Opinions on JD GT245

[6dog]

Thanks for all of the posts. I pulled the trigger last week and will be bringing it home on Sunday, 9-27-09. It was in great shape and very well maintained. This will be a big improvement over my current JD. It's getting late in the season to give a full report back on the mowing, but I'm sure that I will use it a bunch this fall for cleanup and hauling.

Congrats!

 

[dieselram]

The plastic gear was on some of the liquid cooled engines like in the 445, 425, 345, 320 and 285. The Kawasaki FC590V was one of the engines.

 

[rdln]

Congrats on the purchase, I think that you will be happy. I have been with my '03 gt235, the dealer warned me about getting the 54" mower and wanting to mulch and he was right, I wish I had another 100rpm or so when mulching with the 48". I am up to about 225hrs maybe and I have mowed about 1.5-2 acres from may to october for 6.5 seasons. At that rate, I may never see this mower "get tired". As for traction, I swapped out the turfs for carlisle HDAPs when TSC cleared them out to make room for thier chinese crap, and it has improved much.


The only warning I can give is to protect the non greasable pulleys when powerwashing the deck

 

[Suburban B]

I appreciate the advice about protecting the non-greasable pulleys. I put the GT through its first full run last week. I spent about 3 hours cutting grass and picking up leaves. A few days before that, I used it to pull several cart loads of mulch around. Overall, I was pleased. It will take me a couple more runs for sure to get used to the PTO shut off in reverse. Even though I read the Operator's Manual, I couldn't remember that the blades don't restart by themselves. That's a kicker when I operate my leaf vac. Between the noise of the leaf vac, the GT engine, and my ear protectors, I made more than a couple runs without the blades operating. Oh well, every new machine requires a bit of time. That said, I am pleased and looking forward to a full season of use. Anyone ever use this size machine for hauling dead loads with chains? My neighbor showed me a great use of his Gravely GT by helping me move a fairly large B&B tree with some chain and his tractor.