John Deere sold at Lowes & HD

[shot_gun]

warrant_ero, Welcome to the TBN. To answer your question you do not check the oil. It is designed to go it's entire life with out having the oil changed. The life span on that trans is about 500 hours. That being said did you sighn up for the Maintenace plan plus. It will give you a piece of mine if you do have to leave to go back.

On a side note... THANK YOU for your service! an be safe!!!

 

[warrant_ero]

Thanks, for the kind words and information. I did purchase an extended warranty( 4 years) so hopefully if I am gone my wife does have an avenue to get the tractor fixed.

That being said, the JD seems to be about twice the tractor my old Craftsman was. The Hydrostatic transmission is really sweet. I have about .5 - .75 of an acre to mow, pretty level overall.

Thanks again, glad to be part of this forum

 

[nomad289]

I bought a G100 series Garden tractor from Lowes? after careful comparison with the comparable JD tractor. From what I could inspect regarding bearings, tie arm thicknesses, deck gauge, wheels, etc. the G100 for $4K seemed almost comparable to the real JD costing 50% more. It has performed well, pulling drag cultivators, aireators, and other high load equipment. Mowing is fine and with 300 hrs it still runs great. There could be unforseen differences in material quality; but the the size/gauge of the components seemed similar for substantially less money.

When I sucked debris into the carb, the JD dealer told me I'd have to leave it for 3wks or more to get serviced--so I repaired myself. Dont know if the service would have been better had I bought the ~$6k unit from them.

The L100 series looked too lightweight for my needs of 2.5 rough acres.

 

[LBrown59]

Hello,
Just bought a LA 125 at HD, seems like a good mower, it replaced my 5 yr old craftsman that the transaxle died in. I needed something that I could depend on. I just got back from a deployment to the middle east and I needed something that would work for my wife when I am gone again.


One question, the LA 125 has the Tuff Torg T40 transaxle, how do you go about changing the fluid and what kind of oil do you replace it with? Thanks.

you don;t

 

[LBrown59]

*I bought a G100 series Garden tractor from Lowes? after careful comparison with the JD tractor.
.

What JD tractor is comparable to the lowes G100 series.

Did you know you could have gotten the G100 from a JD dealer for the same money and received better service.?

 

[jinman]

Thanks, for the kind words and information. I did purchase an extended warranty( 4 years) so hopefully if I am gone my wife does have an avenue to get the tractor fixed.

That being said, the JD seems to be about twice the tractor my old Craftsman was. The Hydrostatic transmission is really sweet. I have about .5 - .75 of an acre to mow, pretty level overall.

Thanks again, glad to be part of this forum

I'm not sure of everything on the LA125, but it has the same Owner's Manual as my LA145. On page 30 under "Service Transmission / Checking Transmission" it says, "The transmission is a sealed component. No maintenance is required on this transmission. If you suspect any transmission problems, please contact your authorized dealer."

I also suggest paying close attention to the service intervals on page 23. After the first 8 hours of use, there is an extensive service. I'd compare it to a compact tractor's 50 hr service. It includes changing the oil (no filter change required) and lubricating the deck and front axle.

Each spindle on your deck has grease zerks. The front axle pivot and wheel spindles also have zerks. If your wife is going to be using the mower when you are not there, then she needs to become familiar with these service points. Normal service has to be performed by you even though you have that extended warranty.

The deck has plastic covers over each spindle with slots cut out so you can spray air or water in there to get loose grass and debris out. The center spindle is the hardest to clean of course. Does the LA125 have three blades? The advice about the center spindle might not apply since I believe the 42" deck only has two blades.

Draining oil is a surprise. The oil drain has a plastic bayonet lock cover that seals with an o-ring around the drain pipe. The bayonet cover is easily removed by just twisting and then the oil gushes. That was a surprise to me. You will have to keep a close eye on this because a child could easily remove this fitting. It just seems too easy to remove. I guess I'll see in the long run, but I would have preferred that it at least was as hard as a child-proof pill bottle.

I'm also not too crazy about how abruptly the electric PTO grabs when you pull the button on the dash. The clutch just engages so quickly and so well that it shakes pretty well even at low engine rpm. Time will tell if this is a problem, but so far it is fine. I like the RIO button for reverse mowing. I thought I would want to defeat this feature, but it works so well I'm leaving it as it is.

So far I love the LA145 and so does my wife. We bought a plastic cover for it at TSC because birds decided the hood vents were a great place to build a nest. We keep it in under a raised deck for now with the cover on, and it is no longer a problem.

Read your manual and become familiar with the tractor. Keep it clean and maintain it properly and most likely you will have good service. I bought the JD because it had the best features of any $2000 mower I looked at. The LA100 series mowers are a very good value in this price range. When comparing "apples to apples" the JD stands out as a superior value based on all the hands-on comparison I have done.

Good luck and thanks for your military service.

 

[warrant_ero]

Jim,
Thanks for the info, I did receive an e-mail from Tuff-Torq with an attached document on how to change the fluid in the T40 transaxle. They recommend changing the oil from a 10W-30 to a synthetic 5W.

From Tuff-Torq:
"Unfortunately this unit does not have drain plugs in the lower housing
so in order to change the transaxle fluid in your mower you will need
to drop the transaxle from the mower and flip over to drain. Your unit has
10W-30 Motor Oil in it now but we do recommend going with a 5W-50
Synthetic Oil."

I have attached the word doc from Tuff-Torq about checking the fluid level on the T-40.
r/ jay

 

[hdbikercouple]

jd makes the dealer service them. jd is also cutting off the smaller dealers. in a couple of years they will have to sell a large $ each year or jd will drop them.

 

[Fordlords]

"in order to change the transaxle fluid in your mower you will need
to drop the transaxle from the mower and flip over to drain."

It would probably be a lot easier to just flip the whole tractor over to drain the fluid LOL!

Seriously.... I would not worry to much about the fluid in those units. Those transaxles typically last the life of the tractor without any service, and sometimes attempting to service them can make things worse. The light duty LT's are 400-500 hour machines, tyically everything on them is pretty tired by the time those hours roll along. People tend to dink around with the transxle fluid in the larger GT's as I see more often than is necessary, just throwing away perfectly good fluid thus doing nothing that will prolong the transaxle's life. Those transaxles typically last through about 2 engines and 2 mower decks, and by then you just don't want the tractor anymore yet the transaxle still works fine

-Fordlords-

 

[fieronx]

I bought a G100 series Garden tractor from Lowes? after careful comparison with the comparable JD tractor. From what I could inspect regarding bearings, tie arm thicknesses, deck gauge, wheels, etc. the G100 for $4K seemed almost comparable to the real JD costing 50% more. It has performed well, pulling drag cultivators, aireators, and other high load equipment. Mowing is fine and with 300 hrs it still runs great. There could be unforseen differences in material quality; but the the size/gauge of the components seemed similar for substantially less money.

When I sucked debris into the carb, the JD dealer told me I'd have to leave it for 3wks or more to get serviced--so I repaired myself. Dont know if the service would have been better had I bought the ~$6k unit from them.

The L100 series looked too lightweight for my needs of 2.5 rough acres.

The "real" John Deere? Give me a break. I know many of you are Dealership guys but if you're buying the 100 series it doesn't matter. THEY ARE THE SAME AT HD or LOWES AS THEY ARE AT THE JD DEALERSHIP. Please somebody try and tell me they are differen't. They are not made by a different company they are not designed to a lower standared they ARE THE SAME. 100 Series at HD and Lowes are the same as at the dealership. I'm tired of reading posts that say otherwise. Do you're homework people. By the way I bought my LA 145 from a dealership. It's perfect for my 2 acres and I have no complaints. A JD is JD no matter where you buy it from.
God forbid somebody not wanting to spend 3k or more for an X series mower! There are people that just need to mow their lawn and thats it! The 100 series is fine for what it does. I know the X series line does a better job but all of us are not "mower snobs" as many of you are. "Mower Snobs" that's just pathetic. You know who you are. LOL.