Talkin' Tractors

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Dad has a JD ZTR with a Yanmar in it. I blew out a driveshaft in it (didn't know they even had those until I did it). I've been begging him to give me the engine to drop in a Geo or something for a 100mpg vehicle like I saw on the Internet once. how cool would that be?
 
oldspark said:
Danno that sounds like an interesting project.
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Probably will never happen. Been sitting in the shed for 5 years or so with the new-in-box shaft sitting on the hood. He's already replaced the mower with a bigger one. It sits in the shed right next to the dead VW diesel Suzuki Samurai that he also refuses to give up, even though he has two other Samurais! That's been dead for about 5 years, too, just needs the head put back on it...
 
Batten,

How is that new place man? Are you in and settled?

I drive a Simplicity Broadmoor. http://www.simplicitymfg.com/products/lawn-tractors/broadmoor/ More money, worth every penny. I would do it again in a heartbeat. Probably do everything you need to do for under your budget. Automatic traction control in rear end! Hydraulics for up front. etc.

My next one will be one of these though. http://www.simplicitymfg.com/products/yard-and-garden-tractors/legacy-xl/ Check out all the capabilities.

Your federal credit union will finance at a good rate under recreational equipment. 4.5% or close to that. I would not suggest financing with the Yard Card, or whatever the financing is from the dealer. Do your own local financing. If you go with any new tractor and you finance.
 
I don't doubt that your simplicity is a good little yard tractor, but with 20hp and the k57 hydro it isn't up to the beating of mowing 4 acres and towing stuff on a regular basis.

Can you do it? Heck yeah. I beat the snot out of my LX188 that has a K61 if I remember correctly and it seems to be holding up.

There is just no way I'd drop that amount of cash on a new Simplicity. Now, those bigger garden tractors seem a little more capable, but their starting price scares me! I don't have much room to talk because I like JD, but you won't catch me buying a NeW JD anytime soon, either...
 
Danno, how do you figure out which hydros are in the machines and compare them? For instance how does an 855 compare with my F910?
 
SolarAndWood said:
Danno, how do you figure out which hydros are in the machines and compare them? For instance how does an 855 compare with my F910?
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Google or just go straight to tractordata.com

The 855 has the Sundstrand Series 17 hydrostatic, which I know nothing about. I'll google that in a second, the f910 has a Sundstrand in it, too but I need to look a little more to get the specific model on it.

Edit: I can't find much about your f910. My guess is that it has a similar transmission to the 300 series JDs from whenever yours was built. Probably a pretty good transmission, but I'm just not sure.
 
Gasifier said:
Batten,

How is that new place man? Are you in and settled?
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Oh, not even close. USDA is killing us with one "we need more information on..." thing after another. Each time it sets us back another week. The credit union told us they haven't done a USDA backed loan yet (seems pretty hard to believe), but we just assumed they'd get all their ducks in a row so we could do the same.

For example, during the inspection period (many weeks ago) we paid for all of the recommended inspections. Septic and water quality were high on our priority list, so we had the septic pumped and inspected and the water quality tested. Results were submitted to the bank and we felt we were good to go. Well, about two weeks later we find out that USDA wants to know the distance between the well head and the septic system. Now, if we knew that when the thing was serviced, we could have paid to have the leach field scoped. After the fact, they would have to come back out and dig the thing up again at our expense... $275. That would almost double the cost to us.

So, we had the realtor call the town office and get the original engineered plan. Turns out the only woman who could provide us with this info was out on vacation. When she came back we got the plan and submitted it and we thought we were good to go.


Oh, no. Now they needed three more bits of info. We needed a certificate of potability of water (yes, we submitted this before but USDA wanted it from the testing lab itself). They also wanted other financial info, like a signed and notarized statement of earnings.

Yup, two years of tax returns and bank statements weren't enough, they need us to swear on papar that we have no other income. This ran us into the weekend, so we lost another week.

This morning, we get an e-mail that USDA needs proof of rental at our current place, and proof of repayment on my wife's student loans. That's right, two years of rent receipts weren't enough, they had to hear it directly from the landlord. So they means the application won't get submitted until at least Monday.

I'm getting the sneaking feeling that USDA is stalling on this whole thing until after the first of the year for budget reasons and to prevent us from claiming deduction on this year's tax return. Problem is, we were supposed to be out of here by Nov. 30. The landlord here is breathing down our necks and we may be forced to move all our stuff - about two 26' trucks worth - into storage for a lousy couple weeks and the move it all into the new house after we close. Plus, spend the holidays in a motel room.

We were initially very excited to have the kids and grandkids in our new home for Christmas. My wife is pretty distraught. We haven't bought a single gift for the grandkids yet because we don't even know where to put the stuff. Plus, it is not too likely that we will get the help we were counting on if we have to move around the holidays. Can't expect folks to drop their holiday plans to come help lil' ol' us.

So, anyway, keep it coming guys, I am reading it all. But I ain't pulling the trigger on anything until I have my fat fist wrapped tight around those keys.
 
That's a bummer but I am sure it will work out BK, if you lived closer I could help over the holidays, tell the wife to hang in there, next christmas you will be laughing about it (or not). :)
 
Sorry about all the hassles. I hope things work out. I'll watching. My '68 IH Cub Cadet 125 is serious overkill for my 1/4 acre, but would probably com up short for you. I'll just live vicariously through you as you move to your acreage and shop for a bigger, faster, better tractor.
 
Flatbedford said:
Sorry about all the hassles. I hope things work out. I'll watching. My '68 IH Cub Cadet 125 is serious overkill for my 1/4 acre, but would probably com up short for you. I'll just live vicariously through you as you move to your acreage and shop for a bigger, faster, better tractor.
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I used to have an old Wheel Horse on loan from my FIL when we moved here over 20 years ago. One day I went to the shed and it was gone. Turns out the old geezer needed it to trade in on a new Cub Cadet he was buying. Pissed me right the ef off, taking it back without telling me. He got a whopping $150 in trade for it. I would have paid double just to keep it. It did the job OK here, but I only mow about an acre here. Since then it's been a two-hour run behind the self-propelled Honda... twice a week in the spring. Man, that quack grass grows fast in the early season. :sick:
 
Batten,

One of my big things with anything I buy now is service. I want the back up of a place that will service anything I buy with people who are knowledgeable and can fix anything I bring to them. That is just one reason I went with a Simplicity. A local business around here has three places and is getting ready to add another right in my area. (The store they have and I have been buying things from over the last five years is 20 miles away.) Before I bought a new, larger lawn mower/tractor from a big box store with no service, I would buy a tractor from a local company that can service it for you if you have any problems. We have a place called The Wood Chop Shop. They sell several manufacturers lawn mowers, tractors, chain saws, wood splitters, weed eaters, UTVs, Zero Turn movers, generators, etc. etc. etc. and they service all of it. A full mechanical shop to do all the work. Very cool place. Something for you to think about as well. All I have had done to my mower is oil change and sharpen the blades.

As far as the Simplicity doing the job. The size and model all depends on how much of that property you decide to mow. Do you need to mow all of it? If you do I would suggest the larger Simplicity. You can get three size decks with them, I think they are 46,54, and 60" if I remember right. From what I have seen, if you want to stay under five thousand dollars, I would buy a used Simplicity Legacy that is a couple of years old before I would buy a larger brand new model of some of the other brands. You could find a two wheel drive one of those if you don't need four wheel drive. Just look at the manufacturing/construction of them. Solid cast iron axles, hydraulic driven drivetrain, automatic traction control in the rear, and so on. Very nice. They have one pedal for going forward, and one pedal for going in reverse. The more/less you press the pedal the faster/slower they go. So easy to control them precisely. And if you have a lot of straight mowing you can just lock it in the speed you want and mow away. It will last you a very long time if you simply take care of it with regular preventative maintenance.

Anyway, check them out, do your own research of course, as I am sure you will. Just wanted to share what I have learned with you. The Simplicitys are a great machine. The quality is outstanding compared to some of the others. Most of them are made elsewhere now.
 
Is that the exact same as this or is it just me?
http://www.simpletractors.com/deutz/1920_&_1918.htm

And the transmission is a Sundstrand 15, where as the 855 posted earlier is the Sundstrand 17. What's that mean? I dunno, but 17 is a bigger number than 15, so it's got to be better, right? LoL.
 
The simple city mowers are highly sought after for their striping but those that are into lawns in a big way.

If speed is paramount, how about towing an offset mower to double the coverage?
 
Gasifier, Is this what you are talking about?

:lol: No, that is a really older one. How about something like this.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2007-SIMPLI...732?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item415ac35804

The used ones are hard to come buy because when people buy them they don't sell them very often and they last a long time! :lol:

You can find them though. Tractorhouse, fastline, etc. Or at a Simplicity dealership that just took one in on trade! Helllloooooo. :lol:

I am often a smart ass in some of my responses. Just in fun of course. What comes around goes around I guess. :lol:
 
OK... what would work at the lower end? Just for mowing. The current owners have been using a JD LA145. It looks to be in good shape. I thought of asking what they want for it, but since they want to sell me three ton of pellets at retail price, I don't think there's any bargains to be had from them. Is this a total POS or can something like this ($2K new) work for mowing. That would allow me to shop around for a nice old farm tractor with a loader when one comes along cheap. After reading all the pros and cons, I really think the best thing for me may be two machines.
 
Battenkiller said:
OK... what would work at the lower end? Just for mowing. The current owners have been using a JD LA145. It looks to be in good shape. I thought of asking what they want for it, but since they want to sell me three ton of pellets at retail price, I don't think there's any bargains to be had from them. Is this a total POS or can something like this ($2K new) work for mowing. That would allow me to shop around for a nice old farm tractor with a loader when one comes along cheap. After reading all the pros and cons, I really think the best thing for me may be two machines.
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I like them for a nice smooth lawnmower, but ony for mowing and don't beat the hydro on it. I think I'd rather spend my money on a 5 year old upper end craftsman than a new lower end JD, but those LA series mowers sure do look pretty sitting at Lowes. Just not sure I'm sold on the idea.
Anybody know what a used Craftsman GT5000/6000 goes for?
 
For what you'd probably pay for his JD lawn mower you could pick up a pre '81 IH Cub Cadet garden tractor. You'll get a bullet proof hydro drivetrain and Kohler engine. The later ones even have hydraulic lift, 3 point hitches and can run a front end loader.
 
Battenkiller said:
SolarAndWood said:
or a diesel Ford with a bunch of attachments

http://albany.craigslist.org/grd/2745829907.html
Click to expand...

Hell, that looks nice! And I could could practically drive it to the new place from Charlton (still truckless).
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Not sure about that model but some of those fords were considered bullet proof and most any thing you read about them is positive. 895 hours and all those attachments I think that is one hell of a deal.
 
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