Lawn tractor (was)Re: [AT] Lonesome Moe

[Larry D. Goss]

Interesting.  If you take the hood off any of the MTD riders, underneath
you'll find there are only a half dozen or so different tractors that
come in a couple hundred disguises.  For a considerable number of
mechanical parts, the only differences are in the last three digits of
the part numbers -- the paint color code!

I had phenomenal luck at the consignment sale this weekend.  I got rid
of all sorts of stuff that was just taking up space in the barn.  I'm
going to end up making more money at this show than I spent.  That
doesn't happen all that often.

Larry  

-----Original Message-----
From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of Robinson
Sent: Saturday, June 12, 2004 5:43 AM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Lawn tractor (was)Re: [AT] Lonesome Moe

Larry D. Goss wrote:


> What did you buy in the way of a lawn tractor?  You probably could
make
> use of the Cub Cadet 1000 that I have for sale.
> 
> Larry




	I broke all of the rules Larry...   :-)   I bought a Yard 
Man built by MTD. Back when I had the small engine shop and 
worked on a lot of the old MTD's I swore I would never own 
one of those pieces of crap.   :-)   In later years I had 
noticed that it looked like they were better built than 
before. I had a notion for some time about just buying a low 
cost lawn tractor (usually sold for $999.) and keeping it 
mice and clean and waxed and then buying a new one in the 
fall sales and selling the old one in the following spring 
rush for about $300 less than new price. When you mow as 
much grass as I do it is pretty easy to go through $300 to 
$400 a year in maintenance cost over a period of years just 
in belts, batteries, parts and engine overhaul/replacement. 
I thought that after many years of buying older name brand 
tractors and patching them for "several" years that it would 
be nice to start each spring with a new engine, belts, 
battery and "the works".
	When I started looking I decided the minimum lawn tractor 
that would suit me was this $1300 20 HP 2 cylinder Briggs 
powered Yard Man (green and yellow bug eyed beast). 42" 
deck, bigger tires, cast iron front axle, oil filter and the 
clincher for me was easy to get off and on. It has a clear 
open low floor in front of the seat that is fully step 
through. Kind of reminds me of the old motor scooters.   :-) 
   That was one of the things I hated most about the old 
Wheel Horse hydrostatic. The parking brake/belt tensioner 
handle was on the already high center hump and a pain to get 
my leg over. I climbed on and off of several different ones 
and the open low platform won out big time.
	We have been mowing with it very heavy all spring (we have 
hogged down fescue taller than the hood on the tractor) and 
I really love the thing. Guess what? MTD has grown up a lot. 
At first I was a little skeptical about not having the 
hydrostatic but this one has a variable speed drive 
controlled by a foot pedal that I like very well. You cam 
also set your speed with the pedal and lock it at that speed 
with a dash button. A touch to the pedal or to the brake 
releases it. I have found it solid, comfortable and pleasant 
to use. If it has one fault it is also part of a good thing. 
The blades sit up above the lower edge of the deck enough 
that if you do mow extremely tall stuff (over a foot) it 
tends to slide over some of it and it pops up behind you. A 
few passes take care of it. The up side is that if you 
encounter a big mole hill or crawdad tower it just pushes it 
aside and does not feed it through the blades. As long as 
you keep grass shorter than 6 to 8 inches it does a very 
nice clean job of cutting. It is a very good $1300 lawn 
tractor. It is not a ground engaging garden tractor by any 
stretch nor is it equal to many $7000 mowing rigs on the 
market but for the money I am very happy and will likely buy 
another new one this fall when the sales hit.
-- 



"farmer"

My latest list "No Nonsense Horse" (includes donkeys & mules).
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NoNonsenseHorse/



Francis Robinson
Central Indiana USA
robinson at svs.net


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