Must of been lucky. Bought an MTD at Ace hardware (Ace Special Edition) with a 42" cut and 16hp Tecumseh. Aside from the normal problems of your MTD of that era IE having the grille mounts break off after a few years) it's been great, and it was only replaced as it was really starting to not work well on hills, and in the last year has been a case of "What's going to break next when I mow?". A key to remember is any NEW tractor in that range is going to be light duty. If you have more an acre to mow with it, a newer, higher end, used model is a probably a better option. You'll get a lot of life out of one though if you keep it well maintained. Take care of it and there is no reason why you should not get a good, usable life of about 10-12 years. one other thing to keep in mind; the chief complaints of many people on a mower it seems is the motor. That is the most important part of a mower besides the transmission on a Hydro equipped tractor. The engine is going to what will go wrong 9 time out of 10 on a mower, and is often going to be to blame for issues with cutting (due to lack of power) and reliability.

reply by theodocus struck me as coming from the desk of the ad agency of MTD. No mention of the actual operation that involves rolling over uneven terrain and jarring action from bumps and uneven spots and the fragile fabricated axles that bend and crack easily. Oh, there is also the bushings used in place of ball bearings: bushing use requires higher horsepower to move the newer units. The Deere has points and condenser; cost $5.00 and 9.00 respectively and the sears is a solid state igntion. Newer technology is wonderful as long as it is coupled with quality assemblage in a product. I have a 1968 Sears GARDEN tractor with a 12HP Tecumseh Heavy duty cast iron engine with ball bearings and cut with a 42 inch deck and also have a 1976 John Deere GARDEN tractor with a cast iron 10 HP engine with ball bearings and cut with a 42" deck and use both alternately for mowing two acres and for tilling and moving earth, etc.. Each has cast iron axles and mutli-speed hi-lo transmissions and EACH is used for plowing, snowblowing, tilling earth, hauling 1100 lb loads in attached large carts. EACH will run circles around the new 20 plus HP light LAWN tractors made today. Spend 5,000.00 and you will have a comparable heavy duty GARDEN tractor. By the way, good luck on getting even 10 years of use with the new wonders.

Metal. You don't own this lawn. This is a lawn party that anyone can attend. I certainly did not say that owning a tractor without a RIO makes you comparable to a drunk driver who kills people. Check my post again and see if you can find that statement. As for taking the tags off mattress's and pillow's, that law stops when the end-user buys the product. It is there to protect the end-user from receiving product that does not contain virgin material. Your analogy with the C10 you own is totally off the mark. The issue here has to do with people on this forum telling other members that defeating/disconnecting safety devices is perfectly OK and then giving lessons on how to go about it. And I as I said earlier, if you think that the current RIO configuration does more harm than good, then invent something better, patent it and then licence it to the manufacturers. But if you're unable to come up with a better idea, then why not stop telling others how to disconnect them? What is being served by doing so? It does not matter that your tractor is not equipped with a RIO from the factory. I own 15 tractors that are also not equipped with one but I wouldn't help disable someone's tractor that came with one. What also doesn't matter is YOUR personal opinion about the effectiveness of RIO's. Your opinion is not shared by the people who wrote the law that mandates RIO's. If and when statistics show that the RIO law isn't working, then the legislators will come up with something different. Keep in mind that the legislators themselves didn't design the RIO's. They went to the industry and told them that the statistics showed far too many people (including children) were being run over by lawn/garden tractors when the operator put them into reverse. They then told the manufacturer's to come up with a solution to fix this problem on their own because it is in the best interests of the industry to collectively solve this problem. Every time someone is injured, it costs money to try and undo that injury. Whenever someone sues as a result of an injury, someone pays. More often than not, it is the various insurance companies that end up paying. Now, I hate insurance companies as much as the next guy but the fact remains that insurance companies have to make a profit just like any other company, to stay in business. If they have to constantly pay out money as a result of injuries and lawsuits, then those losses are reflected in the premiums everyone pays. And if someone is injured or killed, then who knows what sort of loss society as a whole may incur as a result? There's a much bigger picture here than just the one that shows your lawn.

This has been posted before, but once more will not hurt. If you go to the John Deere Parts site you can find information on your JD equipment. http://jdpc.deere.com/jdpc/servlet/com.deere.u90490.partscatalog.view.servlets.HomePageServlet_Alt (One string) In the upper left enter the complete model number. alphabetic and numeric characters, ie LA160. There are parts list, pictures, etc for you tractor, There is also similar information for your accessories like lawn trailors.