My mother is in need of a new lawn tractor, she lives on about 1 acre, nothing serious, but too much for her to push mow for sure. For the last 5 years she's used a mid-90's B&S powered MTD entry-level riding mower. She bought it used and it's lasted WAY longer than I thought it would. I've plugged and tubed tires on it and kept it running as best I could but it's getting to the point of not-worth-it. The steering is very loose, the deck is in rough shape and it's got carburetor issues now.
The lawn and garden dealer where she bought the old mower has a couple used Cub Cadet mowers for sale. In her price range they have a zero turn but I'm not even considering that as the 'dual transmission' design seems like it would be less than reliable. Up a few dollars from that they have two LT2042 tractors, both for the same price. One has a bagger but looks like it was repeatedly rammed into something, the other one has no bagger but is in much better shape. They're both shaft drive hydrostatic with a horizontal Kohler Command 18 v-twin engine. I've read good things about these engines, my only hangup is on the maintenance and reliability on the hydrostatic transmission.
Anyone had one of these or can shed light on what I should be looking for if I go look at this tractor this week?
The lawn and garden dealer where she bought the old mower has a couple used Cub Cadet mowers for sale. In her price range they have a zero turn but I'm not even considering that as the 'dual transmission' design seems like it would be less than reliable. Up a few dollars from that they have two LT2042 tractors, both for the same price. One has a bagger but looks like it was repeatedly rammed into something, the other one has no bagger but is in much better shape. They're both shaft drive hydrostatic with a horizontal Kohler Command 18 v-twin engine. I've read good things about these engines, my only hangup is on the maintenance and reliability on the hydrostatic transmission.
Anyone had one of these or can shed light on what I should be looking for if I go look at this tractor this week?