I recently bought one of each type so I will give you what i consider an unbiased report. In november I bought a craftsman GS6500 gear drive garden tractor.I bought this tractor because I needed to plow a very steep hill and haul heavy loads. The craftsman has a peerless 820 all steel 6speed that puts out more torque than any other hydro except a TT K92 and despite soccer dad's comment it is ground engaging.Money was an issue and mowing was a secondary concern for me. Although our snow came late this year it did a yeoman like job plowing up and down my hill. I have used it lately for hauling firewood. aerating,fertilizing grading a dirt road etc with no complaints. Shortly after I purchased the craftsman a newer cub cadet 2165 hydro with twin vanguard engine and snowblower fell into my lap at an extraordinary price. This was my first hydro trans. The cub cadet tranny is smooth as silk and will excel at mowing my modest lawn. As for the manual lurching that is a product of Ervie not knowing how to use one. I can take off in 6th gear smoothly or I can do a wheely if I want to. I have taken both of these tractors to the bottom of my hill and they both have no problem climbing it. The manual is much better at it than the hydro. As far as mowing hills and slopes. I have a couple of modest slopes that I mow and have no concern using either tractor. If I had to mow my steep driveway I would be more concerned about sliding backwards and would probably buy a couple of billy goats.

busleague and others; The part # on my Sears packing slip is 123782X, it's described as a torsion spring. I was able to install it from beneath after dropping the deck. I initially intended to remove the lever and slide the spring over it from the bottom. I was unable to slide the lever out of the clevis due to inadequate size of the frame slot through which the lever protrudes. Ultimately, I determined that the hand grip on the lever is removable and not molded on as I had assumed from it,s appearance. Is threads on. Once removed I was able to slide the spring over from the top. With soom help I was able to anchor one end of the spring to the clevis and and the other to frame. This part is not a one man procedure! I threaded on the handle and was done. I'm still perplexed as how to replace the hydro control lever. It seems to me it can only be done by dropping the entire axle and hydro unit. There should be another approach! However, it took me much wasted time before I determined that the handle threaded onto control lever. Now I'm a happy camper until the hydro control lever needs to be replaced, which I hope is never! Thanks for the help! Donboy

I seriously doubt there is anything going on that a new set of belts will not solve (replace both at same service). Is this the first time you have considered changing the belts? Or have the belts been changed previously? If the belts have 200 hours on them, they have survived longer than I would have expected, especially with your description of hilly operation. Likely what is happening is just belt slippage that is exaggerating the normal "free rotation" or "slack" in all the various places inside the transmission gear train. ALL gear reduction power trains exhibit the characteristic of having some loose motion when the gears are rotated against each other. Where you have many meshing points in a transmission, the effect of this "backlash" at each point where gears mesh together is "additive", meaning that at little here and a little there all add up to a lot of looseness in the sum/total. Normally, this sum of backlash causes no strange sensations or actions because the load being transmitted through the gear train is in a single direction. This keeps all the gears in contact with each other under constant pressure on just one specific face of all the gear teeth (cogs). The point of contact will not change so long as the load is kept constant and evenly applied, as is the case when everything is in good order with drive components (belts etc.). But what is probably happening in your circumstance is that going downhill, the weight of the tractor and gravity conspire to REVERSE the roles of the engine and transmission as to who is driving who. Uphill, there is no question that the engine is driving the transmission, and the load is kept constant on one face of each gear. But, going downhill, the transmission is trying to drive the engine, and this, plus worn belts, will cause the engine and transmission to alternate the roles of "drive vs. driven", and that will cause the loading of the gears inside the tranny to constantly switch back and forth from one face of EACH gear to the opposite face, and this is where you are picking up the noise and sensation that a lot of "thrashing" is going on, because it is. Short of opening the transmission to inspect things, trying a new set of belts is the only sure fire way to get an answer. You can demonstrate to yourself just how much total backlash is in the gear train by putting the transmission in gear with the engine off, parking brake released (not applied) and turning the big belt pulley on the transmission input shaft back and forth. The amount degrees of rotation you can move the pulley before you feel the tractor try to move on the ground represents the total backlash in the entire gear train. You will probably be surprised at how much there is.

Remove filter, oil drain out of filter port. No drain plug per se, but the lowest hose fitting is what Hydro Gear uses to drain the oil Remove the lowest hose and fitting, allow oil to drain. Open the oil fill plug (on top of case), open the oil level plug (on side of case in vicinity of parking brake caliper) Let the oil drain out of filter port and lowest hose port for at least an hour. Install filter, reconnect lowest hose. Pour 20 W 50 motor oil in the fill plug very slowly and watch the oil level port for oil to run out. It could require as much as 98 ounces of oil if the trans had been apart for service, but yours will have some trapped oil sequestered inside the pump and motor, so expect it to hold around a quart or a little more. After filling, run the transmission with the drive wheels off the ground for at least a minute and then recheck the oil level. And that's it.