Z930R - Zero Turn Purchase - Comments and Rules of Thumb?

[WinterDeere]

I’ll just need to take it slow. Agree?

Sounds like a plan. Honestly, going slow when whipping around flower beds and stuff is always a good idea, since lateral G's are what tears out grass, and that's directly proportional to speed. I can mow within 0.5 inches of a flower bed or edging at full speed, on flat terrain, but usually take it slower near turns to minimize tear-out.

 

[gstrom99]

Question on Servicing…. Do the folks here do their own service/maintenance?

I signed up for the dlr's extending the JD warranty, if they do the service work. I do it instead anyway. Pretty easy, really.

 

[WinterDeere]

Question on Servicing…. Do the folks here do their own service/maintenance?

I do my own. The regular yearly maintenance is super-easy. Depending on your engine skills, you may choose to take it to the dealer when bigger items come up (head removal for carbon cleaning, etc.), but those items happen on decade-long time scales (2000 hours) for home-user profiles.

Here's my yearly maintenance:

1. Wash the mower at end of season, then stick it in a heated/conditioned garage space long enough to be sure everything is dry for winter storage.
2. Throw down my 2-piece RaceRamps (TM), and drive mower up onto them.
3. Remove lower section of RaceRamps, for easy side access under deck.
4. Remove rear engine guard from mower.
5. Slide oil pan under engine and open oil drain while engine is warm. Also spin off oil filter and drop that in the pan.
6. Remove air cleaner cover and blow out air cleaner with compressed air (outside). Replace if due or needed.
7. Pull out the manual to remember all the grease points, and grab a grease gun. Grease all 10 or 11 points (3 spindles + 4 mower hanger blocks + 2 brake pivots + height adjust.
8. Wet new oil filter o-ring, and spin it onto engine.
9. Close drain and refill with 90% of sump capacity. You won't be able to check with dipstick until you have the mower off the ramps.
10. Remove blades with 1/2" air impact or similar, and scrape underside of mower deck clean. They make special rounded flexible putty knives for this, well worth your $11 or $13.
11. Wipe a bit of antiseize compound on blade bolts, these things are always damp, and get nasty without it.
12. Grab spare set of blades out of storage, sharpened at some point prior to this, and install. Run bolts in by hand to be sure blade seats neat and clean on boss, then snug with a quick squeeze on the 1/2" air impact driver. You obviously want the blades snug, but don't go full-gorilla on these, it only makes them harder to remove later. Blade spin direction is usually designed to ensure these bolts can never spin loose on their own.
13. Back it off the ramps, shut down.
14. Check pressure on all tires and adjust. Debug/tube/replace any tire showing abnormal air loss.
15. Check dipstick, adjust oil level as needed.
16. Park it in the shed, connect BatteryTender or other similar battery maintainer. Ready for next season.

Ignoring the washing, which usually happens separately from the rest on the day of last mowing, all the rest of this probably takes me 60 - 90 minutes, with the biggest variable being the mower deck scraping.

If you take it to dealer for service, you'll still want to do the scraping and washing on your own. They usually just change fluids and grase zerks.

 

[rmonio]

I do my own. The regular yearly maintenance is super-easy. Depending on your engine skills, you may choose to take it to the dealer when bigger items come up (head removal for carbon cleaning, etc.), but those items happen on decade-long time scales (2000 hours) for home-user profiles.

Here's my yearly maintenance:

1. Wash the mower at end of season, then stick it in a heated/conditioned garage space long enough to be sure everything is dry for winter storage.
2. Throw down my 2-piece RaceRamps (TM), and drive mower up onto them.
3. Remove lower section of RaceRamps, for easy side access under deck.
4. Remove rear engine guard from mower.
5. Slide oil pan under engine and open oil drain while engine is warm. Also spin off oil filter and drop that in the pan.
6. Remove air cleaner cover and blow out air cleaner with compressed air (outside). Replace if due or needed.
7. Pull out the manual to remember all the grease points, and grab a grease gun. Grease all 10 or 11 points (3 spindles + 4 mower hanger blocks + 2 brake pivots + height adjust.
8. Wet new oil filter o-ring, and spin it onto engine.
9. Close drain and refill with 90% of sump capacity. You won't be able to check with dipstick until you have the mower off the ramps.
10. Remove blades with 1/2" air impact or similar, and scrape underside of mower deck clean. They make special rounded flexible putty knives for this, well worth your $11 or $13.
11. Wipe a bit of antiseize compound on blade bolts, these things are always damp, and get nasty without it.
12. Grab spare set of blades out of storage, sharpened at some point prior to this, and install. Run bolts in by hand to be sure blade seats neat and clean on boss, then snug with a quick squeeze on the 1/2" air impact driver. You obviously want the blades snug, but don't go full-gorilla on these, it only makes them harder to remove later. Blade spin direction is usually designed to ensure these bolts can never spin loose on their own.
13. Back it off the ramps, shut down.
14. Check pressure on all tires and adjust. Debug/tube/replace any tire showing abnormal air loss.
15. Check dipstick, adjust oil level as needed.
16. Park it in the shed, connect BatteryTender or other similar battery maintainer. Ready for next season.

Ignoring the washing, which usually happens separately from the rest on the day of last mowing, all the rest of this probably takes me 60 - 90 minutes, with the biggest variable being the mower deck scraping.

If you take it to dealer for service, you'll still want to do the scraping and washing on your own. They usually just change fluids and grase zerks.

This is quite a checklist. Did you get it from the manual?

I’ve bookmarked it and will definitely look at doing this myself. I do my own work on my JD 4600 and JD B and enjoy it. I might have to check my ramps though as I don’t know how reliable they are (they are quite old).

Thanks for sharing!

 

[Carl_NH]

After every mowing I blow out the deck and everything with a leaf blower before putting in the barn. Keeps it cleaner. I don't mow when wet so don't get grass build up,and leaves and sticks in the fall tend to clean the underside of the deck.

Average about 35 hours a year - so do two blade sharpening and machine greasing - one early and one late season to chop up leaves. Then oil/filter every two years (~70 hours) and hydro oil (15-50 Mobil 1) filter every 6 years ~ 200 hours.

 

[rmonio]

After every mowing I blow out the deck and everything with a leaf blower before putting in the barn. Keeps it cleaner. I don't mow when wet so don't get grass build up,and leaves and sticks in the fall tend to clean the underside of the deck.

Average about 35 hours a year - so do two blade sharpening and machine greasing - one early and one late season to chop up leaves. Then oil/filter every two years (~70 hours) and hydro oil (15-50 Mobil 1) filter every 6 years ~ 200 hours.

Thanks for the insight. I don't know what my hours will be - yet - but I'm sure it will be less than it was for my X320. .

 

[Carl_NH]

Venture to say roughly half - I went from 2 hours to 1 or a little more if I double cut some heavy areas - I don't mulch but using Gator G6 blades does a nice job.

 

[rmonio]

Venture to say roughly half - I went from 2 hours to 1 or a little more if I double cut some heavy areas - I don't mulch but using Gator G6 blades does a nice job.

I'm hoping for the same ROI - for sure.

 

[WinterDeere]

This is quite a checklist. Did you get it from the manual?

That’s summarized from memory, but originally came from the manual. Manual will have one section giving the schedule for service items, then usually a separate section giving the how-to for each item.

Sharpening blades every 35 hours is a lot, IMO. I do 100 hours per year, and they barely show any wear at all in that time. Conversely, i would not wait two years between oil changes, even if hours were as low as 35/year. I’ve always been told there are corrosive contaminants in crankcase oil that should never be left over winter storage. The 1.6 qt of oil most of these take is super-cheap peace of mind, I don’t see any point in stretching that.

 

[rmonio]

I agree on the maintenance timing. I usually get the maintenance kit from JD with everything in it.