Riding Lawn Mowers

You are not alone, here is my story:

I bought a new YTH23V48 from Husqvarna dealer, Northern-Tools in Minnesota on October 2012.  My previous riding mower from sears (costing about 1/2 as much) lasted for 12 years with just once requiring a belt change. The YTH23V48 had problems from day one - To start with Northern Tools (N-T) sold this to me based on a lie that the mower engine has been tested at factory and even after purchasing they were not allowing me to turn on the engine at store to make sure it is working.  When brought it home I found that there were gas and oil in engine, and when I contacted N-T they said actually they had tested the engine to make sure it was OK (another lie, see below) and then over time I found out out what a junk I had purchased:

1) Day 1 - I could not start the engine, took me a while to find out that a tube to fuel pump was missing (the B&S engine on this mower does not have an electric fuel pump; but a cheap crap that easily breaks).  I had to rent a trailer again to take the mower back to N-T store, where they told some other lies about why the fuel pump tube was missing without explaining how they could have tested the engine before I purchased it without it.  They did not have the part at store but they used some other similar tube which allowed the fuel pump to work.

2) I got the mower back to home and used it for few times until one day it stopped working half way during mowing my yard.  I checked and found that the N-T make *** tube had partially melted.   This time I rented a trailer to take it to a local service center and they fixed it correctly under warrantee by ordering the tube for the stupid fuel pump.

3) I got the mower back to home and used it for a while but then again one day it stopped in the middle of mowing, I found out that the fuel line (from Fuel tank) has been cut by one of the belts because it was not tied properly, most probably by careless assembly at Northern-Tools (I will never buy anything from them again).  I tried to use a metal tube to bridge the broken line, but for some reason the Fuel pump was not working, so I had to rent a trailer and take to service center again.  They told me tat for some reason the cutting of the line must have sent some debris to pump, so they ordered new (stupid) fuel pump and new fuel line.

4) I got the mower back home, but it did not even start w=even with new fuel line and pump.  So I got it back to the service center and they found out that they had tied the line to hard and it was pinched closed at some point which they fixed.

5) I got the mower back and I could use it a few more times until I stored it for winter.  I noticed some los of air from front tires when I was using it but next spring I found both tires out of air and deformed under weight of mower.  I have been trying to fix the leak in the tires by changing the stem and cleaning the rim, nothing has worked and they lose air gradually so will not work for long time storage  (basically very low quality parts either by Husqvarna or Northern-Tools), so I am planning to pay to install tubes in the tubeless front wheels.

6) And the latest breakdown happened last week when I used the mower for the first this spring to do the first mowing and cleaning, Well as expected the mower stopped working in the middle of mowing (the engine running but would not move when pedal is pushed). I found out that the transmission belt was off the pulley and there was no way of reattaching it without dropping the whole mowing deck.  So I have to rent a trailer to take it to the service center.

7) I just want to add that this mower is little more than 1 year old and still under warranty and I have only used it for some spring and fall cleaning because I have my lawn mowed by a company during summer, yet I have seen more problem from this piece of expensive junk than in all the time that I owned and used my last supposedly lower quality Craftsman mower from sears.   MY STRONG RECOMMENDATION IS NOT TO BUY from Husqverna or Northern-Tool unless you enjoy repairing broken tools.