my YTA24V48 rolled off the truck today

[MitchellB]

How many hours on your tractor?

I only have 3.2 hours on the meter and only had the mower in my possession 27 days when all this happened. This was only the 3rd time I cranked the mower to begin mowing. It has taken a week for the Lowes Warranty Center to find a repair shop to come and get it to be repaired and then they had to send a shop from over an hours drive away that was not back logged with a month of repairs to pick it up. I called Lowes about the problem 7/15/16; the repair shop was supposed to call 7/19/16, but did not. Another phone call to LWC (Lowes Warranty Center) and a promise the shop would call 7/21/16, but they did not. 2 more calls to LWC and the second time the repair shop finally called me 7/21/16, but I got a lot of personal & business problems they were having and then what really pissed me off was how he kept asking if I was telling the truth and how Husqvarna would not pay for customer inflicted damaged and so on and how it would be at least a week before it was fixed. At any rate the mower was picked up to be taken in for repairs 7/23/16 after a few more never "called to pickup" appointments. To date, I have not heard back from anyone. The post about the linkage may be my problem and I probably could have fixed it myself, but the mower is too new and expensive to experience major failures. My view is if I wanted to spend time repairing worn out mowers, I could have just bought another used mower or kept my old Bolens. At least I felt it was dependable despite being small. I'm not very happy right now, but I'll update when I know more.

 

[Gem99ultra]

MichellB, I sure hate to hear about the horrible service you have gotten from Lowe's. Unfortunately, that's exactly what I expected, and what I got from them back in 2002 when I bought my Rider 155. Linkage broke. It took over 6 weeks to finally get them to have someone pick it up, fix it, and return it. (They claimed they could not find anyone to provide at-home service.) That's exactly why I recommended buying from a certified Husqvarna dealer. Big Box stores work on volume, and they could care less about one customer with a problem.

Even before I got Lowe's to arrange to have my mower picked up, they went into to that customer neglect scenario. Additionally, I had bought the 3 year at home repair extended warranty, giving me 4 full years of warranty. I finally ended up talking to Lowe's Regional Manager about this problem, after numerous phone calls and visits to Lowe's Customer Service counter. I had a full file folder about the runaround conversations, and was actually contemplating court action. The Regional Manager resolved the delays, gave me a full refund for the mower with the conditions that I repurchase it, re-issuing the FULL 3 year extended warranty to a full 5 year warranty.

No doubt, the kerfuffle was all about the particular store that I was dealing with. But it sure left a bad taste in my mouth about buying equipment from Lowe's.

I, since then, have had very little or no problems with the Rider 155. It has served me well, treated like a red-headed stepchild, being asked to work harder than anyone could expect even with a dinky little 15hp mower to work - including pulling a trailer after Hurricane Ike cleanup with well over 800 pounds of logs per trip. I've mowed 3 acres of fields twice a week with it for at least 9 years, clocking an estimated excess of 2500 hours.

Yeah, it was an expensive mower at the time - with warranty, about $2700. But I still have it, use it regularly, and it mows golf course smooth. No doubt, it's the best mower that I've ever owned. I only hope my new (3 year old) GTH 26hp mower holds up half as well. Even with the GTH, which I use to mow back 40 property that I now own, the old Rider still is the choice for mowing the lawn area. It has earned a well deserved preferred duty status. No more field work for that old horse.

Sorry to get so wordy. As Samuel Clements (Mark Twain) said "If I were smarter, I could have said it with fewer words."

 

[MitchellB]

I had cut the biggest part if our lots 2 weeks ago (about 2-3 acres) with my tractor with the 5' finish mower behind it, but I could not get up too close to the edges, corners or other tight spots with it. I also got out an old push mower that had not been cranked since last year to do the front yard and around the house. It surprised me and cranked with only a couple yanks.

Got the mower back from the repair shop about 8pm Thursday night 8/4/16 with about .6 more hours on the meter, but it was so dark I could not check it out real well, just parked it until daylight. The guy delivering it described a linkage rod with a fork on the end that rides up and down another rod on the transmission that is retained on that rod by a pin. The pin somehow came out. When that linkage rod came loose, it knocked the belt came off (I did not know that) and some other stuff was damaged. He said they added a couple washers under that pin to help. He also praised this type transmission highly and Husqvarna too saying this is one of the best mowers to have. (Time will tell) He kept calling it "that fast transmission." Anyway, I got it back repaired free, so kudos to Strickland 42 Mower in Asheboro, NC for the repairs.

The next day Friday was drizzly and wet all day, so it was this Saturday morning before I could put the mower through it's paces. It had a full tank of gas when it left, but I could barely see fuel sloshing around from the back through the plastic now. I did notice when I spilled some fuel refilling it, that when I wiped the gas off the plastic deck adjustment the white height numbers began to rub off, so I stopped and let it air dry. The grass was pretty tall and still wet, but I wanted to start early this morning before the sun & heat got intense and burned off the dew & rain we had yesterday. The mower did a decent job of cutting it under the circumstances. Some really tall spots I had to mow twice due to the thickness of the grass. I did notice the mower (maybe the belt) slipped some on hills with the cruise control engaged at the slowest drive setting I could get probably due to the wet grass. However at a little faster pace, I never noticed any slipping. The mower seems to be back to normal. I do not like to mow wet grass, but I figured if I was going to have another problem, tall/wet grass was the worst test I could have put the mower through. Finished up after a couple hours in the seat hot and sweaty, but the mower seemed to do fine.

 

[BlackOps]

just bought one but from a top dealership. they have a great warranty right out of the box. they also adjusted everything and set height adjustment etc. which the big box stores do not do or know anything about. have not cut anything serious yet. i did not see any need for any 2 or 3 yr warranty plans. dealer is solid. over 20 years my first john deere was garbage - never a deere again. bought 2 simplicity's and the last was under 4 grand and lasted 4 years or less and the dealer was a nightmare - co-op place locally. so not much money but had to get something badly - and i talked to the dealer and got a decent deal on a new husqvarna - same model as yours. seems like a decent machine.

 

[tk tom]

This isn't related to your problem but it will help prevent a different one - keep the top of the transmission clean especially in the back. A leaf blower and or compressed air is your friend. Keep it clean! Moving parts externally on these and grass/dirt buildup affects it.

 

[cdaigle430]

Yeah my linkage got broken by a 1.5 inch diameter stick I ran over that was hidden under the leaves. I was bagging the leaves for the first time that day and remember it jamming up in there pretty hard at a 45 degree angle. That was last year....I owned it and used it since 2006 so this tractor has proven itself for 10 years of rough mowing on a 2 acre lot.

Box stores suck when it comes to warranty-sears, Home Depot, Lowes. I would never by their extended warranty on anything.

 

[Katmandu]

Yeah my linkage got broken by a 1.5 inch diameter stick I ran over that was hidden under the leaves. I was bagging the leaves for the first time that day and remember it jamming up in there pretty hard at a 45 degree angle. That was last year....I owned it and used it since 2006 so this tractor has proven itself for 10 years of rough mowing on a 2 acre lot.

Box stores suck when it comes to warranty-sears, Home Depot, Lowes. I would never by their extended warranty on anything.

Do you folks still have your YTA24v48 mowers ? If so, how do you like them ? Any more issues to report ?

I'm seriously pondering buying one right now.

 

[MitchellB]

Do you folks still have your YTA24v48 mowers ? If so, how do you like them ? Any more issues to report ?

I'm seriously pondering buying one right now.

I'm still mowing with ours and it has about 37 hours on it so far. I just fired it up last week after sitting a few months during winter for a quick mowing of the high spots in the back yard.

Overall I like the mower pretty good, but there are somethings that I do not like. I added a little scrap block of wood about 1" x 3" between the plastic grass deflector and the deck that raises the the angle of the deflector so that grass clipping shoot out about 3-4' to the side instead of in windrow clumps.

I've not had anymore issues with the transmission linkage since the first fix under warranty. The slower speed movement in reverse is kind of a pain, but that is the way it is designed and you get used to it, however it will fly going forward if you want to go fast. I like the automatic transmission with foot peddle speed control, but the forward speed control lock on the dash is not designed well and can be a PIA to engage.

I'm glad I got the retractable arm rests on the seat as the seat is slick and I tend to slide sideways on hills without the arm rests to catch me and hold me in place. However our yards have some real steep hills that I have to move the armrests out of the way so I can shift my weight to one side of the seat to prevent the mover from turning over. Not a safe practice, but one I have done for many years in order to mow on hills normal folks should not mow.

A simple turn of the key back allows me to mow in reverse. I try to remember to do that as soon as I start the mower, but I sometimes forget, but I can stop quick enough that the mower will not go dead when I do forget. The mowing deck and blades are impressive. The blades lift the grass and throw the clippings out the side with considerable force when the grass deflector is not blocking their path. I've often commented that it sounds like an airplane when the mower is engaged and usually cuts cleanly even when running at a faster speed than I normally cut at with previous mowers. It is time for me to sharpen or replace the blades now though, so we'll see how easy that goes. I also like that I can grease the deck unlike cheaper mowers that are sealed.

I've added a pouch under the front of the seat and behind it to carry little stuff. I keep a hand ratchet pruner in there to clip off small branches that are growing into my path that I want to remove. Seems like I never could remember to go back later to trim them up, so now I can just stop and clip them off from the driver's seat and keep mowing.

Not the perfect mower for me, but for the cost and features compared to other mowers I'm still happy with it.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

Do you folks still have your YTA24v48 mowers ? If so, how do you like them ? Any more issues to report ?

I'm seriously pondering buying one right now.

We have the YTH, not the A. Not sure what the difference is? I'm still happy with mine after 2 mowing seasons, and would mirror pretty much what Mitchell said. I haven't broken anything on mine, like linkages, etc. Plenty of power for mowing, and I do haul around a utility trailer for various yard tasks, lumber, firewood, fertilizer, plantings, etc. Also have a pull behind seeder/spreader with a 100 lb hopper, and a tow behind 25 gal sprayer. Overall, I think it's been money well spent, and I have no complaints.

 

[MitchellB]

We have the YTH, not the A. Not sure what the difference is? .

I copied this from another site:

YT = Yard Tractor with either manual or hydrostatic transaxle. Depends on model.

YTA = Yard Tractor with General Transmissions RS800 series transaxle. (mine has a simple foot peddle for forward that includes speed control - the more you mash, the faster you go. It has a smaller peddle near it that you step on to go in reverse. Nothing to shift with your hands)

GT = Garden Tractor with heavy duty hydrostatic transaxle.

LTA = Lawn Tractor with General Transmissions RS series transaxle

YTH = Yard Tractor with heavy duty hydrostatic transaxle.

LGTH = Lawn and Garden Tractor with heavy duty hydrostatic transaxle.

Note: The hydrostatic transaxles can be either made by Hydro Gear or Tuff Torq depending when made.

Generally the garden tractors are better built as they meant to used in gardens where as lawn and yard tractor are primary for mowing lawns.