Craftsman Tractors -Better Than The Bad Rap?

[bp fick]

Well, this has been fun, and this no attempt to keep it alive. It can die out now.

I got my Craftsman (photos above) second hand. 6 months old. The guy was moving out of state, forced relocation. He got desperate. I gave him 60% of what he had paid. As I said, almost 4 years later, not a serious issue and frankly, it has been and remains fun to use.

Would I buy another? I don't know. I love getting deals and sometimes such deals appear, even on a Craftsman (Husqvarna genesis). Yup, if the deal was right, I would. Yes sir, I believe I would.

 

[JohnDeereFan8899]

I agree. The craftsman tractors are built great. Yeah a few bad things here and there, but overall great. I have 100+ hours on mine, all ive done is change oil, clean air filter, add gas, new plug, new battery, and thats it. People think that craftsman tractors are cheap, and there not. The transmission they use at least in mine anyway is a transaxle, which is a great brand. Im glad your Craftsman mower works good for you.

 

[The Toolman]

To the guys talking about sharper left turns....

With a right discharge mower, the patch of grass gets smaller as you mow an you need to be able to turn sharper left as the patch gets smaller.

You can reset them to turn the same amount both ways if you want to take it apart an do that, but then it won't turn as sharp left when you are mowing that small patch of grass.

Stop an think about it, and it will make sense.

By the way, I'm new here....Howdy There

 

[kebo]

Last summer we sold a green Craftsman with 14.5hp B&S, 442" cut, and gear drive for $340, paid like about $750 for it about 9 years ago. It cut a full acre probably three or four times a month from late March till early November all those years. We went and bought a brand new Craftsman YTS 3000 with warranty for $1136 at a Sears Outlet center back on Labor Day.

The green one was a good one, never had any major trouble with it, we just decided to get a little more hp, and upgrade while the green one still had some resale value. The most I ever had to do to it was change the main drive belt once, and replace the belt on the deck a couple times, and put a couple new batteries in it over the years. My dad kept knocking the plastic grass chute off the deck from hitting fenceposts etc. I wound up patching it back on with some Stanley angle pieces from the hardware store. He also bent the tie rod once but that was easy enough to straighten back out. Oh yeah, a few flat tires had to be patched up but that's about normal with any mower. The YTS 3000 is a 22hp single cyl Kohler Courage with HST and a 42" cut. If it does as well as the previous one, we'll be happy with it too.

 

[kebo]

Tool man, welcome to the forum!

 

[The Toolman]

Thank Ya Kebo....

 

[Dargo]

Really, IMHO, a Craftsman lawn mower should work reasonably well and perform reliably for several years for the average homeowner. I have no issues with them. It seems their biggest problem lately has been the fact that anyone with a couple thousand dollars has purchased a used, mostly worn out, utility trailer, a couple of cheap string trimmers, a $100 push mower or two, an entry level Craftsman rider and put a hitch on their family minivan and advertised themselves as a lawn care expert and owner of a mowing service.

In general, not one single item in this equation was designed to be run hard for 8 to 10 hours a day five or six days a week. Unfortunately, there seems to be an entire contingent of people doing this who have convinced themselves that the only difference between commercial equipment and homeowner equipment is the price. Most people understand that there are huge differences between homeowner and heavy duty commercial equipment besides just the price. When pressed into service for which the equipment was never designed to endure, frequent and major failures are occurring as expected by anyone with an understanding of the equipment. So, when used for jobs as advertised to perform, I believe Craftsman equipment perform admirably and generally better than advertised.

 

[The Toolman]

As you might notice, I have the Craftsman Pro as my avatar. This is a mower I just got, mainly because of the heavier deck metal, gauges, bumper, an I just liked the looks of it.
Why Sears calls this a "Professional" in its advertising an online video is way beyond my thinking... It has the light K46 tranny, not the better one as the GT line they sell.

Anybody that buys one of these an thinks they are going to mow all day everyday of the week with'em is in for a big surprise.

We have a RC flying field that has about 2-2 1/2 acres that I have to mow every week in the mowing season. I'm hoping this will last us for a few years at $1,839.00 tax included.

 

[John_Mc]

To the guys talking about sharper left turns....

With a right discharge mower, the patch of grass gets smaller as you mow an you need to be able to turn sharper left as the patch gets smaller.

You can reset them to turn the same amount both ways if you want to take it apart an do that, but then it won't turn as sharp left when you are mowing that small patch of grass.

How involved is it to reset the steering for more equal turns? I may want to adjust mine a bit. It's hard to get a good look at the steering mechanism now that the snow-blower is on.

John Mc

 

[The Toolman]

How involved is it to reset the steering for more equal turns? I may want to adjust mine a bit. It's hard to get a good look at the steering mechanism now that the snow-blower is on.

John Mc

Its not that bad once you get to where you can see it. Center the frt wheels an then look at the gears, its pretty self explanatory.....

edit...the gears are down at the bottom of the steering shaft