I have the 18.5 horse version and it runs well. Bought it in 2004. I have 330 hours on mine and other than a valve adjustment and a couple of tie rod ends I can't complain one bit about the tractor itself.
The deck is alittle cheap like you mentioned. Being this is a non timed deck it has a habit of leaving a strip if the blades aren't super sharp. A couple of the wheel brackets were bent up alittle too (I have a rough yard) those brackets shouldn't have bent like that as easily as they did. Some 1/4" angle iron and welder fixed that problem.
Other than that I would say the machine was a decent purchase. Its still going strong 10 years later (knocks on wood)
The deck is alittle cheap like you mentioned. Being this is a non timed deck it has a habit of leaving a strip if the blades aren't super sharp. A couple of the wheel brackets were bent up alittle too (I have a rough yard) those brackets shouldn't have bent like that as easily as they did. Some 1/4" angle iron and welder fixed that problem.
Other than that I would say the machine was a decent purchase. Its still going strong 10 years later (knocks on wood)
