OK, call me a “city slicker”, but I just bought my first-ever riding mower. It’s the L100 John Deere model which smiply means is a manual transmission. Now, I never learned to drive a stick, but my wife did. Still, it is not quite the same, she says.
This model (as with most manual riding mowers) has a clutch/brake. So, to shift gears, do you have to brake? Now, the owner’s manual, in an indefinite manner placing doubt in a new owner’s mind, implies you do. OTOH, a pictorial sticker on the tractor body shows the pedal (as a phantom drawing, but using all solid lines) in two positions. The first, half-way position is marked “clutch”, and the fully depressed position is marked “brake”. Perhaps you can shift without braking? And, is this what is meant by “shift-on-the-fly”?
I waned ya…it’s a dumb question! OK, you can say it… There are no dumb questions, just dumb people!
Jinx
P.S. The TX farmer says: You know, I can ride my tractor all day and still not be finished by sundown. To which the RI farmer says “I used to have the same problem until I bought a new tractor last week!”
I’ve owned 2 riding mowers. One was a Sears made about 20 years ago and my current is a Murray I just got from Home Depot. They both work the same. The left pedal is a clutch/brake… all in one. Unlike a car, you can’t change gears while you’re moving. So to start out, you must depress the pedal and then put it into a gear… any gear. In order to change gear you again push the clutch/brake until you stop and then change gear to another gear or reverse or neutral. I’d be quite certain that’s how they all work.
So just start out by pushing in the pedal and holding it in until you move the shifter to 1st gear. Slowly let up the pedal and you’ll start moving foward. You’ll see how SLOW 1st gear is. So press and hold the clutch/brake pedal again until you stop and then try 3rd gear… Got that?
According to the John Deere website and online owners manual. It looks pretty simple to me. I’ve had many riding mowers and most are the same. When mowing the throttle should be set at the mark for mowing. It is set for the correct RPM’s needed to cut the grass. The speed of the mower is determined by the gear you choose. When NOT mowing, the blades are disengaged and you can vary the speed of the mower with both the gears and the throttle.
Push brake/clutch pedal (A) all the way down to stop machine.
Move transmission shift lever (B) to desired travel speed.
Release brake/clutch pedal slowly.
nothing hard about that.
Alex pretty much nailed it. BUT there are some differences. When you get into the larger garden tractor/mowers you can shift while moving. Many of the autotrans. have both features. Always though…come to a complete stop when going into reverse.
Did you get a PTO on yours? That’s awesome enjoy it.
So simple even a child can use it…that’s because I’m thinking deeper than a child! I would have assumed one can change gears while moving…like a vehicle? Since people with driving experience are using these things, that’s a pretty BIG difference to point out, don’t ya think? It is not intuitive.
Also, the throttling lever is just a dumb design. It is not a natural feel at all. Whatever happened to using a gas pedal? Overall, the whole routine of operation is very “robotic”, at least to a novice. You have to think ahead about a turn with a slight incline coming up. It’s very awkward trying to throttle and steer at the same time. And, if you want to change to a higher gear, you better give two weeks notice!
As for the PTO, the manual keeps saying “engage mowing blades, engage mowing blades…” But, never once does it say how! It enevr says this what the PTO lever is for…and the safety video leaves you with the impression the PTO lever is only
used before going in reverse. The initials “PTO” does not help in making the purpose of this lever intuitively obvious. (Sure, there’s some funky universal symbol on the PTO lever, but I cannot figure what it’s trying to show!)
Anyway, thanks for the info. Deere should have left that pictorial decal off the mower showing the to positions. Also, they should call it a clutch-brake lever as opposed to clutch/brake lever. The latter implies two functions (or modes) for one lever as opposed to the more accurate “all-in-one” meaning of the former.
First thing to realize, is that lawn-tractors are more like scaled down versions of farm-tractors than scaled down versions of cars. Granted, most farm-tractors can shift on the fly, this isn’t really necessary most of the time.
PTO - Power Take-Off (universal symbol: spinning gear) is the system that takes power from the engine, and feeds it to the implement (in this case the mower-deck). Granted there are different types of PTOs, but that doesn’t apply here. The mower-blades spin at a rate directly proportional to the rpm of the engine.
This explains the hand throttle. Your lawn would look like a rookie-rugby player’s head after a hazing ritual if you had a foot throttle. The hand throttle allows you to, get ready for this, “Set it and forget it!”, so your lawn gets an even groom.
The gears, are simply to affect the speed at which you travel… With most lawn tractors, you’ll probably get comfortable working in 4th or 5th, and never have to bother changing gears anyways.
The clutch-brake is just a way to make them more idiot proof.
Imagine every suburban yutz who’s barely smart enough to find the nearest Home Depot having to work with : a hand throttle, foot throttle, cluth, directional breaks, differential lock, variable speed pto, gear selector, range selector, and directional shuttle… Break out the video camera, and get ready to win some money on America’s Funniest Videos…
PTO = Power Take Off.
On a riding lawn mower it engages the blades.
On my Walmart Murray the PTO lever on the right side. It works by moving an idler pulley to tighten the belt going to the blades.
On a Murray operation is very simple:
Brake on the left, (never used except must be pushed to start)
Pedal on the right, push forward to go, the harder you push the faster you go, let up and it brakes to a stop! Push the pedal back or down with your heel and mower will go in reverse.
The PTO handle.
The throttle control is speed is set to maxim while cutting grass.
No gears to change.
Now I’m worried. I feel responsible for Jinx’s purchase of his John Deere – see this thread. If he ends up not liking it, or it doesn’t do a good job on his lawn, or (heaven forfend) he somehow manages to cut off his foot, I’ll feel just terrible.
Also in most newer models the blades will disengage if you put the tractor into reverse so you can’t cut while going backwards. Be careful when putting the tractor into a high gear like 4 or 5 and releasing the brake quickly because it can really lurch foward, at least mine does so I keep the throttle low until I am moving.
enjoy it.