At about 175 hrs i saw the lower hood,above the electric clutch/muffler,had a HAIRLINE CRACK that i thought was a scratch tell i looked closer,i called my dealer and he sent out the area rep for grasshopper,he looked it over and they gave me a new lower hood,fast forward to 384 hrs and the new lower hood is also cracked .......,i go to the dealer and i see they have a NEW top hood/lower hood assy,they also changer the color to lite tan,opening the hood i see grasshopper has changed the mounting brackets from the engine block to the whole hood assy making the new assy a two piece bracket with rubber bushings between the two pieces on BOTH sides of the engine block,SEEMS THEY have found out they have a VIBRATION ISSUE/PROBLEM with the hoods on the early 725D's with the new drive system i have,(NO DRIVE BELTS to the pumps like our 13 year old/2600 hr 928 has),I guess the easy way to see if YOURS will have this issue is to open the hood and see if you have the rubber bushings on the brackets at the rear,BTW,that 1998 928 D2 with just over 2600 hrs that we use to cut aprox 26 acres on our RV park,that machine runs all year here in Florida with the leak vac attachment in the winter and has been a super machine,that old grasshopper sold me on grasshopper,this new one just might change my mind,on the old 928 with out the side panels you can see the whole engine its easy to change the oil filter,its also a snap to pull the chaff screen UP and OUT to blow out the chaff,not so with the new one,they have a plastic overcenter locking bolt that you need to remove to open the hood BEFORE you can remove the chaff screen and it breaks on a regular bases,I KEEP SPAIRS,there is no DARN reason to have to open the hood to get the chaff screen out when you just pull the screen up and out on the 928, its called KEEP IT SIMPLE STIPID,the old 928 has never had the hood off in 2600 hrs and the only repairs have been a new hydro drive motor on the right side 2 years ago and we rebuilt the 72 inch deck barrings and gear box in our shop here
2010 725 D lower hood cracks,(2 times),better look at yours
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................................. ,its been a year and a half with 500 hrs total on the clock from the above post & we noticed a fuel leak back by the water separator back by the electric clutch,seem's the bolt fell out,so we took off all the side panels,hood ect and looking around we find out of 8 bolt's in the block holding the engine to the saddle only 5 were in and they were loose,2 were gone and 1 was broke off,put all new grade 8 bolts in with RED tread locker,i'm not sure if the loose bolt's caused the vibration OR the vibration caused them to get loose,mean while the old 928D keeps on going with 2800 hrs and no issues what so ever,anyone have this vibration issue with a 725D,John
06/08/2014 at 638 hours, Well,here we go again,Hood number 3
is cracked from vibration as are the black lovers at the rear of said hood and guess what ,grasshopper has run the clock out on the warranty SO NOW ITS ON ME TO FIX THIS POS, ,if NOT,why did grasshopper add the vibration dampers to the new saddle that BTW my 2010 did not have from the factory,they have an issue with the engines in the Diesel 725 D mowers they never had with the 928 Diesels,that old girl is now 15 years old with 2829 actual hours and has never had the 1'st issue with the engine,the same people,my son and I, cutting the same RV park,changing the oil and greasing both machines the same way,TELL ME THERES NOTHING WRONG WITH THIS MOWER............."BS".
is cracked from vibration as are the black lovers at the rear of said hood and guess what ,grasshopper has run the clock out on the warranty SO NOW ITS ON ME TO FIX THIS POS, ,if NOT,why did grasshopper add the vibration dampers to the new saddle that BTW my 2010 did not have from the factory,they have an issue with the engines in the Diesel 725 D mowers they never had with the 928 Diesels,that old girl is now 15 years old with 2829 actual hours and has never had the 1'st issue with the engine,the same people,my son and I, cutting the same RV park,changing the oil and greasing both machines the same way,TELL ME THERES NOTHING WRONG WITH THIS MOWER............."BS".
D
DJlawnboy
Guest
Can't believe they took this long to figure out the hood thing. I have seen this issue over and over.
I have seen this issue over and over............ DJ, are you saying I'm not the only one????,where did you see this before, if your going to buy a Grasshopper front mount better look at the 930's,i believe the 930 share the 928 platform for the most part,John
Russ,we put the new style saddle with the rubber bushings on the 725 D over two years ago,somethings not right with this engine,is the timing off,how about the vibration damper on the crankshaft,could it be valve lash setting,the 725 has been this way from NEW and all that has been done is kick the can down the road with bandaids with 3 new hoods,rubber bushings ect tell the warrantee ran out,my son here in Florida spent two summers in Montana running his brothers 2012 725D that now has over 300 hours on it AND THAT 725D DOES NOT VIBRATE and the hoods not cracked and the bolts in the block have not fallen out , BTW,we also have a 2005 Kubota L 3400 3 cyl tractor with loader and that engine is as smooth as silk,i grew up on a dairy/grain farm in the Midwest and have been running equipment from the age of 8 when my dad stuck me on a M M model U driving the baler, THATS 60 YEARS AGO, i believe I know how equipment should be,one more thing,a lot of high end motorhomes use Kubota 3 and 4 cyl Diesels in their gensets and in 15 years of owning this RV park I have ever heard of an RV'ER ever saying their genset vibrated,anyone have any ideas on what to do excepting parking it out by the street with the key in it hoping someone steals the dam thing,MOST LIKELY THEY WOULD BRING IT BACK.
The reason this took so long to figure out is that unlike someone in lawn care who run's their mower 8 hrs a day 5-6 days a week and can see 150 hours a month we run ours 8 hrs a week totaling just 30-35 hrs a month total cutting aprox 23 acres of RV park so unlike the lawn care guy who builds up hrs quickly it takes a lot of time for us to build up enough hrs of use to find out if every step we did OR DID NOT FIX THE ISSUE, the 725 was 4 years old in June and now has just 642 hrs on the clock,........... BTW........ ,the district rep in our area from Grasshopper has been talking with us and offered to pick this 725 up and ship it back to the factory for them to look at it and see what's up and fix it right at no cost to us OR sell us a new 930D at an attractive price,we elected to go with the new 930D based on the service our OLD 928D has gave us over the last 15 years,THANKS GRASSHOPPER FOR STEPPING UP TO THE PLATE ON THIS ONE {;-) ,John .
I have a 2010 729T. It has the same rear hood (part # 645307) as the 2010 725D. Mine has 1400 hours & no cracks. The 2010.5 725D has a different hood. This must be the upgraded you mentioned.