John Deere sold at Lowes & HD

[NuBota]

I actually thought of this thread last weekend when I was in "my" local JD Dealer getting parts for the MILs JD push mower (bought at Lowes a few years back)

While I was standing at the vacant parts counter for about 10 minutes waiting for help, the sales guy was with a customer looking for a Lawn Tractor. Heard the customer ask "I think I saw that one at Lowes, what's the difference". Sales guy was VERY good in handling it - "Oh it's the same tractor, but we are a full service shop and part dept., perform all warranty work on what we sell, you can call us with any questions/concerns. With Lowes, it may be tougher to get help after the sale..." etc, etc. He never said they wouldn't do warranty work, but implied it.

Anyway, guess my long-winded point - some dealers may realize it is easier to play ball and get some advertising and service work out of the Big Box boys. Other's seem to cling to the idea that "you didn't buy the machine from me, so I will make you suffer when you do come in for help".

 

[PSDStu]

That is what I notice around here as well (and I think I may have posted that on this topic WAY back)... They even have a drop box so you can drop the warranty card off for the local dealer.

Based on this, I assume (and you know what that gets you) that the local dealer does the service warranty work for the equipment sold at Lowes/Home Depot.. I would also assume they get some credit for the sale (maybe not the profit, but possibly to help their sales numbers)..

But based on other comments here I wonder if the same procedure is used throughout the US.. Either that or the other posters assume that the the dealer wont do the warranty work since you didnt buy it from them, which may be wrong

Brian

I bought a L145 from Lowes 3 years ago and it still runs fine. The local Deere dealership put the tractor together and has there sticker on the back.

As luck would have it, the Deere dealership ( a mom and pop shop)folded because they didn't want to become one of the mega stores. Eventhough the Deere store closed, they opened back up selling Montana Tractors, and still sell Deere parts. I have used the dealership to buy blades, a spindle assy, and various other parts for my mower.

The 145 is good little mower!

Stu

 

[Residentialcutter]

I'm new here and could not resist replying to this thread. I will try to keep this as short as possible about my experiences with JD.

I don't have much lawn to cut but I hate lawn work. I decided to replace my old oil-leaking craftsman with a "good" mower. In 2003 I decided the JD L110 was a perfect fit. Hydro, plenty large enough cut, quality JD name, etc.
I bought it from the local dealer that was about a 2 minute drive from Home Depot. Things were fine for the first couple of years.

Year three was a problem with a belt that was fixed for a reasonable amount of money and life was good again. Fast forward to spring of '08:

Mower would run for a few minutes and die. The dealer concentrated on fuel issues (cleaning carb, etc.) It was in the shop eight times in the summer of '08, all for the same issue. Most times it would sputter before I even got it off the trailer after service. Other times it would run fine for one cut but would not get through two mowings. The worst visit to the service dept. was when they changed the battery and charged me the minumum half hour labor charge for a two minute job. I knew the battery was on its way out but it would start fine if I left it on a maintainer. The battery had nothing to do with the recurring problem!

On to spring of '09. Same problem so I decided to give another dealer a shot at fixing it. They replaced the fuel solenoid. I was able to mow twice (woohoo!) without it quitting on me! Third time was the charm. Same problem. I had to leave town for four days so I left it where it died and returned home to find most of the fuel had leaked out of it too. The most recent service involved changing two gaskets. The mechanic was not available when I picked it up so I don't know which gaskets.

I realize the mower is 6 yrs. old but remember when I said I don't have much to mow? THE POS ONLY HAS 21 HOURS ON IT! I cannot believe JD would put their name on something like this. The contacted JD directly explaining the problem and trying to get some help. All they would do is offer to "direct me to a different dealer" or "offer technical support to the dealer". Why would it take three dealers to fix? Why would I sink more money into an obvious piece of crap? The original mower was $1800 and I have spent about $600 for repairs and it only has 21 hrs on it! I could have bought three mowers at sears for the same money.

My advice for anyone looking at a "cheap" JD is to stay far, far away!

 

[WayneB]

I'm new here and could not resist replying to this thread. I will try to keep this as short as possible about my experiences with JD.

I realize the mower is 6 yrs. old but remember when I said I don't have much to mow? THE POS ONLY HAS 21 HOURS ON IT! I cannot believe JD would put their name on something like this. The contacted JD directly explaining the problem and trying to get some help. All they would do is offer to "direct me to a different dealer" or "offer technical support to the dealer". Why would it take three dealers to fix? Why would I sink more money into an obvious piece of crap? The original mower was $1800 and I have spent about $600 for repairs and it only has 21 hrs on it! I could have bought three mowers at sears for the same money.

I am not sure if you still have the JD or not, but if so I would suggest that you take a close look at the magneto. I have an LT-155 and was having problems with it doing the samething your 110 was exhibiting.

Mine would be hard to start and then would run fine for a little bit and then stall out and be hard to start.

finally, I spoke to someone who said it sounded more like a firing problem than a gas problem so I went out and purchased a new magneto for about $50.00 installed it and it has run fine ever since.

Just my two cents.

Wayne

 

[Residentialcutter]

Thanks for the advice Wayne. I actually sold it yesterday afternoon, one day after getting it back from the shop.

I hope it runs great the rest of it's useable life for the new owners. I just could not trust it anymore and decided to take one last loss on the POS.

I went orange on the new ztr. It's waaaaayyy overkill for my needs but I hope it's the last mower I ever buy!

 

[WayneB]

Wow that must be nice. With my land I cannot use a ztr, just too many hills in New Hampshire. My brother in law purchased a Ferris ztr and it does a great job, plus the ride is just wonderful, guess it should be for $6K.

Anyway good luck with it.

Wayne

 

[jinman]

I don't have much lawn to cut but I hate lawn work. I decided to replace my old oil-leaking craftsman with a "good" mower. In 2003 I decided the JD L110 was a perfect fit. Hydro, plenty large enough cut, quality JD name, etc.
I bought it from the local dealer that was about a 2 minute drive from Home Depot. Things were fine for the first couple of years.

Year three was a problem with a belt that was fixed for a reasonable amount of money and life was good again. Fast forward to spring of '08:

Let me get this straight. You bought a mower to do a tiny job and used it for around 4 hours per year (21 hours from 2003 to 2008). What was your fuel handling technique? Did you let old fuel sit in it for long periods of time? Did it sit in a shed or under cover? . . . .out in the open? It just seems to me that you bought a mower and underused it for 5 years. At the end of 5 years, it started giving you lots of problems and you got bad service from the same shop that works on "expensive" JD mowers. Could it be that your problem is the shops you took the mower to? I'll bet the engine was a B&S also. Sure, it was in a JD mower, but you have to lay some of those issues at the feet of B&S. To me, you bought a mower that lasted 5 years with little problems and very little use, then had bad service from someone who could not find its problem.

I need to be "educated" here. What in the world is a "fuel solenoid" on a JD L110? Fuel solenoids normally control fuel feed to the injector pump on diesel engines. Your JD L110 with a gasoline B&S engine would not have a fuel solenoid. Did that dealer's mower shop feed you some BS about your B&S?

EDIT: I went back and read your post. I didn't see that you took the mower to a JD dealer. Were each of the shops that worked on the mower a JD shop? I may have spoken ill of a JD shop when it wasn't warranted.

 

[jhwentworth]

I need to be "educated" here. What in the world is a "fuel solenoid" on a JD L110? Fuel solenoids normally control fuel feed to the injector pump on diesel engines. Your JD L110 with a gasoline B&S engine would not have a fuel solenoid. Did that dealer's mower shop feed you some BS about your B&S?

It's common for B&S motors to use a fuel shut-off solenoid attached to the bowl of the carb. Its purpose is to cut off fuel when the ignition key is turned off. Have you ever heard a backfire when the motor is shut off while running at full RPM?

 

[jinman]

It's common for B&S motors to use a fuel shut-off solenoid attached to the bowl of the carb. Its purpose is to cut off fuel when the ignition key is turned off. Have you ever heard a backfire when the motor is shut off while running at full RPM?

I don't make a habit of turning off the ignition with the motor at full RPM, but if I bounce in the seat, sometimes the operator safety switch on the seat will cause the engine to "burp." I was not aware that B&S has added this feature to its engines. It must be part of the EPA anti-smog features. I stand corrected.

 

[Residentialcutter]

The '03 L110 used a 17.5 Kohler.

I did some research and asked a few local repair shops their opinion of the best motor for these smaller machines for residential use. Most of the responses were the single cylinder Kohler.

I never had a problem with bad fuel. I use stabilizer religiously. Both dealers that worked on it were JD dealers. Both shops supposedly used the mower after the repair to make sure it was ok before I took it home. Each time I got between no use (can't get it off the trailer) to about 20 minutes of use before the same problem popped up. I also avoid ethanol whenever possible.

I am convinced I got a bad mower. It was in no way abused or misused. I took care of it and it didn't take care of me. At the very least, I thought JD should have taken care of the cost of repairs through the next few hours of use. They could fight it out with Kohler to get reimbursed if they wanted.

And by the way...
The mower would probably have double the hours on it if it didn't spend the last summer and a half in the shop more than at my house.