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

[plowhog]

According to an earlier post, he's owned the troublesome mower for ~10 years. That's probably longer, by double at least, than I would have endured with a troublesome piece of equipment.

Perhaps he can throw a "sending off" party!

 

[two_bit_score]

If he’s been putting up with something giving him that much trouble for 10 years makes me wonder if he’s not married to it.

 

[grsthegreat]

all i can say id my husky rider is close to 15 yo, no frame issues what so ever. Gets a heck of alot of use, and my tocky ground and my wifes constantly mowing side of road, doesnt lend itself to making it look pretty. Replaced motor 5 years ago. Old one worked, but ate oil. a friend of mine got me a complete motor for $250.
Took like 30 minutes to install. Now im replacing deck for a little over $600. This is for fomplete deck, all spindles, pilleys, belts. Way cheaper than buying a new machine. It will be good as new for 600.

 

[sunandsand]

Yes, I've owned it for ten years, but it only has 205 hours on it. Lets assume it wasn't giving me trouble, how many hours could I reasonably expect a device like this to remain usable (with proper maintenance)? 500 hours? 750 hours? If the "service life" is only 200 hours or so (38 hours/yr times 4.5 years = 171 hours per previous poster) then it has cost me over $10 per service hour just to own! I can't believe that the manufacturer only expects this thing to last 200 hours.

Am I expecting too much out of this, or is this "about normal"?


And BTW, no, I'm not married to it ;-)

Who I AM married to (going on 25 years) has worked for the postal service (and you know how they get when you annoy them), then she went into the army, and now she's a lawyer. As a result, since I have no death wish, I tend to behave . . .

Best Regards,

Mike/Florida

 

[grsthegreat]

who says it only has a service life of 200 hours.?

 

[sunandsand]

Page 2 of this thread, from RandyT:

Throw in the fact that most push mowers are ran 12 hours per year and replaced every 3.5 years, and riders are run on average 38 hours per year, and replaced every 4.5 years. So the manufacturers have engineered their products behind that replacement average. I remember when Snapper a few years back announced that they were changing the quality of the rear engine riders to have a 5 year life expectancy. Remember that is the mower that up to that point would last over 30 years on average.

I do hope he is incorrect . . . 171 hours sounds like a very short life for something that costs $2K or so.

If I can get this thing sorted out, could I reasonably expect to get 500 to 750 hours out of it?


(My push mower, a Murray, a/k/a "Lazarus" , is 30+ years old and still on the original engine. It does, however have a new carb because of ethanol.)


Best Regards,

Mike/Florida

 

[cdaigle430]

600 hours on mine, bought at sears back in 2006(15 Years). Paid 1800 with mulch kit and 3 year extra service contract. Didnt buy the 3 bin bagger until 2012.

I will likely keep using it for another 10 years. My dad and my three neighbors bought the same model-and my neighbor across the street bought a crappy John deer-one up the road bought a cub cadet and they wish they bought the Husqvarna.

So I know for a fact that these mowers are good. Why would anyone put a loader bucket on these anyway?


I did some research on this issue and found thta this poster is the only one to complain about the frame\bucket issue. It gets a reasonable rating but understanding the matrix of this combination that is normal. Here is rating from Amazon;

Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Husqvarna HUS_5881814-01

 

[grsthegreat]

just went out and looked at the hour meter on mine. 515 hours




when i ghet the new deck, im going to keep the old deck for use when she mowes the roads and trails. it only takes me about 10-15 minutes to swap decks. im not going to let her trash this one.

 

[s219]

I notice a lot of commonality in parts and part numbers between this Husqvarna and some Sears/Craftsman riding mowers. Husqvarna evidently found a generic riding mower manufacturer and simply had them put "Husqvarna" decals on their product. Husqvarna's "withdrawal from the US market" simply means they won't be sending any more decals to whoever made the mowers.

You're partially right -- earlier in the thread someone gave details on the manufacturing arrangement but the Craftsman and Husqvarna lawn tractors and garden tractors were one in the same other than color schemes and option packaging. Both of those brands made numerous iterations on the same basic models that only differed in the combination of features. If you didn't find the combination you wanted in a box-store Husqvarna model you could probably find it in a Sears model or a dealer-only Husqvarna model. I know some folks thought the dealer-only models were special but they were just an option-matrix away from what you could get at Lowes or Sears. Even the pricing was mixed up. When the Sears models were on sale they were a good value but at full price they were not competitive.

I guess I am not surprised Husqvarna couldn't make it in the market. They had way too many models. When I was shopping them years ago, I couldn't believe how many different variations there were. I was looking at a GT-52 model at Lowes and had to call Husqvarna to have them explain the subtle differences in the various GT-52 models at Lowes and dealers. Even right now their model lineup still has 22 models, and that is down from what it was. They had more variations than Deere but lacked a clear tier system and naming scheme to sort the models, instead using a complicated alpha-numeric system that wasn't even thorough. Add to that the limited availability of some of the better models and it always had me wondering what their marketing strategy was.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

You could take some guys and lock them in a room with nothing but an iron anvil and a plastic hammer.

Come back in 2 hours and let them out, and they will have broken the anvil and lost the hammer...

Takes all kinds to make this world go 'round.