I bought a troy built pony in 2015 15.5 hp, when blades were engaged the mower vibrated a lot. I eventually found out that this model shakes, vibrates when blades were engaged, as I went back to store and started a brand new mower, same as mine, they engaged the blades and the mower shook, vibrated like mine. I found a simple solution to the problem that works for me. Instead of pushing the blades engaging lever the whole way forward I push it just to where blades are just engaged and put a 14 by 1.5 by 3/8 piece of wood between the seat spring and the deck cutting heighth lever to hold the blade engaging lever. believe it or not the mower does not shake or vibrate. belts are not hot after I am done cutting my grass

Maybe everyone here knows what ENGINE, model number, a john deere stx38 has on it but I don't have the faintest idea and that would be crucial in answering such a question. Walt Conner

John Just a thought from my experience using our Church's residential ZTR (cub cadet with 22 HP sorry do not remember the model or deck width), conventional riding lawn tractor, and our commercial 52 inch ZTR. The CC residential will not allow you to use the forward motion on one wheel and reverse motion on the other wheel. Possibly it is a safety feature or possibly it does not have two fully independant wheel motors like the commercial ZTR units. I have not taken the time to study the setup. When you try to make a 180 degree turn, one wheel stops while the other rotates forward. The residential ZTR works best making 90 degree turns to cut in a rectangle or square pattern. Not the up and back pattern I use with the commercial ZTR. It seems difficult to me but possibly am not using it correctly. My suggestion is that you buy from a dealer/store that will let you demo the mower on your yard befor you buy to make sure it is an improvement over your conventional tractor. At our Church I let the other guys use the residential ZTR as they like the "new pretty " machine. I still use the mature old (my guess it is from the early 1970's)314 John Deere that looks rough but still works well. Good luck on your decision and make sure you will be pleased with the way the residential ZTR you pick operates.

Had to use a gear puller to get the flywheel off - it came off just fine. The (plastic) gear on the flywheel had been chewed off - there was about 3" of mostly intact teeth on it - not enough to catch enough to spin it to start though. That was problem #1. Shopped around on Saturday looking for a ring gear. No one had one in stock. Found a local guy who had spare parts from other mowers & found a used flywheel with an aluminum ring gear on it. Cleaned it up & got ready to put onto my mower & noticed something wasn't right with the crankshaft. I hadn't noticed when I pulled the flywheel off that the centering tip on the gear puller I used had wedged itself into the top of the crankshaft. It would turn freely, but would NOT come out. After several hours yesterday of trying everything else, I was able to drill through it & eventually pop it out. Miraculously, the crankshaft threads were not ruined. After that, was able to install the flywheel with the aluminum ring gear. Also on Saturday, looking at the starter more closely, there was a "burr" on the threads of the plastic clutch, I suppose where it wasn't being released & staying engaged with the flywheel earlier. I was able to take the starter & spin it by hand and was able to make the gear stick at the top every time. I bought (another) clutch kit, this time with a metal gear & replaced it. Unlike before, this time I took steel wool to the starter shaft & shined it, then used lithium grease on it the inside of it. Put everything back together & then shot WD40 on the outside of the gear. With this, the gear returns each time, not sticking like the previous one (so far). Before my original post, I had tried to crank the mower. I turned on the fuel shut off & tried to crank it & eventually gave up. I turned the fuel off when I stopped, but wasn't able to empty what was in the carb since I couldn't get it to start. (Since I had problems earlier, I put the shut off valve in. Other than this time, I never turn the mower off - I cut the fuel off & let it run out of fuel). Once I got things back together, I tried to crank the mower. As soon as I turned the shut off valve to ON & tried to crank it (would not fire), I heard the glug-glug-glug-glug of the crankcase filling with fuel. Sure enough, oil level was about 1/2" higher than what I knew it was before trying to start it last week. I haven't rebuilt the carb, but replaced the float & needle when it had this issue the first time. This was the 3rd or 4th time this has happened. It happened the first time earlier this year when I was trying to fix it up for use after it having had sat for several years. I'm not 100% sure, but the fuel tank (gravity fed to carb) looked really empty before I put gas in it before trying to start last week. I added about 1/2 tank of gas. I use Sta-Bil in it & the stored gas which is about 3-4 weeks old now (I purposely ran it low the last time I used it). I wouldn't have run the tank dry, so I'm assuming the shut off didn't do it's thing. In reading about some of these engines (mine is a Briggs & Stratton 12.5 HP I/C Quiet, model 28m707-0178-01), I see numerous reports of the same issue. Even though I see that a complete rebuild appears to address the problem, I'm not sure how that is ever more than one failed start or not allowing the carb to run dry to reoccur. I'm sure that the ethanol is the culprit, but haven't yet found a source for "real" unleaded gasoline. Is there a reliable solution for using gas with ethanol? Also, given my most recent self-induced repair, I'm not sure I want to touch the carb.... ;-)