Huskee supreme cutting

My huskee supreme cutting some really thick stuff yesterday.

muddybasilisk wrote:

My huskee supreme cutting some really thick stuff yesterday.

That's not a terrible mower actually, Briggs twin and that 46" deck make for a nice combo that cuts decently quick (nothing close to the 54" though) because of the triple blade. Only complaint I would have is the crappy varidrive (although the pedal is way better then the plastic on the dash) those just are way less smooth, precise and reliable then the hydros.

Nice stuff, although a little early in the year?
[EDIT] Must be pretty south, that grass looks pretty green for april.

Yeah DFW . Mowing season is loooong here. I’m fine with the 46 inch as it’s wide enough but not too wide to get through gates. Varidrive has been treating me well no reliability issues so far even though the belts are really old. I got this mower for free anyways. People rag on MTD so much but I think they’re good.

muddybasilisk wrote:

Yeah DFW . Mowing season is loooong here. I’m fine with the 46 inch as it’s wide enough but not too wide to get through gates. Varidrive has been treating me well no reliability issues so far even though the belts are really old. I got this mower for free anyways. People rag on MTD so much but I think they’re good.

GREAT lawn mowers, ok-ish for modding, but your work would cut out for you.

muddybasilisk wrote:

Yeah DFW . Mowing season is loooong here. I’m fine with the 46 inch as it’s wide enough but not too wide to get through gates. Varidrive has been treating me well no reliability issues so far even though the belts are really old. I got this mower for free anyways. People rag on MTD so much but I think they’re good.

They really aren't good at all when you go to a lower price point, you are running a slightly higher end machine.
MTD is really just like American car companies, they aren't really the most reliable cars but they are usually cheap and easy to fix.
That being said there really is no point in buying a throwaway mower with a 42" stamped deck, those things are just piles of garbage. The main reason why people dump on them here is the forum is primarily for modification (Doesn't mean we can't talk about cutting grass ) and alot of the guys are looking at those toothpick frames and body panels that are like aluminum foil and take a hard pass for offroading. Doesn't mean they can't make a decent mower that makes sense if you are on a budget and need something cheap, as long as reliability doesn't matter.

We used to run all MTDs down here and it was horrible, we'd buy the cheapest mowers and fix them as cheaply as possible, we needed 5 just to have 2 running at any given time. We ended up selling them all and buying another piece of garbage; the John Deere S160. It's just chinese junk, but at least it's new so it's been really reliable so far, haven't had any issues with it.

I guess I got lucky because she's been really good to me. No reliability problems at all. When I got it from my aunt all it needed was a new solenoid. Fired right up after sitting for 4 years. I guess MTD can be hit n miss as with most things. I don't have any experience with the bad stuff so from what I've seen they're good. All the idlers spin fine, spindles real smooth and the varidrive works pretty well. I think the benefit of the varidrive is it's relatively simple compared to a hydro. All the components are on the outside and the transmission is a very simple single speed. I plan on keeping this machine a grass cutter and it's been working very well for that so I'm happy with it

muddybasilisk wrote:

I guess I got lucky because she's been really good to me. No reliability problems at all. When I got it from my aunt all it needed was a new solenoid. Fired right up after sitting for 4 years. I guess MTD can be hit n miss as with most things. I don't have any experience with the bad stuff so from what I've seen they're good. All the idlers spin fine, spindles real smooth and the varidrive works pretty well. I think the benefit of the varidrive is it's relatively simple compared to a hydro. All the components are on the outside and the transmission is a very simple single speed. I plan on keeping this machine a grass cutter and it's been working very well for that so I'm happy with it

Part of that is you have the double belt solid engagement system instead of the cable, although I do like the electric clutch bc one belt is simpler.
A lot of the issues people have are due to bad (aka no) maitenence, these things usually get run hard and stored outside which is not a good idea

I do like the belt clutch system. It works really well. One thing I like is if you hit something hard enough it’ll throw the belt off the left spindle which seems to reduce shock to deck components (found this out when I hit some clippers someone left that were completely obscured by the grass) I agree that usually these are run pretty hard with no maintenance. I like to take care of my stuff though so I scrape the grass off the deck every run and stuff like that. Been mowing since I was about 4 on my grandpas zero turn

> People rag on MTD so much but I think they’re good.

I would take any riding mower by MTD over a push reel mower. I bought at an auction one of those expensive dual reels mower, the reels are powered, but, you get the pleasure of pushing it over your Bermuda or baseball field grass. After a few passes in my patch of yard and weeds, the novelty wore off, and I sold that fast.