Why are there such a wide range of reviews good to bad on the same model ?

PIJoe said:

I've been running my YTH2454 with a crew on my REO jobs, cutting 3-4 lawns per day (avg this year is 26,000 sq. ft.) in summer heat. Running Mobil 1, changing oil every 50 hours, belts, blades and grease always kept up, and haven't had a stutter in 4 years and hundreds of hours. To me, that's pretty much commercial use. Maintenance is key, not necessarily the machine. I can buy a SCAG and refuse to maintain it, and it'll be dead before my rider would be. It's kind of like tagging something "commercial grade" on a brochure- it's a nice phrase that makes some items seem tougher "just because" for the sake of sales. Are some better? Sure. Are all of them better? No way. It's all use, care, and maintenance IMHO. To the OP- you should have NO issue with your tractor, if maintained per specs- that is a nice machine.

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Carscw said:

I had a yth2454 and used it doing reo cuts. Was the best mower I used for initial cuts.
Now I just do Fannie Mae recuts. Been using toro ss5000 for a few years. Been trouble free for over 3000 hours. Maintaining it is the key.

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Pumper54 said:

"If a list was made of the top 5 things to maintain your riding mower, I wonder what most people might list as what they think the top 5 is (in order of importance) ? "

Oil level and changes

Clean or replace air filter as needed

Sharpe blades

Grease moving parts as required: Spindles, pulleys anything with greaseable bearings.

Belts

Just my $0.02
Tom

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GKL said:

I'm new to riding mowers, but so far the number one thing I heard both online and offline is the importance of oil changes when needed. If a list was made of the top 5 things to maintain your riding mower, I wonder what most people might list as what they think the top 5 is (in order of importance) ?

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Carscw said:

I have always changed my oil around 50 hours. Changed the brand of oil I use last oil change. Still use 30 none synthetic. Has been around 200 hours since the last change. Oil is still nice a brown. ( looks new)

#1 grease front wheels and steering gears.
#2 remove deck pulley covers and leave them off. Keep top of deck clean.

#3 remove deck belt every 50 when doing oil change and flip it over and reinstall.

#4 spray all springs and all linkage with a spray lube.

#5 when you hear a new noise find out what it is and fix it. Like spindle bearing noise. Easy cheap fix that will save you money down the road.

This is just things I do.

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GKL said:

So you are saying that if you use synthetic oil you can go over 200 hours between changes ? (being new to riding mowers I might not be ready to try that just yet :smile You said "remove deck pulley covers and leave them off" - interesting, does leaving them on cause more problems than they prevent ?

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Carscw said:

I am using none synthetic oil. Just a brand I have never used before. Never have had any oil not turn black around 50 hours. I guess I doing a test kinda. I still recommend you to change your oil every 50 hours.

Cut the grass a couple times then take the pulley covers off. See all the grass stuck around the spindle? Not good at all. It traps the heat in the spindle causing bearing wear. The covers are there because some people do not know not to touch a moving pulley. Now on some mowers the belt guides are built into the covers so you would have to leave them on. Mostly mtd did this.

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