Need advice on buying a riding mower

bertsmobile1 · Jul 3, 2017

The JD is a steal if it is in good condition.
If you are looking at selling it in a couple of years, you should be ably to get that price back easily in a few years time.

Bleach · Jul 3, 2017

Yes even if I could sell it years later for around what I paid, I still can't afford it. It has a lot of nice bells and whistles I don't need. I won't buy luxury cars for the same reason, even if I could get my money back later. I drive a Ford that is about as basic as it could be bought at the time. I bought it used several years ago and luckily paid a very reasonable price for it(less than what I am looking to pay for a mower now). It continues to serve me well and I can estimate that it will continue to serve me well for still many years to come. I wish I could use it as a mower

but even if I could it is too large but I could easily tow a mower home with it if need be.

deminin · Jul 3, 2017

If you have any Lowe's stores in your area, check out the Husqvarna models. I have a Husky 24HP 48" cut that is great. and I mow almost 2 acres with it. They normally go for around $2k, but this is the time of year that they start marking their remaining units down. JD is a good unit, but I think you pay extra for the Green Paint. I shopped JD when I was looking for a tractor, and wound up buying a Kubota for substantially less than the JD...and have used it for years, with minimal troubles.

Bleach · Jul 3, 2017

I take a look and see what they have. It seems the consensus is I that should look for a machine that has a horizontal shaft engine as they are probably better built overall. I am one to try to use things as long as I can. Most of every big ticket item I own is already pushing 20 years, including most of my cars. I'm strapped for splurging on most anything because I re-roofed my house over a year ago and more recently rebuilt both decks on my house. My house is almost 25 years old.

deminin · Jul 3, 2017

Bleach said:
I take a look and see what they have. It seems the consensus is I that should look for a machine that has a horizontal shaft engine as they are probably better built overall. I am one to try to use things as long as I can. Most of every big ticket item I own is already pushing 20 years, including most of my cars. I'm strapped for splurging on most anything because I re-roofed my house over a year ago and more recently rebuilt both decks on my house. My house is almost 25 years old.

The opinions on engines vary all over the place. My Husky uses a B&S 24HP 2 cylinder vertical shaft engine, and quite frankly, I don't recall ever seeing a horizontal shaft engine in a riding mower....perhaps in some high end zero turn, costing thousands more.
Engines have been improved substantially in recent years, and with proper maintenance, virtually any of them should last for many years. I have a neighbor who has a 20 yr. old Husky, and it is still going strong.

BTW, I hear ya on the roof...we had ours replaced this past April...$6k.

cpurvis · Jul 3, 2017

deminin said:
The opinions on engines vary all over the place. My Husky uses a B&S 24HP 2 cylinder vertical shaft engine, and quite frankly, I don't recall ever seeing a horizontal shaft engine in a riding mower....perhaps in some high end zero turn, costing thousands more.
Engines have been improved substantially in recent years, and with proper maintenance, virtually any of them should last for many years. I have a neighbor who has a 20 yr. old Husky, and it is still going strong.

BTW, I hear ya on the roof...we had ours replaced this past April...$6k.

Opinions vary, but I've never heard anybody say that a vertical shaft engine is better, or even as good as, a horizontal shaft engine.

There have been plenty of lawn and garden tractors and some zero turns as well that use horizontal shaft engines. John Deere, Cub Cadet, Kubota, and Grasshopper to name a few. You are absolutely correct in that they cost a lot more and there's a reason for that.

Bleach · Jul 3, 2017

The only applications I have with horizontal shaft engines are my edger, rototillers, weed wacker and generator. All are B&S's except the weed wacker which is a Maruyama with a Honda 4-stroke (awesome machine!).
The only problems I've seem with vertical shaft engines is oil leakage at the crank seal and broken rods occurring on walk behind mowers hitting a hard obstacle when mowing.
I like the idea of a driveshaft on a riding mower. Changing the drive belt to the hydrostat on my mower has always been a nightmare.

helomech · Jul 3, 2017

Bleach said:
The only applications I have with horizontal shaft engines are my edger, rototillers, weed wacker and generator. All are B&S's except the weed wacker which is a Maruyama with a Honda 4-stroke (awesome machine!).
The only problems I've seem with vertical shaft engines is oil leakage at the crank seal and broken rods occurring on walk behind mowers hitting a hard obstacle when mowing.
I like the idea of a driveshaft on a riding mower. Changing the drive belt to the hydrostat on my mower has always been a nightmare.

I like my jacobsen because it does not have any driveshafts. All hydraulic except the deck has one belt. The new models have a individual pump on each blade and zero belts. Wish mine had that.

deminin · Jul 3, 2017

cpurvis said:
There have been plenty of lawn and garden tractors and some zero turns as well that use horizontal shaft engines. John Deere, Cub Cadet, Kubota, and Grasshopper to name a few. You are absolutely correct in that they cost a lot more and there's a reason for that.

I would think that a horizontal shaft engine would require some sort of 90 degree "transmission" in order to run the horizontal blade belt on the deck. That would seem to induce another point of failure, and substantially increase the cost. With a vertical shaft engine, the engine has a simple pulley/blade clutch on the driveshaft that mates nicely to the blade belt. Perhaps we are thinking differently in our descriptions of horizontal vs. vertical, but now you've got me curious. I'll be in the city Wednesday, and I think I'll stop by a couple of dealers and see what they have in a Horizontal shaft riding mower.

cpurvis · Jul 4, 2017

deminin said:
I would think that a horizontal shaft engine would require some sort of 90 degree "transmission" in order to run the horizontal blade belt on the deck. That would seem to induce another point of failure, and substantially increase the cost. With a vertical shaft engine, the engine has a simple pulley/blade clutch on the driveshaft that mates nicely to the blade belt. Perhaps we are thinking differently in our descriptions of horizontal vs. vertical, but now you've got me curious. I'll be in the city Wednesday, and I think I'll stop by a couple of dealers and see what they have in a Horizontal shaft riding mower.

Actually, the belt alignment is better on the horizontal shaft mower. It only requires two idlers to change the belt direction from horizontal to vertical. With that, there is only a single point of belt 'misalignment' (on the deck), whereas the vertical shaft engine setup has two--one at the deck pulley, like the horizontal shaft, and one at the engine. These idlers are sealed bearing units; no lube required. My father owned two horizontal shaft mowers and I've owned one and between the three, only one idler went bad. Can't remember what it cost but there was no sticker shock (maybe $10?) and took about ten minutes to replace.

Need advice on buying a riding mower

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