54 inch mower Husqvarna vs Troy-Bilt vs JD vs Club Cadet

[YLee Kioti]

So here is a pretty good summary from a shop tech on the difference between a box store assembly and one from your local dealer.
Lowes, Home Depot lawn mowers, what are you getting? - YouTube

After listening to him explain all the finer points a local dealer goes through, no doubt the few hundred saved at a box store is not worth future headaches.

Also my dealer in Paige, a Cub Cadet dealer as well explained that the models they carry use double sealed bearing versus the standard single sealed bearing from those box stores.
Maybe if possible stop by a local cub dealer and ask him.

There is also a difference in a lawn tractor versus a garden tractor.
One poster mentioned what else will you be using it for. Because a garden tractor has a heavier frame and better options for pulling a assortment of implements as well. The lawn tractor just has a stamped metal hitch, not very heavy.

Welcome to TBN and let us what you got and why.

kindest regards

 

[lcantu]

So here is a pretty good summary from a shop tech on the difference between a box store assembly and one from your local dealer.
Lowes, Home Depot lawn mowers, what are you getting? - YouTube

After listening to him explain all the finer points a local dealer goes through, no doubt the few hundred saved at a box store is not worth future headaches.

Also my dealer in Paige, a Cub Cadet dealer as well explained that the models they carry use double sealed bearing versus the standard single sealed bearing from those box stores.
Maybe if possible stop by a local cub dealer and ask him.

There is also a difference in a lawn tractor versus a garden tractor.
One poster mentioned what else will you be using it for. Because a garden tractor has a heavier frame and better options for pulling a assortment of implements as well. The lawn tractor just has a stamped metal hitch, not very heavy.

Welcome to TBN and let us what you got and why.

kindest regards

Thanks a lot for the info and yes, will go pay a visit to the dealer.

I dont think that i will use it for much more than mowing. I tow very ocassionaly and really lightly nothing excesive and it snows here like 3 times a year .

Mostly im interested on a bigger deck (54) that is fabricated as i keep bumping into stuff and need it to take the beating, that is powerful and will last me for years.

 

[hawkeye08]

Ferris has a 300 series now (without suspension) if you are looking zero turn.. have not looked at the specs in detail, but am very happy with my Ferris 700.

 

[lcantu]

BTW i was on club cadet site and found another very interesting model XT1 GT54, it has a K62 transmission! no locking diff but at least is a better option, 25HP Kholer and the price is just right at 2,899, will go ask the dealer about it tomorrow.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Once you hit the k6* you're going over $3k usually. Transmission and engine are the 2 biggest price determinations.

 

[crazyal]

I've had good luck with returning stuff to the big box stores. When my Troy Built log splitter died days after getting it I was told to bring it to a shop for warranty repair. The shop said that I failed to put hydraulic oil in it (not sure how you could split a half cord and have wear marks on the beam from use without oil to make the ram move). So I called Lowes and they said return it to the store I bought it at for a replacement (no charge). I don't know if the shop was mad because I didn't buy it there but I know I'll never buy a thing from them. A few months after the main heating element burnt up in my Maytag oven the repair man Maytag had come out said that there weren't any elements and it could be 6 months before a new one could be made. When I called Home Depot the lady I talked to said give her a day. The next day I got a call from her and she told me that Maytag was pulling the element out of a new oven and sending it to the repair guy. She also apologized for having to go through it. Turns out when a small shop calls up a big company they are just one small voice. When a large box store calls up they take notice.

Personally I would be less worried about the name on the tractor and the color of the paint and more about the engine and transmission. I like the fabricated decks on the Husky mowers as they look like they could be repaired easier when they rust out. My last riding mower was an MTD Super Bronco with a Kohler Courage engine. The mower has been abused pretty badly but still works fine. The engine, not so much. I would imagine that their nicer engines are better but I swore off Kohler engines (A coworker had a lot more problems with his than mine). When I decided to replace it I was looking in the $3000 ish range. I ended up buying a used Deere x500 for not too much more. It was only a year old and less than 50 hours with the original warranty good to spring of 2020. High end riding mowers don't hold their value like a tractor.

 

[LightningCamaroGuy]

I use to work as a Tool Maker at the Husqvarna plant that manufactures all the Husqvarna mowers except for I think one style of mower that I don't think is even in N/A. All built many other brands mowers such as Craftsman, Arien(selling), Poulan, Poulan Pro, Weedeater, McCulloch, etc,etc. Many different brands. Even though they are basically the same mowers with different body coverings, colors and stickers, etc my favorite brand we manufactured for was always Dixon. They just had really nice seats, controls, and things like that.
http://m.dixon-ztr.com/us/

Just like any other manufacturer Husqvarna has their low-end products that are often junk, (Stay away from products with the transmissions that use plastic in their gears as they are total crap and many don't even get 5 hours out of them) but they also have higher-end homeowner and professional products that are very nice equipment. For example the RZ models are their budget ZTR mowers where the MZ and PZ model ZTR mowers are much better built mowers and are very good. They rate their equipment by how many hours they should last. Some of the cheapest stuff was only 800 hour where the better stuff was in the 4000+ hour range. As far as motors go everyone like the Kawasaki's and they are great, but the Kolher and Briggs and Stratton motor are very good as well.

Personally we have had an ExMark since 03 and it's been a great mower. Just follow the owners manual maintenance schedule. It has a Kolher CV20 and it's never had an issue.

One thing I like about the JD from talking to my local dealer is they don't use Fab decks only stamped deck even on their professional mowers. While Fab decks are great for strength and durability they are generally not considered to leave as nice a cut. This is because they get a lot more welded on so they get hotter during their manufacturing and it's much harder to keep them within a certain tolerance than a deck that is stamped. The allowed tolerance at Husqvarna for a stamped deck is much smaller than it is for fabbed deck. Don't get me wrong their are some Fab deck mowers that produce a very nice and even cut including my ExMark, this is just me speaking in general. Still while JD might not have a fabbed deck they have invested in the tooling for the manufacturing of their professional stamped decks to use the same gauge material as most fabbed decks so that you get strength and robustness of a good Fab deck with the tighter tolerances and flatter/more square decks that is more common with the stamped decks.

FYI Husqvarna considers JD their main competition in the riding lawnmower world, but Cub Cadet and I believe now Kubota are starting to climb the ranks as well.

BTW if possible I would try to buy from a dealer regardless of brand. If something is not right with your mower they would likely be more helpful and take care of you better than say Lowe's or HOME Depot, etc.

 

[Tractorable]

I use to work as a Tool Maker at the Husqvarna plant that manufactures all the Husqvarna mowers except for I think one style of mower that I don't think is even in N/A. All built many other brands mowers such as Craftsman, Arien(selling), Poulan, Poulan Pro, Weedeater, McCulloch, etc,etc. Many different brands. Even though they are basically the same mowers with different body coverings, colors and stickers, etc my favorite brand we manufactured for was always Dixon. They just had really nice seats, controls, and things like that.
http://m.dixon-ztr.com/us/

Just like any other manufacturer Husqvarna has their low-end products that are often junk, (Stay away from products with the transmissions that use plastic in their gears as they are total crap and many don't even get 5 hours out of them) but they also have higher-end homeowner and professional products that are very nice equipment. For example the RZ models are their budget ZTR mowers where the MZ and PZ model ZTR mowers are much better built mowers and are very good. They rate their equipment by how many hours they should last. Some of the cheapest stuff was only 800 hour where the better stuff was in the 4000+ hour range. As far as motors go everyone like the Kawasaki's and they are great, but the Kolher and Briggs and Stratton motor are very good as well.

Personally we have had an ExMark since 03 and it's been a great mower. Just follow the owners manual maintenance schedule. It has a Kolher CV20 and it's never had an issue.

One thing I like about the JD from talking to my local dealer is they don't use Fab decks only stamped deck even on their professional mowers. While Fab decks are great for strength and durability they are generally not considered to leave as nice a cut. This is because they get a lot more welded on so they get hotter during their manufacturing and it's much harder to keep them within a certain tolerance than a deck that is stamped. The allowed tolerance at Husqvarna for a stamped deck is much smaller than it is for fabbed deck. Don't get me wrong their are some Fab deck mowers that produce a very nice and even cut including my ExMark, this is just me speaking in general. Still while JD might not have a fabbed deck they have invested in the tooling for the manufacturing of their professional stamped decks to use the same gauge material as most fabbed decks so that you get strength and robustness of a good Fab deck with the tighter tolerances and flatter/more square decks that is more common with the stamped decks.

FYI Husqvarna considers JD their main competition in the riding lawnmower world, but Cub Cadet and I believe now Kubota are starting to climb the ranks as well.

BTW if possible I would try to buy from a dealer regardless of brand. If something is not right with your mower they would likely be more helpful and take care of you better than say Lowe's or HOME Depot, etc.

That was a very enlightening post. Thanks for that.

 

[aczlan]

Personally, my father-in-law has the 54 inch Husqvarna and he loves it. We have had 100 series John Deere's before and I would not get another one solely because the only way to backup with the deck running is to push a little button that you have to find each time. Husqvarna and the other manufacturer's have a key position that you use to let you back up with the mower deck on but for some reason John Deere does not do that.

Aaron Z

 

[Tractorable]

You can fix that easily with a wire jumper.

 

[rustyshakelford]

My advice is buy a used commercial zero turn off CL before a box store mower. even if it has a bunch of hours if it’s been taken care of it should give you less problems and you’re time mowing will be greatly reduced

Brett

 

[yomax4]

I wish my Husqvarna YTH54 something or other piece of crap would have been a little better. Runs great goes forward great. Will not back up worth a crap. Repair guys I called all said that it's a safety feature. BS. Plus all of the steering tower bolt and hood bolt holes cracked and I have had to continually weld on this tin can since I got it. Finally said enough is enough and bought a Gravely HD52 ZT mid range priced and never looked back. Now I'm not sure now why anyone would even buy a yard tractor. The Zero turns mow 3x faster, Throw grass 3x farther and turn on a dime. My wife on the Gravely runs circles around the yard tractor. Lastly, It goes backward as fast as it goes forward.

 

[Grateful11]

We had a JD LA130 that was bought at the local JD dealer and ran it for about 4 or 5 years and it never missed a beat, not a spit or a sputter. I wish I had kept it just for the bagger. Sold it for $1600 with about 150 hours on it. I wish I could say the same for our JD X720. It's been a thorn in my side since we got it. My wife mowed her sisters yard with and it just died with like 50 hours on it. I called Deere and told them to just come out pick it up. They claim it had water in the gas. Strange that the gas came from the same station we have been buying from for years and no problem, not covered under warranty. It's never ran smoothly from idle up to about 3/4 throttle. It smooths out above that. I've changed plugs, air filters, fuel filters and a new battery just to make sure the fuel pump was getting the correct amount of power. I've ran Seafoam, Lucas Fuel Treatment, Stabil, etc. through it. We've been running nothing but non-ethanol gas in it for about 3 years and it's helped some. The old LA130 always ran smooth as sewing machine and a bagger would cost me about $1600. for the X720. I tried to get my wife to buy the diesel when she picked the X720 out but she wanted a gas engine, go figure for a farm girl, I can't figure her out not when they have a 500 gallon diesel tank.

So unless they have drastically changed these lower end models I don't understand what all the throwing off on them is about. I think they'd be fine for some people unless they have changed them.

 

[IH3444]

Sorry to hear about your X720, my 2014 X750 with 60"HD (9 iron deck painted yellow) has been flawless, and what a beast it is on mowing power. Off road diesel, (no road tax and about 3/4 gallon per hour at WOT), and the 40amp alternator as standard equipment verse the 20 amp one on gas model, makes it a good deal. 3 cylinder diesel also verse 2 cylinder gas. Another no brainer choice. Bite the bullet and sell it, or trade it in on a X750 diesel. It'll only hurt for a while, then you will smile the rest of the time after that! The diesel is a torque monster, runs smooth like an electric motor, and is amazingly quiet.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

My advice is buy a used commercial zero turn off CL before a box store mower. even if it has a bunch of hours if it’s been taken care of it should give you less problems and you’re time mowing will be greatly reduced

Brett

I've been following this thread with interest because I also am looking for a garden tractor. I wish my Craigslist had good used equipment. It's almost all junk and definitely all overpriced.