Husqvarna TS 242TXD
Verified7 reviews
- See all
- Weekly
- ·
- Occasionally
We have had this mower for about 4 years and it has been nothing but trouble. It’s been in for repairs at least 10 times in that period. It throws belts, the catcher chute clogs, the steel on the deck bends. We have never had more than a few months between failures. Absolute garbage. Show details
Have had it for 4yrs. Bought with a catcher. It’s been average. Starts & every time & engine runs great. When 1st bought one side cut on an angle. Took it back & they said it was a bent blade because I’d hit something?? On clean flat lawn??? No!! Charged me over $100 for a check over & new blades. Still cut badly. Checked myself. … Read more
Flamin spindle was broken & the belt was pulling it over. So the spindle must have been broken from new. I just bought a new spindle & replaced it. Cut flat after that.
The catcher is pretty useless. Using the correct blades, the chute clogs up very often. If cutting lawn in a low blade height, it hardly picks anything up. Basically I need to mow to the desired height & then go over it with the blades higher to pick up all the cut grass. Double the time, double the fuel. Catcher is an a pensive waste of time & money.
Lately the engine will cut out for a few seconds & then fire again, as if you’ve tried to reverse with blades running. I assume it’s to do with the reverse switch. Not investigated yet.
I have always bought the correct blades from a Husqvarna agent. For the last 2yrs it will not cut fully & always leaves a narrow line of uncut grass in the centre. Clearly the blades are too short / wrong size. But I buy the correct ones??? Absolute pain in the butt.. & again, more cutting time, more fuel.
As noted, Engine is great. But everything else lets it down.
Functional but not a lot of finesse – I recently bought a Husqvarna ride on mower. I was disappointed to find it was US made - I had thought it was European. And I'd say it is typically American - functional but not a lot of finesse. Design is not good e.g. getting on or off on the left side is difficult due to placement of the deck height lever - this wasn't a problem with my old… Read more
mower. Also the button for engaging the blades pushes down not up to disengage - maybe it's just me but for me it's the opposite of what it should be. Also the seat position adjustment is not enough with seat set too far back. Hard to see why it costs more than other makes.
DESIGN FAULT IGNORED BY HUSQVANA – I have a ts 245txd ride on mower. The flanges holding the transaxle failed. When I approached a dealer to replace the total unit of which these flanges are a part I was advised that there is a repair kit for this issue readily in stock albeit other items such as a drive belt have a three month delay. I suggested to the dealer that this failure… Read more
is clearly a design fault.
When the repair kit arrived the replacement flanges a twice as thick as the original (4 times as strong).
I chose husqvana over john deere because of the electric mower engagement. What a mistake!
- +1
Absolutely fabulous mower, catcher needs a redesign – We traded up from an old faithful CTH180XP Husky ride-on that I had pretty much worn out over the years on our lifestyle block. I've been very happy with orange power tools on our block and so stuck with it for this purchase - and overall I am glad. The 242 was such a massive step-up in terms of its ability to mow through (literally!) a hay… Read more
paddock with barely a sideways glance, and the welded mowing deck seems indestructible. We've had it two seasons now, and put about 70 reasonably hard hours on it - It's an absolute weapon, and we love it. The fuel tank (around 10l I think) is big enough to mow all the lawns on our property without running out, and the reserve tank is a lifesaver when it does stop well away from the house. The seat is comfy, although the flip-down arm-rests don't seem to be all that useful except for on side slopes. We have just busted our first deck belt, but given the use it gets I think thats ok - I used to do a (costly) belt every season (sometimes two belts a season) on the 180. The 242 belt is cheaper too, so that's a win.
Like others suggest, I drilled a small hole in the corner of the plastic side chute and use a bungee cord to hold that up out of the way most of the time when the catcher is off. It helps when getting through tight spaces, or when mowing very heavy grass that I want to spread, as the chute will just end up bundling it all in windrows otherwise.
Ours has a diff lock, which I wanted for the difficult terrain on some of our property - but actually it makes tight turning a bit difficult - so there is a trade-off there. The diff lock is worth it though - it just keeps going where our old one would have started spinning a wheel. You just need to do a three-point-turn from time to time.
It also has two pedals - a forward one, and a reverse one - this took me a couple of hours to get used to as the old mower had a lever on the guard to change directions - but I love it now, it's much quicker and easier than the old system.
The achilles heel of this mower is the catcher though - I was told I could only have a bag system, and only the 2-bag system would fit. Coming from the nice big rear-mount catcher that I could just back up, pull a lever to dump, and drive off again - this new system is a pain in the butt. It fills rapidly on our property (lush grass, grows thick and fast) so you're getting off and on the mower a lot. It's also not that easy to get on and off the mower with the side-chute fitted because it blocks one side, and the deck height lever blocks the other. And the chute blocks easily if the grass is even slightly damp, meaning you have to pull it all apart (no easy task) to clear it. One of the handles ripped off one of the bags within about 2 months of owning it, and the lid doesn't open properly to access the bags (it hits the back of the seat). And the spinner that is supposed to show when the bag is full will only spin briefly just before the tube clogs - so that doesn't help much. But the major problem is the two-piece chute - it really is poorly designed. The rubber bungees holding it all together keep breaking, and the pins the bungees are mounted to will bend or break if (when!) you catch them on a tree/fence/whatever. Moreover, very frustratingly, the top of the chute keeps falling down out of the catcher housing where it suddenly starts blowing cut grass down the back of your shirt instead of into the bags. It's a real shame because I absolutely love the mower - I just absolutely hate the catcher. I really expect better from Husky, this just seems like it was dreamed up by the marketing team rather than designed by their engineers.
Having said that, I fully intend to engineer my own catcher system because despite how frustrating the factory one is - I love the mower way more than I hate the catcher. And if you have normal nice lawns that don't grow like hay paddocks every week then that catcher system might not be so bad for you. Would I buy it again, knowing what I know now? Yes, without even blinking - it really is an exceptional mower despite the catcher.
Powerful, practical and comfortable workhorse – I'm a commercial gardener in Victoria with a mix of commercial and residential clients. This ride on tractor mower was the answer for me as it can get through gates 980mm or wider which gives me access to most of my residential clients back gardens. I love the power of this mower! The Kawasaki V twin engine is superb. After going through 3 belt… Read more
blades due to rock / root strikes I've loosened the tension on the belt spring which allows some belt slippage and time to hit the disengage before the belt goes pop. It's a very user friendly mower with a decent sized fuel tank. The fabricated deck is much stronger than the more non commercial lawn tractors lower in the range. I'm on side eject only at the moment however I've ordered the 320L 3 bin grass collector which will save me some tidy up time on the residential jobs. Tip: attaching a bungee cord to the side chute will enable you to pull it up whilst driving to allow you to get through narrow gaps. Great, sturdy, well designed commercial grade mower.
Newer Models seem to have sorted out the earlier problems – I've had this mower for 2 seasons and have been very satisfied. I use it to mow a vacant block of 2500 square metres plus some lawn areas. I used product review before I purchased and was almost put off this model, but realised that the faults mentioned on most reviews are for older models. The latest model has addressed all of the earlier… Read more · 1
issues. (strangely Husqvarna keep the same model number so you cant recognise how old they are). I've had various brands of ride-ons over the years and found that this model had all the features I wanted. The locking diff is excellent and hill climbing ability more than I expected. Kawasaki engine starts reliably (with the right amount of choke) and has not missed a beat. I do most cutting with only a small amount of throttle; there's plenty of power. The only negative is that the side by side blades leave a small uncut area between them; its not an issue for a paddock but is a hassle on a lawn when you have to go back over it to trim the missed bits. It takes a little while to get used to the various interlocks which will stop the engine when you take your weight off the seat or go into reverse (this can be locked out when starting). I find the separate pedals for forward and reverse a bit strange after having heel and toe pedals previously. I would recommend this mower based on 2 seasons use and hope to report that it continues to perform for many more years.
ProductReview.com.au has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence our content moderation policies in any way, though ProductReview.com.au may earn commissions for products/services purchased via affiliate links.
Dear Cli, Thank you for purchasing one of our Lawn… Read more