EuropaChris
Silver Member
Hi, everyone,
I've had my new 2544 for about 2 months now, and have almost 8 hours on it. It's been more than a little dry here in northern Illinois, so there hasn't been much to mow. I bought it after looking at everything (JD, Simplicity, all the lower end MTD stuff, Wheel Horse, Toro, etc.) and definitely realized that is was by far the best bang for the buck. I purchased it through a local Cub/JD dealer and they were great. I pat myself on the shoulder everytime I mow with it.
Overall, I just love it. It's powerfull, quiet, smooth, and handles very well. It cuts like a dream.
Some observations:
1) The headlights fill up with dirt inside. Yes, it's been VERY dry and dusty, but I can see they will be pretty well gunked up quickly. My headlight wiring didn't have the heatshield issue, though. The prefilter on the air cleaner also loads up really fast.
Does anyone else think that Tecumseh's "Kleen-Aire" airfilter system was cool? It took air from under the blower shroud that had all the dirt flung out of it by the centrifugal action of the blower. We had an old push mower with that setup and I don't think I ever cleaned the air filter. It never got dirty!
2) Had to level the deck a bit and lower the gage wheels to set it up for my mowing. I don't mow lower than '4' and usually prefer '5'. Tall grass is healthy grass. If kept well fertilized, weeds don't have a chance.
3) Once the gage wheels were set, you can't lower the deck beyond 3 without them hard on the ground. No problem there, but this caused an interesting related problem. When removing the deck to do my first oil change, getting the deck off was easy. Pop the rear pins and front mount, remove the belt and presto! However, getting the deck on was another matter. I fought for half an hour trying to get the rear pins back in place. It just wouldn't go. It appeared the deck was about 1/4" too high to line up. Well, it was already on the ground (on the gage wheels) so that was as low as it would go. Finally I had the idea to jack up the back of the tractor. Put my floor jack under the tranny housing and lifted up the back end so the rear wheels were about 1" off the floor. I was then able to put in the rear deck pins in 30 seconds!!!!
So, if anyone has the gage wheels set down properly to mow at 4 or higher, you may have some difficulty getting the deck back up and mounted.
Otherwise the oil change went just fine, even with the supplied tubing. It just took some patience to get everything lined up and routed. Definitely requires getting the deck off, though. Good time to inspect the blades, belt, clean it, grease it, etc.
Next will be the hydro filter change. I see my transmission is a good bit overfilled from the factory, so I should have some surplus to play with if I'm quick getting the old one off and new one on. I'm using the NAPA Gold Wix equivalents. Not really cheaper than the OEM items, but I just like Wix filters.
Well, enough rambling for now. Just wanted to say thanks to everyone here for all the great information. It's made owning this machine far more pleasurable.
Chris
I've had my new 2544 for about 2 months now, and have almost 8 hours on it. It's been more than a little dry here in northern Illinois, so there hasn't been much to mow. I bought it after looking at everything (JD, Simplicity, all the lower end MTD stuff, Wheel Horse, Toro, etc.) and definitely realized that is was by far the best bang for the buck. I purchased it through a local Cub/JD dealer and they were great. I pat myself on the shoulder everytime I mow with it.
Overall, I just love it. It's powerfull, quiet, smooth, and handles very well. It cuts like a dream.
Some observations:
1) The headlights fill up with dirt inside. Yes, it's been VERY dry and dusty, but I can see they will be pretty well gunked up quickly. My headlight wiring didn't have the heatshield issue, though. The prefilter on the air cleaner also loads up really fast.
Does anyone else think that Tecumseh's "Kleen-Aire" airfilter system was cool? It took air from under the blower shroud that had all the dirt flung out of it by the centrifugal action of the blower. We had an old push mower with that setup and I don't think I ever cleaned the air filter. It never got dirty!
2) Had to level the deck a bit and lower the gage wheels to set it up for my mowing. I don't mow lower than '4' and usually prefer '5'. Tall grass is healthy grass. If kept well fertilized, weeds don't have a chance.
3) Once the gage wheels were set, you can't lower the deck beyond 3 without them hard on the ground. No problem there, but this caused an interesting related problem. When removing the deck to do my first oil change, getting the deck off was easy. Pop the rear pins and front mount, remove the belt and presto! However, getting the deck on was another matter. I fought for half an hour trying to get the rear pins back in place. It just wouldn't go. It appeared the deck was about 1/4" too high to line up. Well, it was already on the ground (on the gage wheels) so that was as low as it would go. Finally I had the idea to jack up the back of the tractor. Put my floor jack under the tranny housing and lifted up the back end so the rear wheels were about 1" off the floor. I was then able to put in the rear deck pins in 30 seconds!!!!
So, if anyone has the gage wheels set down properly to mow at 4 or higher, you may have some difficulty getting the deck back up and mounted.
Otherwise the oil change went just fine, even with the supplied tubing. It just took some patience to get everything lined up and routed. Definitely requires getting the deck off, though. Good time to inspect the blades, belt, clean it, grease it, etc.
Next will be the hydro filter change. I see my transmission is a good bit overfilled from the factory, so I should have some surplus to play with if I'm quick getting the old one off and new one on. I'm using the NAPA Gold Wix equivalents. Not really cheaper than the OEM items, but I just like Wix filters.
Well, enough rambling for now. Just wanted to say thanks to everyone here for all the great information. It's made owning this machine far more pleasurable.
Chris
