Yeah, it's an old thread but I still see more posts coming in on a subject that struck me as both very serious as to personal safety and property loss - but also one post, or poster's reaction was interesting if not humorous which I felt deserved a response... Contributor kompressor made an impressively verbose series of posts on this topic. Quite clearly this is a topic that was once very near and dear to kompressor and kompressor is projecting as an authority on US libel laws. Here's my tongue in cheek $0.02 on kompressor's extensive commentary... First kompressor states: "The OP should have read the terms of the warranty prior to paying his $1700.00" Then kompressor states: "You cannot run around the internet making wild accusations that you cannot PROVE happened in a court of law" Now wait a minute? Did I here correctly? kompressor just stated he paid $1,700.00 How does kompressor KNOW the OP really paid $1,700.00? kompressor made a 'wild accusation' about $1,700.00 but I fail to see where kompressor has proven in a court of law that he really did pay $1,700.00 kompressor claimed. Finally kompressor states: "The next day, the thread was GONE. WHY? Because of potential libel issues." Oh? kompressor just claimed some thread was removed because it was potential "libel". Did kompressor prove in a court of law that the thread was removed "Because of potential libel issues". Or is kompressor just going around the internet sayin' stuff? :o) Actually the OP can go around the internet saying stuff, much like, well, ... kompressor just did. The above was meant to be illustrative and tongue in cheek. On a more serious note kompressor states: "Yes, there is a warranty and the warranty states that if the tractor burns, the warranty won't cover the damage...end of story." All consumer warranties are subject to FTC regulations. I do not agree that it is the 'end of story' and do not believe it is true if the fire results from defective materials or design. Nor do I believe kompressor's statement to be true if it is a larger safety issue. Establishing this is of course a different matter. There is a very good up side to the OP (and others) sharing of his experience (or "wild accusation" as you will). Others may come forth with their own, uh, "wild accusations". Enough "wild accusations" and a statistically viable pattern might emerge that could be directed to the CPSC to take notice and open a case, maybe even induce a recall for a modification or something. A group may have greater influence. Maybe word gets out and people start taking extra precautions and that averts a potential injury, house fire etc. Maybe the manufacturer takes notice and identifies a potential problem and takes voluntary steps to address it. kompressor is correct in one regard - we just don't now the specifics of any one instance. Yet. But if we suppress the sharing of information because someone goes around on the internet saying stuff like "libel" we likely never will either. Safe mowing everyone!

I mow a 3 acre kennel, a 2 acre shop area, and a 1 acre homesite. I run a Kubota diesel with a 54" belly deck; a 48" ZTR; and a 42" GT. Good: In large areas, the Kubota is much faster, and much cheaper to operate. It will run all day on 2 galls, the gas ZTR will use 5. It cuts better because it really does have faster rotational blade speed. Bad: The Kubota is heavy and will get stuck in the infamous Crosby (sod capital of the world) mud so we can't use it much in the rainy season. Good: The ZTR is extremely nimble and great for areas with lots of trees, etc. It is incredibly fast for smaller areas with lots of turns. Bad: ZTRs are uncontrollable on slippery and / or sloped ground. They are dangerous around ditches, ponds, etc. The problem is that the casters do not provide the stability of wheels. Like a motorcycle, they have only 2 wheels which must do everything: drive, steer, hold a course, etc. If you get in mud, the casters rut in and it is a nightmare to get going again unless you have a tractor to pull them out. Only a gorilla can push a stuck ZTR. I am a big guy but eventually mounted a boat winch on mine. Also, a ZTR is nimble ONLY if you can swing the deck. In corners or tight spots they are treacherous. You must be able to swing the deck ... or else you have to shut it down, get off, lift the deck (keep an 8 foot 4x4 nearby), and move the casters around by hand. Don't bother to carry a water bottle. You cannot use a hand to fend off branches, wipe your face, swat mosquitoes, etc., etc. You must keep both hands on both sticks; they are very sensitive. Good: The 42" twin blade GT works around the pond, ditches, fence corners, etc. I outline everything with it before I fire up the big stuff. It also carries a 50 footlong nylon rope to pull the others out when they are (frequently) stuck in the mud. Bad: Fast it ain't.

Well guys, We still live in the house we bought to in 2014 in order to move Donna's aging mom who was (at that time) showing symptoms of dementia. The dementia progressively took its toll on her mind, and then in October of 2016, she was diagnosed with stage 4 bladder cancer. She lived until early February 2017 and died here at home with us, as she wished and she had made us promise not to let her die in a hospital or nursing home. She died surrounded by family and a hospice nurse was present. I only relate this story because Donna's mom's health situation was the reason we bought a house big enough for all of us to live in, under one roof.........and the subsequential multiple projects and renovations.........were the reasons I dropped off of the forum. As soon as we moved into the house, I had a long list of things that HAD to be done, and a long list of lesser things we WANTED to do......so my time on the forum just could not be justified.....I simply had too much to do. The first things to be done were to come up with safety measures to help prevent an elderly woman with dementia from injury by being proactive about preventing her from "escaping" the house. I had to equip all exit doors with a deadbolt lock keyed inside and out (all keyed alike) and we had to come up with a nearby "hiding place" close to each lock location for spare keys in case of emergency. This house has a full basement with stairs, and we did not want her mom to have access to the stairs, so I included the same deadbolt on that door too. The sliding door to the second floor deck was a challenge in that it had a key lock on the outside ONLY with just a paddle lock lever on the inside. I had to come up with a way to make that door lockable with a key from the inside. My solution was to remove the lock assembly from the door and "reverse" location of the paddle lever plate and the key tumbler plate, so that the key tumbler would be on the inside. I stripped out the guts relating to the paddle lever and covered the hole where the paddle shaft came through with a small brass plate.....heavily epoxied in place from the backside (inside the door). All you can see from outside is a small hole blanked off with brass. The deck is on the second story on the backside of the house with stairs leading down the the pool, which is enclosed inside a fence, so we never use the sliding door as a "key entry" point anyhow. Then there is the attic storage space epic adventure. The attic space when we bought the house, was almost non-existent. There was a total of 4 sheets of 4' X 8' plywood (128 sq. ft.) on the joists at the top of an extremely rickety pull down wooden stairs. Stairs were the first to go. Replaced with a sturdy aluminum pull down folding stairs. Then I hauled 22 4' X 8' sheets of 3/4 OSB into the attic space.(each sheet was cut in half lengthwise to fit through attic stairs opening). We now have about 800 sq. ft. of usable attic storage space. I built 2 inverted trusses (strong backs) to attach to the joists on the sections spanning the 12' kitchen and the 18' den. These trusses ensure that the load imposed by the extra OSB and stored material are ultimately borne by the load bearing walls at the hallway, den, and both walls of the kitchen. The addition of the trusses assures that the ceiling joists do not assume a sway back shape over time resulting in cracked ceiling gypsum board. I assembled the trusses in the attic and fabricated them to have about 1/2" "preload bow" on the 18' truss and 3/8" preload bow on the 12' truss. This was to ensure that the trusses were actually carrying some load right from the start. After I got the trusses built and fastened onto each joist they served with metal strapping, I built a 30' long, 2 tier shelf system into the truss structures. Shelves are 24" wide and the bottom shelf is 20" off the floor, while the second shelf is 46" off the floor, so you have the attic floor under the shelves, and the 2 shelves themselves for storage, That yields 180 sq. ft. of space, plus the remaining 720 or so sq. ft. of attic at various head space. The tallest overhead clearance is about 6'2" at the rafter collar ties (and I added collar ties so that every rafter has a tie, instead of every third rafter as the house was built). There were 4 rafters that had "split" open due to improper orientation by the rough carpenters. They had placed rafters with knots situated on the lower chord of the rafter (tension side), which is a no-no. These rafters had to be jacked back into place and reinforcement panels of 3/4" plywood "scabbed" onto each side, glued and screwed. The original scheme had the ventilation exhaust fans from both bathrooms simply dumping into the attic space, another no-no. I extended the exhaust hoses over to the gable area of the house and busted through the brick and installed 2 bona fide exhaust hoods with insect screens. On the longest hose, which was a 4" hose....I built a booster fan box in the middle of that run and wired it so that it turns on when the original fan turns on. I felt that a 16' run of 4" hose would probably need all the fan power it could get to keep from simply "stalling out". The other hose was 6" and only 8' long, so I felt it was adequate with no additional help needed. I could go on and on about other projects, but these were some of my most major undertakings, Now, about my employment. I no longer work as a forklift mechanic in the shop. In midsummer 2015, I took over running the parts department when our longstanding partsman retired. This was challenging in that it put me to the task of acquiring and dispensing the parts instead of installing them on vehicles. It has also been challenging in that I was the first partsman in our history to actually have the capability of searching the Volvo and Daimler websites to look up parts. It was in the summer of 2015 that the company finally got onboard with software to enable this. Prior to that advent, our method of ordering parts involve looking the parts up in hard copy paper parts manuals, or talking to a vendor/dealer on the phone and trying to describe what you wanted, it was sometimes a crap shoot whether you would get the right parts or not. The outgoing partsman never had to use the computer to look up and order parts, and when it was introduced, he refused to do it saying that his time was too short to need it, so he told me to get all the training and he would just watch. LOL He and I worked side by side for 3 months while he showed me most of the ropes before he retired in October 2015. That is a summary of what I have been up to. I know this was completely off topic, but since the request was posed here, I felt OK in responding here.

Hey off_ltd, I bought the JD S240 from a local JD dealer. I didn't buy the extended warranty because it's basically a waste of money. My final considerations, after much research, were the JD 155, the JD 170, the JD S240 and the CC XT2 LX46. I went with the JD S240 because of the upgraded deck and transmission, which are the same as on the X300, and the Kawasaki engine. I prefer the Kawasaki engine over B&S and Kohler engines, although I will admit the B&S and Kohler engines offered in the models I was looking at are good engines. I've had B&S and Kohler engines before and I never had any problems with them. If I had it to do over again, I would have gone with the JD D170 with the 54 inch deck or the CC XT2 LX54, even though I don't really like the boxy front ends of the new CC lawn tractors. Oh well, to each his own. The 42 inch deck on the S240 just doesn't give me a wide enough cut. I'm not dissatisfied in any way with the S240. It seems to be a decent lawn tractor, although I wish these companies would put some kind of suspension on these lawn tractors. I put a mulching kit on it, the one that has the interior deck insert and I went with a set of Gator mulching blades. It does a really good job mulching and I get a nice, uniform cut. I'm thinking about getting a twin bagger attachment for it but I refuse to spend $350.00 for a few pieces of molded plastic. I won't buy it unless it's on sale at a much lower price. I think the CC LX2 would have been a nice lawn tractor. I think I would have bought it if it had a different style but then again, as I've said, to each his own. CC offers a better warranty than JD.