Best Older Riding Lawn mower

Could someone provide me with info on what the best used lawn tractor brands and models are? I do not want a zero turn and already have a finish mower for my IH 404 that I use for the big areas. I simply need the lawn tractor for the acre of lawn directly around the house.

Thanks in advance!!

If you want a little tractor for the garden the Cub Cadet number series is hard to beat. The trans is from a farmall cub and nearly industractable. The hydros use the same rear but replace the range part of the trans with a hydro unit. This trans is a favorate of the tractor pullers with every part available in the special high strength aftermarket variety. Stock parts are also plentiful. Just look under the back of most pulling garden tractors and you'll find a cub cadet rear. Thst nice green JD is really a Cub Cadet dressed up like a JD.

What you'll also find out is that the older tractor don't have the high end hp that the new ones have for cutting grass. And the new ones don't have the lugging cabability of the old ones.

The old ones will also require more TLC.

Weheel Horse, JD, and a few others also made some real good garden tractors. I'm just partial to the cub cadet.

If you really want a garden tractor that's a tractor look at the new sub-compact tractors. I just got a Kubota BX2200 and love it. 22 hp diesel, power steering, 4x4, loader, tiller and lawnmower deck. All quick attach - on and off in just a few minutes. Even has a cub holder.

JD 318s are nice too from what I have heard.

My car repair guy had a new Sears hydraulic mower which failed. The repair I downloaded told him something like to remove the transmission, turn it upside down and let the air bubbles out. The mower has worked very well for three years since.

our 400JD a 1980 and grampa's 400JD a 76model are still working. yes we had minor problems but they still are.

I know the tranny on some of the 111 type jd's were not great.

and I was thinking that cub cadet was also under the MTD banner....