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.

Seems many people don't realize todays mower corps say not to change oil is only to sell more units, even making it harder to change trans oil on many units so we wont. Why they doing that? Those who believe its not needed & dont change it really don't understand todays mowers or these manufactures being all about planned obsolescence today, Google it. Trans are not failing from abuse I've seen many hydro units that have never pulled a load or been abused in any way fail with less than 300hrs. Grass cleaned off too btw so fans never broke or clogged (causes it too). These trans are designed to fail early unlike yesterdays mowers that outlasted these 10 to 1 easy. Heck my two Wheel Horses still run & operate just like new, one is a 1976 my other a 1988. I see 40+ year old Wheel Horses all the time with 2000 hrs still doing everything just fine including hauling, tilling gardens and pushing snow you just name it and many only had maintenance, no majors to date in all their decades of use so they can build them if they choose too. I pull, till & haul all the time with my old WH tractors they both seen it all, I pulled my LX176 with my 414 WH today matter of fact because it didn't start again. We have a 2008 Husqvarna/Craftsman YT 4500 we inharated when father n law passed and all its ever mowed was a 1/2 acre flat lot, never pulled or abused. Always adult operated & maintained Husqvarna dealer. It's trans started slipping suddenly at only 230hrs once it heated up. I removed the plug on top & drained with a long small diameter hose attached to a drill pump. Very easy like that. Added 10w-40 and it stopped slipping now. It still slowed just a little after heating up so I chiseled the floor out near the pedal and linkage to allow more pressure helping oil flow through the trans when pedal pressed and its never slowed again. Much faster too. They never allowed enough pressure to them by limiting the pedal and it greatly shortens trans life as the trans oil must flow to help cool. Just like engine oil cant be restricted without failure? I know people who used the Husqvarna/Craftsmans in landscaping/mowing business's and got over 800 hrs if they chiseled floor a little so pedal moved more. About 400 hrs tops if they didnt. I think it was built like that to limit their speed so they could sell you a faster mower for more money because I know the next few models up use the same trans/wheel size but are 2-3mph faster speed. Change that fluid without a doubt but a hammer & chisel does wonders on some mowers too, check pedal clearance..

"I dunno about that one Justalurker, when I look at both the X-300 and X-500 specs, the X-500 is 3" longer overall (75" vs 72"), and the wheel-base is 51.2" vs 49.4" for the X-300" Look at the parts lists... the frame on the X500 and the X300 both sub to part # AM137099. you the hood is also the same. "With a 48" deck, the X-300 weighs 616 lbs, vs the X-500 at 760 lbs. No doubt though, the X-500's larger tires/wheels, larger engine and trans-axle, account for some of the 144 lb difference" Wheels, tires, K72 with larger oil capacity and 1" axles, larger engine, and the two piece body on the X500 instead of the smaller one piece body on the X300. "The X-500 is also 3" wider (approx), but that's probably due to the wider rear wheels/tires" X500 has hubs on the rear axles with bolt-on rims AND the offset of the 12" rims.

I have a Craftsman 917.255810 42" 19 HP Briggs & Stratton Fast Auto TurnTight® Riding Mower equipped with a General Transmissions RS800 CVT (constant variable transmission). It was purchased on Black Friday, Nov 24, 2017. I also purchased the correct Craftsman 9 bushel, 3-bin bagger to fit the mower. I used the mower to 'get up' leaves 3 times in the fall of 2017. I stored the mower in a shed, out of the weather, until this spring. I have used the mower 2 times to mow my lawn. Basically to knock down the onions and dandelions. There was little or no 'real' grass to mow yet. My front yard has a slope that I run side to side on. The CVT started sticking, becoming difficult to change from forward to reverse and back, in the fall. In the Spring it became an issue to the point I contacted Sears Service and they sent out a service technician. He was a contractor for Sears and had enough work with Sears that he didn't do anything else. One of the common problems with this CVT is debris jamming the exterior workings, ie. Variator Levers, Inversion/Variation Control lever (forward/reverse), Drive Variator (variable pulley), etc. The Sears Tech said that my CVT was one of the cleanest he'd ever seen (I attribute this to the few times I had a chance to used it & blowing it off with a leaf blower.) and was not a debris problem or issue. The short of it was that the CVT was failing. The Tech said that the GT CVTRS800 was one of the main issue on most of the calls he was dealing with. He said that Sears & Kubota had gone away from it and were mainly using a hydrostatic transmission again. He did say that John Deere was using it in their new 'consumer grade' mowers sold at big box stores like Lowes & Home Depot. My options were to continue to call Sears Service for 2 years while the mower was still under warranty, then purchase a yearly Service Contract for about 1/2 the cost of replacing a CVT, or try to sell the mower and purchase something else. The Tech did say that he had worked on one CVT RS800 equipped mower that didn't have these issues. It was used on a yard that was about an acre or less and as flat as a 'golf course putting green'. The Tech is coming back in a few days to replace the CVT at no cost to me. The Tech said that the CVT was originally designed to drive the blades and wheels of snow throwers/blowers and it did fine at that. GT tried to repurpose it for Lawn tractors to less than mixed results. I guess I'll ride this horse for two years and then try to sell it to someone with a pool table flat lawn. I'm also with toefungus wondering if there will be a Class Action Lawsuit as a result.