Yard Tractor Question

tim4

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My sister wants to buy a lawn tractor so she can use it to pull a cart for hauling rocks and general hauling around her yard. The yard has also has a steep incline and she is not sure what to buy because the transmissions on lawn tractors are not made for hills. I was wondering what people would recommend thanks.
 

bertsmobile1

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Get an old one with a mechanical gear box or a new one with a belt only vari-drive system.
You can recognise them because they all have an accelerator pedal to control the speed and a F-N- R shifter to control the direction.
 

Rivets

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Secondly, I would suggest that you get one as large as you can afford. We don’t know how steep your incline is nor how heavy your load might be. Going too small will shorten the life of the unit very quickly.
 

tim4

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Thank you I told her all yor good ideas.
 

cruzenmike

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While there are better machines out there, a Husqvarna riding mower equipped with a Tuff Torque K66 ELD transmission is the best you are going to get short of a Deere X500 series or a shaft driven machine such as the Cub Cadet XT3 series. The K66 in the Husqvarna is rated as "ground engaging" meaning that it is meant for pulling and pushing and the locking differential will provide additional traction on grades. Another important thing to keep in mind is that all belt driven hydrostatic transmissions are meant to be driven at full throttle. This will ensure that the pump/motor is properly pressurized and the cooling fan on top will keep the casing and oil as cool as possible.
 

bertsmobile1

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having re red the thread, if you are only going to use it as a tractor & not as a mower and you have lots of steep hills then an older unit with a horizontal crankshaft would serve you better.
Now Cub stopped support for their 2000 series a couple of years back, so deck parts are by & large NLA .
These are very strong commercial grade lawn tractors with a drive shaft and Kohler Command ( professional grade ) engines.
As a tug for a trailer they should outlive both of you & your kids .
Should be lots of them around with buggered decks so be relatively cheap .
Vertical shaft engine do not handle hills very well because the sump is large & shallow so it is very easy to get them in a place where the oil pump is out of the oil and in that situation you get 2 to 3 minutes then BANG and your wallet gets really painful.
I pick them up down here for $ 500 to $ 1000 ( Aus ) then fabricate a new deck top to weld the skirt to and use them for loaners till some one buys them .\
The 2000 series have engines ranging from 14 Hp to 22 Hp
The 3000 series was the next step up with hydraulics & power steering and were real micro tractors
You will find most of the information needed to compare mowers at Tractor data and this is the Cub Cadet page .
Happy shopping.
 

tom3

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Mght look around for an older Craftsman GT series rider. These will have a twin cylinder with a geared transmission, three speeds with high and low differential. I have a GT5000 that I have pulled cars, trees, loaded carts etc. Nothing fazes it. Twin Kohler really sounds nice too, mows decent but a variable speed tranny is best for that.
 
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