Up Grading to Bolens G174

[rayl]

LBrown59: The large tractor I looked at at Lowes's last spring I thought was a 2500...maybe not the price was $1500, it did not seem much heavyer than the Murry. I do understand most the problem with the murry is weight but having a weak trans axle I don't dare add weight to it. I only have 2 tractor dealers within 30 min ride from me. One sells White the other Deere, nether one had anything much for used tractors. It is very hard to tell what a tracktor is just by looking around the internet without being able to actually see one for real. What does a 2500 weigh, how much weight do you figure you can have on the rear wheels of the 2500, including tractor weight and added weight?
elalexander: Waht do you figure your G194 weighs and weight you can put on your rear axle? I am being open minded, I am here as I know you all have experiance with your tractors and I thank you and all for your input. I don't want to lay out $3000-$3500 and find I made a big mistake. Advantages to 3 point rear is that in future you can add alot of attachments, last summer I rented a roto tiller to do my wifes garden (wresteling that hand tiller was real work!) as I will again this spring, if I had a 3 point tracktor and came across a good deal on a tiller I would buy it. I'm not rushing to buy the first thing I see, I'm listening to you guys, a big advatage of something like a cub 2500 is parts would be easyer to come buy and most likley cheaper to maintain in the long run.

 

[elalexander]

The G194, per the owners manual list the weight as 1903lbs. Most of the time these weights are "dry" weights. Oil, fuel hyd oil etc will need to be added in. I really don't know how much weight you can put on the back of one of these little machines. PSI output of the hydrualic pump is 2000 psi at just over 3 gallon per minute to the 3ph.

 

[rayl]

Thats a respectable weight, that sure could push some snow. That is a cool tractor. We had a snow strom here last night, I took a couple of pics today of the Murray "lawn ornament" Would be real nice to have a real tractor for this situation. In the bottom picture you can see the tractor shed my buddy and I built on the back of the shop last fall, don't have a door on it yet just a tarp to cover it. He sure would crap if I told him we need to add 4' to the lenght next spring to fit a G194 in it!!

 

[LBrown59]

Thats a respectable weight, that sure could push some snow. That is a cool tractor.
1*We had a snow strom here last night, I took a couple of pics today of the Murray "lawn ornament"

How much snow did you get?
From the picture it looks like the lawn ornament didn't do to bad of a job.
http://mysite.verizon.net/rklemieux/index/P1016567.JPG
I didn't see any extra weight on the back of it in the picture.

 

[rayl]

LBrown: We had 4 to 5" on that storm the snow you see in the pictures is an accumulation of 3 storms we have had over the past few weeks. You have a good eye! I don't have any weight on the rear.... I'm afraid if I put weight on it something will break, the trans axle is very weak looking, looks like thin cast pot metal, I don't want to take a chance on cracking the case. The guy I bought it from had just replaced the case beacuse it cracked. When I bought this tracktor we were closing on another home that had a small driveway and the lawn was like a golf course very flat and smooth, The deal fell throguh on that so we ended up with this place, a large parking lot with a lawn like the Baja!

 

[rayl]

Still doing my home work on deciding which tractor would be best for my needs and came accross this one. I was wondering if anyone can tell me how they think this would compare to an Iseki powered Bolens tractor? eBay Motors: Harley-Davidson Powered Lawn Tractor (item 140080681549 end time Feb-06-07 07:52:37 PST)

 

[LBrown59]

1*The large tractor I looked at, at Lowes last spring I thought was a 2500...
2*maybe not the price was $1500 it did not seem much heavier than the Murray
3*What does a 2500 weigh,
how much weight do you figure you can have on the rear wheels of the 2500.
4*a big advantage of something like a cub 2500 is parts would be easier to come buy and most likely cheaper to maintain in the long run.

1*Lowes and HD only sell Cub Cadet Lawn tractors not their garden tractors.
The 2500 is a garden tractor.
2* $1500 that's a lawn tractor price an also why it didn't seem much heavier than your Murray.
3*Seems to me somewhere over 800 pounds. But not sure of that. You don't need to add tons of weight to get the traction needed/so I'm more than sure a 2500 can more than handle the extra weight.
I can add 2 12'' and 2 10'' filled cement blocks on a weight box on the back of my Bolens garden tractors without a problem.
Usually I just use one 12'' filled block which gives me all the traction I need for probably 95 percent of all snow plowing dirt moving and other jobs using the front blade.
My plan is to use the tiller for ballast when using the front blade on the CC GT2500.
4*Parts for my old Bolens tractors are real expensive.
I had to replace the rear axle in my 66 Bolens 3 or 4 years ago.
If I remember right it cost me about 300 bucks.
One of the reasons I bought the CC 2554 was to replace the 2 Bolens Tractors before I have to replace any more expensive parts in them.
It don't take to many 300 dollar parts especially when you're feeding them to 2 tractors to pay for a new 2554.
Another reason for getting the 2554 was to help keep the 2 Bolens tractors in good shape.
I kinda look at it like this it's cheaper to maintain the Bolens tractors at Cub Cadet prices than it is Bolens prices.

 

[LBrown59]

Still doing my home work on deciding which tractor would be best for my needs and came accross this one. I was wondering if anyone can tell me how they think this would compare to an Iseki powered Bolens tractor? eBay Motors: Harley-Davidson Powered Lawn Tractor (item 140080681549 end time Feb-06-07 07:52:37 PST)

I took a look at it on the link above.
Here is some info from the site:
Specifications
Engine ………………………. 1980 80ci

Frame………………1971 Bolens 1250

This is basically the same tractor as my 1966 and 1967 Bolens tractors.
I paid $728 for the 66 brand spanking new.
I bought the 1967 for $500 in June of 2005.
Would you give me $6500.oo dollars for one of my Bolens tractors if I put a motorcycle engine on it?

Looks like a real skin ya deal: I wouldn't want to touch it with a 10 foot pole.

 

[rayl]

LBrown: Guess I should have put a smiley at the end of the message. I would never consider something like that for a work tractor, I just admired the guys enginuity, it must sound pretty wild. The thing that is somewhat discouraging me from an older Iseki tracktor is the parts situation. I went back 25+ pages in this forum and saw things like radiator hoses for $100 and simple things like glow plugs an issue, what happens if you need a seal or have fuel injector problem? It almost sounds like you would need to mortgage the house if something major went down. It also seems like only a couple of people have parts for these machines and they command big $$ for the parts they have. Cubs on the other hand seem plentyful and parts seem to be more common for them. I really wanted a small 4X4 desil tractor in my price range but looking at it for the long range it might not be the best thing to get. Hydrostat scares me, what ever I end up with I think I would prefer a gear driven tractor. I'll continue looking and watching and see what turns up.

 

[gilbertmsg]

You may be correct with your concerns of the older Iseki's parts availability and price. I just purchased a TU 1700 that I found to have a bad head gasket. I found the gasket ($154), and someone to install ($500) don't know how much of a good deal I got ($3300 for tractor and finish mower) or going to get down the road.