Scag Tiger Cat 2

I picked up my 52" Tiger Cat 2 today (06/02/2017). It is my first zero turn mower. It takes a little getting used to. I picked it up from Bison Farm Supply in Stonewall Louisiana and the service manager there is any old friend I used to work with 40+ years ago when I was just out of high school in 1970. His advise was: "Stay away from your wife's flowers until you learn how to run this thing. It's a little sensitive if you have never run a zero turn mower". I listened to him and mowed my in-laws yard which has a lot of open space. I hope I can to run this thing like everyone else.

It was a lot of fun and appears to be a very well made machine. If I am not mistaken it uses the same inner and outer air filter as my L3800 Kubota tractor.

Question: I have always used Royal Purple oil in all my vehicles and equipment. What is everyone"s opinion of using Royal Purple 20W - 50W and a K&N filter on my new toy?

I have never had any problem with Royal Purple oil.

You probably won't like my opinion but I would run neither, especially the K&N. Pleated paper filters, coupled with a restriction gauge, do the very best job of filtering available. K&N's have their place but it is not on a mower.

Royal Purple is good oil. But you'll never see any benefit from it because the engine on a homeowner mower isn't seeing severe use and you probably won't put enough hours on it in a season to see any benefit from extended drain intervals. Go with synthetic if you wish but there are other synthetics just as good for this application and cheaper, too. You'll never have any oil-related problems using conventional oil, either.

Both these products are, IMO, marketed toward the racing crowd. The oil won't do you any harm, but the air filter may.

Sorry, what I meant was to use a K&N Oil Filter with the Royal Purple 20W - 50W. You are correct, I plan to use the stock air filters. I have never been a believer in the K&N air filters on my vehicles. I think it is better to throw away a dirty air filter than to try to wash the thing.

:welcome:

Welcome to the forum!

I'm going to move this thread over to our Scag section for you :smile:

I use Royal Purple Synthetic 40W in my Scag. Manual indicated straight 40W in warmer temps. I do not mow in cold temps. Scag indicated the mower may burn oil with multi-grade oils. So I went with straight 40W.

My wife is 65 years old and had never mowed with a Zero Turn. She learned to mow very quickly. Just go slow when your close to stuff or turning till you get some experience.

The Scag factory puts good air filtration systems on their mowers.

Royal Purple I guess is good oil. We used it when I worked in a paper mill years ago. I do know what 220 oil in a gearbox that was overheating being changed to Royal Purple 220 or the equivalent I forget the numbers on it. Anyway the temperature went back down to normal immediately.

I have a Tiger Cat with about 1500 hours on it that has had Walmart Super Tech 10W 30 in it and it uses no oil and has no problems. We normally change Oil and Filter about 100 hours. We run 10W30 Supertech in everything we have except our diesels. We have never had a failure on anything that was oil related.

The price of oil in most situations goes along with the amount of marketing that goes into it. If oil has the certifications on it then one is as good as the other. Obviously Royal Purple is a synthetic and has its place but putting it in a mower is overkill.

I have a friend that used to be a distributor and he said that when they went to where ever they bought oil from that they bottled many different brands from the same place.

Strait weight oils are better than multigrades unless you are going to be shoving snow around with it.
A lot of mowers that used to blow a little smoke when they first start up have been cured by changing from 10w 40 to strait 30.
If you are happy with royal purple & it has been working well stay with it.
In general I recommend mower oils for mowers as they are blended with more corrosion inhibitors and water dispersants than car oils.
What is far more important with mowers is to change it, at the end of the season, every season.