Husqvarna TS354XD - First Garden Tractor

[Rock Crawler]

First off, thank you for saying "awesome video" about that video I did. You should grab a beer and read the comments! Wow. Tough crowd!

You can drill the wheels for installing the Husqvarna accessory wheel weights. You'll need to run to Rural King or some other place that stocks bolts and get yourself 10'x0.5' bolts since our wheels are deeper dished than the standard wheels.

You can also install the Husqvarna accessory tire chains if you remove the wheels, pull the valve cores, crush the chains on fully tight to the last links and then replace the valve cores and air up. Adding the weights and chains makes the machine essentially an unstoppable beast no matter if hill climbing, mud or pulling loads. I pull a 30 gallon sprayer on my slopes with mine. No problem.

Pick a grease and keep it on hand. I spend about 3 hours 2 times a week mowing with my pair of Husqvarna built machines. The older is a 2011 Craftsman branded Husqvarna that now has 710 hours on it. I have replaced the starter last summer, I replaced the HST drive and deck belts 2 summers ago when the deck belt shredded. I adjusted the valve lash at around 500 hours. I think I am on battery #3 on that one. That is it. No front wheel bushings changed, no deck spindles changed... I like to hit the grease fittings every few mowings, keep everything wet with grease. Change the oil and filter every spring (with Amsoil for me, air cooled engines need the best oil you can get or they need more frequent oil changes to compensate in my opinion).

I expect that my 710 hour Kohler will easily crack 1,000 hours, and honestly I would expect it to get out to 1,500 hours before I need to replace that tractor. My little non adjustable tie rods are getting bad enough that I need to swap them out, but I am not expecting any other major repairs.

Do not forget to do your 5 hour oil/filter change per the Kawasaki manual. It is likely your most critical.

Your dealer can remove the K66, clean it (decontaminate it so that it can have the seal broken), flip it over and drain it and refill it with fresh 20/50 synthetic hydraulic drive oil (readily available at any Cub Cadet dealer). I would suggest every 200-ish hours. Or run it to failure and see how far it goes before it dies? Both will work.... My older one has the Hydro Gear G730 with spin on filter and fluid drain/fill ports, so I do it every 200 hours.

Clean your deck belt covers of grass clippings. That is the airflow path drawn around and past the spindle housings to cool those freshly greased bearings. Don't let them pack up with grass for weeks/months and close down the airflow.

Your front wheels have bushings, not bearings. GREASE THEM OFTEN and HEAVY! They will last hundreds of hours if your like me and liberal with the grease gun.

Enjoy! The Clear-Cut deck is fan-freaking-tastic! Cuts better than anything I have ever seen including commercial Exmark mowers. It blows clippings out wide and smooth with no humped up windrows, I love it! Cut the chute, it is a goofy floppy rubber thing that I bet the feds make them put on.

 

[Portland]

First off, thank you for saying "awesome video" about that video I did. You should grab a beer and read the comments! Wow. Tough crowd!

You can drill the wheels for installing the Husqvarna accessory wheel weights. You'll need to run to Rural King or some other place that stocks bolts and get yourself 10'x0.5' bolts since our wheels are deeper dished than the standard wheels.

You can also install the Husqvarna accessory tire chains if you remove the wheels, pull the valve cores, crush the chains on fully tight to the last links and then replace the valve cores and air up. Adding the weights and chains makes the machine essentially an unstoppable beast no matter if hill climbing, mud or pulling loads. I pull a 30 gallon sprayer on my slopes with mine. No problem.

Pick a grease and keep it on hand. I spend about 3 hours 2 times a week mowing with my pair of Husqvarna built machines. The older is a 2011 Craftsman branded Husqvarna that now has 710 hours on it. I have replaced the starter last summer, I replaced the HST drive and deck belts 2 summers ago when the deck belt shredded. I adjusted the valve lash at around 500 hours. I think I am on battery #3 on that one. That is it. No front wheel bushings changed, no deck spindles changed... I like to hit the grease fittings every few mowings, keep everything wet with grease. Change the oil and filter every spring (with Amsoil for me, air cooled engines need the best oil you can get or they need more frequent oil changes to compensate in my opinion).

I expect that my 710 hour Kohler will easily crack 1,000 hours, and honestly I would expect it to get out to 1,500 hours before I need to replace that tractor. My little non adjustable tie rods are getting bad enough that I need to swap them out, but I am not expecting any other major repairs.

Do not forget to do your 5 hour oil/filter change per the Kawasaki manual. It is likely your most critical.

Your dealer can remove the K66, clean it (decontaminate it so that it can have the seal broken), flip it over and drain it and refill it with fresh 20/50 synthetic hydraulic drive oil (readily available at any Cub Cadet dealer). I would suggest every 200-ish hours. Or run it to failure and see how far it goes before it dies? Both will work.... My older one has the Hydro Gear G730 with spin on filter and fluid drain/fill ports, so I do it every 200 hours.

Clean your deck belt covers of grass clippings. That is the airflow path drawn around and past the spindle housings to cool those freshly greased bearings. Don't let them pack up with grass for weeks/months and close down the airflow.

Your front wheels have bushings, not bearings. GREASE THEM OFTEN and HEAVY! They will last hundreds of hours if your like me and liberal with the grease gun.

Enjoy! The Clear-Cut deck is fan-freaking-tastic! Cuts better than anything I have ever seen including commercial Exmark mowers. It blows clippings out wide and smooth with no humped up windrows, I love it! Cut the chute, it is a goofy floppy rubber thing that I bet the feds make them put on.

Thanks for the tips Rock Crawler. I am doing my first oil change this weekend. I plan on keeping up with the maintenance on this machine. I mean, it was expensive enough that I’d like to get as much life out of it as I can. I really enjoy using it as well. It feels powerful and does a great job on the lawn. I second your comment about the Clear-Cut deck. I also picked up a lawn sweeper to help cleanup the lawn a bit even though I don’t have any huge issues with windrows. I heard the 9 bushel bagger on the 54” decks doesn’t work very well so a lawn sweeper was my solution.