You'll be fine. The only thing I would recommend is maybe changing the transmission oil with a good synthetic every 100 hours.

The secret to making em last a long time is periodic maintenece. Thats all. Change fluids, check it over thouroughly once a year before mowing season, tune ups,ect.
Ill haveta say surprisingly after all the abuse my 15 tractors have had before i got em, theyre still running good on original motors ( never been rebuilt). They were neglected maintenece wise, but after some cleaning and reworking, theyre ready to go for a long time to come.
Kidd

I hear a lot of people worrying about the K46 on here, but haven't heard of any actually failing yet. It should hold up fine as long as you don't try to pull down any of those oaks : )

there have been a handfull of cases where K46's got weak within a few years of purchase... that's bound to happen based on statistical probability of premature failure, combined with the sheer quantity of the units out there...

Personally, if I was buying an X300 tractor, I'd get a bigger tranny with it..... and conversly, if I was OK with the K46, I'd step down to an LA series machine and save some $$'s.

I'm tall and heavy too.... 6'2" and 245 lbs. My L120 (w. K46) carries me, and sometimes a whole crap load of stuff in the trailer. The frame in these LA machines is plenty good enough for a flat yard, mature lawn, and a non-abusive operator.

Those who say "just change the fluid once in a while" should
take a look at the k46. It has no drain plug. A year or so back
people here were discussing how to drill and tap a drain hole
and I suggested inverting the whole tractor with a come-along
used as a hoist, to drain the oil out the fill tube.

No draining is necessary. My tractor is 17 and it has never
been drained. Deere used the k46 in thousands of good tractors before they introduced the L series. Then they built thousands of L series tractors and we've heard very few complaints about hydro's failing.
If you weigh 250+ and you mow hills, then a stronger hydro
is called for.

I have a 6 year old lx277. The transmission has always performed flawlessly. The fluid has never been changed and all I do is check the level. The dealer tells me to not worry about it and that when you start messing with the fluid thats when you can have problems. Dirt being the enemy I don't even open the filler cap. The level is half at cold and full when heated. I use my tractor full time with a blower in winter and change to mower deck in spring. The whole unit works exceptionlly well and I have not had any problems.

Thanks for the helpful replies!

I do not want a LA Deere mower because of the Briggs motor. That's why I moved up to the 300 series -- Kawasaki engine and stronger frame, too!

From what I can surmise, the K46 tranny is basically not serviceable. Correct? Can the K58 be serviced? Does it have a dipstick? What if the 58's pump should go out?

I used to own an almost 10 yr old 6X4 JD gas gator until some rogue stole it. I liked its tranny because it had a stick where I could regularly keep a check on it. Could also easily change that fluid, too. Not sure if it was a TuffTorque or some other brand. Any JD residential riders with a similar setup?

Again, thanks for the advice. As you can tell, I am still debating my upcoming purchase.

I am not sure if the K58 has a drain plug.. It does have a fill plug.. No dipstick, but you can use the fill plug hole to check level - but you probably will have to take one of the wheels off to get at it. IOW, not easily serviceable.
To get to a fully serviceable tranny, you need to aim at a GT.