Buying Advice Done with hydrostatics

[ruffdog]

My dad is known to tear up cheap lawn mowers....but, he abuses them too. I found him a low hour X749 so I'm hoping he takes care of it and lets it last as long as my 1983 Cub Cadet 982 has lasted.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

We had a hydro tractor we mowed with, (and kept serviced) a bolt fell out of place in the hydro and went out the bottom of the case!! That pretty much made junk out of that tractor! lol

Then on the other hand, look at my gear drive lawn tractor,

You wouldn't believe the loads I have pulled with that one! The tranny still works perfectly, hasn't leaked, or ever let out one whimper.

Talk about long lasting and tough!!!

SR

 

[fitterski]

It is outrageous that a new $3000 mower transmission has a service life of under a 1000 hours jmo though

OP has every reason to be irritated- Do the stores selling these K46 trans riding mowers list the mean time to rebuild or replacement in their advertising?, They should

There has been a lot of suggestions about buying mowers with 'quality' trans-axles like the JD x750. I looked at those just out of curiosity, very nice like everything that JD makes, and the price here starts at $15,000cdn ...which is about 5 times what I'm prepared to pay for a LAWN MOWER (that lasts 40 years). That's the price of some CARS, I think the entire market is being ripped off. I will pay about the weight of steel plus 25% for low-tech goods like plows or mudpumps, or lawn mowers, no more. As it is right now I'm steps form a b275 rig that cost $4,000 with a pto mower and will last another 60.

 

[4570Man]

We had a hydro tractor we mowed with, (and kept serviced) a bolt fell out of place in the hydro and went out the bottom of the case!! That pretty much made junk out of that tractor! lol

Then on the other hand, look at my gear drive lawn tractor,

You wouldn't believe the loads I have pulled with that one! The tranny still works perfectly, hasn't leaked, or ever let out one whimper.

Talk about long lasting and tough!!!

SR

So the hydro didn’t actually suffer a failure from the hydraulics? Try throwing a loose bolt in a geared transmission and see what happens.

 

[4570Man]

There has been a lot of suggestions about buying mowers with 'quality' trans-axles like the JD x750. I looked at those just out of curiosity, very nice like everything that JD makes, and the price here starts at $15,000cdn ...which is about 5 times what I'm prepared to pay for a LAWN MOWER (that lasts 40 years). That's the price of some CARS, I think the entire market is being ripped off. I will pay about the weight of steel plus 25% for low-tech goods like plows or mudpumps, or lawn mowers, no more. As it is right now I'm steps form a b275 rig that cost $4,000 with a pto mower and will last another 60.

You don’t like the price of quality. You don’t like the quality of cheap stuff. I feel so bad for you. Or you can buy a quality ZTR for about half that. Or buy a used machine.

 

[ruffdog]

You don’t like the price of quality. You don’t like the quality of cheap stuff. I feel so bad for you. Or you can buy a quality ZTR for about half that. Or buy a used machine.

I could care less if the OP desires a manual transmission in his tractor for what ever reason. The continued discussion about the cost of modern equipment makes me think there is a hint of jealousy or envy to justify the reasoning. :2cents:

 

[searcyfarms]

i would wager a lot on my GT75 it was the best mower i have ever owned, overbuilt from the ground up in my opinion - only thing i ever did to it was deck bearings/belt and after 20 yrs axle seals started dripping over the winter so i replaced them - if i knew yours was going to break i would have saved it and sold it to you...........it only had a weeeee bit over 550 hours on it.

 

[4570Man]

I’ve got a 1960s ford garden tractor HST that my grandpa built for me when I was little. It’s stretched about 3 feet and has a hydraulic dump bed on it.

 

[searcyfarms]

oh man i bet its a jewel!!!! my neighbor took all his old fords and made pullers out of them, stretched the frames, put cut tires on them and souped up the engines, they are a hoot for sure.........i think he put cub gear units in them

 

[fitterski]

I just purchased a 98 Toro Groundsmaster with a 72" deck with original hydros. The hour meter is not working. I would guess 2000 to 3000 hours and runs like a top. You can buy those for the price of a throw away zero turn. My works at the local golf course. They have 2 with north of 4500 hours on the original hydros and engine.

I saw a New-Holland for 2 grand but got scared that it would be throwing good money after bad. Something like this remains an option. I'd like to buy a geared ford-120 or similar but there are very few still around. Another option, and I'll have to commit to something soon, is an axle up-grade to a somewhat more durable hydro-gear or other tranny that would be a reasonably doable swap. This would be costly too(?), not sure about the wisdom of the move.