[JRC IOWA]

I'm looking to buy a new zero-turn.The kawasaki fx and kolher confidant.Never had a kawasaki but I always thought they were great engine. But Im finding a lot of negatives.But I don't believe everything I read.I have had good luck with kolher magnums and commands.But not sure on the confidants?I respect all opinions from MTF members. I will take any help or insight I can get THANK YOU

 

[JRC IOWA]

I was sure someone would have a opinion. I talked with someone today and was told get the kawasaki but I'm still not sold.Also was told the confidant is below the command.

 

[tiretrx]

Truthfully, I'd love to give an opinion, but I just don't have any experience with the mills in question. Like you, I've had very good experiences with K-Mags. The Commands I'm not as enamored with. But that's just my experience.

Hopefully, someone will chime in, and we can both learn something here :tango_face_glasses:

 

[APinNY]

Moving this thread to Pit Row. Maybe someone there can offer an opinion.

 

[TobyU]

I have not yet personally seen a confidant engine. It looks to be a 7000 series with a new name or at least very similar to the 7000 series which is a good engine. They're not old enough yet to see how they're really going to pan out and long-term but I feel that will be good engines. Kawasaki used to be the Holy Grail of lawn equipment and even they as of recently has started making some cheaper consumer-grade engines. I always forget which ones are the cheaper new ones and have to go look it up. A guy with name starting with RED has a lot of posts on here from the past and knows tons about the Kawasaki. I haven't seen him posting lately.

 

[USMC_Johnson]

I can give a little bit of insight on the kawasaki....

I own a 2011 John Deere Z445 right now which has the 25hp kawasaki motor. Right now the mower is sitting in the mid to high 500 hour mark.

I bought the mower 2 years ago with just under 400 hours so i end up using it quite a bit and probably doing a bit more than i really should with a zero turn.

When i bought the mower the last owner assured me that he had done all the correct maintenance and all that good jazz. So being the trusting person i am i only changed the oil and inspected the fuel filter. This year however it had become a bit harder to start and ran a bit rougher than i remembered (i used this to pull my trash cans and a trailer to the end of my 900 foot drive way all year round hot or cold wet or dry.

So a few weeks ago i decided to start trouble shooting the slightly hard starting issues. First i went after the valves and found the intake valves on both cylinders to be a little bit loose but out of spec. The eye opener was the exhaust valves which were both so far out i cant believe the motor even ran. One exhaust valves was so far out i gave up at my thickest feeler gauge since i didnt feel like stacking them to figure out the exact lash. So i adjusted all the valves back to spec, replaced the fuel filter, replaced the air filter, and cleaned the carbs. She fired right up after all of that and ran smooth as can be. I also felt that i picked up quite a bit of power from the things i did (not that i ever felt it was under powered but more is always better right?).

So after almost 600 hours on this motor i've never been able to get the motor overloaded even mowing at full speed in high wet grass. The closest i've came was mowing some parts of my yard that hadnt been touched since last year and had 14-16in tall grass that was still slightly damp. I could hear the motor really working but it did not bog down. My wife even decided to quickly remove and shorten our dogs' steel cabled tie out which was able to kill the motor.

All said and done i will now specifically seek out the kawasaki motors when i am looking at and buying mowers and small motors in the future. This motor has been fantastic and almost bomb proof. In my amateur (probably ill informed) opinion the fh kawasaki motors cannot be beat.

 

[TobyU]

That's pretty much everyone's experience with kawasakis. You rarely see a Briggs ohv with 600 hrs. I serviced an Ariens ztr with intek twin 2003 model last year. It had 785 hrs on meter. I think I saw one with 900 on it.
I haven't seen a single briggs ohv 31xxxxx series with over 475 on it.
I've seen old L head with over 1200 and I saw an late 70s-early 80s wheel Toro wheel horse that the analog meter showed over 4000.
Most people never actually put enough hours on one to wear it out. They are usually replaced or junked due to machine falling apart around it or a needed repair like head gasket or fuel in oil.