Which lawn tractor to buy?

[LightningCamaroGuy]

Bought a Husqvarna 21CK46 (or something like that) brand new from Lowes in 2012 for $2,200. It has a bit less than 300 hours on it, so it has not been used hard or put away wet. It is kept inside a building, and serviced according to the manual. I am not hard on machinery, and I am good with tools - I do things right, no bubble gum or baling wire. It is used to mow about two acres of plain old grass on a flat lot - no rocks, hidden rebars, land mines or anything else.

It is without a doubt the worst piece of garbage it has been my displeasure to own. It is broken more than every other vehicle I own put together - several motorcycles (one from 1952), three cars (including a geriatric Honda, a Mercedes convertible and a Subaru which my wife drives like she hates it), a Kubota 2601, which IS used pretty hard, and an airplane . . .

The Husqvarna won't go ten whole hours in a row without *something* breaking, failing, or falling off. Broken spindles, failed batteries, substandard welds which broke ten hours from new (fixed under warranty), dry rotted front tires ("We've never seen that before, but here's a set of free inner tubes."), bolts made of butter (Grade zero bolts), defective carb from new (replaced with one from eBay, now the thing runs *almost* well), three mufflers (metal fatigue), seat falling apart (I weigh a whole 160 pounds) and more, more, more, I keep records and logbooks for everything.

Yes, Lowes has a "warranty" - you have to deliver it to them, they'll take it to their "service center" located in parts unknown (I'm in the Daytona area) and they'll "get back to you in 30 days or so" with an *estimate* of how long it will take to fix it - IF - in THEIR opinion, whatever is broken is in fact covered under warranty or if you are going to pay for it.

I prefer Charmin to their warranty . . .

When this thing breaks again, which if past performance is any indication will be real soon now, I intend to give this thing a full bore Viking funeral - so the *entire* membership of Tractor By Net is cordially invited to watch YouTube for the festivities!

Best Regards,

Mike/Florida

Yes, this is an extremely budget machine.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Husqvarna-Yth21K46-21-HP-Hydrostatic-46-in-Riding-Lawn-Mower/3285344

Unfortunately people promote using a good dealership for buying a truck, or a tractor, or guns, or dirt bikes, or whatever, but then there's some things their willing to budget on because they're not sexy purchases. Like you might buy a professional chainsaw, because chainsaw's are cool, but then you may be willing to buy a cheap weedeater. Just because Husqvarna, and Stihl make professional saws, doesn't mean they don't also make POS saws that are on the level of the cheapest Poulan saws on the market. It's the same with any of they're products. They absolutely use their name to push some BS. Yes they want to cater to the highend, niche market, but they also want to sell products in the cheaper, residential, mass markets. First there aren't many commercial tractor style lawnmowers. That market's dominated by your ZTR's and mowers like that. But there are definitely levels to your tractor mowers. You can spend $5-$6K on a tractor mower if you want to. It will be a much nicer machine than a $2K mower with a beefier chassis, better engine, way better transmission. That cheap mower might use bronze bushings for things that the more expensive mower uses ball bearings or something like that. The transmission is often a very budgeted area. I think OEM's have kind of gotten away from them, but in the past lawnmowers with plastic gears was not uncommon, and were extremely unreliable. When looking at a lawnmower that you want to be good, a great area to start is the tires. Ask yourself, "do the tires on that mower look like some cheap, Rainbow Brite, My Little Pony type BS, or are they some serious, badass looking meats?" Cheap tires generally means cheap lawnmower, car, truck, tractor, etc.

 

[Grumpycat]

As a general rule Kawasaki has the best parts availability, dealer training, and honor of warranty of any. My local dealer has gotten to the point he doesn't order anything with anything but a Kawasaki engine. Costs more but his customers have fewer problems.

 

[LightningCamaroGuy]

Personally I'm more of a Kohler fan, but to each their own. Kawasaki is made in Mississippi I believe, and Kohler is make in Missouri.

 

[jyoutz]

As a general rule Kawasaki has the best parts availability, dealer training, and honor of warranty of any. My local dealer has gotten to the point he doesn't order anything with anything but a Kawasaki engine. Costs more but his customers have fewer problems.

I think it varies. My local small equipment dealer says Kawasaki makes very good engines, but he is always happier when the customer has a professional grade Briggs or Kohler. He says that he can get parts with short turnaround times for those, but Kawasaki always takes awhile to get parts. Meanwhile the customer’s machine is sitting in the shop.

 

[yomax4]

I gave away a Husqvarna YTH or YTM 54" tractor that literally fell apart as I was using it. I had to weld nearly everything on that paper thin sheet metal and the steering tower needed reconstructing several times too. Deck adjuster was insanely cheap and failed. All this on 3 acres of lawn. The thing would barely move in reverse which was dangerous. I was told it was a safety feature. I bought a new Gravely commercial ZT and would never go back to the goofy tractors that take all day to do a 30 minute job.

 

[stevem5215]

You want a tractor ? Buy the best transmission available for the money you want to spend. This means that you should consider what transmission is used in the tractor to avoid the short term issue of poor quality components. When you buy into a better transmission you will also be buying into a better unit overall. Better unit are more durable and longer life spans with higher quality decks and suspension seats usually. If you want cheap then you'll get cheap.

 

[Grumpycat]

Personally I'm more of a Kohler fan, but to each their own. Kawasaki is made in Mississippi I believe, and Kohler is make in Missouri.

Kawasaki’s factory is in Marysville, Missouri. Northwest corner of the state. A couple hours from their initial plant in Lincoln, Nebraska.

 

[tradosaurus]

You want a tractor ? Buy the best transmission available for the money you want to spend. This means that you should consider what transmission is used in the tractor to avoid the short term issue of poor quality components. When you buy into a better transmission you will also be buying into a better unit overall. Better unit are more durable and longer life spans with higher quality decks and suspension seats usually. If you want cheap then you'll get cheap.

You might want to give more details.
How does one know and identify the best transmission available?

 

[Gem99ultra]

I gave away a Husqvarna YTH or YTM 54" tractor that literally fell apart as I was using it. I had to weld nearly everything on that paper thin sheet metal and the steering tower needed reconstructing several times too. Deck adjuster was insanely cheap and failed. All this on 3 acres of lawn. The thing would barely move in reverse which was dangerous. I was told it was a safety feature. I bought a new Gravely commercial ZT and would never go back to the goofy tractors that take all day to do a 30 minute job.

I also gave away my Husqvarna 52" garden tractor/mower ($3100) after breaking the pinion gear, with no replacement parts available.

 

[hiddentacocatneddih]

A lot of the commercial zero turns are 7 gauge or heavier decks.

The highest trim bad boy rogue I believe has .25" in spots

I've never seen a mid mount for a scut that heavy duty

The JD 755 mid mount we have is really light gauge stamped sheet metal and my buddies modern mahindra deck is a lot lighter than his JD 972 ztr