Shared Knowledge
"Sears DYS4500 Lawn Tractor - Owner Review"
5 October 2008
Updated: 7 September 2010
Summary: Not a bad tractor for the money but not perfect either.
Background:
18HP engine on 17 year old lawn tractor ate itself. Chassis and mower deck too worn out to warrant new engine. Research lead to Sears Craftsman DYS4500, 24HP, 42 inch deck cut, lawn tractor with 3 bag grass catcher.
The Good:
- 24HP. Have cut some tall, thick, grass and engine has never lugged or slowed down. With no power take off (PTO) 24HP probably an overkill but I do hook a dump cart to tractor now and again and pull some fairly heavy loads up hills.
- Set grass cut height once. With old tractor had to lower deck to have blades engage and more importantly, lift to disengage deck.
- Steering is a dream. Old tractor could require both hands to make a tight turn. Sears turns using one hand.
- Very tight turning radius.
- Nice wide gasoline fill mouth.
- Engine runtime hour meter. Note here: runtime meter is actually ignition key in the on position time and not actual engine running. What? Difference? Accidentally ran out of gas and let tractor sit with key in "on" position. Later when I got back to tractor noticed 100 hours had been added to runtime and battery was dead.
- Seems to be easy on gasoline. Not sure but appears to be using about one gallon per engine runtime hour.
- Battery upfront instead of under seat as so many tractors have. AND not a motorcycle size battery either. Not a full size car battery but not one of those little guys that die within a year. (Area in which battery sets might just hold a full size car battery if need be.)
- Large 3 gallon gas tank under seat.
- Front wheels actually have tire valve stems on outside of wheel instead of inside.
- Actually has grease fittings to keep front wheel axles turning easily.
- Adjustable seat moves back and forth and thus accommodates my 6'1" frame or my 5'6" wife.
- Belts. Both the deck and transmission drive belts are easy to replace.
- Price. On sale, this tractor compares favorably with John Deere and others that cost $400 to $800 more, not counting grass catcher.
- Quality. Overall quality of production, assembly, seems good.
The Bad?
- With old tractor, when I pressed on brake pedal, transmission was automatically put into neutral. Not so with the Sears. Really do not like this as let go of the brake pedal and could easily get bucked off the tractor.
- Tractor has a nice wide "step through" but grass cut height set lever actually blocks some of that "step through." The more you lower the mowing deck, the more the lever is going to block "step through." And with grass catcher attached, must step through from the deck height set lever.
- Deck belt pulleys are not covered. In my yard where I have many tree sticks, this could be a problem if sticks get caught up in the exposed deck drive mechanism. I guess since open, relatively easy to clean with a leaf blower.
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- No good jack point at front of tractor. I like to use a floor jack to raise mower to make blade change or sharpen easier but with Sears, there is no good jack point up front. Suspect I will have to buy Sears front accessories bar, which when bolted to frame at front, might provide jack point I need. (What you see in image below is just a thin metal cover of the muffler and could never be used to support the tractor on a jack.)
- "Fuel gauge" is a joke. Cut out in tractor chassis shows bottom of plastic gasoline tank as if you would actually look down and see that your gas tank was running low on fuel.
- Switch under seat (prevents engine running with blade engaged and no one on seat) is trash. Switch is actually a pressure switch depressed by sitting on seat. Switch is not firmly mounted to seat frame and either switch or connector to switch has come loose many times on me.
- Changing oil is messy no matter how much I try to make it otherwise. Most of the oil does drain out of the drain plug directly below but oil does get onto the chassis frame and run this way and that. Oil filter replacement is same. Since oil filter horizontally mounted, loosen it to remove it and oil will begin to pour out onto the tractor chassis frame.
- This tractor acts like it wants to tip over if sideways on a steep incline and riders attempts to step off. Think center of gravity is so high on this tractor, caution is warranted.
- Engaging the cutting blades requires a lever in front of the steering wheel be shoved forward and then rotated around. To do blade engagement requires a good bit of arm strength and I am sure some will not be able to easily engage the cutting blades.
- The tractor does have a hole in the rear sheet metal to accommodate the hitch pin of a pull behind implement but the sheet metal is thin and really will not take the attachment of anything heavy or where stress is placed on the sheet metal. Sear's solution to this is to buy, from them, an attachment from them that allows for implement attachment. Of course this device, from them is $200 or so.