Well, I have now had 2 bothersome issues.
At 8 hours, one of the O-rings on the loader valve blew out and started pouring hyd. fluid all over the ground - it appeared that the O-ring was pinched when it was assembled at the factory. At around 24 hours, I noticed a small drip on the floor under the tranny, and some oil residue on the tranny bottom. At 30 hours, the next afternoon after mowing, I came home to find a 9"x 4" puddle under the tractor - probably about a tablespoon total. Turns out the fluid is hyd. fluid leaking at the transmission case where the front drive shaft goes in, so possibly another bad gasket.
My salesman told me to go ahead and use it this weekend, then he'll pick it up Monday and get it back to me before the long weekend. The night I found the big leak (Wed.), I decided to go out and really work the tractor for an hour, to see if I could get the gasket to give out, so that if it did, my dealer could pick it up before the weekend and leave me with another machine to use. But, only a small drip Thurs am. Then last night, I took the tractor out to the back yard to hook up my rear blade to the new Pat's Easy Change (which is awesome /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif), and brought it back in and parked it for the night. This morning, another large puddle under the tractor. So it appears that if I work it hard, virtually no leaks. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif I hope that's the M.O. for this weekend, cause I have a lot of work to do.
Other than those 2 freakin gaskets /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif, this machine seems to be quite a workhorse. I'm real happy with my dealer, cause he has to drive a little over an hour each way to come down and pick up and re-deliver, and he hasn't once complained to me about it. That's one of the reasons I bought from him - he assured me that the after-sale support was top notch, and so far, he's right. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif