[AT] OT- Gift Horse Lawn Mower

[Stephen Offiler]

Hi Warren:

I am not going to resort to Google on this one.  Instead I am going to tell
you what I think based on my experience with my ~2013 Gravely ZTR-48 with
24HP Kawasaki, bought new.  I think it has around 400 hours on it and
maintained basically by the book.

First of all, there are two kinds of zero-turn mowers.  The cheap
residential ones have a pressed-steel deck and non-servicable, permanently
sealed hydrostatic drives.  The better ones (still not commercial grade)
have decks welded together from thicker steel, and they have hydro units
with spin-on oil filters that you can service.

If yours is the cheaper version, the answer is zero.  You have
probably already put more into it than it is worth.

If it is the better version, I'd say the machine is now worth about $1000.
Add up the cost of parts, pay yourself a decent hourly wage, subtract from
$1000, THEN ask yourself what the friendship is worth.


Steve O.



On Tue, Aug 31, 2021 at 10:02 PM Mogrits <mogrits at gmail.com> wrote:

> I recently mentioned looking for a Zero Turn mower to a friend and he said
> he had one to spare. He said his wife wouldn't use it anymore so he "bought
> her a new one". That's an even funnier statement if you knew them. He said
> for me to take it, work on it, and pay him what I thought it was worth.
> Uggh.
>
> It's a 2011 Toro SS5000 Timecutter 50" cut with a Kawasaki 22hp engine.
>
> Drained and freshened the gasoline.
>
> Three of four tires were flat but will briefly hold air...a couple days
> anyway, after I plugged a rear. The rears are worn out and need
> replacement. The battery is weak but will hold a charge about a week. The
> deck belt was broken so a replacement was fitted to reveal a bad idler
> pulley (I should have known something broke the belt). So that was fitted
> only to reveal a bad spindle. Bought and replaced. So, mower deck problems
> solved.
>
> First use revealed it to be a NASCAR mower, only turning left strongly,
> and it wound up in our pond and had to be pulled out with a tractor! I
> stayed dry and only the front wheels got wet. So internet search revealed
> how to balance steering and I used all the adjustment to no avail then
> inspected and found a badly worn drive belt. I acquired and replaced that
> and lo and behold, I think if I undo my steering adjustments and figure out
> how to re-attach the foam pad piece to the steel bucket seat I may have a
> mower I can use.
>
> So I guess, after replacing a battery, two tires, deck belt, a spindle,
> tensioner pulley, drive belt, probable soon drive tensioner pulley and seat
> repairs my question is this...
>
> What would you pay this good friend for this neglected mower?
>
> Warren
> _______________________________________________
> AT mailing list
> AT at lists.antique-tractor.com
> http://lists.antique-tractor.com/listinfo.cgi/at-antique-tractor.com
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.antique-tractor.com/pipermail/at-antique-tractor.com/attachments/20210901/c81429a7/attachment.htm>