Interesting the different experiences people have. I've had a couple regular rider, sealed hydro tranmissions apart, out of curiosity. One from my own rider I had been using for 15 years at that point. I thought it had failed but found the brake was locked up from letting it set outside with the parking break on. Anyway, it didn't have the silver metal oil and neither did the used replacement that came from a parts machine I bought. I should say, an excessive amount as all gear boxes have some wear metal. That unit saw mowing and snow blowing duty and I sold it still working fine 4-5 years later. Maybe I dont abuse my stuff like other people? I see some of the equipment that comes into my nephews shop and some people obviously have more dollars than sense. Lol. Speaking of him, I asked how many sealed transmissions has he had to replace when he worked in Detroit at a big repair shop and at his own place. One on a zero turn. Other mechanics may have done some as well but he doesn't know that information. I stated that last statement you quoted to show even the serviceable units can fail if not maintained properly. The dealer /mechanic that told me this story and I gave the abbreviated version in that post. He says hydro gear is very serious about that first 75-100 hr oil change on them. Damage can occur if not followed. I don't know why its so serious on the serviceable but not the non. Like I said before, in the 30 years I've owned mowers I've had no tranmissions fail of any style and none of my close friends and family have either. They just keep mowing.
Eggshooterist IME the reason small equipment fails is heat. I grew up in 1/2 acre city lot; then parents got a weekend camp, 35 acres an hour away. Every piece of equipment died in less than a season at camp. Maintenance was same and followed religiously But blower mower wacker etc got a season of use in weekend trying to bring neglected property back into shape. so the homeowner unit on acre of land will be ok The guy mowing 10 acre estate is going to kill it
Exactly...I agree, the oil that is in there during the "break in" hours needs to be drained! Probably the most important oil change of its life. I'm sure you don't...and I don't either, that's why I was so surprised when mine let go, twice! That's the only trans that has ever failed me, on anything. I've talked with 2 local shops about these sealed HG drives...they both said they see plenty of them go bad. (to be fair, I didn't ask about the failure rate on the serviceable units)
I 100% agree to a point. Thats why, in my original post I stated something about being realistic with your usage. My experience is 2-3 acres is doable with a home owner unit for years and years. Same with my dads mower, my brothers mower, my sisters mower ect. We all mow 2 acres plus without failures. What I see / have seen, is the chassis, steering and deck getting worn and sloppy first. In my experience the rest of the unit is more junk than the sealed transmissions. Lol.
Im not against serviceable transmissions. I dont think its a deal breaker. At least with conventional riders. Im staring to think I can't use my experience with sealed transmissions on regular riders to those on zero turns. I have no personal experience with a sealed zeroturn transmission. After reading your posts I believe they must see much more stress and heat doing the same work as a standard rider.
ZTR's are a bit different in that they see a more demanding duty cycle and packaging often dictates a minimal sump capacity. Those two are a sure-fire recipe for higher fluid temps and reduced fluid efficacy/life. In addition, you don't sell just one of these units. They sell in pairs (at least for the initial OEM application) so every cost savings in the design pays twice, while every up-spec COSTS twice in the final price of the completed whole-good. (The ZTR as delivered to the cust).
The reality is that the majority of serviceable components fail from..... wait for it..... lack of or improper service. Demonstrated over and over again on all types of machinery over the last 100+ years. Professional tech's that hate their job and take shortcuts are to blame. Shop owners that encourage the above or just feel like taking advantage of an ignorant customer is "smart" business are to blame. Owners that know diddly about the machine but have the "Don't upsell me" attitude are to blame. The end result is the OEMs solved the problems for the majority, and lowest common denominator, by making the components cheaper and faster to replace. Because few were doing the service to get max life anyways. Educated owners and smart techs were going to figure out how to service and get max life from these replaceable "sealed for life" units regardless. Building robust enough components to give a reasonable warranty period even under neglect, and making it hard for the dummies to put the wrong fluids in, pump dirt into bearings, and scream warranty when units fail early, was a benefit to ALL, not just the OEMs.
I have the perfect example of that, (probably has been mentioned here before) late 80s/early 90s Honda and Yamaha 4 wheelers...Honda used sealed bearings/bushings/joints on everything and had very little problems...Yamaha had lots of grease fittings, and those items got rebuilt probably 10:1 compared to Honda.
I mowed this morning. The hour meter was at 7.6 when I fired it up. I let things idle for a bit before full throttle and after mowing to cool down. I wasn't at full speed everywhere as we have more baby trees planted that I have to watch out for. Here is the reading after mowing. This will give you an idea of what I mow. Out of curiosity, I'm going to use my GPS area measuring app to see what amount of acres I actually mow. The power line pic with the garden is 45ft wide and three power pole spaces long.
Exactly why I don't prune the trees up very high...makes it a pain to mow though. Live on the corner of a very busy county road and a side road that is increasingly busy too...really wish they had put the house further off the road! I should get a pic of it...I made a semi flexible "brush bar" to duck under when I go under low hanging branches...still get my hat knocked off once in a while though.
I have 3 acres I mow, gets pretty deep in the spring in a weeks time. jd la120 350 hrs. ( box store rig) sealed tranny . This unit would slip tranny wise on a 10-12% grade with apx 200 hours on it. previous home. ( didn't buy it new CL add ) The newish place is pretty flat although there is still a rise of apx 6-7ft over a span of 200 yards. Hard to tell if it slipping here. and can' go wide open speed wise -old farm field- takes about 6 hours . going back in time I looked into replacement or rebuild- yikes $$$ so just keep mowing until it dies completely. Deck , steering gear ,deck engagement system repairs. From what I found when researching the tranny is JD was just using 10W30 motor oil as tranny fluid in these. It is a 44 series tranny but I can't remember the MFG name. . this the bottom of their line and common among all the various brands sold in box stores. Only has a 42" deck
