Beware of Husqvarna Garden Tractors, Part 4: Front Scoop "Capable"?

To me, and from what I've seen of them, all the Husqvarna "tractors" are junk.
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Well I must say I feel better after that statement........ ha ha

Maybe I should hold on to my variable pulley MTD, as a back up. It does have a new engine with 110 hrs on it. That way I can beef up the frame, because I think I will be trying to put on a Johnny Bucket JR at some point.

How much force is required to bend the frame I wonder?
 
There is a reason that Husky shut down their outdoor power division. I would find a a place that would take it one trade for another branded tractor. That may be hard to do as the dealers know the value has dropped out the bottom on them, at least around here.
 
Which is why I spent $300 just on the machine work (plus nos OEM parts) to rebuild the k301 on my cub cadet 129.....
I surprised the hell out of a couple of my younger neighbors with that tractor when I first got it and mowed their knee high yard with it with a lot less trouble than they had trying to get thru the same hayfield with their newer POS. They used to complain about all my old junk. Until I showed them what old junk can do compared to the toilet paper consistency newer machines, can't.
 
dodge trucker said:
Which is why I spent $300 just on the machine work (plus nos OEM parts) to rebuild the k301 on my cub cadet 129.....
I surprised the hell out of a couple of my younger neighbors with that tractor when I first got it and mowed their knee high yard with it with a lot less trouble than they had trying to get thru the same hayfield with their newer POS. They used to complain about all my old junk. Until I showed them what old junk can do compared to the toilet paper consistency newer machines, can't.
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Sounds similar to what I ran into about five years ago. My one cousins mower broke down and he didn't mow his yard for two years. One neighbor tried with his new Cub Cadet, went six feet and died. Another neighbor tried with his new John Deere, same thing. I showed up with my 78 JD 316 and was done with his yard in about a hour and a half.
 
chieffan said:
There is a reason that Husky shut down their outdoor power division. I would find a a place that would take it one trade for another branded tractor. That may be hard to do as the dealers know the value has dropped out the bottom on them, at least around here.
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I didn't know that they did.
I know that some of the newer ariens mowers are actually Husqvarna built.
For only my own yard I don't even need a tractor.
I like playing around with them though.
Actually that old 3 wheel swisher was about the best ride on mower I have had for the yard I have.either that one or the 44" woods/grasshopper. That was absolutely the biggest ride on that I can conceivably maneuver here. Only took me 15 minutes to mow with that thing.
I have really taken a liking to this commercial 32" bobcat walk behind.
It drives me nuts watching people that think they need a 54" ride on tractor for 1/4-1/3 acre.

I have had a few riders here that I have tried, that take me longer to mow riding than it takes me to mow by pushing a 22" push mower (not even self propelled) I can push mow my while yard start to finish in 45 minutes with the hi wheel 22" push mower.

I won't willingly give up my 4 foot snow blower on my tractor though for the cold months.
 
Well maybe me using this for grass cutting and not doing much heavy work is wise...... I sent an email to Husqvarna about the difference between the TS354D and TS354XD is. Don't know if the frame is any better than the D model. I know I'll be doing possible yearly, maybe 50hr fluid change intervals on the Tuff Torque K66.
 
I will be maintaing the Tuff Torque K66 to the hilt........ I'm thinking of doing a change out of the trans fluid probably once a year. I'll still work it fairly hard I think. I see on the Tuff Torque site the K66 is near the top in residential mowers. So I know it is not super heavy duty.

Funny thing is I have been mowing about 1.5 acres of lawn that is fairly hilly in some areas. This using a cheap old school 2004 year Ryobi/MTD. Single cylinder Briggs Intek. Bought it used in 2017. Pulled the Transaxle apart to clean and grease it. Fixed head gasket. Ran fairly well for 3 years. Then went down a hill one day and heard a clanky sound. Time to pull apart and found compression release had been apart for some time, and got caught between connecting rod and case.
The cheap little MTD got me from a walk behind self propelled mower 8hrs ish, to about 2.5-3 hrs on the MTD. Bought the MTD for $200 and put work/parts into it to keep it working

Bought a new motor and have been mowing with new engine for 3 years. Just adjusted lash on valves and it is running well. We had 2 large maples, and a cedar tree cut down in 2016. I used the MTD with a trailer, sometimes piece of plywood I pulled to haul tree rounds to different areas of the yard. I'm pretty impressed because a lot of that wood was in hilly areas, or had to be pulled thru hilly areas.

The original trans let loose of one of the axles a couple months back. I put on another used trans I had pulled apart and lubed up to replace it. Been working well for the last couple of months. I was going to sell it to simplify, but I might be tearing apart the Husqvarna to reinforce the frame at some point. So I might need a spare to mow while the Husqvarna is apart.
Then again collecting project tractors seems to be an addiction that is acceptable in this forum......... ;)
 
I have worked as an auto mechanic/now marine mechanic. If I could have afforded it, I would have bought something more heavy duty than the TS354XD.
This new mower is a semi-retirement gift to myself. I’ll be leaving my job in Sept of this year. But I will make it work the best I can.

I hope to learn what I can from you guys on this site.

Thanks for your thoughts
 
I'll say one thing. Sitting on the seat, and reaching the left clutch/brake pedal is not working great. I'm 5' 8", but have Fred Flintstone legs.....on the shorter side. I realized I can barely reach the pedal. The hardware for the seat is different than the manual.

Also the manual shows 4 slots for sliding the seat fore and aft on the seat base. Mine has 3 slots, but has holes at where one of the slots should be? Then what is the point of making the seat able to slide? I cut a slot between 2 of the holes. But the seat is still not far enough forward for my leg to reach the pedal well. I realized the slots on the rear thumb slider bolts have room to still slide the seat forward a little more. But the forward slots bottom on the front bolts first. So I ground the slots longer on the front 2 to allow seat to pull forward some more. I got maybe 3/8” more.

I also tried shortening the rear snubbers at the back of the seat, and tried dropping the seat height down some. I drilled 2 lower holes on the seat pivot bracket at the front. But then when sitting in the seat the sides of the seat start laying on the fenders. The manual shows upper and lower holes on the front bracket already drilled for 2 different heights.

The seat is still a little far back, but I wrapped an old knee pad around the rubber grommet of the brake/clutch pedal to help with my reach. I think with boots on it will be OK. I guess this seat/pedal arrangement is made for bigger guys with longer legs. Glad I'm not shorter.....

I still have to make sure none of the blades got tweaked on the deck. When I signed for the Fed Ex delivery everything looked perfect on the crate. But I did not notice that somebody popped a 2x2 piece up with the forklift. The nails were pulled out in about 4-5 places, but the ends were still attached to the pallet.

So the wood was touching near the blade/spindle bolt. I got the belt loose and will be looking to make sure the blades/spindles are OK. I also have to check the deck adjustments. I dropped the deck anti scalp wheels from the top hole to the bottom holes. Otherwise I'll be sharpening my blades every mowing.

I am putting an hour meter/rpm meter on the dash near the existing gauges. I want to be able to see the rpm when running the motor. Looks like the Kawasaki engine is rated for 3600 rpm. I like to verify that myself.

I realize I need 91 octane gas for the Kawasaki engine according to the manual. I guess I'll put the gas I have in fuel cans, and pour them in my car. I think that gas is 87. Probably a good idea to stick with what Kawasaki says.
 
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Husqvarna never answered my question in an E-mail about the differences between the TS354XD, and TS354D. They don't have many options to talk to the tech dept. I tried chat with the same question, and they told me it was different size Kholer engines. I said that I believe that they are powered by Kawasaki engines now........
 
I hear you guys talk about the GT. I take it Husqavarna made Craftsman models for Craftsman. So is the frame on the GTs better than the new TS 354D or XDs?
I'm all over getting a Johnny Bucket Jr at some point. Gotta recover from the mower purchase first though......
 
Technautic61 said:
I hear you guys talk about the GT. I take it Husqavarna made Craftsman models for Craftsman. So is the frame on the GTs better than the new TS 354D or XDs?
I'm all over getting a Johnny Bucket Jr at some point. Gotta recover from the mower purchase first though......
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When everyone is talking about a GT they're referring to the older 1960's, 70's , 80's models.
Built much differently then.
 
4getgto said:
When everyone is talking about a GT they're referring to the older 1960's, 70's , 80's models.
Built much differently then.
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The GTs that were made in the 70s&80s, the ones with real quality, would be way too expensive to recreate now days. I'm afraid the ones that are available today will soon follow suit. In any case, we will soon be forced to buy electric ones. The only alternative will be to rebuild any old one if you can even find them. I'm not finding much in my area like I could ten years ago.
 
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Technautic61 said:
So the ones I have seen in ads look like they are from 90s to early 2000s. Who makes them, or what brand are they?
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Not sure of all the manufacturers or who made what but in reality none are that bad if you use them as they intended to be. The days of attaching implements to the back of today's lawn tractors are pretty much over.
The Scut size tractors made today is what people want now and they take over where the older garden tractors left off.
And honestly the Scut size tractors do it much much better.
 
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