MTD Lawn Tractors ?

Posted by Iowa883 on June 25, 2005, 12:06 am

I am in need of a new lawn tractor and was wondering if MTD brand is any
good ? I know they actually make alot of the Dept. store lawn mowers. Does
anyone know how many brands thay actually make ?
I have a 1 1/2 acre lawn in rural Iowa and I need something to mow my lawn
and would like to spend under $1500 .
Thanks,
Iowa883

Posted by Edwin Pawlowski on June 25, 2005, 12:42 am

>I am in need of a new lawn tractor and was wondering if MTD brand is any
>good ? I know they actually make alot of the Dept. store lawn mowers. Does
>anyone know how many brands thay actually make ?
> I have a 1 1/2 acre lawn in rural Iowa and I need something to mow my lawn
> and would like to spend under $1500 .
> Thanks,
> Iowa883

MTD is middle of the road. John Deere and the like are the best. Paying
more is sometimes the cheapest way in the long run.

Posted by Iowa883 on June 25, 2005, 10:25 pm

> "Iowa883" wrote

>> I am in need of a new lawn tractor and was wondering if MTD brand is any
>> good ? I know they actually make alot of the Dept. store lawn mowers.
>> Does
>> anyone know how many brands thay actually make ?
>> I have a 1 1/2 acre lawn in rural Iowa and I need something to mow my
>> lawn
>> and would like to spend under $1500 .
>> Thanks,
>> Iowa883

> Two days ago, you wanted to spend in the $2000 - $2500 range, as posted in
> alt.home.lawn.garden. I hope in two more days, you're not looking for a
> tractor in the $500-$1000 range.
> MTD = Junk
> You might be better off looking for a couple of goats.

Nick,
You are so correct about the statement . I was at 2 JD dealers and what I
really want is around 5K , and my budget doesn't like that . My wife and I
also do not know that a JD will last longer than a mower built by MTD .
THanks,
Iowa883

Posted by Vic Dura on June 27, 2005, 5:37 pm

On Sun, 26 Jun 2005 14:13:13 -0500, in alt.home.repair RE: Re: MTD

>> John Deere is definitely the best.

>Never had a Kabota have you!
>I have a friend that has a lawn service, he has had four Kobota lawn
>tractors of one sort or another. He has a couple of John Deere's too. The
>Kabota's kick ass on the JD'S! He has put over 3000 hours on all of his
>Kabota's with little repair, the JD's never made it that far before he gave
>up and traded them. He had a JD 425 that IN warranty cost him $700 dollars
>in repairs! He has never put that much money in ALL the Kabota's he has had
>in repairs. I am excluding regular service off course.
>Greg

That's pretty much my impression after talking to many people and
having owned JD mowers for the past 18 years.

--
To reply to me directly, remove the CLUTTER from my email address.

Posted by Eric Houkal on June 26, 2005, 9:10 am

On Sat, 25 Jun 2005 17:10:19 GMT, "David Martel"

>Iowa,
> MTD makes tractors for a lot of stores. You should have no trouble at all
>finding a 42" cut on sale for less than $1000. Second hand is even cheaper.
>MTD's are mediocre quality. Expect to replace the wheel bearings (plastic
>sleeves) every 4 yrs. The paint is not particularly durable. Parts are
>readily available and you'll easily get 10 yrs. service with routine
>maintenance and a few minor repairs.
>Dave M.

Obviously I can only go with my experience here, but I found them to
be absolute garbage. The deck spindles usually made it two years max,
there is no provision to grease anything which leads to rapid
deterioration of steering, lift mechanisms, pretty much anything that
moves. Parts are readily available, but not cheap- I found that after
about four years I had to spend enough in repairs to justify a new
tractor (the first was the under 1000 8HPx38" type) So I bought one of
their "better" ones- a two cylinder 17 HP X42", $1795 at Sam's Club.
Same exact tractor except for motor and deck size, same puny deck
spindles, etc. After the second season, it began eating drive belts at
thirty bucks a pop. When I checked into it, I found that the frame had
actually cracked where the drive axle mounted. Why did this happen
after two years? There were four mounting points for the axle, two
forward, to at the axle itself, only the two at the axle had been
installed, so every time the mower was put into motion the axle
twisted and eventually the metal failed. The forward bolts had never
been there, the paint was still unmarked, but MTD said too bad, not
our problem. That worked out to 800 dollars a year, I am pretty sure I
could have hired someone to do the lawn for that. Anyway, I welded up
the frame and properly fastened the axle, after two more years it
(again) needed deck spindles, and now the starter was shot, so I
junked the stupid thing and bought a Deere- haven't had to replace any
parts in four years, and I bought used- the tractor was built in the
70's!

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