Well used X 500 Impulse buy

[sd455dan]

Oh..so its a very old machine. Guess you got your money worth from it then.

Yeah we really did, and It was was used commercially for over a decade for multiple rental properties my dad owned when he was offered a virtually new Honda Hydrostat mower which he bought he gave us the MTD within about three years he started to intensely dislike the Honda and paid us to mow his home yards and a couple others with both the MTD and the Honda. I will fix the MTD with whatever I can find that is a good serviceable deck. because like the Deere X 500 it has a very smooth Hydrostat and the Industrial/ Commercial Briggs opposed twin still also still runs great.

The Honda ( 4518)s were plagued with a Jerky hydro that even trained Honda techs sometimes couldn't fix or wouldn't stay fixed, which is a non smooth cruise.
They jerk constantly- a forward back problem. not to mention many other design problems. i have that hydro mower as well but it is broken down. I may just sell it as a parts machine. Does have a neat engine set up a liquid cooled inline 2 cylinder.

 

[Milo]

I disagree. Ive seen welded decks that look like there built like a tank. Way stronger than the thin stamped units.....

I don't think you disagree with what I said at all, you just (rightly so) feel a heavy fabricated deck is stronger than a thin stamped one. However I would certainly find a smooth, rounded, one piece, 7 gauge steel deck preferable to a 7 gauge deck made from pieces welded together.

 

[Milo]

On the cracked hood I wonder if this is from people just trying to lift in the center of the hood right above the console. I always reach across and and gently pull out slightly on both sides of the hood at the bottom of dash. This releases the plastic catch and hood opens very easily then.....

I wonder too but looking at the OP's picture where it's cracked I'm not sure? Anyway I now, as you suggested, lift carefully from the lower sides at the rear of the hood to open it on my X500. Gotta be gentle with these plastic hoods JD uses
I also picked mine up used, last year, with 97 hours. The original owner bought it in 2015 for his small lot and kept it in his garage so it looked basically new. To get a baseline the first thing I did was change the hydro fluid and engine oil, grease, check the deck level (which was spot on), and sharpened the blades. It came with a 54" deck as well as the power leaf/grass bagger system which is the main reason I bought it, because the power bagger system for my ZTR was going to cost me about what I paid for this whole setup.

 

[grsthegreat]

I don't think you disagree with what I said at all, you just (rightly so) feel a heavy fabricated deck is stronger than a thin stamped one. However I would certainly find a smooth, rounded, one piece, 7 gauge steel deck preferable to a 7 gauge deck made from pieces welded together.

no, i dont disagree..i was looking at a 8 and 10 gauge welded deck.

 

[Diggin It]

Both of my riders are stamped decks. The SCUT deck may be too ... I haven't really bothered to look that close. The main advantage to stamped in my view is the rounded edges underneath to move clippings and make cleaning easier. I've beat all three of them on rocks, roots, mole hills, divets, downs branches and pretty much everything else. All three have been straightened or repaired in one way or another. The two riders are over ten years old and no sign of rust through anywhere despite me being lazy and leaving grass caked on all winter.


But yeah, I'd have probably jumped all over a 585 for $2500

 

[Bentrim]

Yeah we really did, and It was was used commercially for over a decade for multiple rental properties my dad owned when he was offered a virtually new Honda Hydrostat mower which he bought he gave us the MTD within about three years he started to intensely dislike the Honda and paid us to mow his home yards and a couple others with both the MTD and the Honda. I will fix the MTD with whatever I can find that is a good serviceable deck. because like the Deere X 500 it has a very smooth Hydrostat and the Industrial/ Commercial Briggs V twin still also still runs great.

The Honda ( 4518)s were plagued with a Jerky hydro that even trained Honda techs sometimes couldn't fix or wouldn't stay fixed, which is a non smooth cruise.
They jerk constantly- a forward back problem. not to mention many other design problems. i have that hydro mower as well but it is broken down. I may just sell it as a parts machine. Does have a neat engine set up a liquid cooled inline 2 cylinder.

Know what you mean about that Honda. They got into the tractor market, apparently did not sell well, and got out of the tractor market. Since then they have quit handling most parts for them and if they do have the parts they are really expensive.
The engine is really neat, and runs smooth but needs to be removed for some work on them. Honda also used them on other equipment, have seen them on a generator.

 

[crackerjack222]

Years ago, I had a riding mower that we used to mow about 2 acres very often,(Houston area). I welded up cracks in the deck so many times it got to where I was welding over welds. I had a sheet metal shop bend up a rectangular deck out of 16 ga crs. I welded the corners, added new spindles, skids and wheels and we used that mower another 5 years before we moved to town and with a very small yard. That deck was still useable.

 

[sd455dan]

Years ago, I had a riding mower that we used to mow about 2 acres very often,(Houston area). I welded up cracks in the deck so many times it got to where I was welding over welds. I had a sheet metal shop bend up a rectangular deck out of 16 ga crs. I welded the corners, added new spindles, skids and wheels and we used that mower another 5 years before we moved to town and with a very small yard. That deck was still useable.

I find the riding mower deck comments interesting.

In all of the Riding mowers we have had, never any problem with dents or rust through or bad cracking, just bent spindles mangled or sheared off blades, destroyed bearings, bent pulleys, broken or ripped belts. I did have to straighten one once that got high centered and somehow when it was checked later the deck was bowed.

Other than that just problems with tractor Bush Hogs when they caught something substantial like payving stones, large rocks, tires, engine parts, large branches, or a 4 x 4 or two where a deck got a Big dent or actually ripped open.
I did buy a MTD 8 horse snowblower at night one time without looking closely at it since it ran fine. Looked in the daylight and the main engine wheel housing was completely spider webbed and they had stacked 2 license plates to mount the Snow king engine. I may take a pic of that housing and post it here (Might Crack you Guys Up)
I migged back together and then decided it was just not really going to be sound and have just saved the snow king engine for the MTD track drive.

 

[sd455dan]

Know what you mean about that Honda. They got into the tractor market, apparently did not sell well, and got out of the tractor market. Since then they have quit handling most parts for them and if they do have the parts they are really expensive.
The engine is really neat, and runs smooth but needs to be removed for some work on them. Honda also used them on other equipment, have seen them on a generator.

That mower was plagued by problems.

to name a few the pto had a brake that could not be adjusted to release before the deck spindles engaged so the only way not to kill the 18 hp engine was set the throttle wide open and slam the engagement lever into engage it would smoke both the brake and clutch. No way around it.

Coils started arcing externally from cracks and then igniter failed Over $600 then the Igniter failed again. Was not going to pay for another over 300 dollar igniter.
I Fixed it after the second igniter failed by shoe horning two $20 mid 1970s GM HEI modules and triggering off of the Honda trigger unit, and then used two standard GM coils that worked well.

Occurred to me that a twin coil off a Japanese 4 cylinder motorcycle could save one HEI module. was about to do that when the charging (stator) failed and those ain't cheap either
So put a bigger battery in. That worked until the starter quit.
See where this is Going. That is when IT got parked.

Thankfully the New Deere seems REALLY GOOD I don't mind the old Gilson at all and Once I pick up the other dead mower I may really fix up the CO-OP Hydro with some new nylon bushings and fix a small oil leak that started recently.

That Mower deserves being repaired, It earned it .
Can't say the same for the Honda.

ps picked up some Fiberglass resin today for the JD X500 hood ,and just a heads up.

Low life's are stealing the darn catalyst out of the can tops.
Had to go to the 3rd can before I found one intact.
Showed the store worker and had him pull them out of stock so nobody buys one gets home and can't catalyze their resin. smh

 

[grsthegreat]

If you bought it at hd or lowes…..they just went back onto shelf.

 

[sd455dan]

If you bought it at hd or lowes…..they just went back onto shelf.

Nope, North 40 outfitters.

They pulled the 2 cans and I talked to a manager at the front as well and he said they would have the workers watch for people getting into the can tops in the future.
They thanked me for not just putting them back on the shelf and we discussed that if sold that would mean a trip back to the store for another customer to replace the cans and would likely be irritated as well.

Low Life thief(s)
The cashier almost didn't charge me for one item he missed and I had to point out that I did not see it on the ticket display. We fixed that. North 40 I like Home Depot, not so much.

 

[grsthegreat]

Ah the cda north 40 is a huge store……i shop there alot. The sandpoint store is not as large, but quite well stocked.

i only said that because i returned a defective dewalt sander to HD last year and the guy placed it into a basket labeled tools. Not into a return to vendor box. I know it went back onto shelf.

 

[beenthere]

Years ago, I had a riding mower that we used to mow about 2 acres very often,(Houston area). I welded up cracks in the deck so many times it got to where I was welding over welds. I had a sheet metal shop bend up a rectangular deck out of 16 ga crs. I welded the corners, added new spindles, skids and wheels and we used that mower another 5 years before we moved to town and with a very small yard. That deck was still useable.

Which brand mower and deck?

 

[sd455dan]

Nope, North 40 outfitters.

They pulled the 2 cans and I talked to a manager at the front as well and he said they would have the workers watch for people getting into the can tops in the future.
They thanked me for not just putting them back on the shelf and we discussed that if sold that would mean a trip back to the store for another customer to replace the cans and would likely be irritated as well.

Low Life thief(s)
The cashier almost didn't charge me for one item he missed and I had to point out that I did not see it on the ticket display. We fixed that. North 40 I like Home Depot, not so much.

Well made some more progress on the x500 today removed the hood and prepprd the hood for some fiber glass repair. It is not going to be close to perfect. The hood was drilled at the crack ends by PO and he used what appears to be white spackling for the repair Not sure on that but that white will sure show up in the cracks and I could not get it all out so just decided it will be better than Gorrilla taping it Maybe I will reassemble the hood to the mower in the morning. I ordered some replacement deck wheels off of ebay on Tuesday and they showed this afternoon.

One wheel and the support shaft height adjuster was REALLY worn.

I decided to home brew a repair and drilled out the old wheel shaft Found a bolt that matched the wheel hole size.

Cut the excess threads off and then turned down the remaining bolt to be a light press fit in the drilled out hole.
Finally Got out my "Favorite" new tool the HTP Pro Pulse 220 MIG and Plug welded the shaft end in Synergic Mode. Almost no splatter and a Good Hot and fast weld. Remounted the wheel assembly and did some more test mowing sans hood.
Saved a few bucks to, since the wheel shaft is $20 to $40 on ebay

Really mowing Nice Now.

 

[sd455dan]

I love the larger Deere riders. I had a GT235 before this X500. i did have something go wrong with the Tranny on the GT235 but parts were readily available and was able to tear into it myself and fix.

Update

No records,
but I did get the Original owners manual today, and am holding the Husky dealer to one set of 3 new compatible deck blades. They did not order any or know if they had any in stock because JD is a bit tight on the info according to the parts person.
Told them I would find the info in the manual, to not waste their time trying to dig through the manual, and get back to them with the JD and interchange numbers. I have since confirmed this X500 is a 2008 model and also that it has the smaller 48 inch deck.
Surprised this hydro has no external screw on Hydrostat filter, the manual only shows a listing for the X534 and X540 for it but it does have an internal pleated filter for the transaxle.

 

[tacticalturnip]

Update

No records,
but I did get the Original owners manual today, and am holding the Husky dealer to one set of 3 new compatible deck blades. They did not order any or know if they had any in stock because JD is a bit tight on the info according to the parts person.
Told them I would find the info in the manual, to not waste their time trying to dig through the manual, and get back to them with the JD and interchange numbers. I have since confirmed this X500 is a 2008 model and also that it has the smaller 48 inch deck.
Surprised this hydro has no external screw on Hydrostat filter, the manual only shows a listing for the X534 and X540 for it but it does have an internal pleated filter for the transaxle.

I always thought it was weird that the K72 didn't have a screw-on filter too, but I think the Cub Cadet shaft-drive's are the only medium-duty garden tractor that have one.

 

[beenthere]

They did not order any or know if they had any in stock because JD is a bit tight on the info according to the parts person.

They are pulling your leg or just lazy..
Attached is schematic easily found in JD parts.

https://partscatalog.deere.com/jdrc/sidebyside/equipment/71924/referrer/navigation/pgId/257056249

The part # is UC22009 and available on Amazon or a John Deere dealer. 3 for $43

 

[tacticalturnip]

Green Part Store is an excellent resource as well.

 

[beenthere]

Green Part Store is an excellent resource as well.

And says currently on backorder from JD

 

[sd455dan]

I always thought it was weird that the K72 didn't have a screw-on filter too, but I think the Cub Cadet shaft-drive's are the only medium-duty garden tractor that have one.

Yeah, I thought it was funny our old MTD that we bought the x 500 to replace has a full size screw on hydro filter and also has a reservoir that looks to be about 3 times the volume of the K72 plus it is also divorced from the hydro unit which may be better at dissipating heat.

Today I needed to weight roll our driveway after spreading some 3/4 minus with the Rhino tractor and box blade.

Figured it would be nice to use the x500 to pull the roller.

So I modified a generic short receiver from HF and mounted it up with three 3/8" bolts and also turned a nut down to the ID of the existing hitch hole and then MIGed it on along with a center upper L bracket.

If the receiver comes loose, my guess is the Hydro will be toast long before the hitch comes loose.

The roller is a "Manual" unit from my FIL's old landscape company for seating "Green side up" sod that we were given years ago.

I added rubber suspension bushings and then just bolted through them and a couple washers and It works well for taking a bit of shock out of starting or stopping.
After a bit of use found the roller was leaking so I drilled out the leaking areas and then plug welded them shut after purging the inner airspace with Argon CO2 mix, and almost full of water Not taking a big chance when welding on a vessel that has much internal volume.

The under Hood fiberglass repair i did is bugging me and the cracks really detract from the mowers overall condition, so if i have some extra time tomorrow may try and do a little body work and see if using Fizz can Van Sickle JD Green to the the hoods plastic casting line can improve the looks a bit.