New LA145 problems

[TxJack]

I just bought a John Deere LA145 a month ago and it has had problems from the first day. I thought I'd post them to let others that might be looking at one to buy know before they purchase.

1. It consistently leaves a line of un-mown grass. So I literally have to mow my lawn twice! It mows the St. Augustine nicely, but anything else it leaves a row.

2. It backfires when I shut the tractor down.

3. Be sure to buy a set of earplugs. I know it is not going to be super quiet, but you'd think they'd be able to make them not sound like your sitting on top of a prop plane about to take off. I bought mine from Lowes so I was unable to start it in the store. I started it to drive it on to the trailer, but it's the added mower noise that is deafening.

4. A design flaw they need to improve on is adding more heat shielding down by your feet. Here in Texas we are already fighting the summer heat while mowing. It doesn't help that the hot engine is right down by your feet and like I stated, no added shielding makes for a bad combo.

In all fairness, I'm taking the mower in to John Deere to see if they can fix the issue of not mowing correctly and the backfiring. So we shall see what happens.

 

[rekees4300]

"I bought mine from Lowes"

The big box stores do not sell the same quality mower that is available from JD dealers.

 

[BleedGreen]

"I bought mine from Lowes"

The big box stores do not sell the same quality mower that is available from JD dealers.

Not exactly true - us dealers can (and most do) sell the LA Series tractors (like the LA145 in this thread) that are also sold in Lowe's and at THD. But - we also have the rest of the lineup, (starting with the X300) which the big boxes do not have. I would ask the OP to PM me regarding the LA145 in particular - let's just say that I personally prefer (if you have to go with the LA Series) the LA135 and smaller units.

 

[Gator6x4]

1. It consistently leaves a line of un-mown grass. So I literally have to mow my lawn twice! It mows the St. Augustine nicely, but anything else it leaves a row.

2. It backfires when I shut the tractor down.

Always advance the throttle to a little above 3/4's open and this should stop the backfire problem when stopping the engine. All late model engines have the backfire problem. We are all so conditioned to having the engine at idle when stopping, late model engines run lean and will backfire if returned to idle prior to stopping.

First check all the blades and insure they are all tight. Some have been delivered with the retaining nut loose which allows the blade(s) to spin on the spindle instead of cutting. If the blades are all tight, stop by a local John Deere dealer and obtain a blade height adjusting tool. Best 8-10 dollars ever spent for a piece of plastic.

 

[manganos]

Good post Gator. Yes I had the same problems. One of the three blades were loose so I had to tighten it. Cured the "row" effect.

Mine will also backfire unless I throttle it all the way down before I turn off the key.


Also FWIW it is great to have a tractor around when you need to swap blades