John Deere 345

[PaintedHearts]

Does anyone know anything about John Deere tractors or maybe have one? We are looking into getting a tractor for mowing and pulling a harrow. We found a 345 with a 54" mower, pull behind cart and a 48" snow blade with only 215 hours. I was wondering if they are any good? It still looks like a riding mower not a big tractor but I guess it's built to work not just mow like what you would get a Home Depot or Lowes. I guess they only sell 100 series and this was bought from a John Deere dealer.

[TheRedHayflinger]

Looks similar to the one we just bought, but I haven't gotten a good look at what we got...I know ours only has a 48" deck for the mower part. I get to try it out tomorrow (i'm the only one that actually LOVES to mow our yard! LOL) providing it doesn't rain.

I like John Deere equipment...we have a Gator as well and it is fabulous for mucking out stalls and then driving the "fertilizer" down the road to my grandmas...LOL...as well as various other things (like if I want to bring ALL of my tack up to the house to clean it..or lug feed out to the barn!). Sadly it has a flat right now and does need a new battery as my mom left the lights on one evening...ugh! LOL

[PaintedHearts]

What model is yours?

[TheRedHayflinger]

not sure..been trying to call my mom to find out as she is the one that went shopping for it...it just arrived today as I was leaving for work, and I'm at work now. JD is all that my uncle will use however....he has one that has been running for 10 years now...and two of my cousins have them as well..5-6 years each. My grandma had an older one for 13 years and then someone stole it...she doesn't have one now, but plans on buying a new one this year as the one she bought last year (not a JD) caught fire just from backing it out of the garage!

[PaintedHearts]

Sounds like your family likes them. Is the one your mom got new or used? We can't afford a new one but with this one only having 215 hours that's not bad. I'm like you, I enjoy going out and mowing. Kind of peaceful, time to think. Our old mower was a POS and louder then you can imagine but it was still kind of fun. LOL

[TheRedHayflinger]

our old mower was a Cub Cadet we'd had for 15 years? But it had sooo many problems the last 6-7 years we've had it.

Mowing IS so peaceful! It takes about 2 hours to mow our yard...so lots of thinking time!

My mom got a great deal on a new one at a local home and garden show...it came from a dealer, but was sold through another store. She's been saving up for a new one for a couple of years now though. 215 hours isn't bad at all....I think the old lawn tractor my grandparents had (and all of us grandkids learned to mow with on) had around 5000 hours or more by the time it was my turn to learn...and it is STILL running! One of my uncles has it! LOL

[PaintedHearts]

Wow that's alot of hours. This is our first JD so I'm pretty excited to get it and try it out. And not to have to shovel snow anymore.....doesn't get any better then that. :D We have a long driveway and we get some major snow drifts. We just had a snow storm last week and got 1-3 feet drifts. Not that we have to shovel the whole driveway but there are alot of places. The gate is a big one as we can't even get out until it's cleaned. Our neighbor has a walk behind snowblower and he would just wave at us as he would do his driveway. Not next year....we'll be driving by waving at him. LOL :hysterical:

[TheRedHayflinger]

I'm wanting to get a snow plow attachment for our Gator....*fingers crossed*

as of right now, our neighbor (who also farms on my grandma's land and is my hay guy), comes down and plows out our driveway when he plows out the church parking lot next to our house....he is a great guy! But some days I just wanna get out there and play with a plow in the snow!!!!!

[PaintedHearts]

That's really nice of him. I might help my neighbor out (my riding buddy, not the JD guy next to me LOL) when we get ours. I think it would be a lot of fun to get out there. Any luck finding out what model yours is?