Craftsman Tractors -Better Than The Bad Rap?

Steve C · Sep 10, 2009

bp fick said:
I know, I know, whenever someone wants to make a certain point in their conversation on this forum, all too often they allude to a Craftsman as if this was the lowest of mechanical debauchery in all the world. I don't know.

All I know is that I have had this YT4000, with Briggs 18.5 horse and 42" deck for over 4 years, cut an acre of grass every week, and other than a new battery, a spark plug, air filters, and annual autumn oil and filter changes, I have have had nothing ever go wrong. It starts, it runs, it cuts the grass.

Oh, I have had two broken deck lift rods. Quick and Easy to get, mail order direct and easy to install. (although, they are a very weak link). Moral? Don't hit a stump or bang a tree with your deck.

Anyhow, I know person after person likely has their Craftsman horror stories to share, but dang it, this little red job has been a pretty fair unit. No complaints.

I have 3 craftsman garden tractors they are all GT Series tractors with larger rear wheels than the lawn tractors and 1 inch diameter rear axels. Two of the tractors I purchased new. The oldest one has the 18 hp Kohler flat head opposed twin vertical shaft, 44" deck, 6 speed manual trans it is 15 years old, I have one that is 14 years old that has the Kohler 22 hp OHV V twin vertical shaft, 6 speed manual trans, 50 inch deck. The one I bought used a couple years ago that is 13 years old with the 18 hp Kohler OHV V twin vertical shaft , hydrostatic drive and 46" mulching deck. It also came with the 48" front blade, wheel weights and snow chains. They have been abused and missused. They get washed if I forget to put them in the barn and it rains. I change the oil every once in a while and grease them about once a month. The 22 hp has a snow blade on it and only gets used in the winter. I plow a very large area and live in a snow belt area only 12 miles from a state snowmobile trail head at Meredith michigan. It has moved a lot of snow. I can stack it about 5 foot high with this tractor. I have $3800 invested in all three of these tractors, I estimate that I could probably get $1500 for the three of them if I wanted to sell them, but they are so cheap to operate it would be silly to sell them. The only parts they have needed are belts every couple of years on the mower decks and a spindle bearing or pully every once in a while. They push snow and mow grass about as good as anything and I couldn't have bought one "real garden tractor" for what I have in these three. They have been very dependable and easy to work on when needed, and the parts can be found very cheap if you don't get them from sears. I love these little machines. The ones I have all have the cast iron front axels and the steering remains tight. I am going to keep them utill the tires rot off. I had a 1967 6 hp Craftsman compact garden tractor many years ago. My next door neighbor had a John Deere about the same vintage but I think his was a 10 hp unit. His gear shift broke and he asked me to help him fix it. We discovered at that time that his tractor and my tractor had identical cast iron trans axels in them. I removed my gear shift and installed it in his John Deere so he could finish cutting his lawn. Many small tractors from various manufactures share a lot of the same components. I blew up the origional motor (6 hp tecumseh) while pulling a 6 foot wide drag in my garden on a very hot day in 1975. The replacement motor ordered fron sears came thru as a 7 hp. It looked identical, but the 6 was no longer available. I sold my 1967 Craftsman tractor to a guy I used to work with about 10 years ago complete with snow blower for $50. His kids are still using it and driving it in parades. I have no complaints with the service I have gotten from Craftsman garden tractors, but I agree, they get no respect.

QueBota · Sep 10, 2009

I bought two old (1993 GT6000 and 1989 GT 18) in the past couple of months. Paid $400 for the '93 (44" deck) and $200 for the '89 (no deck, front weight tray, 44" plow, chains (need to find some wheel weights) and custom "EZ hitch" for moving trailers on the rear. The PO fabricated the EZ hitch himself, nice bit of work. It mounts to the drawbar and has an adjustable ball mount that lets you back under the trailer hitch and move a lever to raise the ball into the hitch without leaving the seat. Need to post pics if I get the chance.

Both have 18 hp Briggs, the GT18 has the horizontal engine. Both have 6 speed high/low range trannies. The frames are pretty heavy, the front ends have grease fittings and both have 16X6.5-8 front tires and 23X10.5-12 rear tires. The only thing that be a weak point is the aluminum tranny case.

I had been buying old, used, riding mowers to cut the "lawn" but they would eventually start to fall apart and I would have to find another one. Decided my next old, used mower would be a GT platform.

I can't speak for the newer Sears/Craftsman offerings but the older ones I picked up are fairly well built. They may need a little TLC and some parts in the next couple years but I feel these two tractors will still be running when I am not.

Dave

kenstrac · Sep 10, 2009

I have a DGT 6000 54" cut bought new in 2005 with Kohler 27 hp 1st week after mower was shut off would backfire Sears service came over while I was working and told my wife to idle it before shutting off we do that and it still backfires.
I have a hour meter on machine at 23 hrs and a little over a year old the pto switch went bad called sears not covered, at 26 hrs cleaned air cleaner found 1/2 in ball bearing inside air cleaner lucky it did not swallow it called Sears asked me if the engine was broken I told them no but was concerned about finding a ball bearing in the air cleaner they just blew me off.
At about 50 Hrs the engine started smoking bad at start up.
Around 70 hrs noticed PVC hose was disconnected and brittle had to replace that.
So machine is almost 5 years old has had 8 oil+filter changes and has 130 hrs on it.
I also find that the steering turns sharp to the left but turning right the radius of the turn is unacceptable.
Don't even ask if I would buy another Sears mower again I think you know the answer.

jhwentworth · Sep 10, 2009

bontai_Joe said:
Just to be a little picky, I believe American Yard Products, Inc no longer exists as a manufacturer of anything, it is all now under the Husqvarna name,

AYP still builds small tractors just like Chevrolet builds cars as part of GM. Husqvarna bought Roper's garden division and renamed it AYP. AYP has never existed as an independent company.

All this said; the Craftsmen lawn tractors are a pretty good unit and are very competitive on a price to performance basis.

Ron D. · Sep 11, 2009

Joe and Fred, I also remeber the husky dirt bikes, and owned a 400CR that I purchased new in 1974. My friend had a 400WR. We had another friend who had a 90 ac tract of land and we made a nice track that went through wood trails, had some long sandy straights, woop-t-do's and some great corners, etc. We raced each other so hard and many of us have scars and plates and screws from that period. I got by lucky with just three broken bones in my right hand.

It was an awsome bike, 40hp single cylinder. You'd start a race in third gear and hope it kept spinning the rear wheel, because if it caught you'd better be ready to get your weight to the front. Only 3 1/2" of rear travel made it pretty obsolete after the Japanese bikes developed significantly more rear wheel travel.

Anyway, didn't mean to change the point of this thread, but it just brought up some old memories.

Ron

Scooby074 · Sep 11, 2009

One good thing about Sears, at least in our case, is parts availability.

Im still able to get most parts for my 20+ year old Craftsman (MTD)!!! Luckily theres not alot of OEM only parts on it. Things like bearings and belts are off the shelf and available at my local bearing house. Throw into the mix that the Craftsmans are REALLY common. theres a large availability of used parts.

One part of my mower (the rear discharge deck) however is rather "rare". One of the local mower junkyards sells the deck alone for $400. Hes offered to buy my machine if the time comes when i want to sell it

Not a bad return on investment.

stevem5215 · Sep 12, 2009

I've got a 15 yr old DLT 1000 (Grey one) here with a 13.5 hp motor and a 42" deck. My wife has been pushing for a new one but I keep telling her this one is free. I put a new gas tank in it and a new mower belt (after 13 yrs) on it along with a new gasket on the bottom of the engine (when the bolts all worked loose from the vibration). Other than some new blades it's a reliable machine.
The poster who mentioned the oil burning... that's a common problem with the engines. Turns out the plastic air intake manifold warps and then leaks dirty air into them thus destroying the engine. Known problem from the manufacturer and they might even send you the fixed up one for free I've read.

Steve

Pilot · Sep 15, 2009

Don't know if it's AYP, but there is one company in the country that builds most of the riding mowers sold in the USA. Go to Lowes & Home Depot & other places where they have several brands & look them over. You'll see different brands with the same front ends, similar deck lift mechanisms, same seats, and lots of other parts that are the same. It's mostly the sheet metal, paint and name that's different.

So, you represent a major retailer that wants to sell riding mowers (that's what most of these are, they call them "tractors" to make them something they aren't), you go to AYP or whoever it is, and you pick and choose front ends, engines, etc. from a list of components and they build them & put your name on them.

So there is little difference between a Craftsman and others--just the choices Sears made vs. some other retailer.

My '93 Craftsman mower served me very well until the deck rusted out about 2 years ago. Replaced it with a Cub Cadet, which was a mistake. Should have bought another Craftsman. The Cadet works well, but the go pedal is poorly designed and only fits people who are less than about 5'5" tall. If you are long legged, it doesn't fit well, something you notice when your leg cramps up after 20 minutes.

bontai_Joe · Sep 16, 2009

The reason I remember the Husqvarna dirt bikes so well is that I looked at the tail end of one pulling away often. There was a fairly large bunch of guys in my neighborhood all about the same age that road trails together and we had a mish-mosh of mini-bikes, home built trikes, small Japanese trail bikes, a few 50 cc street bikes (one step up from a moped) and one lucky kid with a Husqvarna and another kid with an Ossa. None of us could keep up with those European bikes under any circumstances. We ranged in age from 13 to 17 and most of use had no way to earn the money for a machine like that. I was one of the guys on a 50cc street machine that set me back the princely sum of $125 (close to 3 weeks at my summer job on a farm). The Husqvarna probably cost something like $2500-3000 maybe?