Craftsman GT 5000 54" Kohler 26 hp Gas Powered Riding Garden Tractor Reviews

great tractor with plenty of power if you get this tractor get the wheel weights and chains does have the problem of not enough weight for the power

I own the older model that does not have the foot control, wish it had that feature.  I purchsed this mower when they first came out with the 54" deck, about 4 years ago if I recall correctly.  I mow about 2 acres and all my other neighbors own ********** or Cub Cadet.  I could not part with that much money for a comparably sized mower in those brands so I purchased this Sears mower.

I had several problems with the first mower so Sears exchanged it for another one, it has been problem free all these years so far.  It does not cut the grass as smooth as my neighbors **********, but I paid a...

When it was delivered without deck wheels or a belt I should have told them to take it back.  It has been down hill since then.  Took 3-4 weeks to get all the pieces for the deck wheels that I had to put on myself.  Then the belt that was not on when delivered but put on by the delivery person kept coming off, this was at 20 hours of use.  They replaced the belt but now it keeps stalling out on me.  If I loosen the gas tank lid for a second then it runs alright for a little while.  This should not happen with only 26 hours of use.  I have another craftsman garden tractor that is 23 years...

    The power and the dependability of this mower haver exceeded my expectations.I have mowed, towed and hauled about everything around on my property and i have not been dissatisfied with my purchase what so ever. I am very impressed with the power of this mower it seems to excel when you put it to work. I have cut my mowing time done by at least half. I would recommend this garden tractor to anyone who were to ask my opinion of it.

    I wish I would have been able to purchase this garden tractor a long time before I was able to I utilize it almost everyday whether I am mowing or just rolling...

This is a good garden tractor.  It does need more attachments for things like actually working in gardens.  Haven't had a problem with it yet, so no complaints.  The snowplow for this thing needs to be more mobile so that you can angle the plow.  John Deer plows can function this way, why not the craftsman plows?

I waited a year since I bought this tractor to right this review to make a good judgment on it. But lets start with the first one I received brought it home jumped on my new shiny tractor proceded to give it a drive and the pedal stopped working for the transmission, looked into it and they forgot to install a cotter pin and the linkage came apart not a problem had a extra one in the garage. So I got it working, couple days later decided to cut the grass had some electrical problems where if the deck was on the mower would shutoff sometimes when going forward. Also would almost always backfire...

I have 2.5 acres of various terrain, half acre which I will be planting a vegetable garden with.  I purchased this machine so I could till up my entire lack a yard and start fresh, and this thing does not dissapoint!  I purchased wheel weights that added the weight I needed to keep from slipping when I hook up the large disc tiller.  This machine doesn't even flinch at anything I throw at it.

I was researching for months, going back and forth between **********, Cub Cadet, Craftsman, and Husqvarna (who is the one that makes the Craftsman tractor).  For the power and the heavy duty transmission...

I bought my tractor in May of 2009 and was impressed by the size of the mower and its rather low price as compared to others.  Within the first few months I had to have the Sears repair man visit my house to resolve wiring problems.  This year I have become good friends with the Sears repair man since he visits so much. (John will be on my Christmas card list).  There is a problem with the ignition control modules/coils failing and the repair is to convert the coils to the old system.  After having that done there has been two subsequent visits for the same problem. The tractor will only run...

The Craftsman GT 5000 is not a graden tractor. It is a over-powered lawn mower.  My previous Craftsman garden tractor, while not perfect, functioned as a garden tractor.

The GT5000 hydro-transmission release is unreachable with the optional rear attachment plate. There is not enough space to add mud/tractor tires. The gas tank is over the tire, a dangerous design, making it impossible to even modify for REAL tires. Unlike previous models, the electric lift ONLY works on rear attachments.  The optional scoop will barely get dirt off a driveway and dump it.  

I could go on, but the bottom...

PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU BUY. If you don't read this whole review at least read the BOLD PRINT. I bought this tractor Sept. of '09 after returning my two YT 3000 mowers (I had these 6 months before I bought the GT, both were brand new). I wrote a review before but I figured I should write one after a year of owning it. Apparantly all of the GT 5000 Kohler Courage motors are set standard with a stting of 3100 RPMs, but I didn't like it so I adjusted the RPM's up to 3500 and the max is 3600(runs a lot better now when cutting thick grass). I have had 2 front ends that have been put in since buying...

This tractor is great!  It has a great automatic transmission and is easy to drive.  The electric start makes getting going easy.  It's hard for me to think of something bad to say about it.

I purchased this tractor last Fall and now have 26 hrs. on it. My previous mower was a Craftsman 48" Lawn Tractor. It has plenty of power, speed and cuts very evenly. Grass cliping dispersement is excellent. I just bought a mulching kit and it works very well and I have not had any problems related to the mulching cover dislodging itself as some reviewers had mentioned. It does take some effort to adjust the anti-scalping wheels. It was much simpler on my previous Craftsman. I did experience some lawn abrasion (digging in of the deck) so I adjusted the deck's front up higher and that reduced the...