CEO of Husqvarna Calls it Quits on Lawn and Garden Tractors (Petrol), says U.S. is Too "Challenging".

[Gem99ultra]

Throw me into the 'not satisfied with Husqvarna'! I have an old (23 y/o) Rider 1550 that has been simply awesome. In 2010 I bought a bigger place so I bought a larger GTH26v52LS - garden tractor, 52" cut with a 26 hp Kawasaki engine, to help with the larger mow-areas.

First the clutch went out last year. Understandable, but unexpected. Then shortly, a few months, later the transmission quit. After making multiple changes in the oil and filter, it finally started running again. ...for 6 hours.

Then after 6 hours more on the clock, I was chopping up leaves and it quit moving altogether. I first checked the belts, etc., all of the usual possible reasons for 'no drive'. Not being successful in that I took it to the shop for repair. The verdict is that the pinion gear was stripped.

A pinion gear failure in a HydroGeat transmission was certainly a surprise considering the mower only had 280 hours on it. For $3300 I would have expected more. Then the fatal blow - "Parts No Available"! Not simply Not in Stock, No used parts available, no nothing. No help from Husqvarna nor any of its dealers.

So, I'm stuck with a worthless $3300 mower and grass growing up to my a**. My only alternative was to buy a Kubota Z2412 zero turn. This I did. (Substantial driving skills are in process.) Meanwhile, I've acquired an expensive piece of orange colored yard art to dispose of.

So much for my loyalty to Husqvarna!

 

[RandyT]

Throw me into the 'not satisfied with Husqvarna'! I have an old (23 y/o) Rider 1550 that has been simply awesome. In 2010 I bought a bigger place so I bought a larger GTH26v52LS - garden tractor, 52" cut with a 26 hp Kawasaki engine, to help with the larger mow-areas.

First the clutch went out last year. Understandable, but unexpected. Then shortly, a few months, later the transmission quit. After making multiple changes in the oil and filter, it finally started running again. ...for 6 hours.

Then after 6 hours more on the clock, I was chopping up leaves and it quit moving altogether. I first checked the belts, etc., all of the usual possible reasons for 'no drive'. Not being successful in that I took it to the shop for repair. The verdict is that the pinion gear was stripped.

A pinion gear failure in a HydroGeat transmission was certainly a surprise considering the mower only had 280 hours on it. For $3300 I would have expected more. Then the fatal blow - "Parts No Available"! Not simply Not in Stock, No used parts available, no nothing. No help from Husqvarna nor any of its dealers.

So, I'm stuck with a worthless $3300 mower and grass growing up to my a**. My only alternative was to buy a Kubota Z2412 zero turn. This I did. (Substantial driving skills are in process.) Meanwhile, I've acquired an expensive piece of orange colored yard art to dispose of.

So much for my loyalty to Husqvarna!

Could you provide me with the model and serial number from the tag on the transaxle itself. I looked up the hydrogear unit that is supposed to be used on that model of Husqvarna and was looking at the gears, and I am showing some of the gear are in stock at suppliers, and the other gears are showing 0 in stock but not showing NLA.

 

[Gem99ultra]

Could you provide me with the model and serial number from the tag on the transaxle itself. I looked up the hydrogear unit that is supposed to be used on that model of Husqvarna and was looking at the gears, and I am showing some of the gear are in stock at suppliers, and the other gears are showing 0 in stock but not showing NLA.

Very nice of you to offer to help. Your generosity in searching is much greater than my patience though - I've given the mower to the repair shop and told them to junk it.

I'm sure they'll jerk out the Kawasaki 26hp motor with only 280 hrs on it and sell the rest for scrap. They claim they'd called every supply house and Husqvarna with no luck.

Again, many thanks Randy.

 

[plowhog]

If sold at a dealer that is authorized to repair them it comes with an orange welded deck. For stores like Lowes, Sears etc...you will either get the grey or black stamped deck, the black stamped deck is the cheapest, next up the grey which is what I have. Top of the line is the orange welded Husqvarna deck.

When I bought my Husqvarna GT48DXLS a few years ago, I learned there is a substantial difference in engineering between the products offered at traditional dealers versus those at the big box stores. I bought mine from a dealer since you could not get that model from a box store.

I am under 100 hrs total usage, but my experience has been flawless. I work it hard for mowing-- for several months each year it has a Cyclone Rake behind it because of the high volume of leaves needing to be bagged. I only use it for mowing-- no towing implements; no aftermarket products on it.

The reported parts availability is a concern-- hope I don't run into that!

 

[RandyT]

Very nice of you to offer to help. Your generosity in searching is much greater than my patience though - I've given the mower to the repair shop and told them to junk it.

I'm sure they'll jerk out the Kawasaki 26hp motor with only 280 hrs on it and sell the rest for scrap. They claim they'd called every supply house and Husqvarna with no luck.

Again, many thanks Randy.

It helps when you have dealer login credentials for both Husqvarna and Hydrogear, so I have access to stuff that the general public doesn't

 

[s219]

When I bought my Husqvarna GT48DXLS a few years ago, I learned there is a substantial difference in engineering between the products offered at traditional dealers versus those at the big box stores. I bought mine from a dealer since you could not get that model from a box store.

I am under 100 hrs total usage, but my experience has been flawless. I work it hard for mowing-- for several months each year it has a Cyclone Rake behind it because of the high volume of leaves needing to be bagged. I only use it for mowing-- no towing implements; no aftermarket products on it.

The reported parts availability is a concern-- hope I don't run into that!

Exclusivity of feature combinations was the only difference with the dealer models, not the engineering. Husqvarna reserved some of the more desirable / limited combinations for their dealers.

When the GT48DXLS was offered as a dealer-exclusive model, there was a near-identical GT48XLSi model available at Lowes, only differing by the engine (B&S). If you wanted the Kawasaki engine, the only place to get that was at a dealer, which is what made the GT48DXLS sought after. But everything else about the machines was the same. You can lookup the specs at one of the tractor database sites to compare.

There were other GT models that were similar variations on that same platform. At the time Husqvarna had a big matrix chart with hundreds of columns and rows, with dots in the boxes that showed feature combinations that went into the various models on each platform. They had way to many models if you ask me. But I think it was part of a strategy to make unique models for their various customers and markets and maybe protect their dealers. They took parts-bin engineering to a level that would make the Detroit Big Three proud.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

I finally had a break down on my Husqvarna.

My original 7 year old OEM battery died. I had to buy a new one from the local Napa store for $65.

Where is that CEO? Time to tar and feather him!

New battery and probably go another 7 years.