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6bg6ga

Craftsman 30" mower

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6bg6ga

This spring started out normal I suppose. The wife generally mows the yard because she like to help and she enjoys doing the mowing.  Concerned that she would over do herself trying to mow the back yard in her condition I insisted that since she won't listen to me and have me mow it that she would be mowing with a riding mower. She has MS by the way. Well, we went mower shopping one weekend and picked up a Craftsman 30" riding mower that supposedly only needed a belt. Long story short I ended up buying a variator pulley assembly for $225.00 plus shipping. Not too bad I thought because I only gave $100 for the mower and it had a new battery and a very nice running Craftsman/ Briggs 13.5 HP engine. Got the pulley installed and maybe I had too much tension on the belt because I thought I was running fine but couldn't see that I was burning up the new $20 belt from the engine pulley to the variator pulley. Took it apart again looking to see if I had made a mistake but everything looked fine. This time I backed the adjustment off that applies tension when you step on the drive peddle. Now it seems to work well and isn't smoking another new belt.

 

Supposedly these variator pulley systems are used on a number of different riding mowers and tractors. I really wonder what genius designed this ho's dream. Meanwhile, time was moving by ever so quickly and the grass was getting higher as I was waiting for the parts to be delivered. Impatient and not wanting to bring a bailer in thru my 56" gate in the fence I purchased another used riding tractor a Poulan. which seems to work well despite the fact it doesn't have any rollers on the mower deck. Been mowing a while with the Poulan and the parts for the 30" mower finally arrive.

 

Now, to try to sell the 30" Craftsman and recoup the money I put into it.

 

Some of us never learn. I should have just spent a tidy sum to begin with and eliminated the hassle and the extra abomination sitting in my third stall in the garage taking up room that I use in reloading my other hobby. I can blame this all on the inability to purchase a Wheel Horse in my part of the country or my lack of patience or my cheapness when looking for a decent reasonably priced mower. Never again will I buy another mower with a variator pulley setup. I will point out that I'm not blaming the Craftsman brand just the general idea of the cursed variator pulley idea which was also available on a number of the lower priced brands. Now, with $800 plus tied up in two mowers, repair parts, and belts why didn't I just purchase someone's Wheel Horse and simply pay to have it shipped to me?  

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Molon_Labe

I think most of us have run across "good deals" that quickly turned into money pits. I know for a fact that I have!

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