"Personally, I think the dislike of Craftsman equipment is based upon the total image of Sears. They sell about anything you can imagine, and I'll bet everyone has bought 'something' from Sears that they were not happy with, so they associate the word 'junk' to all of Sears merchandise." That association is well deserved. Craftsman used to make many quality products. They are now strictly a value line (even most of their "Professional" series), but their regular prices usually don't reflect that. Their sale prices are closer to what the products are actually worth, and often you can find their products under the product manufacturer name brand for significantly less. Ryobi is a good example of that. A Craftsman mower not on sale is probably overpriced, and people will think they are getting better quality than they actually are. I despise these sales tactics Sears uses, so I usually avoid buying anything from them. I prefer to buy quality products that will last 15-20 years from locally-owned dealers who can service what they sell. In the long run, I feel that is more cost effective, better for my local economy, creates less trash, and the equipment is more enjoyable to use. I had a Yardman mower, it only lasted about 6 years before falling apart and really just does not compare at all to my new Toro in terms of performance or quality. I am much happier mowing now. Happier being a relative term of course ;) I'll never buy another cheap mower. All Craftsmans are not necessarly junk, and a good deal is still a good deal provided you know exactly what you are buying. But if you can afford it, I feel a quality mower is a good investment. I do own some Craftsman tools. But I didn't pay anywhere near full price for them. For $120, and considering you don't expect it to last 15 years, I don't really see why you shouldn't think you got a good deal. People who try to claim Craftsman is just as good as the premiums mowers are a different issue.

Just updating from my question above from a while back. Had a coworker take it apart and investigate and it looks like the needle bearings had gotten stripped out along the shaft and a couple gears were torn up inside. Whenever it was put in till mode it was grinding up the gears. The gearbox was filled with sludge also and was leaking near the wheel axle. Parts 37-40 I think would need to be replaced on the transmission, but it did not look like it was in stock. Looks like the best bet is to salvage the motor and chunk it as stated above.

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.

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.