Ventrac Quality

murphy1244 · Jul 3, 2013

Thinking of buying a 4500 series Diesel and asking other owners of possible problems you have encountered.

JackIL · Jul 4, 2013

I have had 4 Ventracs with no significant issues at all. The 4500 Diesel has the least power (24.9) of any engine offered in the 4500 series. I currently have a 4500 with Kubota gasoline engine (32.5 hp) and am very pleased.

JackIL

murphy1244 · Jul 4, 2013

JackIL said:
I have had 4 Ventracs with no significant issues at all. The 4500 Diesel has the least power (24.9) of any engine offered in the 4500 series. I currently have a 4500 with Kubota gasoline engine (32.5 hp) and am very pleased.

JackIL

How is that on gas? How many hours you have?

eddieb1965 · Jul 4, 2013

murphy1244 said:
How is that on gas? How many hours you have?

I purchased a Ventrac with 800+ hrs. I think they were pretty hard hrs at that.I had an axle bearing go out and destroyed the axle tube and axle.My 4231 would definitly drink some gas,I was using 8+ gal per mowing.I definitely would buy another Ventrac,but am fairly pleased with my Utilimax right now.,as it uses 4-5 gal per mowing. Eddie

JackIL · Jul 5, 2013

Ventrac published data in their brochure using a 60 inch deck says 1.5 gal/hr with gas on the 32.5 hp engine and 1.1 gal/hour on the 24.9 hp Diesel.

murphy1244 · Jul 19, 2013

Bought the machine delivered 7\18. The snow blower is a beast

dunebuggy55 · Jul 31, 2013

Hello , My name is Chuck. I just purchased a ventrac 4500 Y. What an awesome machine. Want to get a slip scoop next and maybe a blower for leafs.

murphy1244 · Jul 31, 2013

Just hit 10 hours on mine and I love it. The hydrastat is a bit loud.

hpc · Aug 19, 2013

Hey Chuck (dunebuggy55) - I'm looking at the 4500Y. Any comments you wish to share? I was hoping for about 30HP like I had in the Grasshopper D930.

Thanks and Cheers!

murphy1244 · Aug 19, 2013

hpc said:
Hey Chuck (dunebuggy55) - I'm looking at the 4500Y. Any comments you wish to share? I was hoping for about 30HP like I had in the Grasshopper D930.

Thanks and Cheers!

I bought a 4500Y Diesel its only 24.9Hp thou but rolls right thru tall grass easily.

hpc · Aug 20, 2013

Murph,

Thanks for the info. trying to get a demo at the house setup with the dealer - which is 110 miles away. Dealer says he doesn't have a demo unit but is contacting the
Ventrac representative has one. I hope so as I'm not buying blind.

Looking to consolidate two machines into one. Currently, I have a Deere 3520 that is 6 years old and has 89 hours and a 4 year old 997 that has slightly less than 900 hours.
Yes, the tractor only gets used when it snows and at mulch time and select chores requiring a loader.

The lawn is two acres of heavily sloped and reasonably flat in places. I'd prefer a Yanmar direct injection diesel vs. the Kubota indirect injection, but something
about beggars can't be too choosey.

Cheers from Indy-land.

murphy1244 · Aug 20, 2013

This machine does slopes like a Billy Goat. My Dealer brought a Steiner 440 Diesel and a Ventrac 4500Y to test. The Ventrac looks to be better made. A BIG deference on Snow Blowers. Wish you luck and Happy Hunting.

dunebuggy55 · Aug 22, 2013

hpc said:
Hey Chuck (dunebuggy55) - I'm looking at the 4500Y. Any comments you wish to share? I was hoping for about 30HP like I had in the Grasshopper D930.

Thanks and Cheers!

I had them put the 3 point hitch on to make it more versitile than it already is. The front mower I got is a 72" and it mows awesome. The more i use it and the more i look at it the more i can see how things were thought out on this tractor.I run heavy equipment for a living so I dont expect it to be a dozer but so far it has exceeded my expectations. I also had them put the foot pedal control on but it is not real user friendly the way the shape of the pedal is. The bigger the foot you have the better it would work . I think i will modify it a little to fit my foot better. thanks Dunebuggy55

tdhandm · Oct 28, 2014

This past summer I saw a TV commercial by Sunset Outdoor Supply (owner Barry Frey) for Ventrac tractors. Bary brought two tractors to my place to demonstrate but the diesel overheated so I ended up buying the Ventrac 4500K along with the seventy two inch mower deck form Barry. I wish I had never seen that commercial. I do like the machine very much when it is running but the constant break down and waiting for repairs has caused great buyer remorse. If I had not already got rid of my finish mower and other implements for my compact Kubota tractor I would give up with this machine. It would be worth it to remove the aggravation that has entered my life. Due the large amount of money involved I知 now stuck with something unreliable. I made the mistake of expecting that a mower costing as much or more than a new car would run for a while. I have a thirty year old Gravely tractor that has never gave me a problem except for replacing the battery.

murphy1244 · Oct 28, 2014

tdhandm said:
This past summer I saw a TV commercial by Sunset Outdoor Supply (owner Barry Frey) for Ventrac tractors. Bary brought two tractors to my place to demonstrate but the diesel overheated so I ended up buying the Ventrac 4500K along with the seventy two inch mower deck form Barry. I wish I had never seen that commercial. I do like the machine very much when it is running but the constant break down and waiting for repairs has caused great buyer remorse. If I had not already got rid of my finish mower and other implements for my compact Kubota tractor I would give up with this machine. It would be worth it to remove the aggravation that has entered my life. Due the large amount of money involved IçŸ¥ now stuck with something unreliable. I made the mistake of expecting that a mower costing as much or more than a new car would run for a while. I have a thirty year old Gravely tractor that has never gave me a problem except for replacing the battery.

The only overheating problem I've heard about is with rear discharge mowers. I have 150 hours on mine and it only needed one repair for the hydraulic valve would not stay in float. If you just bought it it should still be under warranty. What is the problem??

Raw Dodge · Oct 28, 2014

murphy1244 said:
The only overheating problem I've heard about is with rear discharge mowers. I have 150 hours on mine and it only needed one repair for the hydraulic valve would not stay in float. If you just bought it it should still be under warranty. What is the problem??

The 4231TD is a known overheater,the engine simply makes more heat than the radiator can remove, once the machine gets some hours on it, it only gets worse with time.My dealer believes that the water cooled turbo aggravates the situation by drawing exhaust heat into the cooling system.

murphy1244 · Oct 29, 2014

Raw Dodge said:
The 4231TD is a known overheater,the engine simply makes more heat than the radiator can remove, once the machine gets some hours on it, it only gets worse with time.My dealer believes that the water cooled turbo aggravates the situation by drawing exhaust heat into the cooling system.

He was talking about a 4500 series thou. I have a kubota diesel and have not had a heat problem yet. crosses fingers,

Raw Dodge · Oct 29, 2014

murphy1244 said:
He was talking about a 4500 series thou. I have a kubota diesel and have not had a heat problem yet. crosses fingers,

I've heard nothing but good things about the kubota diesel, I'm sure it will give you great service.

BKBrown · Dec 24, 2014

Ventrac is a very well built machine - the only problems I have ever heard are from the 4231 TD.
tdhandm -if yours is a 4500K (air cooled) I would hope that you could get some satisfaction from the dealer. If there is no satisfaction from the dealer -- I would contact Ventrac directly from their web site - Ventrac is great about customer service and quality.