the bucks, i would recommend a similar model to this...it'll cure what ails ya. they've been around long enough that there are likely to be used ones around.

another great thing about the 345....with some compact models the manufacturers take compact to the extreme. Some homeowners like that, because they have limited storage space in a shed or garage, but Deere throws that principle out the window on a lot of models to make for more comfortable driving/operating.
This is standard on most lawn tractors nowadays...but a reputable deere dealer probably has a good mechanic that can disable it for you.

Try just the chains first then go for the weights, imo. The chains will do most of everything on their own, but the weights are really nice when you need extra traction. They also make an AWESOME upsell. Which may be why i warn against them, because i know how easy it is to get someone to buy them.

Coach -- just one more tidbit for you. When my old manual shift mower went down, I replaced it with a John Deere hydrostatic, and it cut my mowing time in half. Truly.

If you have to mow around/next to a lot of obstacles (most of our mowing is alongside a mile or so of fencerows) hydrostatic is fantastic for being able to slow down and speed up as needed.

I abhor my Dad's Craftsman as compared to my JD. It's almost to the point that I'd be willing to trailer my JD with it's 54" deck to his place to cut the grass rather than use his Craftsman with the 46" or 48" deck. It's not so much the deck, it's the hydrostatic trans and the seating position.

Thanks for all the great input. I looked at both of the used ones I was considering, and they were not as advertised. I am rethinking and waiting for some more to come up on the classified. I see that this is like a small marriage, so I want to take my time and get the right one.

OK, now that all the dyed-in-the-wool country boys have weighed in, my 2 city-boy cents.
We're talking about a lawn tractor here. Not even a garden tractor...a riding grass cutting machine.
One of my many acronym names is WGS: world's greatest shopper. It's what I do and likely explains my many years of success as a steel purchasing agent earlier on in life. Most folks just call me a cheapskate. Either way, I'm good at it.
When it comes to a riding grass cutting machine, Sears Craftsman will do just fine. OK, if you have a couple extra grand that you just gotta spend to get JD green, then we drink at different ends of the saloon. If it was a tractor with a 3-point hitch, I would move closer to the other end of the bar. For a lawn tractor, I would be scrutinizing the various Craftsman offerings.
Totally agree with the hydrostatic tranny. Our C-M garden tractor has a 21 HP Kohler twin with pressurized oil and filter. The hydrostatic unit is built by Hydrogear in Sullivan, IL. All decent stuff. We bought it in 1996 when we bought 5 acres of beanfield in the far-'burb's to build our current home. That thing has roto-tilled 2 acres repeatedly to prepare for grass seeding, pushed dirt(in mini-Otto piles) for landscaping, and blown sub-zero snow drifts into oblivion. Not to mention the gazillion times that Dski has cut the grass with it. Longevity? It's all in the maintenance.
Also agreed that the engine is everything. Fortunately, C-M uses and offers some good engine options. They aren't ALL the best, but a savvy buyer will select the right unit. I am "thumbs up" on Kohler. There are a couple of B&S engine lines that get great reviews; Tom G could expound. I think their Vanguard is build by Subaru; good stuff. (correct me if I'm wrong).
Now, the last cent from WGS....and one of my most valuable secrets. Go to Sears Outlet.com This is their clearing house and there are some SUPER DEALS to be had here. You can select the stores that you want to peruse, then the product, then the details of what they are clearing out. More importantly, this is ALL the Sears stores...not just the outlet store. Yeah, many of these deals are right in the Sears at the mall. Take a look. We're talking alot of cool household stuff, here. Heck, Dski and I have already purchased our wall oven, cooktop, and downdraft ventilator fan for our new kitchen at the LNP project. All you do is watch and wait. The discounts move around. One week they're only 20%, the next week 40%, the following week back to 20%, then...when they are really tired of looking at it, it's 60 or 70% off. BAM! You call the store to verify it's there and ask the salesperson real nicely to be your eyes and tell you what they think of it. In some cases, and we know this for fact cuz we dun it, the item will be listed as refurbished but it is brand new stock that is discontinued. You gotta be a little vigilent and let nice folks help you out.
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I would spend a week or 2 watching lawn tractors in your area.

I would recommend a Cub Cadet for a lawn tractor. I have an LT1050, would never consider a Craftsman. My second choice would be Kubota, third would be MF, fourth in a tie would be JD and NH.

i'll second that cub's are good stuff, but i completely disagree that JD's should be outside of the top 3. Call me biased.....

B'ski, Kohler makes a nice v-twin engine. Pressure lube and all the good stuff. Cub Cadet carries the best warranty in the market. I have a 4 wheel wagon I pull (from tsc) and have no problem pulling 1700 lbs through our soils or terrain. Nice thing is that this is a wagon, not a trailer. No tong weight.

That's an awesome engine. Deere used to use it in the GX series, don't know why they aren't using it anymore, but it and the 26hp kawasaki were my favorites.
never heard of that..but if so, kudos to you for bringing it up, as a deere advocate, i will admit that warranty is a HUGE deal - most of the deere lawn tractors a few years back only had like a 40hour full warranty + a 3 year limited.

another good point to look for a wagon instead of a trailer. Good stuff JKB, solid advice.

That is only for small equipment, but I probably would put JD in the top three for some larger equipment. I would drop CC and NH out. Prefer Kubota, and it would be a close call for JD and MF . Then if you go larger, I would probably pick Challenger.

My CC has a three year warranty on the engine and FIVE YEAR on the rest.

It is a real pain to learn how to back up a steerable wagon, but with practice...

that is an awesome warranty...and yeah, practice makes perfect with the wagons & trailers.
When i actually get a bigger piece of property that requires a tractor as opposed to my like 4 blades of grass that i have room for in my yard...i might look into a cub. Thanks for the input, JKB, much appreciated.

Once again, I thought CoachB was looking for a machine to cut the grass that was comfortable to ride upon.
For $1200, including a hydro tranny, I think I would be OK cutting grass on something as simple as this.

We bought a brand new Swisher zero turn with a 60 inch deck last year to maintain our pond property. It was $3,400. The first one we got was junk. Was missing several bolts, the hour meter shorted out and one of the control cables was improperly mounted. Took it back and got a replacement. It's top notch. Love it. The first one must have been built on a Friday. hehe...

I thought He was looking for something He could mow an acre, haul rocks with, and possibly plow snow, at about a grand or so used. I just chimed in with my experience and preferences.

my $.02 are long gone
out