2013 GT6000 Purchase

[ssrfenton]

My wife sent me a text and photo of the new toy today. After much reading and assessment we decided the GT6000 will fit our light duty needs around our little 1.25 acre lake lot and tow our utility trailer to boot.

Just a few reasons to puchase this item that may interest some readers:

Purpose:
1. Trailer pull, loaded dock sections, gardening items, tree cleanup, wood haul...general light duty haulage.
2. Fall leaf cleanup. Our lawn guy mows, trims and cleans up for $35 per cut but there is no fall service. So we will attach the deck and run around a few weeks late Oct through Nov. and get that job done. Not sure if we will mulch or Cyclone Rake it.
3. Snow plow part of our drive with the dozer blade and finish off with our 30 inch snow blower. We had a plow service but the large and heavy blade just cut up the drive edge and lawn together with the sprinkler heads. Plus we don't like the look of banked up snow.
4. Hopefully the dozer blade will work OK to level out the 7 yards of soil I dumped. Just will take it easy on the trans and frame

Build
1. The transmission Hydro-Gear 730 is very comparable to Tuff Torqu K66 spec, excluding diff lock. In my mind this is the workhorse of the unit. K66 is used in many GT series and I recall on the Deere 5XX series.
2. The frame, axles and steering all seemed just OK or will meet requirements for the intended purpose. So I really didn't want to over buy a build for things we will probably never over stress.
3. I am not really partial to air cooled motors due to the potential over heat issues. A local service center sais many air cooled engines from all makes are not able to have sufficient air flow and require good and regular cleaning to ensure longevity. So I just gave up on this issue since we were not going for the Kawasaki liquid cooled engine which the service center sais they are great but expensive. I think Deere uses the liquid cooled gas engines in the 7XX series.

Support
Well I'm not alone on this, and parts availability was a major factor for me. Once the warranty is over it will be up to me so if I can buy online that will suffice. I think Sears has good support in this area and members here have even provided upgrades for front wheel bearing replacements.

Value
It is a very good value proposition for our purpose but others who cut grass have different views. Hopefully I don't need to cut and it is a job I don't think I'll enjoy anyway. However for general light duty it may hold up OK. We have a good Deere dealer local to us but we really didn't want to spend a premium for the build level that we may never need. And our needs are not primarily lawn cutting so the added weight, build quality and engine durability for a machine that needs to hold up over alot of miles seemed excess to us.

 

[DT86]

Sounds good, where is the obligatory TBN pic?

 

[ssrfenton]

Hopefully this works.

Pricing:
I think about $2,000 includes 5% discount and 12 months interest free

 

[dakotagun]

I have same unit, about 5 years older. has been a good mower for me, didn't use it to haul or push snow, though. you could pick up a blower attachment for a few hundred bucks, but I don't know how well they work (belt drive). turns out I bought a JD scut with some attachments as my needs grew beyond mowing, so the GT still does the bulk of mowing only. I've gone through my share of madrels, started buying them from Amazon ($120 per from Sears). I bought the MA for 3 years, paid for a few of those!

 

[ssrfenton]

I have same unit, about 5 years older. has been a good mower for me, didn't use it to haul or push snow, though. you could pick up a blower attachment for a few hundred bucks, but I don't know how well they work (belt drive). turns out I bought a JD scut with some attachments as my needs grew beyond mowing, so the GT still does the bulk of mowing only. I've gone through my share of madrels, started buying them from Amazon ($120 per from Sears). I bought the MA for 3 years, paid for a few of those!

We were offered 5 year protection plan at $600. Is this a plan we should purchase or is the quality there?

Would appreciate some feedback on this issue.

 

[dakotagun]

you'll get a mixture of opinion on that... I was new at servicing my own stuff and live an hour from any shop, so I did buy the MA. if you can work on your own or have service choices, may be cheaper. turned out a better deal for me to buy the agreement and use it whenever possible; peace of mind has value to me. you may not push yours, but I knew that my 3 acres was a pretty rough mow - bumpy field/rocks, and expected some trouble taming it with the GT. i'm glad I had it for the GT - we don't buy them for all things, though.

 

[ssrfenton]

First Impressions

Used the GT to tow our utility trailer in flat snow covered ground, 4" - 6" deep. The GT doesn't have the traction and the transmission is not lockable. But with some patience and some heal toe on the drive it will move. Not a huge issue but a thought for somebody that wants the best drive. Have not loaded the tires with fluid or have any weights. The mower deck is not attached. I am considering a dozer blade but now we need experienced feedback on the traction performance.

The steering turn circle is great. No issues here.

Seems like there is more than enough torque for the GT weight.

Engine start is very good. Usually I apply the choke on full during a shut down to ensure gas is loaded in the carb, ready for the next start up and this technique works very well for the Briggs power snow blower. With the Kohler, this method will over flood the carb and cause a backfire so I would say the match up is good and no choke need be applied. One potential weak link could be the battery, but we will just have to wait on the duarability .

If we could attach a quieter muffler we would.

We need to install a 2 inch ball with a height 5 inches above the standard attachment plate to secure our utility trailer. Any help appreciated on available products. We looked online at Hi Rise but these are 2 1/4 inch rise max??

Still not sold on the $600 maintenance agreement.

 

[harbin]

I have a 2011 GT6000, I won't bore you with history or complaints I've had but I have found solutions to some issues. There is no temp gauge, so I installed one (motor has 2 ports you can use, very easy install) and found this thing runs HOT! When pulling the sweeper or mowing uphill on a pretty good grade, I would regularly hit 300 degrees and if it was in the mid to upper 80s, I could easily exceed that. My solution was to install a sandwich- style oil filter adapter and run tubing to an oil cooler. Found most parts on ebay and I'd say the total cost was around $80. Now doing the same work even on warm days I stay 60-70 degrees cooler.

One other issue I've found is when there is any load, speed up hill drops big time. It still climbs, but pulling a cart or after snow blowing and coming back up the drive (again, it's got a pretty good grade to it) speed easily cuts in half if not slower.

As for the warranty, I didn't buy it but have been torn on what I should have done. Part of me wants to get rid of this thing, the other part says keep it. I've heard quite a few people talk about engine trouble sometime after 70-100 hours, and I'm at 80. I run full synthetic so I hope that helps stave off whatever caused their trouble. If I do keep it, the modifications I'd end up making to get more use out of it I'm sure will void something.

Haven't had any trouble with the battery yet, bought it in August 2011.

 

[ssrfenton]

Thanks for your feedback and you confirmed what one local service center advised me These engines run HOT and they will reduce engine life. I would appreciate any more specifics on coolers and parts because I too believe these heat issues are a potential durability issue.

The standard rear rim tire combo is not suited to snow conditions and today I looked at a changeover for winter conditions.ie A new rim tire replacement for winter then back to turf for spring and summer. Problem is the standard Sears rim size 12 inch limits the tire choices and the ATV rim are better but lack the bolt pattern. We were advised the 4 ply on low pressure with large rib pattern works best. Like an Ag tire This releases the snow and allows a fresh bite.

We still need to venture into a locking differential setup for even better traction but first the tire/rim setup plus a little weight.

 

[harbin]

I'll take some pictures in the morning and find links to the parts i used for the oil cooler. At first i thought there was a problem like i was low on oil, then i switched to full synthetic to get temps down but it wasn't enough. The sandwich adapter I found bypasses until the oil his 180 degrees, then opens to the cooler, so when snow blowing it does warm up. I've been considering throwing 2 small fans on the cooler for hot days, but so far i haven't needed them.

As for tires, i swapped the turfs for Carlisle all trails (HDAPs) and use them year round. No more scalping the lawn when the turfs would spin, and they do good in the snow until it gets hard packed. Then the chains come on. I went up to 26x12x12 so i went with wider rims, but if you stay stock size you should be able to stick with the original rims.

I completely agree about the need for a locking differential. If i keep this machine, I will probably look into swapping a K72 variant-maybe the "h" version.

 

[ssrfenton]

How is the bolt pattern specified for our rear flange rim? Is it just that all 5 bolt are the same? And is there some offset also? Wth the 26x12x12 I think that will open up the tire choices for us.

The K72 is used in the JD X700 series unit and is very strong for a garden tractor while the K66 is a little less torque spec than the G730 however there is a lock feature. I was hoping for an aftermarket lock/unlock retrofit feature for the G730.

On the oil cooler, perhaps some consideration should be given to a starting up a new thread in the projects or other type forum where it is easy to find and reference.

 

[harbin]

The k72 is used on the x500s, my sister has an x540 and loves it. The x700s use the k92 which is used for shaft drive machines. The k72 is used on simplicity machines as well, the specs on their website look fantastic.

The bolt pattern is standard, before buying the tires we took them off my neighbors x749 and they went right on. I needed a little wider stance to mow an area that's steep and has to be cut side ways, so I added 1 1/2" wheel spacers. I'll add pictures of this too, they helped make a little more space so the deck height linkage didn't rub the tire lugs.

I didn't think of posting something for the reference section, but that's probably a great idea.

 

[ssrfenton]

So you are also using the 26x12x12 for lawn cut. The Ag tire style tread pattern together with rear weight and low tire pressure is supposed to produce very good results for snow but for hills and ice a lock diff is even better. I watched the you tube Mud Garden Tractor machines and they show them in the snow also. The tread and lock wheel setup is so aggressive it will cut into the deep snow and then dig into the soil to grip. Quite extreme but it works if you need that leverage.

Still, for the money we are very fortunate to have these machines and I still think they are very good value. The only real issue I read is the deck performance in certain type grass conditions where the grass sticks to the deck underside and rust can set in prematurely.

Thanks for the JD transmission model update, I think the K72 lock maybe an option for snow and light to medium ground work if these wheel tire options need more grip.

 

[harbin]

I do run the All-Trails all year, I really like them in the grass. My front yard is pretty sloped, and the turfs tend to slide too much. I did fill these with Rimguard and it really feels planted now. Before buying those I tried going with the bar-type lugs with OTR Tracmasters in 24x12x12 and while they worked OK in the snow, I still needed chains and the one time I used them in the grass they shreaded it with any wheel slip. In the areas what were softer/wet, I also found them leaving indents in the dirt. Not a big deal, but I didn't like it. The All-trails have been great year round to the point that I'm going to sell the others w/ rims (both turf and the OTRs).

The clumping isssue I ran into got really bad when I swapped to Meg-Mo's. They are really cool and mulch very well, but the clumping at first was insane- so bad that after 2 or 3 cuts the deck was full to the blades and it wouldn't cut. After a few cleanings I called Roy (owner of Meg Mo blades) and found that these blades need a ton of airflow and the pulley covers had to go as well as any baffles. The difference was immediate. Although the deck still gets some grass stuck to it, its' nothing like it was. In the fall when I pulled the deck and mounted the snow blower I wire-wheeled the underside and primed the whole thing. I considered buying that graphite spray paint that's supposed to stop anything from sticking to it but never got around to it.

Here are some pics of the rear end with the spacers and OTR Tracmasters, the oil temp sensor, the gauges, and the oil cooler. I can take more, found these on my laptop.

 

[ssrfenton]

That looks like a great setup there. The oil filter tap off with the integrated temp sensor looks ideal and OEM like.

Those OTR Tracmasters look near ideal for snow but you still consider the All-Trails as good for grip in snow? I can see the Tracmasters being too aggressive for lawn and many with the SCUT and CUT will also confirm these style tires offer good grip but they will rip up the lawn when the tractor is used as an earth works application.

Thanks for the deck update, we plan to mulch leaves etc and have a tow behind catcher for pickup. We already have enough to do and our lawn guy has the Z turn setup that is very economical for lawn mowing so we hope not to have the issues others have had with the deck.

 

[harbin]

I did use the OTRs all last winter and while they do self clean very well, I found once it gets hard packed or there is any glaze on the pavement they just spin. I went as far as loading them with rimguard, 55 lb wheel weights, and strapped 180 lbs to the rear and they still spun (not to mention the rear end just cried and crawled coming back up the driveway). Took the weights off the wheels and off the rear, then added chains.