What do you mean by "wrong" one? Box store vs pro model?
Yes, there were a few posts above in which users were citing issues with their particular model, not a problem general to all or even most zero-turn mowers.
How's maintenance on these things, like getting at blades to replace/sharpen them?
I service mine every year, as follows:
- Warm it up and drive it up on a pair of oil-change ramps to access under mower deck.
- Unscrew oil drain plug and pull oil filter, let drain.
- Remove three blades, scrape mower deck clean, then install my spare set. Removing blade is a single bolt in the center, most easily done with impact driver, since you don't need to block the blade rotation with impact driver.
- Install oil plug and new filter, then pour in fresh oil to 90% of specified crank case capacity (can't use dipstick on inclined ramps).
- Drive off ramps, park on level floor, check oil with dipstick.
- Grease 3 mower spindles, 2 brake pivots, mower deck height adjustment knob, and mower hanger blocks.
- Blow out or replace outer air filter, inner filter is good for many years.
- Do any other specified engine maintenance on schedule (spark plugs, valve lash, etc.).
- Double-check carb tuning and idle/max RPM's.
The whole process takes less than an hour, in fact I could probably slam it out in close to 30 minutes if there's no major engine maintenance items due, after so many years. I sharpen the dull blades a different day later in winter, since I'm usually focused on plowing thru the annual oil changes and lube on all of my machines in a single day or weekend.
Engine maintenance is extremely minimal, since these machines (commercial versions) are generally designed to run 2000 hours per year, and I'm averaging under 100 hours per year.
Easy enough to pull the mower deck on a lawn tractor, but these seem to have them mounted under the mower itself. Not everyone has a lift.
It's pretty easy to pull the mower deck, but I've only done that once in 20 years, to sandblast and repaint it. I believe you could even replace a mower spindle without having to remove the deck, at least on my commercial unit. Since those spindles are probably designed for 20,000 hours or more, I'll probably never have to try it.
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