On 12/23/2011 7:56 AM, Dimitrios Paskoudniakis wrote:

"The Daring Dufas" wrote in message
...
On 12/22/2011 7:02 PM, willshak wrote:
dpb wrote the following:
On 12/22/2011 6:00 PM, Dimitrios Paskoudniakis wrote:
...

FWIW, after six years my hydrostatic drive crapped out. I just paid
about $500 to replace it.

FWIW, after 15 at least, (I forget just when it was purchased) the
hydrostatic drive is just fine here... (It is, of course, Genuine
Green as opposed to a box store imitation.)

My lesser box store (Agway) Murray built 18 hp hydrostatic garden
tractor is still going after 15 or so years too. It also is used year
round. Mowing though the grass growing months and snow-blowing through
the non-grass growing ones.


Maintenance and cleanliness of the lubrication system keeps all sorts
of equipment alive. What sort of maintenance do you perform on your
hydrostatic drive garden tractor? I'm guessing the 18 hp motor has an
oil filter, does the hydraulic system also have a filter?

TDD


My unit that lasted only six years was completely sealed. The tractor
manual instructed never to service it myself.

It is very difficult to remove and reinstall, but if removed, there is a
removable cap for the hydro fluid. You have to use a special fluid (per
their instructions, but I think a heavy weight oil will work) and
measure carefully. Only a thin stick will fit in the hole to measure the
fluid level, so I took a wooden chinese food chopstick and marked the
graduated lengths in pen.

My hydro unit is Peerless/Techumseh LTH2000, and after it failed, I
researched it and found this particular model to be notoriously
unreliable. Unfortunately the replacement is the same model. Hopefully
the newer one has reliability fixes in place. We'll see.

It didn't help that I used my lawn tractor for the six years towing
behind an aerator with heavy weights to get the tines to penetrate the
soil, and put a plow blade on the front to plow my driveway. Lessons
learned. I now have a snow blower for the driveway, and when aerating
will do so less often and with much less weight.

Sealed hydraulic units that I've serviced were filled with a silicone
oil having a very wide operating temperature range. The units rarely
leaked and the closest replacement for the factory fill I found was
silicone brake fluid from auto parts suppliers.

TDD