Lawn tractor hours?
 

How many hours are to much for a used lawn tractor? I am looking at a used Simplicity, not sure of the year yet but looks like 6-8 years old with 455 hours on the meter. It has a 20hp Kolar Motor and everything looks very good except the condition of the seat. I just don't know how many hours are a lot on this type of higher end lawn tractors.

Thanks for any advise!

55-75 hours/year. If you mowed a big lawn twice a week from April 1 til the end of October, you'd be close to those numbers.

The Kohler 18 horse in my Craftsman lawn tractor has been doing roughly that for 11 years. The first seat cover fell apart after 3 years. A Simplicity is probably built better than my Craftsman.

The local John Deere lawn mower mechanic told me he thought 800-900 hours was about all you could expect before you would need repairs.

[QUOTE=fishingfever;1410949]The local John Deere lawn mower mechanic told me he thought 800-900 hours was about all you could expect before you would need repairs.[/QUOTE]

That was what I was wondering as far as hours. I have a little more info on the mower, it is a 95 to 99 model year and a 20hp Vanguard Motor not a Kohler like I posted earlier. If this motor holds up to aprox what your John Deer guy says then with 455 hours it should have some life left in her?

Thanks for the replys!

I work on a golf course (northern climate), and put 250 hours on most machines in a season, some pieces even more. While homeowner equipment is not built to "commercial" standards the same tune applies; How was the machine maintained? This question may be hard to quantify but a trip to a local mower shop may be prudent for a compression test or a crankcase leak down test. The weakest part of a lawn tractor is the front steering mechanism followed by the rear gear box, belts and deck idler pulleys and belts

LL,
One of the issues with the Vanguard motors, is that some of the earlier year motors had poorly designed air filters.

If the motor on this mower is of the design that had the poor air filter designs, the motor could be worn out in 100 hours.

As one of the other posts suggested, have a leak down test completed on each cylinder of the motor, as well as a compression test.

If the leak down test and compression test do not come out well, steer clear of the mower, unless you are willing to put in a new motor.

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The poorly designed air filter housings on some of these mowers allowed dirt to bypass the filter directly into the carb. As you can imagine, scrubbing dirt up and down the cylinders and seriously shorten the life of the motor.

Good luck
REW

The Vanguard is a respectable engine. 1200 -1500 hrs before any [U]internal[/U] repairs is not uncommon for a well maintained small commercial gasoline engine.
A compression test is a must before buying.

Apples and oranges I know, but my Kubota has 997 trouble free hours, diesel though, just changed oil today.

LL

I sell Simplicity, what model are you looking and year?

My John Deere 175 lawn tractor is 24 years old and has never needed a repair other then tires, new batteries and a couple new seat covers. Normal maintenance is the key. oil, oil filter and grease need to be done regularly.
I mow with it all summer and then change it over to the snow blower for winter, it gets used all year around.