Poulan Tractor..any good?

[6bg6ga 272]

Couldn't find a Wheel Horse tractor that was decent under $1800 in my area a settled for a used Poulan  so the wife didn't have to use the Toro Personal Pace in the back yard. Anyway its a crude but functional and not what I wanted. 16.5 hp was replaced with a 15.5 hp engine.I have the remains of the original engine as it threw a rod. manual 6 speed. Runs good smokes a little upon start up. 

 

Cannot find info on figuring the year lists model number on tractor as  PXT 16542  any help on decoding the year would be appreciated.  The original engine was a 31A707  type 0525 B1  code  D81014ZE

[Racinbob 11,376]

There doesn't seem to me much info on Poulans probably because there isn't the demand that us Wheel Horse nuts cause with our machines. I think if all you're going to do with it is mow where your wife used the push mower it should get the job done. The new quality is on par with the rest of the big box lawn mowers sitting next to them because basically they are the same machines. I don't know what part of the midwest you're from but in this part an $1800 budget will allow you to find an excellent Wheel Horse.

[W9JAB 156]

"Couldn't find a Wheel Horse tractor that was decent under $1800 in my area "

Where were you when I was selling my tractor?

[slammer302 2,156]

Poulans seem to be the same lawn mower as a craftsman. Witch i think are sum of the better big box mowers. My dad and brother both have used them. Their are sum good wheel horses for sale in the midwest for reasonable prices.

[T-Mo-(Moderator) 4,528]

Poulan are made mainly by AYP, American Yard Products, who also makes Craftsmans and other entry level lawn tractors.  They're mainly designed for a 5 year life cycle as are most entry level machines.

[857 horse 2,581]

I didn't bring this up.......BUT  since someone did......

 

I have a Poulan 42" cut,,,,22 hp   I think,,,            ,,it is black,,,,,,I hate to say this,,,,,it is the BEST cutting tractor I have ever rode on,,,,

and its almost 10 yrs old,,,,,,    and don't ask me why my font or letters is leaning to the right.......I hate that.........

 

857Horse and leanin to the right   tonight !!!!!!!!! dang !!!

 

[6bg6ga 272]

I think it all depends on how you use them and how you take care of them. Honestly I would like to get my hands on a 520 or something with the onan 2 cylinder engine in it. I'm not going to drive with a trailer 300 miles or more to buy one. I would have spent $1500 without batting an eye if I could have found what I wanted locally. The slammers and the knockers will say the tractor is only going to last 5 years and I personally believe that answer is kind of a cheap shot at best. I've never run across anything that didn't last a lot longer than that with care. I had a Yard Man before and it worked fine until the engine got tired and I retired it.

[Sparky-(Admin) 21,586]

3 hours ago, 6bg6ga said:

 The slammers and the knockers will say the tractor is only going to last 5 years and I personally believe that answer is kind of a cheap shot at best. I've never run across anything that didn't last a lot longer than that with care. 

I couldn't agree more! If given basic maintenance the "big box store" machines will last past 5 years easily.

  In 2001 I received a brand new Craftsman (AYP) for Father's Day and I still have it and it performs as good as the day I got it. This pic was taken last year.

  

 

 Mike....

 

[ohiofarmer 3,280]

https://www.partstree.com/parts/electrolux/mowers-lawn-garden-tractor/pxt16542-96016001700-poulan-xt-lawn-tractor-2009-04/

 

If I am reading the tea leaves correctly, the tractor is a 2009

 

 

http://www.lawn-mowers-review.com/poulan-xt-pxt16542-42-in-deck-165-hp-briggs-and-stratton-engine-6-speed-tractor.html

so is this what the Poulan looks like?

[6bg6ga 272]

I mainly posted this just to see the negative comments I would get and by who. Many here have deep seated views that the "Wheel Horse" is the one and only mower/tractor out there that is worth its weight in beans. The snide comments are a classic example of the click system here on this forum in my opinion. The question I posed was the classic simple which is better ? a Ford or a Chevy? Both build decent vehicles and your going to have two camps a Ford and a Chevy camp.

 

Ever stop and think where the mighty Wheel Horse started and the quality of parts and where the parts came from? The early ones were made from left over or re-purposed parts. Everyone knocks the Craftsman tractor. Sure the Craftsman tractor has a for example a Briggs engine with a tag that says Craftsman on it. So, how different is the engine? I checked the engine that came out of the Poulan. Same engine as the standard Briggs. Same carb, gaskets, internals> Difference it has the Craftsman sticker. This however was NOT the case of a briggs engine on say a snow blower made in the 60's. I cannot speak on the Kohler engine because I haven't done any research on it.

 

The sticker on the mower I bought says it was manufactured by Husqvarna. So, are they junk also? Same guts in the Poulan as in the Husqvarna the difference is the paint color.

 

4 minutes ago, ohiofarmer said:

https://www.partstree.com/parts/electrolux/mowers-lawn-garden-tractor/pxt16542-96016001700-poulan-xt-lawn-tractor-2009-04/

 

If I am reading the tea leaves correctly, the tractor is a 2009

 

 

http://www.lawn-mowers-review.com/poulan-xt-pxt16542-42-in-deck-165-hp-briggs-and-stratton-engine-6-speed-tractor.html

so is this what the Poulan looks like?

 

Don't know if I agree with the reviews. It mows evenly no scalps. I guess it depends on how the deck is set. Mine is set higher with me doing the setup. I'd probably think the same thing about a mower review as I do the gun reviews I read. What it seems to boil down to is how much money the manufacturer may be spending in advertising. I'm one of these people that mows high and avoids the summer grass burn outs. My back yard is pretty flat and this aids toward a smooth finished cut.

[6bg6ga 272]

14 minutes ago, ohiofarmer said:

https://www.partstree.com/parts/electrolux/mowers-lawn-garden-tractor/pxt16542-96016001700-poulan-xt-lawn-tractor-2009-04/

 

If I am reading the tea leaves correctly, the tractor is a 2009

 

 

http://www.lawn-mowers-review.com/poulan-xt-pxt16542-42-in-deck-165-hp-briggs-and-stratton-engine-6-speed-tractor.html

so is this what the Poulan looks like?

 

Yup looks like that picture.

[ohiofarmer 3,280]

 i can understand the ford vs. chevy thing somewhat, i say drive your truck or mow your lawn with what makes you happy. I inherited a 520, bought a 416-8 new with an Onan. My Onans are not dead, but have been removed because of strange noises they are making. I even have a 26 horsepower Briggs in a Huskee lawn tractor that was given to me . That tractor has taken some sorting, but it was given to me because the price to fix it [professionally] exceeded the value of the tractor. The price of the drive and mower belts make you cry, but the rest was done from aftermarket parts, so maybe 150.00 altogether.

 

The old ones from the sixties make me happy. The cast iron Kohler K series make me happy. The wonderful modularity of the tractor and ease of trading parts from one to another manufactured years apart makes Wheel Horse an excellent buy in a used tractor. I swapped out a transmission ten years newer by taking out six bolts and a few cotter pins and it works like a charm. The transmission it replaced is still working, but the key that holds the wheel hub on was abused and not changed out in time. I know that it can be repaired pretty easily I doubt that you could that kind of repair as easily on a mass market lawn tractor. For example, I had to remove the engine in order to put on a new transmission drive belt on that MTD.

 

  6b, maybe you should buy an older Horse to find out what all the fuss is about. i bought a Raider 10 with mower for 300, an Electro 12 for 250, and a 121-8speed for 225.  Tractors of this age are the workers because they are not nearly as rare as the older ones. The older ones do have some drawbacks and seating comfort has to be the top of that list. I borrowed a seat from a newer tractor and worked it out.

 

 

 

[EricF 589]

I owned a 1980s Briggs-powered Craftsman/AYP lawn tractor (Craigslist find) a number of years ago. It was a good little machine, but really too small for the work I needed it to do, so when it finally threw a rod, I chose not to rebuild it and instead sold it and picked up another CL find. (Bolens Suburban with a Briggs opposed twin, but that's another story...) For a smaller yard/lighter work, I'd have repaired and kept the Craftsman.

 

Getting the Craftsman decks to cut well can be fiddly. They're fully hung from the tractor, rather than free-floating resting their weight on the gauge wheels. The trick is in getting the right front-to-back angle on the blades. It's usually right for low cut heights, but once you raise it to run 2 1/2" to 3" cut heights, some of them get tricky to keep angled correctly. On mine, I drilled two new holes in the front mount of the deck, about 3/4" lower than the factory ones to keep it angled correctly at higher cut settings. After that, it cut just as nicely as the neighbors' Simplicity.

 

The newer decks on the AYP machines may be a little thinner steel, so they'll probably flex a bit more than the older ones. Not a bad design, just tougher to get dialed-in for the best cut. And all but the largest decks are two-blade designs; two- versus three- blade decks under 48" or so is another Ford-Chevy kind of debate...

 

Back when I bought the used Craftsman, I was already researching what to get in a good used garden tractor when I had about 2K to throw down. I grew up running a John Deere, and in the area of the Midwest where I grew up most GT's were JD, Cub Cadet and Wheel Horse with some Simplicity/Allis-Chalmers and Bolens sprinkled in. I was familiar with JD, but kept seeing prices too high for used-and-abused stuff. More researching turned up a lot of pros and cons with all of them, but Wheel Horse rose to the top for me due to their near-bulletproof simple design. If I was going to buy once and keep it running for the next 25 years or more, the Wheel Horse design, regardless of model looked to be the best overall choice. That was my reason for jumping into the ring. Having grown up near South Bend, and passing by the old factory location and within a block of the Ponds' original home almost daily was just a nifty bonus!

 

I will say that wrenching on, and running my 520H has confirmed that I made a good choice. It's every bit as good as the old JD 110 I ran was, and more. But there are plenty of good machines out there in other colors, too, and all of them are interesting to me.

[Dakota8338 115]

The service life of any mechanical equipment varies with the proper maintenance and tasks the equipment is required to perform.  Given the very same TLC for two identical machines, but one works one acre weekly whereas the other works five acres each week, regardless of the work performed, but in this case it is presumed to be the exact same work being performed, the equipment performing 80% less work should last five time longer than the other machine based on the law of averages.  There are exception admittedly, but work takes the equipment life and proper maintenance helps prolong that life. 

 

 

Edited June 29, 2017 by Dakota8338
grammar

[DennisThornton 4,769]

Sears(Roper), Craftsman, Dixon and some others were made by AYP.  Husqvarna bought AYP.  I have some AYP GTs and they are great garden tractors!  If Husqvarna's sister,  Poulan, is a GT she should be great as well.  Don't disparage the AYP GTs!  But don't expect much from the low cost riders either! 

Interesting history :

http://tractors.wikia.com/wiki/Husqvarna_AB

[Uncle Buck 246]

On ‎5‎/‎25‎/‎2017 at 5:34 AM, 6bg6ga said:

I mainly posted this just to see the negative comments I would get and by who. Many here have deep seated views that the "Wheel Horse" is the one and only mower/tractor out there that is worth its weight in beans. The snide comments are a classic example of the click system here on this forum in my opinion. The question I posed was the classic simple which is better ? a Ford or a Chevy? Both build decent vehicles and your going to have two camps a Ford and a Chevy camp.

 

Ever stop and think where the mighty Wheel Horse started and the quality of parts and where the parts came from? The early ones were made from left over or re-purposed parts. Everyone knocks the Craftsman tractor. Sure the Craftsman tractor has a for example a Briggs engine with a tag that says Craftsman on it. So, how different is the engine? I checked the engine that came out of the Poulan. Same engine as the standard Briggs. Same carb, gaskets, internals> Difference it has the Craftsman sticker. This however was NOT the case of a briggs engine on say a snow blower made in the 60's. I cannot speak on the Kohler engine because I haven't done any research on it.

 

The sticker on the mower I bought says it was manufactured by Husqvarna. So, are they junk also? Same guts in the Poulan as in the Husqvarna the difference is the paint color.

 

 

Don't know if I agree with the reviews. It mows evenly no scalps. I guess it depends on how the deck is set. Mine is set higher with me doing the setup. I'd probably think the same thing about a mower review as I do the gun reviews I read. What it seems to boil down to is how much money the manufacturer may be spending in advertising. I'm one of these people that mows high and avoids the summer grass burn outs. My back yard is pretty flat and this aids toward a smooth finished cut.

Don't take my comment as an invitation to argue. Mine is a simple observation and not one judging you or anyone else. Now that I have set the stage allow me to say this. It does not matter if you ask for opinions about something you have here, or on a forum regarding hand tools, or widgets or whatever. Some of the comments that you will get in reply will almost always tell you that whatever the item is you are asking about is a steaming pile. You might love the item you asked about but you can rest assured that regardless the quality of the item you have asked an opinion of there will be either someone, or several someone's that dislike the item in question as much as you like it!

 

My point is you have to be ready to hear the negative replies that will be mixed with the positive replies, it is just the way of the world. I share this observation because of your reply above. Certainly it would be illogical to expect many members that are deeply invested cash and soul in the WH brand to share the same passion for machines produced today. By the same token there will be others that are not totally dedicated to WH and have a shared passion for other brands as well.

 

The way you started your reply above tends to make one think that you were, please excuse the term, trolling for negative replies to your question and spoiling for an argument. All that said I have no dog in this fight and certainly intend no ill will or judgment on you or anyone else here. My comment was simply shared as an observation from my perspective and nothing more. Best of luck to you.

Edited June 29, 2017 by Uncle Buck