Recommendation for Good Riding Lawnmower in Today's Market

[JDL130]

Mine is a County Line too but the current County Line is a Tarter product, I guess they switched away from King Kutter in the past couple of years.

Like you say, I do quite a bit of work to keep stuff running, but it's usually pretty minor. I just hate throwing stuff away, money is hard enough to come by much less if I am blowing it. I do small engine repair on the side and I've gotten quite a few decent things over the years from people who had more money than sense and just wanted to buy something new.

 

[JDL130]

I recently went from a typical mid-mount mower garden tractor to a front mount mower machine, what a difference.
Front mount mower deck can be placed in the service position in less than a minute, so it's easy to clean out clips or change out the mower blades.
The front wheels of the garden tractor don't mash the grass down before it's cut either.
The motor is behind the operator, so the the operator senses less noise, less heat, and no engine exhaust fumes.
The cut is the best I've ever had from a riding mower.
The unit I've got has two transmissions, and they are serviceable (change oil and oil filter).
With two transmissions each one only works half as hard as a tractor with only one transmission.
One transmission for the front wheels and one for the rear wheels, it's an all wheel drive so it handles the steep slopes of my lawn with no traction loss, and does not damage the turf even in tight turns.
It can haul my 275# butt up a 19 degree slope forward or backward with plenty of power, traction and zip.
It has a super small turning radius so it's very nimble around object.
It's the least costly all wheel drive riding mower I think you'll find on the market at $5300.
It's not a box store riding mower, and it's Manufactured in Sweden.

View attachment 431090
Husqvarna R322T AWD

Another question -- how is dealer support and parts availability? I checked Husky's website and the closest dealer is about an hour from me. I'm wondering if you have had any experience getting parts or needing parts. The Briggs is no problem, I have places I use to get that stuff, but things like belts, etc.?

 

[4570Man]

I would look for a used grasshopper front mount diesel, but that is just because I want one. It would be way overkill for your yard. As long as your hills aren't too steep a used commercial grade zero turn would be good. I disagree with the cost being higher per year with a commercial grade machine.

 

[DHD]

Another question -- how is dealer support and parts availability? I checked Husky's website and the closest dealer is about an hour from me. I'm wondering if you have had any experience getting parts or needing parts. The Briggs is no problem, I have places I use to get that stuff, but things like belts, etc.?

Haven't had to order many parts. Engine oil filter and a locking snap for the engine cowling my dealer had sitting on his shelf.
I replaced a v-belt (my fault) and replaced the transmission filter, each item took less than a week to get in through my dealer.
I get my mower blades through a 3rd party mail order, much cheaper and the quality is equal to Husqvarna blades.

I do my own maintenance and don't plan on having the dealer do any. I got a Work Shop Manual as a guide.
Because of the two transmissions they need to be synchronized periodically.
At first I thought it might be a complicated undertaking but it's surprisingly easy and I've done the procedure 3 time.
It's a pretty easy tractor to work on.

If you'd like to read more about the R322T AWD, the following link has tons of info, most folks I know that own a R322T hang out there.

http://www.mytractorforum.com/64-husqvarna-dixon/250230-husqvarna-rider-322t-awd.html

 

[Poopdeck Pappy]

Another thing you might consider is buying a used Garden Tractor that was built back when JD (and others) built them to last. For example, I have a John Deere GT235 that is a very stout little machine and has the serviceable and rebuildable TuffTorq K71 HST transmission in it. And it has either a commercial grade Kawasaki v-twin or the Briggs Vanguard 18hp v-twin that is a very high quality commercial grade engine.

Those can be found for $2,000+/- in good condition with not that many hours. For example, I'm selling mine with the PowerFlow bagger for about $2,500, and I have no doubt it will outlast any 2 or 3 of the junky box store John Deeres that will be sold somewhere today.

There are many other ones equally good or better. You just have to look for them.

 

[JDL130]

Haven't had to order many parts. Engine oil filter and a locking snap for the engine cowling my dealer had sitting on his shelf.
I replaced a v-belt (my fault) and replaced the transmission filter, each item took less than a week to get in through my dealer.
I get my mower blades through a 3rd party mail order, much cheaper and the quality is equal to Husqvarna blades.

I do my own maintenance and don't plan on having the dealer do any. I got a Work Shop Manual as a guide.
Because of the two transmissions they need to be synchronized periodically.
At first I thought it might be a complicated undertaking but it's surprisingly easy and I've done the procedure 3 time.
It's a pretty easy tractor to work on.

If you'd like to read more about the R322T AWD, the following link has tons of info, most folks I know that own a R322T hang out there.

http://www.mytractorforum.com/64-husqvarna-dixon/250230-husqvarna-rider-322t-awd.html

Oh, that's you? Cool! I found that Googling the tractor after I read your initial post. I'm plowing through it now, there's like 108 pages.

What Tuff-Torque transaxle does this use??

 

[JDL130]

Another thing you might consider is buying a used Garden Tractor that was built back when JD (and others) built them to last. For example, I have a John Deere GT235 that is a very stout little machine and has the serviceable and rebuildable TuffTorq K71 HST transmission in it. And it has either a commercial grade Kawasaki v-twin or the Briggs Vanguard 18hp v-twin that is a very high quality commercial grade engine.

Those can be found for $2,000+/- in good condition with not that many hours. For example, I'm selling mine with the PowerFlow bagger for about $2,500, and I have no doubt it will outlast any 2 or 3 of the junky box store John Deeres that will be sold somewhere today.

There are many other ones equally good or better. You just have to look for them.

That's a possibility. I have a guy at the local Deere dealership who lets me pick through their trade-ins and will email me if they get something good. So I could definitely go that direction too.

 

[Deere Dude]

I have a JD L130 with 23HP Kohler engine and K46 transaxle that's crapped out at 330 hours.

I started looking for new tractors to replace it rather than throw money into the transaxle (I can replace it myself but $600+ for a new K46 -- meh).

Seems like you can't get into anything good for less than $7k. I have almost an acre that I mow that has some slight hills, etc., and I don't want to spend money on another 300-hour K46-equipped tractor. It takes me about 1 hour by the hourmeter to do everything; front, back, side yard, around the garden, etc. I don't use it for anything but mowing; I have a Kubota B1750 for the heavy work.

So far, I've I looked at the JD x540 and yesterday looked at a Kubota T2380. The Kubota seemed very nice but I can't seem to find any real reviews -- mostly people who say "I'm looking at one" and get a bunch of responses like "Well, Kubota makes good stuff, it's probably good." What little I've been able to find is that there are problems with the Infinity deck. The transaxle on the Kubota seemed beefy with a spin-on filter and etc. and the Kohler engine in my L130 has never been a problem although I've read some grumbling about the Kubota with the Kohler engine from the previous models of T-series tractors that may have been early-2000 era and may since have been solved by Kohler.

The Kubota was $5k and the Deere about $7200. I looked at the Cub Cadet XT3 online with the driveshaft and cast iron transaxle but I'm not sure about MTD "Quality" and they were as much or more once you figured in the deck as the Kubota.

I'm not sure if I should just go with another K46 mower for $1800-2k and get my 300 hours and be done with it or go bigger and try to get 20 years of value out of it. Cost per hour/season comes out significantly less for the cheaper tractor if you figure a $7k tractor for 20 years ($360/season to mow) or a $2k tractor for 12 years ($200/season to mow), based on an average 25-30 hours per season of mowing.

Part of me just doesn't want to reward the mfgs. by buying a K46 transaxle mower simply because voting with my dollars in that case tells some bean counter somewhere that mediocrity is OK and people love to buy K46 transaxle mowers whether they fail in 300 hours or not.

Installing a new axle and if it will last for 330 hours at 30 hours per year, that will be 11 years of usage. That would cost $11.00 per year, which doesn't seem to bad.

 

[JDL130]

Installing a new axle and if it will last for 330 hours at 30 hours per year, that will be 11 years of usage. That would cost $11.00 per year, which doesn't seem to bad.

Deere Dude, that's still in the matrix, was just trying to decide if it was worth it on an already 13-year-old mower, or whether I could use that $600 towards something better...It's just a decision-point I guess. I doubt the repaired mower would be worth the price of the transaxle so that was my thinking there.

Plus it's fun to shop for a new tractor and dream, at least, of what I should get, whether I end up sticking with the old one or not.

 

[s219]

It is discouraging that you really can't find a "solid" mower under $5K anymore. Everything is more or less the same light duty stuff below that point.

I think I spent $2300 on my Deere LT mower back in 2002, and that was the entry point for the higher end Deeres back then (they made cheaper "Sabre" models for around $900-1200 that later begat the D, LA, and L mowers if I am remembering the alphabet soup right). The closest thing to my LT in the Deere lineup now would be somewhere between the X300 and X500, so I'd probably be wanting an X530 to feel like I got an upgrade, and those are $$$ (but nice).

I don't remember what hydrostatic transmission was in the LT series back then, but I went for manual transmission just because it put more power to the ground. Over the years it has taken quite a bit of abuse that I know would have stressed a hydrostatic transmission.

At this point, I plan to run my LT as long as it holds up. At 13 years old, it's still doing great, and it seems like I could easily get another 13 years out of it.