Does JD fiberglass/plastic hold up??

[Deere_parts]

I just sold a "plastic" 20 year old hood off of a JD 316 last week that didn't have any cracks and here is a picture of my battle scared 16 year old JD 430 with 1900 hours on the meter that I took after washing it 5 hours ago. No cracks in this one either but plenty of scratches and chips I'm sure would be dents and rust if it was steel. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

BTW the 2305 hood is steel /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gifOOPS

 

[MowHoward]

crazylare1,

Just telling it the way it is. As to walmart tractors, stx hydro tractors sold only at deere dealers and cost almost $3000 when new.Maybe you're thinking of the L series at Home Depot. To quote the mechanic at the local Deere dealer regarding the L series, "these things are going to ruin JDs reputation". True that the stx was entry level, but that was back when entry level to Deere meant something..like entry level to BMW or Mercedes. You expect a certain level of quality...or were supposed to. Take a look on ebay, always either a hood for sale or stx with cracked hood. They crack, they break. I am glad your 116 runs great, my stx still runs great too. Hydro works great. Kohler works great. Deck works great. Hood cracked and feel apart into little pieces. That was the original question. Just a fact. Do you think the new stx hoods are made out of Zenox or whatever it is or are the same old stuff that breaks and falls apart. I looked at green 2210, 2305 and 790. I liked the 790 and not plastic. I was sold on Orange... which is what the 2210 and 2305 are competing against. Green and Orange are both made in Japan. Probably soon China. By the way, my china one didn't crack either. Maybe my Deere hood was made in USA? /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Mow

 

[bigpete]

Sounds like the stx lawn mower had a lousy hood. Must be different material (grade or guage). I've been banging up my JD plastic hoods with firewood and fist-sized rocks for years without any cracks. Not on purpose, mind you /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[beenthere]

MH
Don't think you are convincing too many here. Not typical, and not too believable, IMO. Sorry to hear you had an apparent problem however.

 

[Cliff_Johns]

I prefer the JD "plastic" hood to metal. I've owned JD with plastic since '95 and it's still in excellent condition -- there are some gouges from various activity, but those would be scraped paint andscratched metal on another tractor. I'd rather have the plastic which requires no repair.

I bought another tractor last year and purposfully went back to JD. This was one of the many reasons.

Cliff

 

[HGM]

The only issue I have noticed on my 3 1/2yr old LT150 hood is that it faded really quick. I had it covered most of the first year and a half and in the shop for the remainder. I washed and waxed it early on thinking it would last forever and still it looks like its been around forever. No cracks though..... The "steel" body below the hood does have a crack in it though /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif... Oh well, what did I expect for $2500 /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[Cliff_Johns]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I washed and waxed it early on thinking it would last forever and still it looks like its been around forever. No cracks though..... )</font>

You know, I never put any wax on mine and it is still bright green. I wonder if the wax may be
what's causing the problem, or if the wax somehow interacted with the plastic. I also only clean mine with a garden hose. Once about 5 years ago I washed the hood and fenders with dish soap, in a moment of weakness, but otherwise, I just squirt it down and it cleans up good.

Just a thought.

Cliff

 

[bigpete]

HGM--I do recall reading on JD Garden Tractor board that there was a model or two, or a year, or two, where the pigmentation of the polymer was flawed. I think its reasonable, even with Mow Howards's hood, to expect it should hold up. Of course it's not reasonable to condemn all plastic components because of a bad production run, or two. I guess this stuff is the stuff they make car bumpers out of. I've seen a lot of older passenger cars (Ford sedans, especially) where the bumbers are faded to a different color than the paint. Could be that materials and processes have improved. I would think that would be the case with this material.

 

[HGM]

Cliff,
Not sure why mine has faded so quickly and yours hasnt. It could be the wax, I guess... Would like to doubt it, but maybe.

Pete,
Your right about the bumper plastic issues of the '80s. From what I remember it was mostly on the cheaper cars.

To be honest, I have been harsh on JD about this because I expected much better quality overall, this was the least of my issues. In all fairness, I did buy the cheaper version of LT they offered. The dealer told me it was still much better quality than the Home Depot versions. Unfortunatly I am unimpressed. Do they have a lemon law for mowers /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif?

I dont mean my dissapointment in the product to infer that everything JD is inferior. I just post it to give my opinion, from experience, of one of their products. Not everything from any MFG is golden /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif Hope you guys take it with a grain of salt.

 

[Deere_parts]

I doubt it was the wax unless you are using one of those "as seen on TV" BS products to restore your paint which I personally saw my father in law use once on his Lincoln Town Car, It ruined the finish and made it look worse than it did before. Looked great for about a week. Sun and weather elements are harsh on paint and plastics if you leave it out all the time too.

The brand and type of paint or the pigments used in the mix makes a big difference in how fast it will fade.

I took and autobody class in Votech just to see if I could learn more about painting than I already knew at the time and the instructor was a big advocate of Dupont automotive paints. we did one experiment where we painted 2 cars the same color bright orange acrylic enamel. On one car we used Dupont and on the other we used Ditzler.

Both cars looked great when they were done but within one day there was a noticable difference with the Dupont holding a much better shine.

Another factor that affects paint is the pigments used in the mix. You can make the same colors with different pigment mixes and the one with the most black and dark color pigments in it will get dull and darken faster. Look at how yellow, bright red and orange paints fade over time, a good example is how dark and dingy hyway trucks get over time, alot of that is due to the paint pigments. When I occasionally do custom work for friends or myself I personnaly mix my own colors at the store to eliminate the black pigment completely out of the mix if possible. This gives you the same color but a much brighter finish. I painted a 1968 bronco for a friend a few years back in a marshino cherry red that I custom mixed. When he took it for a ride everyone standing around commented on how bright it was and you could still spot him a mile away in heavy traffic. Really cool color.

Another big factor is humidity when something was painted. If you paint when the humidity is too high the paint will often fade in grey and white bloches. This can happen even as soon as it starts curing. When that happens you have to sand it down and spray it again.

These are the biggest contributors to paint fade and I suspect it would also affect platic that has molded in color the same way.

HGM sorry to here about your dissapointment and it doesn't offend me at all. I've had big problems with every GM car I've ever owned but never had a problem with Ford and Plymouth so I won't buy GM even though I could get employee pricing through my father who has had great luck with them. Some things just sour a person due to repeated bad luck with a particular brand when another seems to work better for them.

Same goes for dealers. The Kubota dealer here seems to have a just want a quick sale or don't bother me attitude toward me but the Deere dealer next door treats me like their best freind. My wife even said she would rather pay $2000 more from the John Deere dealer and salesman that treats her like gold than buy anything at the Kubota dealer cheaper as soon as we walked out of there..........Try getting that out of your wife without having to beg for more play money.........I about fell over and almost had to get my cane out of the car /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif