Differences Between PT-422 & PT-425

[yooperdave]

Will be eventually moving from a 1/4 acre lot to a 1.5 acre lot with new construction for a retirement house out in the country - 10 minutes from town.

I will most likely buy a Power-Trac in some form to take care of our various needs. I plan on adding a mower, forks, bucket and maybe a hoe or auger to plant many trees.

Other than the price & horse power differences between the residential & commercial versions, is it worth buying the commercial version?

Are there haulers out there who regularly deliver to Green Bay, or do I need to drive a truck and trailer to pick up the bundle?

Thanks in Advance

Yooper Dave

 

[BobRip]

The big one for me is 40% more wheel motor torque. I would easily pay the price difference for just that. The Roll Over Protection is also important

 

[woodlandfarms]

Dual steering rams would be a big plus in my book as well.

 

[Marks481]

I have a PT 422. If I had to do it all over again, no question I would have paid the extra bucks for a PT425

1. Extra 10" of lift height. Every time I am using the front loader (or forklift) this rears its ugly head.
2. More power. PT 422 just doesn't have the oomph to push a bush hog without driving slow
3. Single steering arm is a bad design on the PT 422; at least 4 people have reported the clevis ripping off the frame (part of that is the bad location of a water drain hole next to that clevis).
4. Double floor on the driver compartment is a PIA on the PT422. Gets cluttered with debris over time. PT425 has hydraulic steering rams outside, so no false floor on the drivers compartment.

btw, if you buy the 42s, you can still get the ROPS. When I bought mine, it was a $500 (undocumented) option.

 

[MossRoad]

What do you get for $2500 more?

Dual steering rams
ROPS and canopy
8" higher lift height
Bigger wheel motors with more torque
3 more HP, which is critical if you want the 60" finish mower.

Just be sure and get the Koehler engine in writing.

 

[yooperdave]

Did not know I could get a 60" mower for the 425 - certainly a big plus.
Thanks

 

[MossRoad]

When I was tractor shopping back in 2001, I had a discussion with Terry at Power Trac about the 60" mower. My kids were in Little League and I wanted to help with upkeep at the park. He said if I wanted the 60" mower, I'd definitely need the 25hp unit. I'm glad I did. I used it at the ball park many times cutting 4 diamonds once a week. Our house is on 1.19 acres. The house, plus driveway, pool, shed, garage and garden bring it down to what I'd estimate as about 3/4 acre of grass. When I was an 8-5 employee with an hour lunch, I could leave work at noon, drive home, mow the 3/4 of an acre, eat a PB&J sandwich, some cookies and milk, and get back to work by 1:00! Around 20 minutes for 3/4 acre. That's nice. What's also nice is the deck sticks out about 9" on each side of the tires, so it's very easy to drive along fences and not get the tractor's tires up against the fence.

I will mention that since its a rear discharge mower, most of the clippings go under the tractor. However, in thick grass, it will windrow a bit off the right rear of the deck. You can minimize the windrow by either starting on an outside edge of an area and mow clockwise into the middle, or start in the middle and mow counterclockwise out to the edge. That way you overlap the right side of the mower and go over the windrow with each additional pass. Works pretty good.

Get a spare belt. Get a spare set of blades. Keep the belt on the wall and keep the spare set sharpened. Change blades as needed. I just installed my 2nd belt since 2001. I'd guess 80% of my hours are mowing. The next most time consuming is brush cutting on our remote tree farm. We have about 2 miles of trails and a couple meadows. After that, its firewood harvesting and snow plowing. Very little time with the buckets anymore. There's been a few large bucket project, like one spring moving 60 yards of moon dust at the ball park in two days. It was nice to be able to travel forward and reverse at the full 8mph.

This little machine is a beast at material moving. :thumbsup:

 

[ernemats]

I bought a 422 back in 1999 and have 2,742 hours on it , a lot of mowing 48 inch mower, using bucket a lot to move dirt, stone, etc. I have been happy with the machine, it would be nice to have the extra hp sometimes but the 22 hp has been adequate most of the time. My mowing is mostly fairly steep hillside mowing cross slope the power is adequate but mowing up hill extra power would be nice. My 422 is the same as the 425 except for the hp and the ROPS, it has dual steering rams and the lift height is the same as the old 425.

 

[yooperdave]

The PT-425 with a Robin Subaru engine is currently on sale for $9,900 instead of the list price of $11,000. The Kohler Engine model is not on sale and still costs $11,000.

Yooper Dave

 

[Frank Sorbello]

The PT-425 with a Robin Subaru engine is currently on sale for $9,900 instead of the list price of $11,000. The Kohler Engine model is not on sale and still costs $11,000.

Yooper Dave

I wouldn't hesitate to spend the extra $1,100 for the Kohler. I would have bought a new PT-425 two years ago but Power Trac wouldn't put a Kohler in it. So I bought a new 25 hp Kohler and put it in My PT-422. Wish I had did it 5 years ago.