lawn tractor service?

[427]

I have a 2003 John Deere G 100 garden tractor. I bought it new in July of 02 at a cost of $4300. It mows good has plenty of power but the problem is its service life. At 125 hours on it the transmission went out.And as luck would have it the warranty did 3 months prior.I got a new tranny for it now 305 hours on it and its gone to. I dont pull anything with it and just use it to mow. I ve never even had to put a deck belt or drive belt on it just the two trannys and two batteries. Anybody else have any luck like mine with a mower? Brian

[Ranchero50]

I have a hard time deriving the return on investment of a $4300 lawn mower, even though you paid half of it for the grean paint and yellow decals, still a I can't see $2150 for a lawn mower unless it was a used Scag or other commercial zero turn mower.

For me and quite a few others we just ride around on bulk pickup nights and get the junk the yuppies throw out. Last year my brother got a very new MTD tractor with a flat tire at the curb. Their pretty new JD one was sitting beside the house uncovered. My current one is just a simple mulching push mower with a Honda motor, paid $30 for it nearly new with broken and bent wheel hubs. An hours worth of work making some new bushings and it'll last another ten years or so.

My brother did end up selling the MTD and got a Troy Built zero turn at Lowes for $1500 or so two years ago for his side landscape business. It's paid for itself twice and still functions like new. Only repair was fixing the muffler that he tore off due to the crap bolts threading into the sheetmetal...

Jamie

[FLATBEDFORD]

I bought a '68 IH Cub Cadet 125 last year with a 42" deck, Snow blade, and snow thrower for $600. The warranty was expired when I bought it, but I have been ok so far...

[427]

Those old cub,s sure are some tough mowers.My neighbor had one and it just kept going and going.

[flyboy71]

For me and quite a few others we just ride around on bulk pickup nights and get the junk the yuppies throw out. Last year my brother got a very new MTD tractor with a flat tire at the curb. Their pretty new JD one was sitting beside the house uncovered. My current one is just a simple mulching push mower with a Honda motor, paid $30 for it nearly new with broken and bent wheel hubs. An hours worth of work making some new bushings and it'll last another ten years or so.

My brother did end up selling the MTD and got a Troy Built zero turn at Lowes for $1500 or so two years ago for his side landscape business. It's paid for itself twice and still functions like new. Only repair was fixing the muffler that he tore off due to the crap bolts threading into the sheetmetal...
Jamie

You sound like my grandfather. He would snag anything sitting out on pickup day that someone left along the road for dead. He usually got them running and used them. Now he has about 10 riders and a dozen push mowers of which very little from any of them fit on any of the others. The old push mowers all had B&S engines that were identical so those were definately swappable once the decks rusted thru. I still have one in my shed that I dont use but its kinda cool. You have to wrap the cord around the top and yank it off to start it. Good old stuff. Years before all the safety crap was put on them.

[fordman]

sell it as is or fix it and sell it.

[cdeal28078]

People on the tractor forums gave me heck for buying my John Deere LA115 from Lowes saying it wasn't a real John Deere. I paid $1500 or so for it and it still runs great but I will sell it as soon as I get my new to me 1984-85 Ford LGT12H running and mowing. It is a real garden tractor. I have heard many stories of either the engines and transmissions going out on all newish models of John Deeres. There is always either an engine or transmission bad Deere for sale on line around here on Craigs. They just are not any good I fear. I want to sell mine while it is still running and pulling.
I have a 67 Simplicity with a 12hp Briggs that runs rain or shine and will pull a plow through a yard 12" deep without grunting.
Good luck with your Deere.
clint

[woods]

I bought a '68 IH Cub Cadet 125 last year with a 42" deck, Snow blade, and snow thrower for $600. The warranty was expired when I bought it, but I have been ok so far...
[ Image ]

Are you sure the warranty is expired? Might want to look into that just to be safe.

Yeah, I have some no name pile of a rider. It really looks a lot like the same stamped out tin the rest of them are made of with the briggs v-twin. I got it for free. The guy who had it busted the plastic hood and since he could not be seen driving such a horror in his neighborhood, he just gave it away. I yanked the hood off, called it fixed and have been mowing with it for three years.

Listen...when you're a heavily tattooed guy in a dirty white tank top with a shaved head and a slight beer buzz...riding a fancy mower does not turn you into the king of England all of a sudden, so I just stick with a mower that matches me. Run down, dirty and rude.

[SmokeyBurnout]

1982 John Deere 116, payed $100 for it. Put about $100 in it and i've been using it for almost 3 years now! It's not the prettiest but gets the job done!!!

[fordman]

well i know this is going off topic. i am sorry about your transmission. but if it is going to do that or be famous about doing that. it is time to go. anyway the off topic part i have is. my rider. is a mtd . with a crappy Tecumseh engine in it. it idles rough but evens out when the deck is engaged. i paid 50.00 for it last year. it has a tire that goes flat between mowing time. and it has to be eithered sometimes before it will start. it blew the crankshaft seal out of it last week after i got done mowing. i put a used drive belt on it last year. i put the oil seal back on in the hole the other day. and refilled the oil. i have yet to drive it. but it doesn't leak. it goes and mows. thats all i need.

[427]

I remember when I was a kid my dad bought an old Dynamark rider. It was ten years old and we used it for ten years before the motor went.He bought of a couple moving out of state for $100. I wish they still made them Id buy one.

[cdeal28078]

There is or was a class action lawsuit going on about lawn mowers. I don't know if it is still there but I put in for it and told everybody I knew, including here about it. I got about $45 back and a friend got $75 and an extended warranty on his Zero Turn mower. Do a search on lawn mower class action and see if you can still be a part of it. Maybe you can get an extended warranty out of it. It had something to do with them misleading people about the horse power of the engines.
Here it is. I didn't read it to see if it was still going on as I have to get busy
https://lawnmowerclass.com/
clint

[woods]

I wonder if anything similar has been done about air compressors. For a while there, they were sticking some pretty high HP stickers on them. I notice that they now all have the same set up as before, but the hp sticker is less than half of what it once said.

[cdeal28078]

I know what you mean Woods. I have a $360 6HP 60 gallon oil-less air compressor. No way that noisy POS engine is a 6 HP.
I hate that thing. All I have to do is head in that direction and say to my dogs "turning it on" and they flee to the house. Especially the Jack Russel Terrorist. She has a weary eye on me if I even get towards that end of the shop.
I guess it'll take many people calling in and complaining before anything gets started. Only thing I can say about the oil-less set up is I did get my truck sanded and painted with it. Only problem was water in the lines but no oil problems. Water is easier to separate, for me anyway.
There sure have been a lot of those Deeres with blown engines and trannies though. Any lawn mower site has many people on there complaining about them. I think John Deere should do something about all of them as there is a problem for sure. I didn't pay near as much for my mower as 427 did but I would still be mad as a wet hornet if my Briggs or my tranny in mine blew up. Good luck 427.
clint

[Ranchero50]

Woods, I think I have the same one, black professional stand up job, cylinders are just cups, crankshaft requires the nut to hold the crank srtaight on the shaft. After it blew up the first time I spent the $120 to get everything but the motor and after it blew again a year later I just left it sit... Current compressor started life in a telephone truck, little inline guy but it just keeps compressing...

Jamie