LA130 John Deere Riding Mower

[brin]

I searched on TBN for any previous threads re: a LA130 John Deere Riding Mower and could not find anything..

I have a chance to buy one for $650 ..22 HP with 48 inch. cutting deck, seller says it is in good shape but I have not seen it yet....does anyone have any experience with this model...Thanks...

 

[mjncad]

How many hours are on it? Remember these lawn tractors are almost throw aways any more. I don't know what differences there are between the LA130 and the L130; but I call mine the L(emon)130.

The biggest gripes I have with mine is it's prone to throwing mower belts and puking electric PTO clutches. My clutch puked at 56-hours and cost ~$150 to replace if you do it yourself. I also had to borrow an impact wrench to break loose the clutch bolt from the motor's crankshaft.

Picasa Web Albums - Matt - John Deere L1...#

 

[brin]

How many hours are on it? Remember these lawn tractors are almost throw aways any more. I don't know what differences there are between the LA130 and the L130; but I call mine the L(emon)130.

The biggest gripes I have with mine is it's prone to throwing mower belts and puking electric PTO clutches. My clutch puked at 56-hours and cost ~$150 to replace if you do it yourself. I also had to borrow an impact wrench to break loose the clutch bolt from the motor's crankshaft.

Picasa Web Albums - Matt - John Deere L1...#

Thanks for that information...I had Googled the LA130 and found many complaints about the belt throwing and a few about the clutch as well and I wanted to post on here to validate that information and now you have...so I will pass on the tractor...Thanks for your help !!

 

[robb01]

Id say thats a good price, I picked up a similiar one for around 700 a year ago

 

[jinman]

The L130 is a 2005 series tractor with a Kohler engine. The LA130 is a 2007 series tractor with a Briggs and Stratton engine. I own a LA145 that is a 2008 model and have not had a single problem with belts being thrown nor any problem with the electric PTO clutch at 70 hours. I have had to replace one idler pulley on the deck and expect that idler to be a continuing problem since it is the first pulley off the electric PTO and takes one heck of a stress when the PTO is engaged. On the bright side, the idler is less than $9 and very easy to replace. At $650, you are getting the LA130 at around 1/3 of the new price. That's a pretty good price and a good mower for just cutting grass and pulling a fertilizer spreader. I expect mine to hold up for many more years with only an annual oil/filter change and chassis lube every 25 hours. I do try to lube my deck spindles every 8 hours, but the zerks are on the top of the deck and easy to get to.

 

[timswi]

Not sure about this model, but we found on our GT275 that the thottle need to be 75%+ to engage the mower or it fries the clutch...Once I figured this out, (and replaced one) the same PTO clutch has been in there for 15 years...The idle pulleys are a 4 year replace item on JD lawn tractors.

 

[manganos]

I have a LA140 and it does what I ask of it. Even had to use it to push my Chevelle into the garage one day. It cried but it did it

 

[old8nguy]

I have an L130 and yep it throws the deck belt pretty easy. It's easy to get back on though so i never thought much about it. The only other problem I've had was a bearing siezed on a deck pulley. Again it was a pretty easy fix, just put a new one on. Bearing was sealed so I had to put on a new pulley. If I could get one for 650 or so, low hours, I'd probably jump on it.