PT 422 & 425

johara1 · Jul 17, 2003

dave, i was one who was looking at a 1500 with a 48" deck, the dealer ask if i had a lot of hills or was it flat. one leg being longer than the other from walking around the yard,he said the gravely would do a better job on the hills than the 4x4 1500 bota. the 1500 will only pick a little less than 500 lb. for over $2000 front loader, that doesn't get it. it will lift 6 ft. but it has very little reach so all you can do is carry a bale of hay or a flower pot or two,if you want to dig get the pt i can't load a pick up, but i don't want too. i woud have to shovel it off by hand! now i can carry 10 cubic ft. of 2a modifed and fix the drive way try that with a bota, it will take two trips.
the traction is less than i thought it should be with the mower but with the bucket it's a bear it doesn't take a back seat to anything pound for pound.
mr. i made feet for the plow they work good enough to grade gravel !!! with tires they start to squat when loading the blade so you can't hold the grade. if the wheels where out in front then it would work. if they were independent of angle.next the pt grader /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

SnowRidge · Jul 17, 2003

( I also get the impression from you that the mower is not as heavy duty as many of the higher end garden tractors. )

We bought our PT-425 primarily as a mowing machine for our Xmas tree plantation. Our options were a commercial mower for $6-7,000 or a PT-425 for more money--but a lot more versatility. We went with the PT.

This is my unvarnished opinion on the 48" finish mower:

It has a nice cut. You may be able to do slightly better with a high end commercial mower with sharp blades, but the difference will be hardly noticeable to the average person, if at all.

It can handle tall grass and/or weeds with no problem. All you have to do is slow down so that the engine doesn't bog.

It cuts wet grass better than anything I have ever used. We have an area that we 'affectionately' call the swamp. We used to have to skip it with the old lawn tractor if there had been any recent rain because it would bury itself up to its axles in short order.

A couple of days ago I mowed it with the PT shortly after a torrential storm. I was actually mowing through standing water. It cut fine and the PT never even spun a wheel.

It is built like a tank (johara1 will disagree with this), except for the rear gauge wheels which are plastic.

It is quiet in operation--much quieter than the 42" lawn tractor it replaced. The deck makes a pleasant whirring sound and little other noise, although occasionally the front gauge wheels will clank a little.

Unless you are cutting overlong grass there is no windrowing. With real long grass, you may get a tiny bit.

Cleaning is a snap. Just raise the deck with the arms and hose away. Very little cleaning is needed as the deck doesn't tend to accumulate large clumps of grass anyway, and that includes cutting wet grass.

The deck's major drawback, in my opinion, is the lack of a quick adjustment for cutting height. The front wheels can be set fairly quickly, but the rears are a unbolt/bolt back on in a different hole job. Why PT did this is beyond me, but they did it, and that is what you will have to live with.

If you only need to cut at one height, then it's no problem. If you want to change heights each time you cut, then you will probably find it frustrating.

Unless you have special requirements that dictate a 48" deck, as did we, I recommend the 60" deck as the better buy. You get 25% more cutting width for 20% more money.

Beyond that, the 48" deck is barely wider that the tires. The 60" deck would be handier for close mowing, in my opinion.

SnowRidge

MossRoad · Jul 17, 2003

with tires they start to squat when loading the blade so you can't hold the grade 

That makes sense.
Here's a picture of a rake with gauge wheels out front that PTRich posted back in April last year. He made it himself.

Here's a link to that post. It describes it very nicely.

johara1 · Jul 17, 2003

snowridge, what said is the spindles are not top quality, they don't get many hours out of the ball bearings. better made ones will have tapered roll bearings. the low hrs.belts and bearings i read about here doesn't lend it's to being a tank.
the plastic wheels on the back should last for ever,they bearly touch the ground,the front carrys the weight. i was just spoiled having the spindles, bearings and belts last for at least a 1000 hrs. today i had a fiat v8 diesel fail with 12 hrs. on the rebuild, so i guess i can live with the mower. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

johara1 · Jul 17, 2003

mr, thats nice that idea used with the blade you could do some nice work. that is the same as the back blade on a three point with the gage wheels in reverse /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

MossRoad · Jul 17, 2003

that is the same as the back blade on a three point with the gage wheels in reverse 

Yep, maybe that's you're grader. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

SnowRidge · Jul 18, 2003

( what said is the spindles are not top quality, they don't get many hours out of the ball bearings. better made ones will have tapered roll bearings. the low hrs.belts and bearings i read about here doesn't lend it's to being a tank.
the plastic wheels on the back should last for ever,they bearly touch the ground,the front carrys the weight. )

Could you please supply us a link to the post(s) that discuss a PT owner having problems with spindles. I couldn't find one, but maybe I am using the wrong search terms.

Ditto with the belts. I found one reference to early belt failure. The few others seemed like normal wear.

The plastic rear wheels carry around half the weight of the mower if you cut with the arms in the float position. "Barely touch the ground" would indicate that you are not cutting in float. Is your property flat? Ours isn't. If we didn't use float, it would be extremely difficult for us to mow.

We cut some grass growing out of a gravel base. The plastic wheels are not holding up. The pneumatic fronts are fine.

SnowRidge

Schultz · Jul 18, 2003

Maybe Buttenberg will chime in, but I belive he mentioned he was only getting 300-400 hrs of comercial use from his 60" deck before bearing replacement.

Maybe if you search for post under his name, my name since I replyed to it, and Hazmat's name (he replyed to my reply). I can't say I've been all that sucessfull with the searches using the TBN search engine.

SnowRidge · Jul 18, 2003

( Maybe Buttenberg will chime in, but I belive he mentioned he was only getting 300-400 hrs of comercial use from his 60" deck before bearing replacement.

Maybe if you search for post under his name, my name since I replyed to it, and Hazmat's name (he replyed to my reply). I can't say I've been all that sucessfull with the searches using the TBN search engine. )

Thanks, I'll try that.

SnowRidge

SnowRidge · Jul 18, 2003

Wow, he has a lot of posts.

Looks like he has had trouble with the roller bearings on the center spindle of his 60" deck.

His is the only reference to a spindle problem that I could find, and if I am interpreting all the posts correctly, he was also towing a couple of wing mowers up hills while trying to maintain tip speed on the 60" deck, which he couldn't do.

It seems fair to say that this had the deck in a high load situation quite a bit. This is rugged commercial use. Perhaps that contributed to the bearings' early demise.

Anyway, none of what I have found gives me any concern regarding the spindles in our mower. While we will probably be cutting more area than the average user, and certainly more often if this rain pattern persists, I don't anticipate any problems.

It's nice to know the spindles have replaceable bearings, though. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

SnowRidge