Husqvarna TS354XD questions

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somedude88

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I am looking for a decent garden tractor that i might occasionally drag a old Brinly moldboard plow behind. Many years ago i had a Wheel Horse Charger 12 i used to pull the Brinly with but the Wheel Horse is gone now.

I was originally looking at the John Deere X590 and was shocked at the price. Then i accidentally came across the Husqvarna TS354XD and the more i looked into it the more i realized it seemed to use the same engine and transmission as the John Deere X590 at a fraction of the cost.

I have seen some things about frames bending and breaking and im not sure if these issues have been fixed. I did come across the guy who beefed up a frame after bending it and thats why i made an account here. I can weld and fabricate metal so i could do the same but i would prefer not to. I am just trying to get an idea if these Husqvarna TS354XD tractors are a hidden gem or should be avoided.



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The x590 is a solid rig. My dad bought one and I bought the x570. They certainly raised the price up a lot over what they were when we bought them.

If I were you I’d buy an 70s garden tractor to pull your plow and a newer tractor to mow with! So many good options in the older tractor market. You could easily get both and still be cheaper than the 5 grand for that lowes tractor.

Just one guys opinion.
 
Toomanytoys84 said:
If I were you I’d buy an 70s garden tractor to pull your plow and a newer tractor to mow with!
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I mow with a Cub Cadet 2135 it's getting old and i thought about replacing it with a do it all tractor. Especially if it had a well built transmission and reliable engine. I haven't pulled the Brinly in many years just thought it would be nice to be able to do it. But if mowing with a Garden Tractor is a bad idea i will start looking at mowers. I dont need to pull the Brinly that badly and certainly not at John Deere prices. Thanks.
 
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somedude88 said:
I mow with a Cub Cadet 2135 it's getting old and i thought about replacing it with a do it all tractor. Especially if it had a well built transmission and reliable engine. I haven't pulled the Brinly in many years just thought it would be nice to be able to do it. But if mowing with a Garden Tractor is a bad idea i will start looking at mowers. I dont need to pull the Brinly that badly and certainly not at John Deere prices. Thanks.
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I mow with my garden tractor.

But my point was more of if you don’t want to pay the cash for a new garden tractor buy two tractors and keep one for pulling a plow and one for cutting grass. Or build up a nice old GT and do double duty. We cut grass with a 74 cub 128 from 91 to 2018! Still runs and cuts perfect but was replaced with the X590.

If you don’t need to pull the plow then buy a nice lawn tractor. How much grass are you cutting? Grades? Hills? Do you want to pull a heavy loaded wagon?

Most of the lower end tractors have sealed hydro units that are doomed to fail in several years if you are mowing on a hill or doing any kind of heavy work with them. The tractor you linked is a K66 and is serviceable but it’s border line strong enough for garden tractor duty, but much better than any k46, or even the k5x line for lawn tractor duties.

I decided when I wanted to buy a new tractor I wanted a certain set of specs. I did hours of research into transaxles. I decided I wouldn’t take anything smaller than a K72. That was the cheapest axle that I didn’t read page of page of google results listing failures. The K72 and Kawasaki seemed to be the play for me.

I believe in buy once, cry once. I paid way more for my X570 than I wanted to but it’s now 5 years old, runs perfect, looks like new and I am planning on decades of service from it.

Spring is coming JD usually has rebates and sales this time of year.
 
I only mow about an acre i occasionally pull a light trailer to pick up sticks and sometimes move a 5x10 trailer so i can mow under it. My yard does have hills and ditches so a zero turn is not even an option. My Cub Cadet 2135 has worked great for years it would be nice if it had a locker to make getting up the hills easier when damp. But over all it's been a great mower but it;s over 25 years old and getting less reliable. I just want something i dont have to chase down problems on and i can just go mow. I have no desire to rebuild a old lawn mower and thats why i sold the Wheel Horse to someone that did. I have too many projects to even want to deal with messing with a lawn mower on top of it.
 
Looks like i should be looking for something like the Cub Cadet XT2 LX42. I prefer the horizontal shaft kohler engines i have always had very good luck with them. I have never owned a vertical shaft i wonder if they are as reliable. Maybe i will make a thread about it in a lawn mower area of the forum.

Cub Cadet XT2 LX42 Lawn Tractor | Cub Cadet US

Read reviews and learn more about the Cub Cadet XT2 LX42. Choose Dealer Delivery or Pick-up. Financing Available.
www.cubcadet.com www.cubcadet.com
 
somedude88 said:
oh and also i liked the fabricated deck on the Husqvarna TS354XD. I had the deck on my 2135 rot out and i had to find a new deck for it. Thats the one thing that i hate about my 2135 the deck is not very well made and rusts out easy. I figured i would get longer life out of a fabricated deck.
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Its not only modern use of thinner materials but also that most metal these days has rust in it from the factory. Chinese steel and maybe other metals is a mix of new ore and old scraps. The rust is not removed before the scrap is melted to make new metal. The end result may be cheaper to produce steel but also inferior metals that already have a disposition to rust from day 1.
 
somedude88 said:
Toomanytoys84 said:
Keep in mind that K46 is a sealed non serviceable unit!
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Looks like i should be looking for something like the Cub Cadet XT2 LX42. I prefer the horizontal shaft kohler engines i have always had very good luck with them. I have never owned a vertical shaft i wonder if they are as reliable. Maybe i will make a thread about it in a lawn mower area of the forum.

Cub Cadet XT2 LX42 Lawn Tractor | Cub Cadet US

Read reviews and learn more about the Cub Cadet XT2 LX42. Choose Dealer Delivery or Pick-up. Financing Available.
www.cubcadet.com www.cubcadet.com
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I would be looking for a pk 1614, jd 316, 318, or a international cub cadet. The older machines are built tougher and are more capable. In my opinion, the only thing a post 90's machine may have going for it is that its newer, but thats not always a good thing. I have a pk with a 48" deck and 54" plow. It handles both with no problem. My jd 316 is newer to me but it has hydros and can be easily equipped for any chores
 
Toomanytoys84 said:
Keep in mind that K46 is a sealed non serviceable unit!
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Even if the trans is " non serviceable ", it usually is serviceable if you know what you're doing. For example, changing fluid on a "non serviceable " unit takes more time as you need to use the trans vent ports as there are no fill or drain holes. I belive that the " non serviceable " design was only created to make the manufacturer more money. I personally serviced a couple of trans that jd said were non serviceable and my only option was replacement. The difference is the service cost me $50 and 2 days time, where the replacement unit would cost $1500.
 
ericforster said:
Even if the trans is " non serviceable ", it usually is serviceable if you know what you're doing. For example, changing fluid on a "non serviceable " unit takes more time as you need to use the trans vent ports as there are no fill or drain holes. I belive that the " non serviceable " design was only created to make the manufacturer more money. I personally serviced a couple of trans that jd said were non serviceable and my only option was replacement. The difference is the service cost me $50 and 2 days time, where the replacement unit would cost $1500.
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I don’t disagree that it is serviceable if you jump through hoops of removing the transaxle from the machine and turning it upside down over a coffee can for 2 days to drain it. If you did this every 2 years I bet that transaxle would last forever.

Average Joe tractor owner isn’t capable of changing a spark plug or their own oil. Let alone pulling the entire rear of the tractor apart.

Not saying this is OP but it’s a large portion of lawn tractor owners. I bought a cub cadet that’s a great tractor. That used to mean something. Nowadays not really. Deere sub x5 series are still throw always. The x3 series with the top 2 models at least can be serviced properly.

I see tractors for sale every day. cub, husqvarna, deeres, mtd. For sale on Facebook marketplace. Runs great, won’t move. All K46 tractors 4 to 6 years old.

I service my K72 every summer. It sees a lot of long hot mowing sessions all summer long. I want this thing to last for a long time!
 
olcowhand said:
The better hydro units have bolt on rims. The slide on keyed rim units just aren't tough enough. Bolt on rim hydro units have larger diameter axles and heavier duty bearings instead of often just bushings on keyed axle units.
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Yeah i definitely want bolt on wheels. I have a garden tiller with key way wheels and the wheels have rusted to the shaft and they will not come off which makes fixing a flat a real pain. Although my lawnmower is garaged i dont just like dealing with rusted parts.

I am not a John Deere fan but i went to their website to look at mowers and seems like the only mower in the X300 series that has bolt on wheels is the 4 wheel steer models.

I also dont like how they list all of their engines as being John Deere when i think they are made by other companies such as Kawasaki. Just makes figuring out what engine is actually on it harder.
 
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ericforster said:
Its not only modern use of thinner materials but also that most metal these days has rust in it from the factory. Chinese steel and maybe other metals is a mix of new ore and old scraps. The rust is not removed before the scrap is melted to make new metal. The end result may be cheaper to produce steel but also inferior metals that already have a disposition to rust from day 1.
Click to expand...
Ok let us understand a little about making steel. All steel in mostly made of pig iron and scrap steel that may have rust on it. After it is melted it has oxygen blown into it to burn off the carbon. Then there are 2 ways to roll out the steel and those are hot rolled and cold rolled. The only way you get rust in the metal is to let set out and. I have worked in a steel foundry for 29 years that includes machining and maintance.
 
SimplyRad said:
Ok let us understand a little about making steel. All steel in mostly made of pig iron and scrap steel that may have rust on it. After it is melted it has oxygen blown into it to burn off the carbon. Then there are 2 ways to roll out the steel and those are hot rolled and cold rolled. The only way you get rust in the metal is to let set out and. I have worked in a steel foundry for 29 years that includes machining and maintance.
Click to expand...

Interesting stuff. I do have a question maybe you could answer. I’ve been cutting thicker plate 3/4” plus with a torch. You are cutting along perfectly fine and you’ll hit a spot that just blows out. Typically marble sizes to the like a shooter marble size. Almost like there was a large pocket of impurities in it. What causes this? It’s pretty annoying when you are trying to make a nice cut.
 
If things like carbide tools get into the steel they do not melt at the temps for melting steel. If the steel has been tempered in can have hard spots. The only thick I ever cut with a torch was molding flask. I have seen where someone was cutting a mill roll and run into a piece of carbide and it will bust the tool.
 
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