Craftsman Garden Tractors ("THOUGHTS ONLY")

[devildog1]

Gee all I can say is that I have a Sears 18 hp 44" cut lawn or garden tractor with a Kohler twin cyn. It's got to be 20 plus years old, and starts and runs great. had to re- inforce the mowing deck and put on new blades but---------, how could I complain?
DevilDog

 

[knightrider955]

I have a Sears mower that I bought new in 2004. The sears Garden tractors have been made by Huskqvuarna since around 2000 which is what I have. The smaller sears mowers were made by poulan. I like my GT5000 sears tractor just fine, I just wish I could have gotten it with a Briggs motor instead of the kohler.

 

[ultrarunner]

I have a Sears mower that I bought new in 2004. The sears Garden tractors have been made by Huskqvuarna since around 2000 which is what I have. The smaller sears mowers were made by poulan. I like my GT5000 sears tractor just fine, I just wish I could have gotten it with a Briggs motor instead of the kohler.

Mine has a Kohler too... why is the Briggs better?

We had some Kohler powered equipment from the 60's and 70's and the engines did not have any problems.

I know my Kohler is fuel thirsty.

 

[knightrider955]

Mine has a Kohler too... why is the Briggs better?

We had some Kohler powered equipment from the 60's and 70's and the engines did not have any problems.

I know my Kohler is fuel thirsty.

My kohler for some reason smokes bad for about 5 minutes when I start it. But not all the time. Sometimes it doesnt smoke at all. Doesnt matter if the motor is warm or not, its always done this. I t used to go through fuel filters like crazy until I out a automotive one on it. I called Sears when it smoked the first day I brought it home. It wouldnt do it when the service guy was there so they didnt do anything about it. Otherwise I have no complaints.

 

[GardenFence]

I think Sears tractors are great for the money. Would recommend them to anyone for medium duty mowing and general use. I had a 17hp from 1990 to 2001; lots of mowing on my 3-acre property, and misc. small trailer work. Sold it for decent money after 11 years of good service. Bought a 25 hp new in 2001, and still works very well after lots and lots of use. Did some minor repairs on both over the years; the base manuals are excellent and parts are easily available; even found some after market parts that were cheap and work like a charm.

 

[Jim Thompson]

FYI

Jim


ELECTROLUX Home Products ( now known as Husqvarna Outdoor Products Inc., formerly [ 6-2006 ] parent of Partner, Poulan, WeedEater, Diamant Boart, Dimas, Husqvarna including [in Europe] McCulloch, Jonsered, Partner Industrial, Target, which are now grouped under Husqvarna AB ). Manufactured products for brands / retailers: Agway, Atlas, AYP (American Yard Products), Central Park, Carolina, Champion, Coast / Coast, Co-op, Cotter Canada, Home Depot, Huskee, Jonsered, K-Gro, Kingcraft, Lowes, Maxim, Meijer, Menards, Mighty Mow, Poulan, Poulan Pro, Price Com., Quality, Quality Pro, Rally, Rally Plus, Ranch King, Sears, Southern States, Statesman, Tenn. Farmer, Turf Power, Walter, WeedEater, Western Auto, Winston Pro, Wizard, Wizard Plus, Yard Pro, and probably others.

HUSQVARNA Group; world's largest producer of chainsaws, lawn mowers and other portable petrol-powered garden equipment such as trimmers and blowers. The Group is also a world leader in diamond tools and cutting equipment for the construction and stone industries; formerly the outdoor products segment of Electrolux, as of 2006 Husqvarna is a separate company; parent of Dixon (2006), Husqvarna, Jonsered, Flymo, McCulloch (2008), Partner, Poulan, Poulan Pro, Weed Eater, Diamant Boart, Dimas, Target; chainsaws, power cutters, trimmers, brush cutters, leaf blowers, riding mowers, walk-behind mowers, tillers, generators, snow blowers, stump grinders, utility vehicles, hedge trimmers.

 

[FastPauly]

knightrider955;
Is it by chance a 25 hp Kohler twin? There was a particular production run of these ngines that were defective. The defect was that the head bolts were too long not allowing the head gaskets to seal properly. The leaking head gasket pressurizes the crankcase forcing oil up into the breather cavity....it eventually finds its way back into the cumbustion chamber causing the smoking. Sears tractors ended up having a lot of them. Kohler did realize there was a problem and offered a head bolt/gasket retrofit kit. These kits are still available and should fix the problem....if this indeed is your case.

 

[KennyG]

Personnally, I don't care that much for Craftsman mowers and don't own one. However, I maintain three of them for a civic organization that are used by "volunteers". I have been impressed by how the engines, transmissions, frames and axles have held up. It seems like I have a full time job sharpening mangled blades, replacing belts (top quality Gates belts seems to have improved that problem) fixing flats, straightening/replacing deck support hardware, etc, but I just change the oil and filters once a year and let them run.

Also, the parts availability on line has been great so far. I do have a steering bushing on backorder for the oldest one, so we'll see how that works.

 

[Carl in CT]

I don't own a Craftsman but my guess is it's like anything else you get what you pay for. If your uses don't justify a pricey higher end tractor like Simplicity or John Deere, etc then the Craftsman mowers seem to be a good choice. I would stay away from the box store mowers, even the ones that say John Deere or Cub Cadet on them. Cub Cadet mowers offer a lot of bang for the buck but I think you have to get into the 2000 or 2500 series or higher to get beyond the box store level. Personally I'm not a huge fan of Cub Cadet but that's based on an extremely bad experience with a Cub garden tractor bought new in the mid 1980's so maybe they have improved. Simplicity offers some mowers in the same price range as the Craftsman but I'd take a Simplicity over a Craftsman any day. You may get a larger tractor for your money with Craftsman but the Simplicity will be higher quality and nothing cuts like a Simplicity.

 

[stevem5215]

I've had and used several Craftsman tractors. They've all been of decent quality considering the money spent. I've also had older Cub Cadets from the 70's and they were very good quality and more expensive when new. And the Cub Cadets are still going. With original engines and transmissions even. Mostly the mower decks go bad in them and you have to find new unrusted out ones from someone who took better care of the deck. But otherwise the old iron with the heavy duty engines are better quality IMO. But for the money spent on a new Craftsman we bought in Nov of 09 at the Sears outlet it was worth it. Sure, it has the K46 hydro tranny but it was over 1/2 off list price. You can get some deals and that makes it worth it to buy them at the Outlet stores. This one has the Platnium engine with the spin on filter and the heavy duty design engine along with the mentioned K46 (which isn't so bad once you read the repair procedure in Parts and Repairs of this section) and with a heavier gauge steel deck on the Professional model along with the Cruise control and Foot control system (which is HIGHLY recommended by me and many others as the ultimate control) I'd say that I got my "value for the money" and it even came with a 2 year warranty at that price. As for the quality of Sears, well, let's say that the first thing I did when I got it was to download the manual and do every adjustment in the book (except the valve adjustment on the engine) and that makes the difference when you buy it cheap. You have to do some work yourself and whether or not you can that's one of the reasons Sears can and does have a bad rap for their products. Initial setup is a big deal to ensuring that the product is a good one down the road too. Along with taking care of it with oil changes and those same adjustments later. My "refurb" tractor has been good since then and I can't complain. And I still have my older one too. I bought a new deck for it from Craigslist from a guy who had one with a blown engine and was parting it out. It was worth spending $75 on a deck in good shape to fix the old tractor. And I even got some spare spindles now too ! I can only say good things about Craftsman products. Sure, sometimes you get a junker and have to fix it or trash it but when you get it for 1/2 off you usually aren't complaining much when it has some problems. I will agree the wiring harness on them is junk though lol. My one headlight blinks at night when I run it. Otherwise a quick crimp on the connector does the trick. A little higher quality connector surely couldn't cost them that much more like 10 cents vs 15 cents. Don't know how that goes but hey it's cheap to begin with.

Steve satisfied with Craftsman