Are the cheaper John Deere lawn tractors any good?

[midnightventure]

A friend has a 2 year old John Deere L140 for sale. It has a snow blade and chains with it. When he told me about it I was really wanting it but I decided I had better research it first. It has a Briggs 23 horse 2 cylinder motor. When I started looking for reviews on the web all I found were complaints. But then somebody looking at this forum might think the Venture was a terrible motorcycle when it is not. Who has personal experience with this tractor and what do you think. How old and how many hours?

[RedRider]

What are you looking to do? Mow a couple of acres, do some light snow plowing? Or, mow 25 acres weekly, add a rotortiller, etc.?

 

I have one of the cheaper JD Sabre lawn tractors with a 20 HP Briggs engine. I believe the L140 replaced the Sabre line a few years ago.

 

Overall, I have been very pleased with it. I mow 3 acres about every other week. Periodically, pull a garden trailer with fire wood and stuff. Other than my daughter hitting a post and bending/braking some body work, it has been very reliable.

 

The Briggs engine is a real workhorse (built in WI). Should be good for a lot of years.

 

RR

[Gary N.]

Most of the cheaper line of lawn tractors are made by the same company (MTD) and painted what ever colour the customer orders (John Deere Green). If you look at other brands in the same price range you'll find that they are very similar with maybe a different hood and paint job. Even a lot of the bigger tractors are now made off shore and painted to look like their brand.

Buyer beware, you get what you pay for. Or in the case of John Deere, you pay extra for the name and the green paint but don't get the quality that you might expect due to the cheaper line of equipment. They are doing the same thing now with generators and power washers too.

Decide what you need the equipment to do, look at the specs and compare apples to apples.

[barend]

Agreed with the previous answers! John Deere lowered their quality standards to compete with cheaper brands. A good dealer will tell you this too. And yes, it is basically an MTD.

Depending how you are going to use it, consider a small commercial mower, welded deck (at least 4inch deep) and a Kohler or Kawasaki engine with the air intake on top of the engine. A rider is faster, but bad for the back; a walk behind needs a dual hydro drive and is slower (belt drive even more so); standers are probably a good compromise for homeowners but you need to remember that neither walk behinds nor standers give you much in the form of accessories (though there are some). Push mowers provide great exercise and if you have a small(er) lot, probably the way to go. Depending how anal you are about your grass, the slower the better, narrow is better then wider, high blade speed with a large aggressive wing, large discharge. Mulching mowers suck when the grass is wet and/or too long. Consider what your lawn areas look like, lots of isolated trees, small beds, "yard art", steep banks/deep ditches all affect how efficient your "new" mower will be; i.e. I have some properties I can do faster with my smaller mower then I can with my 60 inch. Lastly, before I shut up, buy your equipment for the job it is intended to do, a L140 with a blade is about as efficient as a horse in front of a 16 foot harrow

 

give me a shout if you want more unsolicited advise, I do this for a living

Edited December 17, 2009 by barend
added comment

[eazyduzzit]

I had a Scott's brand that Home Depot sold, and never had any problems with it. I mowed a very rough acre every week, and used it to pull a 4X8 trailer loaded with mulch. Scott's was the same as the John Deere Sabre.

John Deere dealers will tell you they're not very good, but I liked mine. My mother bought one of the L140s and she also mows an acre every week. They have made some improvements to them since I had mine, and she likes it a lot.

I read a consumer report on the home owner grade of riding mowers, and the John Deere came out on top.

[Mike G in SC]

Some notes I took today while talking to a mower pro (engineer):

 

140, Low end JD.

Probably made in Greenville SC. Which only makes JD, cheap machines demanded by big box stores.

Factory was set up to compete with Husqvarna of Orangeburg SC, which makes several brands including big box Husq and Sears Craftsman.

 

Cut corners anywhere and everywhere they can. (Made to make it through warranty period.)

Big Box machine, but had to also be offered by JD dealers (who will likely then bait & switch you to a serious JD).

Lot's of Chinese parts inside. (Same for the Husq factory & Sears now too,,,, for sure.)

If you pay $1500 for a lawn tractor, you get a $1500 machine, no matter the color.

 

He didn't say don't buy, just, like said above, be aware what you are buying.

 

Mike G in SC

[flb_78]

I work for a John Deere dealer, but Im not familiar enough with the lawn mowers to give an educated answer.

 

The only real advantage I see is that the Deere dealer will actually be able to perform warranty service unlike buying 1 from Home Depot or WalMart.

[barend]

I work for a John Deere dealer, but Im not familiar enough with the lawn mowers to give an educated answer.

 

The only real advantage I see is that the Deere dealer will actually be able to perform warranty service unlike buying 1 from Home Depot or WalMart.

Big box stores use a contracted service to do all their repairs though you should be able to go to a dealer as well and get the warranty work done. The guy they have up here doing this is about as worthless as t1ts on a boar. half the time they just return it without fixing.

[eusa1]

if it is a true jd it will have a yellow deck

if its a cheap knock off from the big box store, the deck will be black

 

there is a difference in the quality, but there is a huge difference in the price too.

 

best answer was from r.r. depends on the amount of use that it will get.