John Deere 44 inch snow blower

[General Stuart]

Hello Leonz
Your Frustration about The New Generation John Deere's is not the first I have seen nor Heard. Last summer I repaired a John Deere 345 that would Not move. The reason for it, was that it Stripped out the Pulley gear teeth on top of The Hydro Transmission. It took me More time to get the floor Pan off than it did to replace the Gutted Pulley and sadly I had to Place the same cheap Made part back on the machine. John Deere "Need's" to make the center Teeth of that Pulley out of Hardended steel, not Mild Steel. My Buddy that I fixed it for was Super Pissed off when I retunred it to him and told him what I found. He asked me what I would do about it, anjd I told him to get rid of it and to go back in Time When John Deere was still Offering a Durable Tractor. He replaced it with a 318 Like I have and has No Regrets. The 318's have a 7/8" solid drive shaft to run their Hydro Transmission pump with that run's directly off the crankshaft of the engine, Not a Mickey Mouse Belt drive Pulley set up. I.M.H.O. John Deere sold their sole to The Devil when they started producing these cheaper Made Lawn Tractor's as well as their Famous Lowe's or Home Depot Models. Most People do not know what they are getting when they buy these newer machine's, But it does not take long for them to see Exactly what they got for the long Haul. Enough Ranting here but I do I laugh when I pass by The Lowe's or Home Depot lawn Tractor's and they are Placing the Hard sell on Poor Folk's that have No Clue of what they about to Finance for Five Year's or better. In Most Cases the Payment Far Out Last's the Tractor's that Lowe's ot Home Depot sold them, Leaving a Bitter Taste in the Buyer's Mouth for many year's to come. I have seen Ton's of Newer John Deere's in the bone Yard's but have Yet to come across any Dead 318's Lying there. If I was You I would keep an eye Peeled for a Low Hour 318 as they Last, & Last & Last. Most Older Low Hour 318's will cost you less than what you paid for the one you got. I am Sure I will be Jumped by owner's of The X-series Tractor's telling how much better they are than the Older one's, but it won't change my Opinion on them One Bit as I run The Gut's out of my 318 and it has Yet to let me down & I Just dropped about $1800.00 in my 1983 John Deere 318 in Restoring it fully. I took it down to a rolling Chassis, & painted all of it, including the Frame, body Panel's & wheels and Placed a freshly Re-built Onan Performer P-218 18 Horsepower Twin cylinder engine in it. Why ? Because you can't Buy the quality today that John Deere Placed in these 30 Year Old Tractors, here's mine all Fresh and Ready to serve me another 30 Years. For the record I Mow Two full acre's of Grass with this Machine weekly over a Long Nine Month Mowing season with no Break down's or failed Part issues. John Deere is Not making anything today that catches my Eye or makes me want to rid myself of my 30 Year old 318 Tractor, and I doubt they ever will again. Regards, General Stuart

 

[JD2007]

I have had it for 6 years now and have spent over $3000.00 on repairs. The last was a new transmission.

Other than the transmission replacement what other repairs did the x300 need to add up to $3k?

 

[Wyocowboy]

Well the trans axle was $1500 and the gear box for the blower was $1000 and I have put 3 new chutes on the blower at about $135.00 each. Let's see what else? Can't think but it's been 6 years.

 

[JD2007]

Well the trans axle was $1500 and the gear box for the blower was $1000 and I have put 3 new chutes on the blower at about $135.00 each. Let's see what else? Can't think but it's been 6 years.

So the transmission is the only major issues you've had with your x300? Did you tow anything with it or just mow grass before it failed?

 

[Wyocowboy]

Well in all honesty, I use my X300 hard. I tow a home made cart that I use to move horse manure and other yard debris. I also made a home made drag for my pastures and pull that with the tractor. I firmly believe that I got a lemon off the line. From day one, reverse was slow as a snail and I thought that was the way it was geared. With the new trans axle reverse is much faster and now it is a joy to blow snow!

 

[leonz]

I wonder if John Deere will ever enter the small four wheel drive tractor market for the USA?

Sometimes I wonder if I made bigger mistake not buying and financing the 2305 with the all
weather cab that I saw on the lot that day? It had four wheel drive too.

The other thing I have to do is decide once and for all whether to load the tires for the winter as we are just starting winter here.
I could always use windshield washer fluid and take it out during the summer and fall and put it back in before winter.

The LA115 has a lot of difficulty when trying to back up with the snow blower on the ground which is why I am buying the pneumatic casters for it.
even with me and the 84 pounds of suitcase weights on the back it has very poor traction in reverse working on snow covered frozen sod.

 

[Carl Bert]

Hello Leonz
Your Frustration about The New Generation John Deere's is not the first I have seen nor Heard. Last summer I repaired a John Deere 345 that would Not move. The reason for it, was that it Stripped out the Pulley gear teeth on top of The Hydro Transmission. It took me More time to get the floor Pan off than it did to replace the Gutted Pulley and sadly I had to Place the same cheap Made part back on the machine. John Deere "Need's" to make the center Teeth of that Pulley out of Hardended steel, not Mild Steel. My Buddy that I fixed it for was Super Pissed off when I retunred it to him and told him what I found. He asked me what I would do about it, anjd I told him to get rid of it and to go back in Time When John Deere was still Offering a Durable Tractor. He replaced it with a 318 Like I have and has No Regrets. The 318's have a 7/8" solid drive shaft to run their Hydro Transmission pump with that run's directly off the crankshaft of the engine, Not a Mickey Mouse Belt drive Pulley set up. I.M.H.O. John Deere sold their sole to The Devil when they started producing these cheaper Made Lawn Tractor's as well as their Famous Lowe's or Home Depot Models. Most People do not know what they are getting when they buy these newer machine's, But it does not take long for them to see Exactly what they got for the long Haul. Enough Ranting here but I do I laugh when I pass by The Lowe's or Home Depot lawn Tractor's and they are Placing the Hard sell on Poor Folk's that have No Clue of what they about to Finance for Five Year's or better. In Most Cases the Payment Far Out Last's the Tractor's that Lowe's ot Home Depot sold them, Leaving a Bitter Taste in the Buyer's Mouth for many year's to come. I have seen Ton's of Newer John Deere's in the bone Yard's but have Yet to come across any Dead 318's Lying there. If I was You I would keep an eye Peeled for a Low Hour 318 as they Last, & Last & Last. Most Older Low Hour 318's will cost you less than what you paid for the one you got. I am Sure I will be Jumped by owner's of The X-series Tractor's telling how much better they are than the Older one's, but it won't change my Opinion on them One Bit as I run The Gut's out of my 318 and it has Yet to let me down & I Just dropped about $1800.00 in my 1983 John Deere 318 in Restoring it fully. I took it down to a rolling Chassis, & painted all of it, including the Frame, body Panel's & wheels and Placed a freshly Re-built Onan Performer P-218 18 Horsepower Twin cylinder engine in it. Why ? Because you can't Buy the quality today that John Deere Placed in these 30 Year Old Tractors, here's mine all Fresh and Ready to serve me another 30 Years. For the record I Mow Two full acre's of Grass with this Machine weekly over a Long Nine Month Mowing season with no Break down's or failed Part issues. John Deere is Not making anything today that catches my Eye or makes me want to rid myself of my 30 Year old 318 Tractor, and I doubt they ever will again. Regards, General Stuart

WOW! That's a beautiful job.

 

[Gator6x4]

I wonder if John Deere will ever enter the small four wheel drive tractor market for the USA?

Sometimes I wonder if I made bigger mistake not buying and financing the 2305 with the all
weather cab that I saw on the lot that day? It had four wheel drive too.

The other thing I have to do is decide once and for all whether to load the tires for the winter as we are just starting winter here.
I could always use windshield washer fluid and take it out during the summer and fall and put it back in before winter.

The LA115 has a lot of difficulty when trying to back up with the snow blower on the ground which is why I am buying the pneumatic casters for it.
even with me and the 84 pounds of suitcase weights on the back it has very poor traction in reverse working on snow covered frozen sod.

John Deere is already in the small four wheel drive tractor market. In fact one could say they are in it big time. The series one units are nice. The x700 series are also nice but will cost almost as much as a series one. The LA115 was made and sold by JD for one thing in my opinion, to mow a 1/2 to 1 acres lot, period.

Wheel Horse, International Cub Cadet, Case and others used to make a robust Garden Tractor, not Lawn Tractor. Consumers would not buy them because of the cost. They wanted something of the quality of the LA115. Wheel Horse,International Cub Cadet, Case and others disappeared.

 

[rdaisley]

As mentioned by others, the weak link is the K46 transaxle. Using the snow blower on my L130 wiped mine out and that is how I started the K66 Upgrade Kit business. The K66 works great.
Regarding the axle keys: You should have no problems. The K66, with about double the torque, also uses axle keys. (3/16" for the K46 and 1/4" for the K66) There have been no failures.
/roger