48" Bradley stander mower

[GeneV]

Came in yesterday. Big surprise coz I was told I wouldn't get it til early next year...pretty psyched I'll get to mow with it this year! Gonna mow with it today actually, if I could figure out how to get it out of that shipping cage.

 

[GeneV]

No takers? You guys suck! j/k

Well anyways, "gonna mow with it today" didn't happen, coz it took most of the day to uncrate this bad boy, took some figuring out, and hacking off some of that freight cage it came in. All that steel is gonna come in handy though, I could build some debris forks and stuff like that from it.





The "fleet":

 

[dcdtn]

Very nice! I’ve been thinking about a stander for my next mower. What made you decide on Bradley?

 

[GeneV]

Very nice! I’ve been thinking about a stander for my next mower. What made you decide on Bradley?

Well besides Bradley and Wright Stander B, every other new stander runs near $10k new. And buying them used is generally you buying some clapped out, high hour machine which was used by commercial landscapers. Even if it runs now, soon enough it's gonna need that & this, and this & that, and me personally I don't have time for that headache.

So between Bradley and Wright's Stander B, Bradley wins in specs with better engine and hydros, and bigger tires. And hey, built right here in IL (though granted, assembled from mostly Chinese parts I'm sure). So with that in mind, I went looking for everything Bradley related on the youtubes and such, and couldn't find anyone really complaining about them.

I mowed with it for the first time a couple days ago, and alls I'll say is that I'm VERY happy with it, best purchase I made in a long time. It's build like a brick sh*thouse, great fit & finish, assembled really well, even the deck was perfect level with 1/8th pitch and the actual blade height matching the height selector on the machine. They obviously care about quality control, and call me crazy but I like that sorta thing.

It mows great, it's very fast, very responsive controls (which is a problem for me now since I'm totally new to zero turns...I tore up a bunch of my lawn with the turns), and very comfortable. Comfort wise, compared to mowing with my tractor, it's like night and day on my back after mowing my crazy yard. I felt great afterwards. And finally, it's SO fun to mow with the stander!

BTW, I demoed a Toro Grandstand before, real nice stander. But at near $10k, I just don't see what it has over the Bradley.

 

[dcdtn]

Sounds like a great mower!

I also noticed there doesn’t seem to be much available in the way of entry level standers.

in addition to the two you mentioned, I also came accross the Encore Rage which I believe is similar price range and has impressive specs. Did you do any research on those?

 

[Richard001]

You literally had to cut your mower free from the shipping frame. Doesn't make sense. Did it come with instructions on how to free the unit from the shipping frame ?

 

[GeneV]

You literally had to cut your mower free from the shipping frame. Doesn't make sense. Did it come with instructions on how to free the unit from the shipping frame ?

Lol yup, had to cut it outta there! It had *some* instructions in the manual for uncrating, but they sucked! They tell you to "remove" the front supports and then "remove" the mower from the crate, ok cool but to do that required doing quite a bit not listed in the instructions.

On the plus side, that metal frame it came in secured the heck outta that mower.

 

[GeneV]

Sounds like a great mower!

I also noticed there doesn’t seem to be much available in the way of entry level standers.

in addition to the two you mentioned, I also came accross the Encore Rage which I believe is similar price range and has impressive specs. Did you do any research on those?

No, not the Rage, didn't look into those.

 

[GeneV]

Well guess what, 6 hrs on this sucka, and it's already at a Briggs & Stratton service center! Unreal.

I had the deck height set low for mulching and kicked up quite a bit of dust mowing over high spots into dirt. Afterwards, I popped open the air filter housing expecting to see a dirty filter. Nope, totally clean.
Next day, I was doing the break-in oil change, was shocked to see oil was pitch black. All that dust went right into the engine!

I confirmed that by taking off the air filter housing and blocking off the air intake. Engine kept running and sounded the same whether I blocked it or not, so it's drawing in unfiltered air from somewhere else. I called Bradley and they told me to take it to a B&S repair place for warranty work.

 

[dcdtn]

That stinks about the engine. Let us know what they find.

Did the mower do a good job of mulching?

 

[GeneV]

Yeh, it did great. Here's a vid I made, as usual I ramble on too much in it but oh well:

 

[GeneV]

I just ordered a grass catcher, will make it easy to gather up some of that mulched leaf stuff, spread it on my wife's flower beds and around the trees.

 

[GeneV]

So it's back from the shop. They found nothing wrong with it, believe it or not. The said the dark oil is normal for the break-in oil change, because B&S uses a special blend of oil during assembly, which draws out contaminants left over from mfg and assembly. I dunno why Bradley themselves don't know this, a bit bs there.

The service shop had no answer for why the engine keeps running with the air intake blocked, but they didn't see it as an issue.

 

[dcdtn]

Thanks for update and vids. Glad it is presumably ok.

 

[GeneV]

So guys, after all that, I started getting this:

Clearly a clogged carb jet, obviously from unfiltered air getting in there. I went back to that place I initially had the mower at, showed them the vid, I got NOWHERE with them, believe it or not. They said it's unrelated to my original issue and probably "bad" gas fouling the carb. Unfriggin real, that place!

So I got on the horn with Bradley, they came and picked up the mower for service, just got word today that it's all fixed. Diagnosis: loose crankcase breather tube allowing unfiltered air to bypass the air intake, dirty air going right into the carb. Carb required rebuilding, and they did some other stuff, not yet for sure what, I'm waiting on the repair ticket to explain it all.

 

[dcdtn]

It’s so frustrating dealing with issues with a brand new high dollar machine. I had several issues with my Power-Trac PT-425 when it was new. Fortunately my service center experience for the Robin 25hp engine was much better.

 

[GeneV]

It’s so frustrating dealing with issues with a brand new high dollar machine. I had several issues with my Power-Trac PT-425 when it was new. Fortunately my service center experience for the Robin 25hp engine was much better.

Yeh, in my case it was frustrating dealing with an authorized Briggs warranty repair center that doesn't like doing warranty repairs. But, looks like Bradley themselves sorted it out, so win for Bradley mowers!