archibald tuttle
New member
- Joined
- Sep 18, 2011
- Messages
- 7
- Tractor
- Allis 160, 185
Looking at an HT20
and GTX16
to replace a Murray Garden Tractor with 21H twin that we have been pulling with. all the mowing is handled by smaller Murray's. This was inherited from a sister. used a lot of gas but basically got the job done, but having a hard time tuning the clunky two belt continuous drive transmission to put up with pulling lately. I probably went too hard on it although it did pretty well for half dozen years we had it.
I'm a hair gunshy of tyring to pull with a Murray with a hyrdostatic drive. We run lots of them for mowing and they work great, great convenience and groundspeed control on the fly but this tractor pulls all the time. Now alot of it is relatively light dump cart work. But we do put a 4' york rake on it when needed and its always got chains mounted. And when I get going on something like that, it is likely to run for a couple hours at a stretch and it really is a bit of pulling if the rake is set deep or I put a little weight on it.
I can't quite tell the age of the Bolens I'm looking at by the HT-20 is a straight Bolens and the GTX16 is a Troy-Bilt labeled tractor. Don't know the Bolen/Troybilt line the way I know the Murrays. I can just look at the color and body style and get within a couple years of how old a murray mower is, but I'm lost in this world.
Both of these mowers seemed aimed at the full garden tractor market rathen then just mower use. They have hydraulic lifts and hyrdraulic power steering and the like. The GTX16 is after the Troy-bilt name came in but I think it is about 10 or 12 years old.
Don't know if that makes it a once proud workhorse whose name has been sacrificed to cheaper sale in the big boxes or it still carries any of the weight of the Bolens reputation. And don't know if the Bolens hydrostatic setups were heavy enough for the kind of use I envision which is heavy for lawn tractors even though we have been doing it with a Murray.
thanks for any thoughts, heads up on model or serial number ranges or body styles, transmission models or anything that could help me sort whether these machines might be worth pursuing for my use.
brian
and GTX16
to replace a Murray Garden Tractor with 21H twin that we have been pulling with. all the mowing is handled by smaller Murray's. This was inherited from a sister. used a lot of gas but basically got the job done, but having a hard time tuning the clunky two belt continuous drive transmission to put up with pulling lately. I probably went too hard on it although it did pretty well for half dozen years we had it.
I'm a hair gunshy of tyring to pull with a Murray with a hyrdostatic drive. We run lots of them for mowing and they work great, great convenience and groundspeed control on the fly but this tractor pulls all the time. Now alot of it is relatively light dump cart work. But we do put a 4' york rake on it when needed and its always got chains mounted. And when I get going on something like that, it is likely to run for a couple hours at a stretch and it really is a bit of pulling if the rake is set deep or I put a little weight on it.
I can't quite tell the age of the Bolens I'm looking at by the HT-20 is a straight Bolens and the GTX16 is a Troy-Bilt labeled tractor. Don't know the Bolen/Troybilt line the way I know the Murrays. I can just look at the color and body style and get within a couple years of how old a murray mower is, but I'm lost in this world.
Both of these mowers seemed aimed at the full garden tractor market rathen then just mower use. They have hydraulic lifts and hyrdraulic power steering and the like. The GTX16 is after the Troy-bilt name came in but I think it is about 10 or 12 years old.
Don't know if that makes it a once proud workhorse whose name has been sacrificed to cheaper sale in the big boxes or it still carries any of the weight of the Bolens reputation. And don't know if the Bolens hydrostatic setups were heavy enough for the kind of use I envision which is heavy for lawn tractors even though we have been doing it with a Murray.
thanks for any thoughts, heads up on model or serial number ranges or body styles, transmission models or anything that could help me sort whether these machines might be worth pursuing for my use.
brian