leeave96 487 #1 Posted March 30, 2013 I need to get my head examined. Brought home another tractor. It's a Simplicity Landlord DLX. Anyone have one of these? Picked this up for $100 today. Seller said it had a broken rod and later said it makes a terrible noise when running - not sure which it is, or both. I pulled the plugs and gave it a spin, but no clanging/banging around in the engine - like a broken rod or anything else. It has an 18 hp B&S Vanguard, 50 inch deck and Tufftorq K71 rear end. Similar in a lot of ways to my Dad's Simplicity Prestige. No power steering or hydro lift, but foot control hydro fwd/rev. Has just over 400 hrs. Here are some pics: Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chrisd200(inactive) 55 #2 Posted March 30, 2013 Check it close (as far as the engine) I have a hard time believing that a Vanguard with 400 hours is blown, unless it was horribly neglected. Those are some great engines Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chrisd200(inactive) 55 #3 Posted March 30, 2013 couldn't go wrong for $100 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
6wheeler 603 #4 Posted March 30, 2013 100 bucks is cheap enough. I have a 30 hp briggs on the bench right now with 84 hours on it burning oil like a pig. Gonna tear it down and check the bore. I'm hoping its not out of round. Maybe just bad rings. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chrisd200(inactive) 55 #5 Posted March 30, 2013 100 bucks is cheap enough. I have a 30 hp briggs on the bench right now with 84 hours on it burning oil like a pig. Gonna tear it down and check the bore. I'm hoping its not out of round. Maybe just bad rings. Is it the Vanguard or Briggs pro series? How old? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
leeave96 487 #6 Posted March 30, 2013 It is the Vanguard. I'd say the tractor is at least 10 - 15 yrs old. I'll ID the real year shortly Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
6wheeler 603 #7 Posted March 31, 2013 100 bucks is cheap enough. I have a 30 hp briggs on the bench right now with 84 hours on it burning oil like a pig. Gonna tear it down and check the bore. I'm hoping its not out of round. Maybe just bad rings. Is it the Vanguard or Briggs pro series? How old? Sorry Chris, I put the wrong HP on there it is a 23 HP Vanguard. 2006 year. It came off a Simplicity Citation that I repowered with a 20hp Kohler command series. Made a new machine out of it. The thing that got me the most was, Briggs wouldn't stand behind it Nor would the dealer that sold it to my mother in law. Sorry to sort of hi-jack your post leeave96. But for you? I for one am not too impressed with Briggs for this very incident. I hope you have better luck with yours. On a side note, she also had an 05 Citation with the Briggs and with 300 hours on it and never had a lick of trouble with that machine. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chrisd200(inactive) 55 #8 Posted April 1, 2013 That is too bad, very sorry to hear that. I guess thats a lot of the reason why so many of us stick to our Kohlers Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Wheel-N-It 2,969 #9 Posted April 1, 2013 Bill???????????????????????????????????????? Get your K-341 rebuilt and running! (Spoken like a true LAGT friend) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
leeave96 487 #10 Posted April 2, 2013 Van - I'm getting close on the 1650. About ready to install then engine (14 hp). Grass is greening-up and want to give it a try. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
leeave96 487 #11 Posted July 19, 2013 Update: I've pretty much had the Landlord parked waiting on an engine transplant. 1st engine I found was 14hp engine out of an MTD lawn tractor. The goal was to get an engine in this tractor as a band-aid until I could get a new engine. I've got a goodly amount of tractors and so there is a limit to how much $$$'s I can spend on the fleet at one time - so a patch was on order for this tractor, if for nothing else, to allow it to move around under it's own power. Being a Briggs Vanguard in the tractor, I wanted to stay with Briggs to minimize the electrical side of things - so when a Briggs single cylinder IC engine fell into my lap for FREE that had the right size shaft diameter and length, I decided to give it at try. Problem is - I've got a lot of fish to fry and never warmed up to installing the Briggs IC engine and didn't. Instead, I waited to see if a used Vanguard might pop-up. I found one for $200, but it got snatched-up before I could get to it. Another one came-up for $400, but I wasn't to confident it was a good engine. For $400, I want to hear it run and couldn't. My Dad has a Husqvarna (sp?) lawn tractor with a tufftorq tranny in it, model K46 I believe. If you do a search, you will find that some folks have had tranny failure with them - leaving another wise good tractor. The tranny in my Dad's Husky failed after 22 hrs, but was replaced under warranty. The tranny in the Simplicity Broadmoor I believe is a K51 - but don't remember the exact model, except it is very similar to the K46, perhaps the same, but with a charge pump. Problem is - the Broadmoor's tranny sometimes fail too. I worked with a guy that had a Broadmoor and his tranny failed. Soooo, I kept my eye on the classifieds and sure enough - an add appeared for a Broadmoor with a bad tranny and the Vanguard engine in it was for sale. The long and short of it is - I bought the engine. The engine was still in the tractor, so the owner fired it up for me and it sounded great. We pulled out the engine, throwed it in my car and I gave him $100. Now I got $100 in the tractor and $100 in the engine. This thing is starting to get expensive... The engine is a direct bolt-up to my Landlord, the only difference is the muffler. This engine, though a twin cylinder Vanguard is 14 hp vs the 18 hp engine that came with the Landlord. The 18 hp Vanguard muffler is exhausts off of two cylinders directly into the muffler. The exhaust on the 14 hp Vanguard is exhausted off both cylinders, but manifolded from two pipes down to one and that one goes into the muffler. Both mufflers bolt on the same to the tractor. Not worried about the hp - this engine is a band-aid, hopefully a long term one! I pulled out the old engine tonight. This was quite possibly the EASIEST engine removal I've ever done. Everything was straight forward and simple. As I said, I've got other color tractors, some more simple to work on than others, but this Landlord was a pleasure to work-on. Tomorrow, I will clean out the engine bay and install the new engine and try to give it a try mowing. One thing - this Landlord has a 50 inch deck, but I don't think the 14 hp engine will be necessarily underpowered. I've got a 48 inch deck on another color tractor and it is 12 hp and pulls the deck very well. Hopefully I'll have some pictures tomorrow. Thanks! Bill Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
leeave96 487 #12 Posted July 22, 2013 Got the engine in the Simplicity. It was a bit more difficult putting the engine vs taking it out. I don't think the PO did a lot of maintenance as evidenced by the amount of grass I pulled out of the engine bay. It is oil soaked and the neglect is probably why the engine went bad. Here is a pic of the load of grass I pulled out: Here is a pic of the engine in the tractor: And a pic after mowing: The tractor has a 50 inch deck and I mowed heavy/thick/tall grass and the the 14 hp engine did a good job. It never bogged down, but sometimes I was into the governor. Under normal mowing conditions, I don't think this engine will break a sweat (the original engine was an 18 hp engine). If I had to describe the tractor in one word it would be "smooth". It is very quite, almost zero vibration, very tight turning radius. Being a Simplicity, the deck is ground supported, but with rollers across the back of the deck. The set-up is similar in most ways to a Wheelhorse. The rollers are supposed to help with scalping and give a stripe to the grass. I tried to stripe my lawn, but was somewhat disappointed that I got hardly any striping if any at all. Maybe I've got to much clover mixed in with the crabgrass... I can't say the Simplicity laid down any better cut than the Wheelhorse. Thanks! Bill Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
leeave96 487 #13 Posted August 4, 2013 A little striping with the Landlord... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Wheel-N-It 2,969 #14 Posted August 4, 2013 Looks GREAT Bill!!! I sure would like to get my yard looking like that! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
leeave96 487 #15 Posted May 7, 2014 Broke out the Simplicity this evening. Before hand, I replaced the PTO shaft side engine main seal, changed fluids, greased up everything and gave it a mow. Engine is surging a bit, not sure what's up with that - yet... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Wheel-N-It 2,969 #16 Posted May 12, 2014 Your word for today Bill is "Seafoam". We havn't talked much about it here lately but today I've suggesgted it to a few other members here. 5gal of gas and 8oz of Seafoam. Send me a PM Bill and let me know how that works out. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
leeave96 487 #17 Posted May 12, 2014 Got the carb smoothed out. Found some more dirt in the carb on a second inspection. Mowed with it this past weekend - ran like a champ! Van - definitely running some Sea Foam through the tank! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rexman72 210 #18 Posted May 13, 2014 very glad you got the tractor going Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Wheel-N-It 2,969 #19 Posted May 17, 2014 very glad you got the tractor going Yes, me too! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
