Lesco WB mowers

[Clewsew]

I have been looking at purchasing a WB mower. I am wondering what your experiences are with the Lesco brand of mowers. What is the quality of the mower? I have a dealer in my area that seems to be a good one, but I don't want to have to take the mower in all the time either.

Thanks,
Doug

[slplow]

I own a 2000 52" hydro with 700 and somthing hrs on it . The cut is averge . The only problem I have had is the bars on the anti-scalp rollers bent one the second week of mowing.

[1grnlwn]

I have a 48" hydro. Cut quality is good. No problems really. Front caster shaft and bushing are too small. Wear out pretty fast. Sulky is useless if over 200lbs. Big mess changing oil. Only WB I have operated and I prefer to ride. Oh yea, you have to walk behind it. LOL

[Five Star Lawn Care LLC]

I think lesco should just stick to fertilizer....i have had 4 over the past 3 years and they were nothing but problems....after they all got stolen i went straight to bunton and great dane

[dlandscaping]

The biggest piece of advice i can give u is this, STAY AWAY FROM LESCO WB! I have a 48 lesco gear and its a 2001 model. Well it is supposed to be except the engine says it is a 1999 which i just found out. This machine cant cut for $#%^ no lie, i have tried different blades, different heights, bagging different baggers (steel and cloth) different rpms, took it to dealer. They did nothing for me. The belts dont shift well at all and the mower jumps when it is put into gear. It once started in gear (i accidently left it in gear on a hill and it almost took out my trailer and my lil brother (thank god no one was hurt) . i changed the oil on this and it almost went all over the wheel belts. I cannot sell this mower without taking a huge loss and the trade in value is over $1000 less than what i paid for it and it only has 25hrs on it and it has no dings or scratches etc. I have not had good experience with this mower and the only reason i got it was price. i wish i could have talked to lawnsite before this and i would have gone with toro or exmark. do yourself a favor and spend a little more and get a good machine. This machine is made by mtd which in my experiences means crap machine. Another thing that makes me hate this mower is the excessive blowout due to no front baffles. i put this mower side by side with a large lco's exmarks and there was minimal blowout in dry conditions. dont get a lesco!

[1grnlwn]

I believe Lesco does just stick to fert. Their mowers are MTD Pros. I guess it's obvious why they painted them green and put Lesco's name on it.

[Five Star Lawn Care LLC]

Yes MTD does make the mowers for Lesco, but it is still Lescos originally designed products which is the problem. And What i was trying to say is they should just stick to fert at there service centers, there mechanics all suck and they never have parts in stock and even if they did have it in stock it would just break agian. I belive a lot of guys would agree with me when i say that Lesco is the K-Mart brand of Commercail mowers

[edward hedrick]

I have a 52 Lesco belt drive bought it 1996. Its a fixed deck
mower. I do most repairs nothing major. The 52 cuts better than the48. WHEN some thing breaks I fix it. Usually buy parts at Lesco. A friend bought a 48 abouthe same time has not been back. The height of cut is a combination of spindle and castor
heights. Similiar to other fixed deck machines. Ed

[KirbysLawn]

All above good advise. One good thing not mentioned is if your Lesco mower breaks they give you a loaner while your is out. I personally do not like pistol grips, used a BobCat when I first started and woke in the mornings with numb hands. Since buying my Great Dane Scamper those problems have gone.

If you are planning on using this as your primary mower consider getting a mower with a system less stressfull on your wrist, Great Dane, Hustler, Exmark are the three brands I can think of with systems different than pistol grips.

[geogunn]

but the older models were great machines. I'm still using one.

that machine is tough. it cuts good, is reliable, pulls good in wet grass and I'd buy another one like mine in a minute.

there is some blowout in the front which is a pisser if you try to mulch leaves in dry conditions.

this time of year they are always pushing the hydro unit with a 17 kaw for about $3400. that price makes it worth looking at.

GEO

[PrimeGreen Lawn]

I just traded in my Lesco 52" WB hydro for another Exmark. It had 360 hrs. and was trouble free. Had a 19 hp Kawi. in her. I had small problem with the front casters mounted in the middle of the deck. I hit a stump and they bent the f$%# out of the deck! :confused: I had it pulled, but I guess as long as you don't hit anything, you're OK. Over all, I wished I haden't made that purchace. Stick with the higher end machines like Skag or Exmark, etc.

[Jason Pallas]

Actually - I can give you a good reply to this question - as I was in the same position last year. I decided to buy a 2001 Lesco belt dirve 48" w/15 hp Kawasaki. There are defintely good points and a few (minor) drawbacks to the decision. Here's the drawbacks first.

The engine overheated and melted the govenor at about 70hrs. This was not really Lesco's fault - however, I believe that a Lesco design flaw MAY have contributed to it.

At about month 6, the rear axle snapped in half - as it was part of the entire rear assembly of the unit, the whole unit, needed replacing.

The small acuator pads that help engage the dead-man senors fell off at about 10 hrs (never to be found again).

Now for the good news. Lesco has a Zero Down Time policy and I was never without a backup mower. Everytime I took the unit in for service/warranty work, they gave me a loaner. Once they even gave me a brand new mower to use as a loaner. Very professional - I give their customer service #1 ratings.
However, the mechanics that work on the stuff, may need some more training. I do a lot of my own mechanic work - so no one will ever repair the stuff as good as if you do it yourself - but, a few times, the mechanics made some bonehead mistakes that out the mower back in the shop again (i.e forgot to tighten down tranny mount bolts after swapping rear ends for the axle incident - chewed up a belt and belt an input pulley - they did replace it at their cost though).
The acuator pads are cheap and can be fabbed a lot better my you at home with some tin snips and a drill. No big deal - the ones you'll make will work better anyhow.
The one and only major problem that I had with the Lesco is the amount of blow over (as mentioned by a previous post). The baffle system underneath is not perfected. Ultimately, it causes a lot of turbulence in front of the deck and blows debris out, in front and sometimes over the machine. I think this contributed to the engine melt-down. A lot of the debris (grass, leaves, etc...) clogged the air cooling system on the 15 hp Kaw and caused it to overheat. I talked to the Lesco rep (it was inder warranty) - he claimed never to have heard this complaint before. I tend to think it's a lot more common complaint than that (as a lawnsite.com search indicated). GOOD News is that I believe this problem is easily remedied by welding a small "lip" under the machine to interupt air flow. After we were aware of the problem, we took extra care to clean the air cooling system more often - and never had another problem.
All in all these are good machines - in many ways comparable to Scags. Many of the parts are interchangeable with Scag and the spindle system is one of the best I've seen. The price is certianly right. The construction is solid and made of high grade steel and beefier than a lot of others. The tranny is the same that Exmark, Scag, Bunton, Bobcat and many others use. The cut is also pretty darn good too. There are a lot of other features I really like (top greaseable spindles, roller bearings in the spindles, double belts and pulleys, etc....). When a lot of guys knock a machine, you have to listen to them carefully. Sometimes they're knocking the engine or tranny (not really the manufacturers fault). Although the problem is ultimately the manufacturers, a lot of companies use the same engines and trannies. All in all the Lesco is a good mower for the price. I've been in the business for 20 years and used a lot of equipment and used it hard. It's not "if" it'll break, it's "what, when and how" it will break - and more importantly - how hard it will be to fix it.
Lesco's got a good machine - if they fixed the blowover problem, I'd give it an A+. The only other thing they need to do is make the axle a replaceable unit - instead of welding it to the rear - end. As is , it's a A- unit. Well worth the money


PS - All of you that had trouble spilling oil while changing the oil - need to get an oil drain kit from Kawasaki. It's about $15 - but you'll never spill another drop - it's a drain-**** system. Lesco should make this standard equipment on their mowers (like Bunton). I have the part numbers. If anyone's interested, I'll post them.

Sorry for the epic-sized post. Hope this helps you.

[luv of green]

whom sells mtd pro? never seen them

[Clewsew]

Jason, was it just the lesco machines that had the motor meltdown of the 15 horse Kaw(also is it just the 15 horse)? Where did you weld the lip to stop the problem? I really appreciate the epic letter. It helps me to make an informed descision.

Thanks again everyone for your replies,
Doug

[geogunn]

good review jason--thanks!

GEO

[Jason Pallas]

Thanks - I'm happy to help.
#1) I haven't welded the lip on yet - but after much speculation and a little research, I believe if I weld a small (1" or so) lip all along the underside to the front deck facing, it should do the trick. The lip would basically be parallel to the ground (90 degrees from the front deck at the bottom of the front). This would interupt the flow of air that blows out in front of the machine from underneath. The Buntons have the same type of lip. I got the idea from looking at one. The front of the blade only has an 2-3" clearance from the blade tip to the front of the deck on Buntons (with which we've never had this problem). The Lesco has about a 5-6" clearance. I think this adding the lip will really create a turbulence that will interupt the outward escape of the air (to the front of the machine) and cure the blow over.

#2) The meltdown of the Kawasaki 15hp happened (I believe) because the crew chief didn't keep the air intake shield (around the recoil) clear of debris. There was also a huge amount of debris (grass/leaves/dust/dirt etc..) in and around the cooling fins that blocked the air flow and caused the engine to overheat and melt the govenor. I DO NOT believe this to be a problem with the Kawasaki engines. I've run these and the 14 hp engines (a lot of of which have over 6-7 years of hard work - 800hrs per year without ANY major problems). Because of that alone - they're the only ones I'd buy. I strongly believe that the blow-over problem from the Lesco baffle system threw all the debris up into the air cooling system on the Kaw. Once we knew that this was a problem, we just took extra care to inspect and clean the fins and recoil area. We never had this problem on any other Kaw with any other machine - so I'm relatively sure this was it.
Be happy to answer any more questions about the Lesco or Kaw - just post 'em. Good Luck.

[edward hedrick]

Jason, another fix to the blow out problem, The latest Gravely
48 and Husq 48 hydro both have bolt in baffles. Last year I put a Husq 60 baffle on my Scag Sthm solved many of the mowing problems. The part was $ 50 . It will bolt in. Also try a Scag Turbo
Baffle if available for 48? Ed.

[Jason Pallas]

Do you think the baffle system will fit the Lesco. The Scag might - I'm gonna look into it. If you've actually fitted one of these on a Lesco, let me know - thanks!

[edward hedrick]

When I bought mine had to relocate one tab 180, I bought a Scag
turbo baffle for my 52 Lesco will install April. The 52 Lesco and
my 61 Scag are similiar xcept for the size. Looks like same source for both decks. Should fit. I'm going to Lawn Show Feb 28 will
look closer.

[Jason Pallas]

Post your results from 2/28 - I'm curious to find out what you find out. If it looks like a fit, I'll probably try to do the same for our 48" (I'll probably go to the Scag dealer in the mean time - although he's sort of a stroke and I know he won't be very helpful). THanks.

[edward hedrick]

went to show asked rep says there is a baffle on the left of new

HUSQ 48 w hungdeck, The Scag turbo baffle is used on 48 Tiger

cub. If you cant find left baffle let me know. Should help with

problems. Contact Enginaire may make a precleaner for Kawi.

Ed.