The local Parks and Recreation folks in our borough bought 2 light duty lawn tractors, for pulling a "drag" to level the base paths, and gravel driveways, at our Boro parks. Didn"t take long to pull the guts out of one-broke the drive belt, bent the front axle, and did some other damage! (Now, these tractors were El-cheapos, and not suited for that kind of heavy use.) First was a broken belt. Next, another broken belt, then deck damage, bent front axle, and just plain neglect! And, one day, they brought in the other one. Said it wouldn"t turn over. I looked it over-and there- sticking out of the block was the connecting rod! Yep, it wouldn"t turn over! And, another case of neglect! Did anybody care enough to check the oil before starting it? Naw, that wasn"t Joe"s job, Joe just drove it!
Moral of the story: Buy a tractor strong enough to handle hard work. Buy a lawn tractor to mow a lawn. Lawn--get it? Buy a Garden tractor or larger to drag equipment around, and other work. Ya can"t send a boy out to do a man"s job!