Buying Advice john deere x300 48" deck

Hi people, Just sold my 42" Sears Riding Mower, which was 15 1/2 years old....it was getting tired....My question is i'm looking at the John Deere x300 with the 48" deck...any feed back would be greatly appreciated..I'm getting so confused...Thanks again

Richie

If you want to stay with a conventional riding mower I recommend the x320 with the k58 transmission. This has a better transmission than the x300 model which has had alot of problems.

There is a new model being introduced now, the x310 which has a few options, one being power steering but I haven't determined which transmission is in it. If it has the k58 then it would also be a good choice.

What are you confused about?

I've been alot of reviews about the x300 and alot of people were writing bad things about it, breaking down, tranny going bad, 48" too big for that 18.5 engine......I know that they have that $500.00 special going on now which makes the price a bit more affordable....I just want to make sure i'm not making a BIG mistake by owning this John Deere X300..

Well the hydro tranny is the same as the 100 series K46, and it has been my experience that these will die a slow death. The longer you run them the slower they get, mine is running about half of its original speed and has about 275 hours on it.` You can rework the tranny but I don't think that is acceptable for such low hour machines.

I can't vouch for the x310 that is out now because I don't know for a fact which transmission is used in it, but I do know the x320 has the same transmission as the x340 and x360. That is why I would buy the x320 over the x300. These better models use the k58 transmission.