Just A honest Comparo of a JD L130 riding and my YTH24K48 Husqvarna!

[TnHusky]

I'm only doing this so it might help someone make a decision on which mower to buy, so here we go. Last night I mowed my Moms yard while Her and my Sister went to the Funeral Home, they have the L130 48" cut JD with a 21hp briggs engine. (V-Twin) I had recently serviced the engine with new oil, filter and AC and cleaned and greased and sharpened blades so I knew it was ready to go. Now with this being said the mower does have 289 hrs on the clock and is around 4 to 5 yrs old.
The one thing I first noted of course is the speed difference between the two, the Husky wins hands down, such the name of the Fast Mower I guess. :laughing: The front end on the JD is very loose, I mean feels as if something will fall off loose but I checked and I guess it's just wear. The deck seems to cut in the yard a bit more than my Husky does on turning but overall does a decent job on mowing. This mower however has the dreaded button to push when in reverse to keep engine running which is a pain the azz. That would have to go if it were my mower. The sitting position isn't as good as mine, feels sort of like your on top of the mower and not down in the mower if that makes sense but the seat wasn't to bad at all.
Now on to the power, the briggs engine is quiet, I'll give it that and smooth but the power is a lot different than the 24hp of the Kohler. It tends to bogg quiet a bit in taller grass to the point I'd slow down some where as my mower would have breezed through it. The Big Tires leave quiet a Patch where you have mowed verse the Husky as well but overall did ok.
So after I was finished mowing about 2.5 hrs would I buy a JD L130, if the Husqvarna wasn't there I might look at one but overall I like my mower a lot better, power, speed, overall tightness and smooth cut. Now again I know I'm comparing and older mower to a new one but the front end feel didn't feel that bad on my 12 yr old White I had so that bothers me a little. Anywho, sorry for the long write up just my opinion from a regular home owner. Husqvarna wins hands down for me, JD still a good mower but I'd still pick what I did if I could do it all over. I also hope no one gets mad at me doing this, not trying to stir anything just one mans opinion, thanks.

 

[djdicetn]

I'm only doing this so it might help someone make a decision on which mower to buy, so here we go. Last night I mowed my Moms yard while Her and my Sister went to the Funeral Home, they have the L130 48" cut JD with a 21hp briggs engine. (V-Twin) I had recently serviced the engine with new oil, filter and AC and cleaned and greased and sharpened blades so I knew it was ready to go. Now with this being said the mower does have 289 hrs on the clock and is around 4 to 5 yrs old.
The one thing I first noted of course is the speed difference between the two, the Husky wins hands down, such the name of the Fast Mower I guess. :laughing: The front end on the JD is very loose, I mean feels as if something will fall off loose but I checked and I guess it's just wear. The deck seems to cut in the yard a bit more than my Husky does on turning but overall does a decent job on mowing. This mower however has the dreaded button to push when in reverse to keep engine running which is a pain the azz. That would have to go if it were my mower. The sitting position isn't as good as mine, feels sort of like your on top of the mower and not down in the mower if that makes sense but the seat wasn't to bad at all.
Now on to the power, the briggs engine is quiet, I'll give it that and smooth but the power is a lot different than the 24hp of the Kohler. It tends to bogg quiet a bit in taller grass to the point I'd slow down some where as my mower would have breezed through it. The Big Tires leave quiet a Patch where you have mowed verse the Husky as well but overall did ok.
So after I was finished mowing about 2.5 hrs would I buy a JD L130, if the Husqvarna wasn't there I might look at one but overall I like my mower a lot better, power, speed, overall tightness and smooth cut. Now again I know I'm comparing and older mower to a new one but the front end feel didn't feel that bad on my 12 yr old White I had so that bothers me a little. Anywho, sorry for the long write up just my opinion from a regular home owner. Husqvarna wins hands down for me, JD still a good mower but I'd still pick what I did if I could do it all over. I also hope no one gets mad at me doing this, not trying to stir anything just one mans opinion, thanks.

Hey a little brand loyalty/bias is something we all suffer from:0)
No apology needed, but I take your review as pretty honest from an experience perspective. I cannot disagree with anything you said because other than the piece-of-junk 24HP Briggs Intek that was on my 54" 2006 Craftsman YS4500(re-branded Husqvarna) the "lawn tractor part of it" was awesome. That JD 21HP doesn't happen to be an Intek does it???? If so, that explains the bogging down and such. My very first lawn tractor(46" 1993 True Value hardware Lawn Chief) had a 16HP B & S Vanguard that mowed better/ran circles around that 24HP Intek. But, back to the subject of your lawn tractor...if I had decided to buy another lawn tractor instead of a ZTR I would have looked at the Husqvarna's before anything else. I believe John Deere's to be "good" but overpriced(you are buying the name and color:0) Now John Deere farm tractors and their upscale "tractor mowers".....that's different(if you can afford them). You have every right to brag about your YTH24K48 and I think you will be for many years to come. But.....I bet you still wish, sometimes, you could've sprung for that YT52XLS........now don't you?????

 

[TnHusky]

Hey a little brand loyalty/bias is something we all suffer from:0)
No apology needed, but I take your review as pretty honest from an experience perspective. I cannot disagree with anything you said because other than the piece-of-junk 24HP Briggs Intek that was on my 54" 2006 Craftsman YS4500(re-branded Husqvarna) the "lawn tractor part of it" was awesome. That JD 21HP doesn't happen to be an Intek does it???? If so, that explains the bogging down and such. My very first lawn tractor(46" 1993 True Value hardware Lawn Chief) had a 16HP B & S Vanguard that mowed better/ran circles around that 24HP Intek. But, back to the subject of your lawn tractor...if I had decided to buy another lawn tractor instead of a ZTR I would have looked at the Husqvarna's before anything else. I believe John Deere's to be "good" but overpriced(you are buying the name and color:0) Now John Deere farm tractors and their upscale "tractor mowers".....that's different(if you can afford them). You have every right to brag about your YTH24K48 and I think you will be for many years to come. But.....I bet you still wish, sometimes, you could've sprung for that YT52XLS........now don't you?????

No doubt dj, it would have been nice to have the Kawi and the locking diff, especially on that hill I mow. But just to the compare the briggs just doesn't seem to have the low end grunt that the Kohler has, again I know there's 3 hp different between the 2 but there shouldn't be that much different I wouldn't believe. I spoke to a guy last night after I rode to lowes to pick up 3 new blades after hitting the water cover in the yard. :ashamed: I have mowed over that thing a thousand times with never a scrape and last night I caught it just right, bent two blades beyond fixing. That little mishap cost me 42 scoots. Anyway I told the guy how much I liked my mower and he appreciated the feedback.

 

[djdicetn]

No doubt dj, it would have been nice to have the Kawi and the locking diff, especially on that hill I mow. But just to the compare the briggs just doesn't seem to have the low end grunt that the Kohler has, again I know there's 3 hp different between the 2 but there shouldn't be that much different I wouldn't believe. I spoke to a guy last night after I rode to lowes to pick up 3 new blades after hitting the water cover in the yard. :ashamed: I have mowed over that thing a thousand times with never a scrape and last night I caught it just right, bent two blades beyond fixing. That little mishap cost me 42 scoots. Anyway I told the guy how much I liked my mower and he appreciated the feedback.

Yeah my son confessed the other day that he was mowing after getting home from work, it was getting dark and he was in a hurry.....ran over the dog chain/ground spike and wrapped it around the 2006 Craftsman's spindle. I told him to inspect the blades for damage(it has "curved" mulching blades, so it may be difficult to tell if they were compromised) and if he felt any "obvious vibration" to let me know and we would put the original hi-lift blades back on it until he can replace the mulching blades. Bent or extremely out-of-balance, IMHO, can't be good for the spindle bearings!!! Me, I've got a 4" PCV pipe sticking up in my front yard for changing the field lines my septic tank uses. After destroying it a couple of times with my Gravely.....cause, yeah when you are in a hurry you forget stuff.... I bought a new piece and had Lowes cut it so that it only stuck up 1-1.5 inches above the ground(I set my deck at 2.5 inches to cut my grass....so that fixed that:0)