On Sat, 24 Dec 2011 10:07:00 -0500, Tony Miklos
wrote:

On 12/24/2011 12:05 AM, wrote:
On Fri, 23 Dec 2011 16:10:07 +0000 (UTC), Jules Richardson
wrote:

On Thu, 22 Dec 2011 13:34:40 -0800, dennisgauge wrote:

On Dec 22, 4:05 pm, Jules
wrote:
Does hydraulic drive on a lawn tractor typically sap more of the
engine's power to operate than good a old-fashioned setup (belt-driven
conical clutch and reversing gear in the diff)? Or are they pretty
much comparable?

Yes, it does, but hydrostatic drive mowers typically come equipped with
more powerful engines to compensate for the additional load.

Aha, OK - thanks, I had a feeling that might be the case.

I've got a line on a Snapper mower with hydro drive; apparently it smokes
and sounds like it's way down on power (but owner says the hydro is
good). As the asking price is getting on for beer money I'm tempted to
take the risk on it - the fault might be something simple (flywheel key,
fouled carb etc.)

If the engine is snafu then one possiblilty was swapping my 11HP B&S
engine in (the one it's got is a 14.5HP) as I think the mount pattern
will be the same, and it shouldn't need a lot of effort to hook up
throttle, fuel etc.

Sounds like that's not an option though - the 11HP with my current
tractor struggles a little with some patches of our lawn as it is, so
dropping it into something with hydro would only make it worse.

cheers

Jules
Except with the hydro you can "gear down" on the run.

Exactly. You can also speed up over some thin parts of the lawn with no
shifting to worry about.
Belts are also power robbers. If the old one had a belt drive used as
a clutch, that will waste some power.
And the darn friction disc variable speed drives slip like a bugger
when they get wet - which is why my new snow blower is a Hydro.