Deereman,
It's really interesting when someone who makes his livelyhood at a Deere dealership goes on the attack against someone who was first out of the box to tell the OP to buy from a dealer and to dismiss much of the mis-information regarding the capabilities of the L and LA lines that YOU carry.
Don't tell me that the information that I put forth is irrelevant unless you have something solid to refute it. When it comes to lifespan, you must be a very naive person to think that Deere is going to put anything in writing that would suggest a lifespan longer than eight years. Whatever the ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT writes, the consumer and his/her lawyer will hold Deere to it. Deere isn't going to hang their head out any further than necessary in order to convince customers to buy this tractor.
And if you don't think that Deere has hired research companies to poll people about "expected lifespan" of a lawn tractor or "how long will you keep your tractor?", then you're sadly out of touch with the way big corporations conduct business. Secondly, Deere makes higher lines of tractors. What's the point in telling a customer that they can expect a minimum of ten years out of an LA if spending two or three times as much money won't buy a proportional increase in lifespan?
As for the use of bushings, read my post. I agreed that they use them. So what? What's wrong with bushings? Why not tell us how much those four little plastic bushings cost to buy at your dealership? I have a 15 year old MTD that is still running the original plastic bushings and while they are a bit sloppy, they don't need changing yet. If you have customers who don't bring their tractors in for service and fail to do any service themselves, then is that Deere's fault or more importantly, is it the fault of the bushings? All along, I have stated the importance of properly maintainance of the tractor. Checking for play throughout the entire steering system is part of that maintainance. If you leave it too long, then you can only blame yourself when you have to put new spindles on.
Damaged front axles are nothing new and neither are broken ones. As my name implies, my main interest lies with Case GT's and they use cast iron front axles. I have yet to buy an old Case GT that does not have a bent axle on one side and more often than not, both sides. Other owners have reported to me about breaking their axle but these were mostly the older 100 series with an aftermarket loader fitted.
Customers do silly things with every price level of tractor that often result in damage that neither Deere nor the dealer can control. Since the LA is considered by some to be an "entry-level" tractor, then isn't it possible that there are more people with zero tractor experience buying these models than X500's? And since you weren't actually there when any of these axles broke or got bent, all you know is the end result and not the cause.
Maybe it's a good thing that the axle bent or broke. Had it not, then it's also conceivable that the frame of the tractor may have torn open, thus making a repair nearly cost prohibitive. We see this in motorcycles all the time. Once the frame gets badly tweaked, the bike is often a write-off due to the high cost of parts and labour.
Yes, I am well aware that many of the hydros in use by many manufacturers are sealed units. I see nothing in your post to indicate how many hours were on those hydros that failed or what kind of service duty those units were subjected to. FACT: You don't know and I wouldn't expect you to. Maybe someone went into the lawn care business and all they could afford at start-up was an L-110. Maybe one of those L-120's was sold to someone with five acres of lawn to cut.
If the failure rate of these hydros was out of proportion to the number of units sold, then there would be a class action suit over them. Do you know of one? Do you know of a website for people to complain about their hydro's failing prematurely?
And how about your dealership. If these L and LA tractors are soooooooo poorly made, then presumably your boss won't take one in on trade for fear of problems cropping up with the customer that buys the used one.
At the outset, the OP outlined what he wanted to use this tractor for. Two acres of level ground to maintain. He isn't blowing or plowing snow. He doesn't expect to plow his garden. All he needs is a grass cutter. Now, if you, as an employee of a Deere dealership, have so little faith in the LA series to carry out these simple, non-stressful tasks, then why oh why does your boss continue to display and sell them?
Nothing in your latest post provides a single iota of evidence that would suggest that a L-145 would not serve the OP well.
