Greed. I have been able to cross-reference my Craftsman and John Deere lawn tractors to a Wix and use it for about half the price. One I got a good cross reference from the Wix site, and the other I got O'Reilly Auto to cross reference in their books. You may be able to do the same.
cost of lawn tractor oil filter
- Thread starter JayhawkRoy
- Start date
- Status
because they can, thats about it. how many people will cross the craftsman/or whatever brand they have to another brand when they can just go and get the exact one on the mower. write down the number and go to the store.
my dad crossed the part numbers for our old deere and kubota tractors.
my dad crossed the part numbers for our old deere and kubota tractors.
My guess is that you'll find a Wix or Purolator that will interchange nicely. Both the engine and hydrostat filters for my Wheel Horse were easily found.
- Joined
- Sep 28, 2002
- Messages
- 39,799
The answer is distribution. You don't have a small engine service center just anywhere. They carry parts to service your small engine. It costs more for them to buy them and to stock them. Since you don't see people coming in every day (at least the same number of people) you need to price accordingly for the shelf time afforded the parts. The proprietary lable adds a bit to the price on the end user level.
Yes, x-ref to a Wix ..and you're probably down to $5-$6. If, as was suggested, it's a 3/4-16 thread filter ..there are, pretty much, two gasket sizes. 2.8x OD/2.4xID ..and 2.4xD/2.1x-ID. Some filter mounts will accept either/both.
Yes, x-ref to a Wix ..and you're probably down to $5-$6. If, as was suggested, it's a 3/4-16 thread filter ..there are, pretty much, two gasket sizes. 2.8x OD/2.4xID ..and 2.4xD/2.1x-ID. Some filter mounts will accept either/both.
Rainman, what engine do u have? I use a MC FL400S (or equiv) filter on my 20hp kohler command twin with room to spare (Cub Cadet 2544).
Joel
Joel
most of the homeowner type tractors will take the fl-400s/st 3600 or shorter 3614 without any problems. larger sizes would be a delco# pf2 or pf20 or the ultra huge wix 51773 which may fit also if room allows. i had to slightly pull out by hand, the side of the metal hood to accomodate. Ace hdw wanted $11 for the short briggs filter for the 15hp briggs i have.
i compared the old against my stash of 3614's and it was pretty close. the gasket size was a little off but the base on the block was large enough so they work fine. this was 5yrs ago and about 250 hours and the engine runs just fine.
off topic. my $69 push mower i ran m1 10/30 for 5yrs without a oil change and beat the snot out of it. i trashed blades,wheels, hit stumps, plugged up air filter, original plug and it still runs great. i didnt care at the time since it didnt use any oil and always started up. oil was real dark but it came out nice. m1 seemed to be a good match. i had to dig around to find the drain plug. haha..
..mudd
i compared the old against my stash of 3614's and it was pretty close. the gasket size was a little off but the base on the block was large enough so they work fine. this was 5yrs ago and about 250 hours and the engine runs just fine.
off topic. my $69 push mower i ran m1 10/30 for 5yrs without a oil change and beat the snot out of it. i trashed blades,wheels, hit stumps, plugged up air filter, original plug and it still runs great. i didnt care at the time since it didnt use any oil and always started up. oil was real dark but it came out nice. m1 seemed to be a good match. i had to dig around to find the drain plug. haha..
..mudd
Yeah there's all that but...
Typically in those filters "life" is more important than efficiency. When you swap to an aftermarket "car" filter, you get more efficiency and shorter life.
Just keep that in mind.
Kubota is/was built by Champ in North America. I know because they were my account for 2 years. Champ also builds some John Deere.
As for price...besides the distribution angle there is also the volume of production runs. There aren't as many OEM filters being built as there are Wix, Purolator, Super tech or what have you car filters. Every time a production line has a change over to run X amount of filters there is additional cost. Your buying production time..
So if Craftsman sells 100,000 filters a year and Car brand sells 1,000,000+ of a part number..
Let me add this..Kubota would stock their warehouses in early January. So they might order 10,000 of a part number. Or as low as 1,500 for slower moving part numbers. Then they would have their dealer meeting and give them early season specials to move the product. Around April they would come back with another decent set of orders for the spring season. Somewhere around August they would come back again with another decent set of orders. In the meantime the fill in orders would be low volumes of 2,000 units or less to fill in the gaps on specific part numbers based on retail sales.
Now you can ponder why the lawn and garden filter costs are higher...compared to Champ running a complete shift with a Ford OE number on a production line..
[ March 18, 2006, 07:30 AM: Message edited by: Filter guy ]
Typically in those filters "life" is more important than efficiency. When you swap to an aftermarket "car" filter, you get more efficiency and shorter life.
Just keep that in mind.
Kubota is/was built by Champ in North America. I know because they were my account for 2 years. Champ also builds some John Deere.
As for price...besides the distribution angle there is also the volume of production runs. There aren't as many OEM filters being built as there are Wix, Purolator, Super tech or what have you car filters. Every time a production line has a change over to run X amount of filters there is additional cost. Your buying production time..
So if Craftsman sells 100,000 filters a year and Car brand sells 1,000,000+ of a part number..
Let me add this..Kubota would stock their warehouses in early January. So they might order 10,000 of a part number. Or as low as 1,500 for slower moving part numbers. Then they would have their dealer meeting and give them early season specials to move the product. Around April they would come back with another decent set of orders for the spring season. Somewhere around August they would come back again with another decent set of orders. In the meantime the fill in orders would be low volumes of 2,000 units or less to fill in the gaps on specific part numbers based on retail sales.
Now you can ponder why the lawn and garden filter costs are higher...compared to Champ running a complete shift with a Ford OE number on a production line..
[ March 18, 2006, 07:30 AM: Message edited by: Filter guy ]
JTK, I've got a 15.5 hp Kohler Command, which is a single cylinder. I cross-referenced to a Wix 51056, but thing still cost me $10.71 at my local auto parts and it was $11.99 at O'Reilly's. I got advance to cross it with Purolator and the price was a little over $8 per filter. I was wondering is the pressure to kick in the bypass might be different. The specs I've found are 8-11 psi.
I saw the same thing when I had an Ingersoll tractor with an Onan motor. The OEM filter was $11. The media in the Onan filter must have been an open sive because when I started using the FL400a ($3)and Pure 1 ($5) filters I saw the oil stay clean for 75 and 100hrs of use respectively. The FL400a type adds about 8-10oz to the oil capacity. With the OEM filter the oil would be black after 25hrs, which was the recommended change interval. So I was able to triple and quadruple my OCI's on this tractor. When I sold the tractor last year with 1250hrs on the motor it still had 135psi compression in both cylinders, factory spec is 125psi. I used these Motorcraft and Pure 1 filters for 500 of the 600 hours that I owned the tractor.
I recommend changing to the larger filters if you have room for it. On the Onan's it just stuck out the side of the engine another three inches.
I'd be interested if you see the same results, please post results if do the switch.
I recommend changing to the larger filters if you have room for it. On the Onan's it just stuck out the side of the engine another three inches.
I'd be interested if you see the same results, please post results if do the switch.
FYI..Onan is owned by Cummins Engine Company. Fleetguard filter Company is owned by Cummins. Guess who makes Onan OEM filters..
We use Kohler engines in my landscape business. We mainly use the Kohler filters but have used the Wix brand. We use the 51056 and the 51348 filters on same size engine. Just a different mower set-up.
Anyone know who makes the Kohler filter? We cut one open and it is a quality filter construction.
Anyone know who makes the Kohler filter? We cut one open and it is a quality filter construction.
I don't know who makes the Kohler filter but I have a 17.5 hp on my John Deere.I changed the oil and filter last night-stamped on the side of the filter was "Made in India".It was a Kohler brand filter bought at a Deere dealership.
schultz, the $11 for the short briggs filter was too much. this was only about like 3 inches or so. the car filters seem to do well for me also and the oil does seem to be significantly clearer than using the oe filter. i dont think that really means too much but after running full throttle for hours and extended idling. maybe its the little extra oil? maybe a uoa would be in order? while i dont have the hours on it like you do. I'm sure the engine will last a long longer than the rest of the tractor.
...mudd
...mudd
For about three bucks I use a Motorcraft FL400S on my 26hp Briggs powered Craftsman garden tractor and it seems to work great.
I too am running a FL400S on my Craftsman Garden Tractor. Mine is a 22HP Kohler Command. Mine is about 10 years old and I have been running the Motorcrafts for about 8 years.
Cost goes up as supply volume goes down - usually.
Hmmmm. Something to think about - we've been paying big $$ for the Kohler filters for the 25HP "Command" engine in my nephew's Crafstman.
- Status