Shopping for new riding mower, John Deere?

[gd9704]

Originally Posted By: AMC
Update: To make a long story shorter; So after some more research, soul searching and browsing craigslist, I found myself attracted to the G-Series John Deere lawn tractors. The G-series feature strong frames, reliable engines and usually K71 transaxles that are fully serviceable. I found a mint condition 2002 GT235 on craigslist about a half hour away. It had 250 hours, a power flow bagger and a fresh tune up. The seller was asking $2,000. I told him I would be there with cash in hand and a trailer in tow by noon today. I got a text at 9:30 am as I was leaving the bank, the machine just sold.......

Now that my current craftsman had gotten some TLC and I got the brakes working, I think I may really focus on finding that used unicorn G-series John Deere I am looking for.....


I truly think this is the way to go.

Keep looking, you will find the right one.

 

[AMC]

Update time!

So after searching high and low for a lightly used GT or LX series, I found this gem. It is a 2005 LX280 with all wheel steering. It is in excellent condition and has 250 hrs. The only things included were the mulch kit and 3 sets of blades. It was listed for $2500 but I got the seller down to $1700. The previous owner bought it new in 2005 to mow his quarter acre lot and claims he brought it to the dealer for all the service and maintenance. It does appear to be very well taken care of and looks great.

Now time to get my hands dirty and go through it. So far the only thing it appears to need are tire tubes and the nut that holds the ignition up in the dash panel, no big deal.

Here she is, more pics later:

 

[dwendt44]

Why would it needs tubes? If it is losing air, check the valve cores first.
Everyone I've checked could be tightened some, and some seeped a bit.
Grease those spindles.
Get the owner's manual if it wasn't turned over.

 

[AMC]

Originally Posted By: dwendt44
Why would it needs tubes? If it is losing air, check the valve cores first.
Everyone I've checked could be tightened some, and some seeped a bit.
Grease those spindles.
Get the owner's manual if it wasn't turned over.


I actually meant to make the follow up post last week but never got around to it. I have been through the entire machine now and have mowed the lawn twice with it. It did include the owners manual but frankly, Youtube has been much more help. The only issues I found with it were very minor, common home owner (un-skilled diy'er) mistake type stuff. The oil was slightly over filled, the spark plugs were pretty worn and not gapped, the blades were dull, ETC... Very common and expected for a used machine of this age.

I went through the whole machine with a fine toothed comb and installed about $100 worth of parts. The tires don't hold air too well due to cracking/dry rot, again very common on lawn tractors. My Craftsman had the same problem and installing inner tubes permanently fixes it. A set of tubes costs about $18 on Ebay. Other than that this machine runs excellent, has no rust and the cut is great too. I can't believe how smooth and quiet the engine is compared to my Craftsman. It has shortened my mow time from about an hour to about 45 minutes. I will continue to tinker and perfect this machine as I learn and use it more. This machine is a full time mower so I am not going to polish it but I do intent to care for it and get as much service life as I can out of it.

 

[JTK]

Tubes are cheaper for sure, but provided it is the tires, new ones aren't all that expensive mail order of from an OPE shop. Nice looking machine!

 

[dwendt44]

I did the tube thing for the rear tires on mine as well, but my
tractor is a 2000 Sabre. I guess I thought that a newer tractor wouldn't need
it yet.
I added a bagger kit, and remove the chute while mowing and then add the chute back
to vacuum up the clippings later. Still collects a lot of clippings on the deck and even the
leaf blower doesn't get all of them off.
Those bagger blades are heavy and noise by they sure suck up what ever is there. rocks, lost tools,
and any critters dumb enough to be laying in the grass.
Put an iridium plug in mine, it should last forever.

My 2¢

 

[jeepman3071]

Originally Posted By: AMC
Update time!

So after searching high and low for a lightly used GT or LX series, I found this gem. It is a 2005 LX280 with all wheel steering. It is in excellent condition and has 250 hrs. The only things included were the mulch kit and 3 sets of blades. It was listed for $2500 but I got the seller down to $1700. The previous owner bought it new in 2005 to mow his quarter acre lot and claims he brought it to the dealer for all the service and maintenance. It does appear to be very well taken care of and looks great.

Now time to get my hands dirty and go through it. So far the only thing it appears to need are tire tubes and the nut that holds the ignition up in the dash panel, no big deal.

Here she is, more pics later:



Excellent machine! With decent maintenance it should last a very long time. What engine does it have in it?

 

[HM12460]

Very nice. Is it liquid cooled?

 

[AMC]

Originally Posted By: HM12460
Very nice. Is it liquid cooled?


Nope. Air cooled Kawasaki V-twin.

I installed all Napa gold filters, NGK plugs, 5w-40 Rotella synthetic oil, Replaced the fuel hoses with Gates barricade fuel hose, added gumout multi-system tune up to the gas and greased everything with Valvoline Synpower moly lithium complex grease.

The only thing left to do at this point is install some tire tubes. They should be here in a few days.

 

[cronk]

Clean looking tractor! That should last a very long time, those Kawasaki engines are bullet proof!
The Napa Gold filter and 5w40 Rotella should keep that engine purring for many years to come!
2 of my good friends have LX tractors and they have been very reliable and needed little maintenance.

 

[JTK]

Nice mower! Looks very clean and well cared for being ~12yrs old. I'd swap out the transaxle oil if you haven't. I'm not sure which AWS trans the LX280 uses.

 

[AMC]

Originally Posted By: JTK
Nice mower! Looks very clean and well cared for being ~12yrs old. I'd swap out the transaxle oil if you haven't. I'm not sure which AWS trans the LX280 uses.


The transaxle fluid was the second thing I did after the engine oil. The LX280 uses the K62 tranny which has 2 drain and fill plugs. There was some conflicting info on which fluid to use, J20C hygard or 5w-50 motor oil. I emailed Tuff Torq and they said either will work but the J20C will work better in the cooler months. I mow the lawn to about 45 degrees so I went with Napa heavy duty hydraulic and transmission fluid which has John Deere's J20C rating (probably exceeds it).

The transaxle is quieter, faster and smoother even since I changed the fluid. Next time, I will probably try the 5w-50 motor oil just to see if I can notice any difference.

 

[yeehaw1960]

Please don't believe the "John Deere at big box stores are different than at a dealer" stories. They are the exact same mower you can get at a dealer that are shipped to dealers, assembled and "quality" checked before being shipped to the big box stores. Granted you can't buy an X series at Lowe's, etc. You can only get the D series (sometimes the L), but they are pretty tough machines if you don't mow everybody on your block's grass like I do. It's therapy for me. The cheaper (MTD Like) "John Deere" mowers the big box stores had in the past are long gone now. I bought mine at Lowes and got my 10 percent military discount, plus a "free" trailer to use as "bait" when selling my old John Deere.

That being said, I tell people to buy the cheapest MTD or Murray (same thing), front engine "tractor" at Walmart, use it ONLY for your yard, and keep the oil changed. Same for push mowers anymore. With Honda being so expensive and Toro turning into such unreliable junk over the last few years, it only makes sense to buy cheap and replace when needed anymore, unless you are one of us who can keep a machine fine tuned and maintained. What a terrible world it has become!