Just had this mower gifted to me. It was my wife’s grandfathers and he passed away several years ago. It was sitting in his garage untouched. A quick tuneup and this mower runs perfect. Mind you at 56 I have never owned a riding mower. I only have about an acre of land and it’s in town but man o man does this make life easy on the achy bones. Between work and raising kids I never thought I needed one and honestly never thought I’d own one. You are exactly right when you say John Deere makes it easy. Thank you Grandpa Jack. RIP.
Nice mower! I should have purchased the LA135 instead of the LA115 back when I became a 'home poor' owner in 2008. It was the perfect value before moving further up the 100 series, and they never seemed to have that type of value combination ever again. Larger tires, V-twin, double bar bumper, higher back seat, fenders. For only $200 more than the LA115. Had I gone with that machine, I wouldn't be considering another one now 15 years later. Always go with the one you want!
Good mower and I have had it since 2008. There are a few things of note. Mine is barn kept at all times but the paint pealed under the plastic foot rest. It also pealed on the mower deck low points behind the spindles. Really have not had to do any maintenance until recently. I pulled the deck last winter and wire wheeled the whole thing top and bottom and repainted with John Deere spray paint. Also this year, the mower would start once and then stop. After 10 plus years, I have read that the fuel line starts to degrading. That turns out not to be my issue but I thought I would mention it. My issue is that after 13 years apparently some debris has collected and randomly clogs the intake. All I have to do it pull the fuel line at the fuel filter and back flush it. Then is restarts. I did oil changes yearly, spark plugs probably every 3-4 (probably not needed because in 13 years it only has 213 hrs but plugs are cheap), at year 10 I took it to the dealer for a look over. They recommended a couple spindles be replaces and rt front bearing (Do not think the front bearing was bad, only had small wiggle but replaced both front bearing, easy job). Only real pain in the ass it the trans-axle has no easy way to change the fluid. You have to remove the whole rear axle, pop a rubber piece out and rotate it upside down to drain it and after 12 years it was pretty nasty. I have read you can add a drain plug and I would highly recommend. Overall, its a good residential mower if well maintained but stay up on it. These are not beefed up for heavy duty work in my opinion.
I just went out to take a second look on my LA135. In your video you have one orange lever for throttle control and starting. Mine has two levers. Orange lever for throttle control and a black lever for the choke. This allows me to start mine at a low RPM. One of ours is either modified or maybe they changed it on a certain year. We both got them secondhand so right now it’s a mystery.
really easy maintenance i like it, everything has an easy access to work with, nice review as always straight to the point, you got lucky that the previous owner didn't need it, it's a nice machine to have, always heard good things about john deere
