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Garden / mowing tractor any built these days with a horizontal shaft engine

alcosteam

Hot Rolled
Joined
Jul 12, 2007
Location
illinois
as the title says looking for a possible replacement for the current diesel mowing tractor that has one of the briggs diahatsu diesels in it. My engine took a dump sunday, although I have not opened anything up it appears it stuck a valve as its huffing back thru the air intake. I plan on doing a diagnosis in the next couple days and then deciding on repair or replace. The tractor doesn't owe me anything as I got it for next to nothing 13 years ago and did a bit of electrical repair on it and its been good to go since.
Not sure I want new but something newish and my main requirement is horizontal shaft on the engine. I have always been an allis chalmers / simplicity person but we don't have a real dealer close and the closest more or less sells other stuff and only now services simplicity.

Just figured I would see what the brain trust has to offer in positive advise.

thanks in advance
 
as the title says looking for a possible replacement for the current diesel mowing tractor that has one of the briggs diahatsu diesels in it. My engine took a dump sunday, although I have not opened anything up it appears it stuck a valve as its huffing back thru the air intake. I plan on doing a diagnosis in the next couple days and then deciding on repair or replace. The tractor doesn't owe me anything as I got it for next to nothing 13 years ago and did a bit of electrical repair on it and its been good to go since.
Not sure I want new but something newish and my main requirement is horizontal shaft on the engine. I have always been an allis chalmers / simplicity person but we don't have a real dealer close and the closest more or less sells other stuff and only now services simplicity.

Just figured I would see what the brain trust has to offer in positive advise.

thanks in advance

Here's the place for Yuu...
https://www.lawnsite.com/
 
The surplus store in Nebraska sells factory new small diesel engines. Often you need to figure out a starter, and air filter etc.
Bill D
 
as the title says looking for a possible replacement for the current diesel mowing tractor that has one of the briggs diahatsu diesels in it. My engine took a dump sunday, although I have not opened anything up it appears it stuck a valve as its huffing back thru the air intake. I plan on doing a diagnosis in the next couple days and then deciding on repair or replace. The tractor doesn't owe me anything as I got it for next to nothing 13 years ago and did a bit of electrical repair on it and its been good to go since.
Not sure I want new but something newish and my main requirement is horizontal shaft on the engine. I have always been an allis chalmers / simplicity person but we don't have a real dealer close and the closest more or less sells other stuff and only now services simplicity.

Just figured I would see what the brain trust has to offer in positive advise.

thanks in advance

Buy a Kubota and have a decent machine with PTO & 3 point linkage.

PDW
 
"Why"......?
Probably a 3 or 4 cylinder diesel.

Reckon it'd look kinda goofy as a vertical shaft.

Edit: I checked. They use a 4 cylinder Yanmar in their big mowers.

Sent using Morse code on - .- .--. .- - .- .-.. -.-
 
Probably a 3 or 4 cylinder diesel.

Reckon it'd look kinda goofy as a vertical shaft.

Edit: I checked. They use a 4 cylinder Yanmar in their big mowers.

Sent using Morse code on - .- .--. .- - .- .-.. -.-

And how doo you drive the mower deck ?

a bunch of driveshaft, gearboxes, etc.
 
Buy a Kubota and have a decent machine with PTO & 3 point linkage.

PDW

I have bigger diesel tractors but no reason to screw up the lawn driving them all over it. Hopefully in the next couple days I can diagnose the issue better, compression on each cylinder etc and make a determination.

I really don't want to mess with a repower, if I did I have a couple low hour Mitsubishi 3 cylinder diesels I might go with... we are mowing every 4 or 5 days right now and with so much rain this year a good 1/3 of the yard has yet to be mowed.
 
Kubota makes a tractor or mower for just about any size lawn. I'm not suggesting you buy a new one...but a good used one can be found readily.
 
I've got a 2010 John Deere X724. 25 hp, horizontal, fuel injected, liquid cooled Kawasaki. Great machine. The X700 series can be had with diesels if you want to stick with an oil burner. Since it's a "commercial" mower JD seem to keep parts readily available and the prices, so far, have been very reasonable despite the green and yellow packaging.
 
Exmark makes horizontal shaft zero turn mowers.

A friend of mine had an Exmark and he told me that they were Toro's "budget" brand. They must be good as a lot of the commercial mowing companies around here use them. Another good one is the Swag mowers, which have suspension built into the seats.

I can't recall ever seeing a horizontal shaft zero turn mower though.
 
I've got a 2010 John Deere X724. 25 hp, horizontal, fuel injected, liquid cooled Kawasaki. Great machine. The X700 series can be had with diesels if you want to stick with an oil burner. Since it's a "commercial" mower JD seem to keep parts readily available and the prices, so far, have been very reasonable despite the green and yellow packaging.

I've got a couple of John Deere's but I've never considered their parts to be reasonably priced. And in most cases you can forget about aftermarket parts.
Every time I need a part I cringe at the price. Kind of like buying marine parts.
 
I've got a couple of John Deere's but I've never considered their parts to be reasonably priced. And in most cases you can forget about aftermarket parts.
Every time I need a part I cringe at the price. Kind of like buying marine parts.

I have had two Kubotas. I am not sure what they charge for parts as I've never had to buy any. Never.

To be fair, the parts I've had to purchase are consumables. Gage wheels/spindles, blades, deck belt, fluids, and the annual maintenance kits, etc. No breakdowns thus far. JD fluids are not any higher priced than aftermarket and there is guaranteed compatibility.

What aren't cheap are the accessories/attachments, but they have just about anything you could ever want to bolt on to your lawn mower - plows, snowblowers, 3 pt hitches, rear PTO kits, cabs, sprayers, tillers, the list goes on. Makes for a very versatile machine if you only want to maintain one engine.
 
I don't know if Exmark still makes horizontal crankshaft mowers, but they made a bunch of them about 20 years ago. I was shopping for a commercial mower and one of our local lawncare companies had a fleet of them, so I looked at them. I just looked at their website, but didn't seen any photos showing the back end.

I was totally turned off to them because of the clap-trap belt arrangement they used to convert the horizontal crank to turn the vertical blade spindles. All the idler pulleys looked like just more to go wrong. On the other hand, I suspect that it's easier to lubricate and seal a horizontal crankshaft than a vertical one, but I haven't studied it. I supposed that they got a super deal on horizontal shaft engines and bought a few shipping containers full of them.

I ended up buying a Scag and haven't looked back. They make great machines.
 
I don't know if Exmark still makes horizontal crankshaft mowers, but they made a bunch of them about 20 years ago. I was shopping for a commercial mower and one of our local lawncare companies had a fleet of them, so I looked at them. I just looked at their website, but didn't seen any photos showing the back end.

I was totally turned off to them because of the clap-trap belt arrangement they used to convert the horizontal crank to turn the vertical blade spindles. All the idler pulleys looked like just more to go wrong. On the other hand, I suspect that it's easier to lubricate and seal a horizontal crankshaft than a vertical one, but I haven't studied it. I supposed that they got a super deal on horizontal shaft engines and bought a few shipping containers full of them.

I ended up buying a Scag and haven't looked back. They make great machines.

Yes, I saw that too, and so my comment.
Engine output shaft is vertical, mower spindles are vertical, the better
proven (in the field) method.
 
Kubota makes a tractor or mower for just about any size lawn. I'm not suggesting you buy a new one...but a good used one can be found readily.

Exactly. Mine has a 5' mid mount mower deck and grass tyres. Doesn't tear up anything. The rear PTO and 3 point linkage (plus remote hydraulics) make it far more useful than a ride-on lawn mower.

As for how to drive the mower deck - mid mount PTO. Duh. Not like those stupid POS windy-round V belts that slip & burn at the slightest provocation.

PDW
 








 
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