Repairs John Deere LTR180 - Maintenance Nightmare

Hi all, I am new to this forum.

I have had a John Deere LTR180, I bought it new in Fall of 2002. I bought the name John Deere as I felt they were legendary equipment. I paid $4,000 and this mower seemed a good performer until around 2006 when things started getting out of control. So let me provide the maintenance by year.

From 2002 - 2005 I spent $555 less the Mulching, as this is an accessory item.

2003 - Mulching Kit & Blades - $135
2004 - Deck Belt - $185
2005 - Drive Belt - $325

From 2007 - 2011 I spent $1700.

2007 - Drive Belt, Deck Belt - $390
2008 - Deck Timing Belt (syncro) - $220
2009 - Drive Belt, Deck Belt - $390
2011 - Deck Timing Belt (syncro) plus all grooved spindles. - $355
2012 - Drive Belt - $325

I have had no issues with the 17 HP Kawasaki engine nor the transmission. I realize that maintenance is going to cost especially if you have the dealer do it. I have always done the other maintenance, oil & filter changes yearly, lubed the Zerk points every season, new spark plug & air filter annually, I blow off the dust and debris with air from the compressor after nearly every use, so I feel it has had good care.

I mow my 1.5 acre grass parcel from about May to Sept each season. I bought a mulch kit after the 1st season because the through the center grass throwing/bagging system was pretty much non-functional due to constant shoot clogging problems.

So here I am at the start of the 2012 season and I don't know what to do with this machine. My wife tells me to just give the LTR180 away and go get anything else but not a John Deere this time around. The parts cost and maintenance service problems I have experienced seem excessive. For instance a set of two mulching blades for this machine are $65 from the local Deere dealer.

I understand belts are going to wear out, spindles need replacing etc;, but it seems to me that I have had some excessive repairs on this machine over the last 5 years.

The local John Deere dealer service people tell me that this machine was one of the worst designed messes they have ever seen and thus the excessive labor costs in doing these repairs. They have been unable to tell me though why I have had to replace the drive belt 3 times in 5 years. Sorry I am probably ranting but what I would like to know. Did I just get a lemon of a mower, or is my experience not all that uncommon. Perhaps I am complaining for nothing are these maintenance intervals and their associated costs normal for the load I am placing on this machine. I mow my 1.5 acres about every 10 days in the summer. Unfortunately I do not have an hour meter on this machine. But at the beginning of the 2012 mowing season I have been through 9 full seasons, 2012 beginning the 10th. At this point I am debating about whether or not I should spend another dime on this machine.

Should I just cut my losses and get a new machine, any insight would be appreciated. Perhaps my 1.5 acres flat lawn is too much load for this machine I don't know.

If the advice is to dump this machine, what John Deere mower has a good track record. The dealer here bad mouths most of the Home Depot John Deere machines, so I am assuming I ought to look to the local JD dealer.

Thanks in advance for your advice. I hesitated to post my experience in this forum as I am assuming most here are really pleased with the John Deere name and quality, but here I am looking for your guidance.

Brad

Where are you buying your belts? Them seem way too high in price. And why do they keep wearing out so much?

Sell it to the scrap man and go get a craftsman

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something just doesn't sound right here with all the belts going bad. It sound like anything would be better then a John Deere. My model 68 John Deere gets better then 10 to 15 years on the belts.

I don't know how long a belt would last me just cutting my yard but I have used a lot of mowers and I get about two weeks out of a deck belt and about 3 months out of a drive belt cutting between 60 and 80 acres a week so I would think your belts should last a couple years if I break a belt after less than 60 yards I find out why because something is wrong

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Carscw said:

I don't know how long a belt would last me just cutting my yard but I have used a lot of mowers and I get about two weeks out of a deck belt and about 3 months out of a drive belt cutting between 60 and 80 acres a week so I would think your belts should last a couple years if I break a belt after less than 60 yards I find out why because something is wrong

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My model 68 dosen't cut 60 acres in 20 years. Very few pople cut 60 to 80 acres in a weeks time. Anything I own I will get a good 10 years out of a belt.

Jhon said:

Where are you buying your belts? Them seem way too high in price. And why do they keep wearing out so much?

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Hey Jhon thanks for your reply, I may have not made myself very clear when I put together this post. When I list the belts replaced by year, I mean to say that the costs by year includes not only the belt price but also the installation costs the JD dealer charged me to replace the belts.

Why so many belts? I am as baffled as you as to why the belts need replacing so often with mine, I made the assumption that my experience was normal maintenance for a riding mower up to about 2009. This JD was my first experience with a rider. In earlier homes we've owned we always had smaller yards, where just a push mower was satisfactory. So when we bought this home in the country and with it a larger yard I'm thinking we'll these maintenance costs are bit high but without any previous experience with any riding mower I assumed "welcome to the big leagues" .

So what I am getting from some of you is that my maintenance costs are excessive compared to your experience.

Around 2009 I began to get a clue something wasn't right, my neighbor has a Dixon ZTR, which I understand is a Husqvarna re-branded. And he said Brad, I know your proud of your John Deere but, your costs to maintain this thing seems out of control. :confused2: By this time I fully concurred with him. My neighbor has had a mere fraction of the belt replacements that I have had and his mower was a year older than mine, and he has a larger yard to mow 3 acres vs. my 1.5. He's only had it into the shop twice for deck belts. Perhaps though comparing the ZTR's against my traditional rider is comparing Apples to Oranges. But at this point I'm pretty envious of his Dixon ZTR. :licking:

Have any other John Deere owners experienced the problems I've had. I really don't know, or was my situation just due to a horribly bad mower design.

I had even wondered whether my frame on my JD was somehow out of square at the factory, or racked in some fashion so that when fully assembled that the tolerances are way out of whack, and could this be responsible for excessive maintenance costs, along with excessive belt wear. It's not just one belt but all three belts on this LTR180 have been replaced way to often in my way of thinking.

I'd really like to hear from some John Deere folks, although I do appreciate any insightful posts regarding your maintenance experiences with your riders.

Thanks, Brad

Carscw said:

Sell it to the scrap man and go get a craftsman

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Hi Carscw

You have been pretty happy with Craftsman mowers? Which Craftsman would you recommend? I am seriously, considering a new rider, or perhaps an LTR machine. I pretty sure I am done with this John Deere.

And I couldn't agree with you more regarding scraping my LTR180, I would hate to sell it to anyone, so I am thinking of keeping it hooked up to my small garden trailer for light yard maintenance, and just forget about using it to mow with, in fact I'd remove the deck completely. Short of that I was thinking also of parting it out.

Thanks, Brad

reynoldston said:

something just doesn't sound right here with all the belts going bad. It sound like anything would be better then a John Deere. My model 68 John Deere gets better then 10 to 15 years on the belts.

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Hi Reynoldstin,

I am thinking that the newer John Deere's just flat out are not made for longevity like the older John Deere equipment. In saying this I feel the designer who put this LTR180 together must be a junior level engineer because I really think this mower is a disaster.

My LTR180, is an example of poor design impacting the consumer as well as the mechanic charged with maintaining this mower. The example is a poorly designed grass catching system. Some engineer had the hair brain idea of shooting the grass up the middle of the mower and into the grass catching unit.

The grass bagging on this mower did not work from the git go, so much so that after a few mowing's I was forced to go by a mulching kit and completely do away with illusions of ever bagging the grass again with this mower. All this because some one decided that we are going to shoot the grass up the middle of the mower.

To described the way this was done I have attached a picture of the back end of my mower with the grass catching unit on the back. This mower has approximate 6 X 6 inch square shoot that extends from the blade deck to about 2/3rds up the mower thus culminating into this odd shaped bubble grass catcher. The JD designer who thought this one up, apparently never bothered to have it tested, because if they had they would have discovered that green grass plugged the shoot up 75% of the time. And when it becomes clogged the only way to unclog it was to get about a 15 inch stick and poke it down the shoot (easier said than done), the goal is to attempt to lift up and out the plugged grass about two handfuls at a time, (you think I'm exaggerating don't you). Now trying to get my 15" stick into just the right position going down this shoot is a feat due to this big black grass catcher being in your way. I'm 6' 4" and I must con-torsion myself into a pretzel to get this stick in the right position to pull the grass up and out. Now this would be great if I was a Yoga instructor but I'm not.

Shove that 15 inch stick down that hole and pull the grass up and out about 10-15 times and wallah you finally have the shoot unplugged. Now a lawn that normally would take you an hour and a half takes you well over double the time and very likely more, due to the shoot clogging issues. I'm not making this stuff up. I had even considered albeit briefly, how could I get all the John Deere LTR180 owners together so that we could file a class action law suit, as I was certain everyone who owned this mower has had this same experience. So bottom line I don't think John Deere is what it used to be. With all this said I am sure John Deere have some very good mowers, but it isn't the LTR180 mowers with the 42 inch Freedom Deck.

OK that's my rant for tonight;

Thanks for listening to me drone on. By the way it's sort of cathartic to let all this frustration out after all the problems I have had with my JD rider over these last 9 years.

Thanks, Brad

This seems like a thread created to damage John Deere....or sadly...the thread is headed by a very mentally challenged individual. The belt drive runs 67$ and takes make about 5 minutes to change, and unless you are doing a great deal of mowing should last over 3 years. Having John Deere do these repairs is just plain dumb.....unless you have money to burn....and some people do. If I had money to burn I would do it that way. Then you can stand there and hob nob with the John Deere boys and feel part of the team. I think this is a planted thread.