I bought a new John Deere 265 back in, I believe, 1991. 5 Years ago I face plated the mowing deck with 1/4 inch plate and at that point I had just over 1400 hours on the old girl. My thought was I might get a couple more years out of it and since I have a commercial leaf vacuum system for it I considered it might be worth the time & effort. Now it's got 1643 hours on the meter and it still starts right up and seems to run fine. I've changed the oil each fall when I put it up for the winter and that averages out at just over 55hrs per oil change. Most winters it's been stored in my heated shop so I'm sure that has helped it age well. The engine doesn't appear to burn a drop of oil and the only time it smokes is just when I first start it up and the throttle is up in the choke position. I started looking for a replacement 5 years ago but now I'm beginning to think this thing is going to outlast me. So I'm just curious how many hours others might have gotten and if the new Kawasaki's are as strong as the old models. The newer JD Garden Tractors don't appear as solidly built as the older models or at least the plastic seems much cheaper.
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