Another MX6 Brush Hog Failure

[greasemonkeyok]

Its not so much that Deere made defective shafts, its that they compleately abandoned the gearbox leaving you with an ourageouly expensive fix if you want to use Deere parts. "Oops, we made a mistake in (design - choosing a supplier, or whatever), so you boys are just out of luck." Makes you wonder which attachment is next on their list for "oops, we made a mistake ...."

That said, mine has cut a lot of saplings, hit rocks, and been used as it was advertised. So far, no problems. I would not agree that it is a cheap sorry built shredder over all. The unpleasantness is knowing it could go at any minute and the fix is expensive.

 

[Ken]

from what ive read of this thread the MX6 is a cheap sorry built shredder.an theres only 1 fix for that go buy a 286 bushhog shredder.an you wont ever be sorry.

bigbull338 .That is what I did and never look back when there is a clang of a rock or brush getting ground up.
And same price as the gear box, from J.D.
ken

 

[plowindeeper]

I just hope no one gets killed by the shaft breaking. Had a neighbor die from a flying chunk of wood that struck him in the eye while bushoging. Would hate to see that coming at me.

 

[sawtooth]

Give a try to post pictures of MX6 broken out put shaft

Man this is crazy. This is the exact same thing that happened to ours. Just driving along and everything let go. Believe it or not we didnt even hear anything that sounded like an impact. Its like it just broke or something. Not liking Deere right now.

 

[fieldman12]

These gear boxes could have not cost John Deere much to have them made in China. I do not see how they can be worth $1600 from JD.

 

[arlen4720]

Man this is crazy. This is the exact same thing that happened to ours. Just driving along and everything let go. Believe it or not we didnt even hear anything that sounded like an impact. Its like it just broke or something. Not liking Deere right now.

Was it one of the new style china gearboxes with the 5 year warranty?

 

[Rivendale]

Deere is at it again huh? We got screwed 10 years back or so with the F525 front deck mower. They made a terrible design that broke belts on anything other than perfectly level lawns and then charged you 80 something dollars a pop!

They never did anything to make it right, just milked us (professional lawn care company) for 80 something dollar belts every other week or so it seemed.

 

[Kevin37]

Clearly I'm late to this party but I am in the same boat with my MX-6. Mowing on a flat field and the shaft just sheared in two. My gearbox was made in Spain, at least thats what is on the outside of the box. Don't know where the internal parts came from. My local dealer where it was purchased was nice enough to talk to but would not help out with any of the replacement or fixing. I got the same quote....$1600 for the new gearbox but was told I also needed a new blade mounting adaptor. Total $2000. To fix a "John Deere quality" mower that probably didn't even have 100 hours of use. Very poor customer support, but clearly Deere is big enough to simply not care.

 

[arlen4720]

That sucks:thumbdown: I think Deere should have recalled the old "non china" gearboxes. Kevpilot1, how old was your mower? I think the new geargoxes came out in 2010....maybe?

 

[Red Horse]

Guys- anyone have an idea if in fact the MX-5 box is same one?