jinman
Rest in Peace
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2001
- Messages
- 21,008
- Location
- Texas - Wise County - Sunset
- Tractor
- NHTC45D, NH LB75B, Ford Jubilee
. . . have you spent on your JD lawn tractor/mower?
Yesterday as I shut off my LA145, I glanced down at the hour meter and noticed it was 128 hours. Last week when I put new blades on it, I noticed one spindle is starting to loosen up. It's still working fine, but just indicates that I will have to install my 2nd new spindle from my stocked parts by the end of this year's mowing season. With all the other repair parts I've put on this mower (battery, spindles, idlers, broken clutch retainer strap, carburetor repair kit, etc) I now have approximately $2660 in this mower not counting my own time. That got me to thinking about how much per hour this mower has cost me and how much longer I'll need to use it before taking it to the metal scrapper.
Right now, it has cost me $20.77 per operating hour. I'm pretty sure at that price, I could have hired my lawn cut. Sure, this mower will last another 100 hours or so with heavy maintenance, but I'll be lucky to ever break the $10 per hour cost. Ideally, I'd like to have $5 per hour or less, but maybe that's a pipe dream. True enough, If I sell the mower today and get half of what I paid for it. That would put me at $10.40 per hour; still expensive when fuel/oil is not in my equation. I bought this mower at my local JD dealer and the salesman was extremely low-pressure during the sale. He recommended the X3xx series, but said for mowing only I should be okay with the LA145. I'm thinking that a cheaper mower that fails early in its life or is high maintenance is not really a bargain. My MTBF is so low on this mower that I've renamed it "Mean Time Between Frustration." I don't think my patience level will ever let me keep this mower to the point of calling it a good return on my investment.
How about some of you other JD owners with X3xx or X5xx machines? The problem with any of these machines is that they are so new that actual long-term numbers may not exist. I just wonder how many X3xx or X5xx owners are out there that have had a mower over three years and spent $500 to $600 in repair parts. To me, that's a very telling statistic about these mowers. I also know that a single PTO clutch and a couple of belts could put me up near to $1000 in repair/maintence costs. If you hear me complaining in these forums, it's because I wish John Deere would walk away from a market where they can't compete. If I had it to do over, I'd spend over twice as much on a quality machine with longer MTBF and better ROI.
Yesterday as I shut off my LA145, I glanced down at the hour meter and noticed it was 128 hours. Last week when I put new blades on it, I noticed one spindle is starting to loosen up. It's still working fine, but just indicates that I will have to install my 2nd new spindle from my stocked parts by the end of this year's mowing season. With all the other repair parts I've put on this mower (battery, spindles, idlers, broken clutch retainer strap, carburetor repair kit, etc) I now have approximately $2660 in this mower not counting my own time. That got me to thinking about how much per hour this mower has cost me and how much longer I'll need to use it before taking it to the metal scrapper.
Right now, it has cost me $20.77 per operating hour. I'm pretty sure at that price, I could have hired my lawn cut. Sure, this mower will last another 100 hours or so with heavy maintenance, but I'll be lucky to ever break the $10 per hour cost. Ideally, I'd like to have $5 per hour or less, but maybe that's a pipe dream. True enough, If I sell the mower today and get half of what I paid for it. That would put me at $10.40 per hour; still expensive when fuel/oil is not in my equation. I bought this mower at my local JD dealer and the salesman was extremely low-pressure during the sale. He recommended the X3xx series, but said for mowing only I should be okay with the LA145. I'm thinking that a cheaper mower that fails early in its life or is high maintenance is not really a bargain. My MTBF is so low on this mower that I've renamed it "Mean Time Between Frustration." I don't think my patience level will ever let me keep this mower to the point of calling it a good return on my investment.
How about some of you other JD owners with X3xx or X5xx machines? The problem with any of these machines is that they are so new that actual long-term numbers may not exist. I just wonder how many X3xx or X5xx owners are out there that have had a mower over three years and spent $500 to $600 in repair parts. To me, that's a very telling statistic about these mowers. I also know that a single PTO clutch and a couple of belts could put me up near to $1000 in repair/maintence costs. If you hear me complaining in these forums, it's because I wish John Deere would walk away from a market where they can't compete. If I had it to do over, I'd spend over twice as much on a quality machine with longer MTBF and better ROI.