lt150

4105 Views 4 Replies 3 Participants Last post by Mark / Ohio, Feb 8, 2012

paul b

Discussion Starter · Feb 7, 2012

was looking a to buy a new ride on when was offered a john deere lt150 that had been sitting in a shed for 18months has done a lot of idel hrs but no real work its hole life what should i look at to see if it is ok and what dollars should i offer as it towed a small spray unit around most of it life any help would be good.

cheers paul b

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Austen

· #2 · Feb 7, 2012

Well, it sounds like it's had an easy life!

For starters, I would check it all over and look for any rust, especially around the mowing deck area. I would ask questions like, how often has the oil been changed, has it been kept indoors or outdoors most of it life etc.

I would also run the deck and listen for any strange sounds. Inspect the condition of the belts and blades as well- engine off of course!

Take it for a drive and make sure everything works like the brakes and that it steers properly etc, just like you'd do with a car.

It really depends on the condition, but, somewhere in the general ballpark of around $1,200-1.6K would be rough estimate. I would check Craigslist as well and see what similar machines are going for in your area for reference.

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Mark / Ohio

· #3 · Feb 7, 2012

So far aside from oil and filter changes on mine, one replacement drive belt, two replacement deck belts, one replacement battery and the fuel line has been pretty much it since 2002. I think I'm around 300 hours on it. Pretty solid units as long as you keep both the engine and transmission (if it's a hydro instead of gear drive) cooling fans and cooling fins clean and don't get carried away trying to push or pull too much weight.

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paul b

Discussion Starter · #4 · Feb 7, 2012

one more question

thanks guys i found out the oil was changed every 50 hrs and blades and deck look in great shape with no rust there is a small anount of rust starting on one of the rear rims due to spray drift it was stored in a shed all the time and is hydro drive and looks clean apart from dust all over it and bird crap on it .was used on a small tree farm to tow a small spray unit at idle for a fair while so will the running at idle for long time cause more ware than normal.

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Mark / Ohio

· #5 · Feb 8, 2012

paul b said:
... so will the running at idle for long time cause more ware than normal.

For engine wear there are arguments both ways on idling and I think it would also depend on the ambient air temperature while it was idling and if they slowed it to the slowest position (1700 Spec. in service manual) rather then keep it to 1800 rpm or above. At the slow speeds oil pressure and overall lubrication and airflow decreases for obvious reasons. But with no load on the engine one could argue it does not need as much cooling air and oil being pumped. One thing for sure in a given amount of hours of operation it has a lot less number of rotations then if it were running 3350 rpm (full governed speed per service manual).

The hydro transmission on the other hand would take the most wear from low rpms if they did not crank it up some while moving and towing the trailer. Less cooling fan speed on the tranny combined with it stressing more trying to turn due to the lower internal hydraulic pressure would make it heat up a good bit faster. On the other hand if they only moved it 50 feet and then stopped for another 10 minutes of spraying it would not have heated up too badly I don't think.

For what it's worth that is my two cents. Your mileage may vary.

Lot of variables interacting with each other to really say whether it was better or worse then the strain of mowing an acre a week.

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