Goodbye John Deere T105S

[Conductor562]

Way back when (13 years ago to be precise) my Dad bought a John Deere trimmer after years of fighting with other brands. My dad battled string trimmers like Ralphie's dad did furnaces. Every season you anticipated an epic battle between man and machine to the point that violent attacks on power equipment became as much a part of summer as baseball and lightning bugs. Even the Sthil he bought got chucked over the RR tracks after 3 years.

His misfortune didn't stop at trimmers. He could go buy the best available anything and the son of a bitch was a constant problem after a couple of years. Lawnmowers, cars, major appliances, nothing was safe from the curse.

This trimmer though, it was the lone exception. It ran for 13 seasons with all the lack of maintenance and general neglect of a Detroit hooker.....until today.

Dad hired out his lawn care 3-4 years ago and my brother (also completely inept in care & maintenance) had been using it even since. Today he called and said it wouldn't start. Knowing my brother I figured the kill switch was on or he'd dumped straight oil into the gas tank, but after a thorough cleaning and inspection I determined it was the coil. What could a cool cost $25-$30? Nope, I found it for $191 online. Thinking there was something I was missing, I called John Deere who offered it up for the discount sum of $188. I could probably scratch around and come up with one somewhere, maybe get a couple more seasons out of the old girl, but at its age, it's time to move on.

And so, the JD trimmer is off to a the dump. I'll probably strip the useful parts, but it's trimmed its last lawn. In today's world, you really can't bitch about 13 years of service.

[Bigmikez]

Wow 13 yrs bro that's very empressive! I'm kinda of embarrassed of my weed eater and proud at the same time it's a no name brand that I bought from Kmart 41/2 yrs ago and it's never ever failed me yet and I've done some pretty big yards with it I bought it just to start me off with but the damn thing doesn't wanna die.

[DR99]

Wow, that is freaking crazy the part is worth more than the trimmer. I bet they wonder why they never sell any coils because people are like well I'm not far away from buying a brand new Shti just to buy the part!! That's just freaking crazy

[kornomaniac]

@protoolnut

And a commercial grade 4 stroke will outlive those commercial 2 strokes ?

[Nordraw]

Oh John Dear.................

[Justin Hernandez]

That's awesome it lasted that long and crazy that the coil is so much money, did you try looking for a used coil? I have a Shindaiwa trimmer that's about 20 years old and still going strong.   

[kornomaniac]

Yeah i suppose im the only Dutch guy around

[Conductor562]

Someone made these for John Deere. I never dug into it to find out who, but I know someone did.

[Conductor562]

I got really good service out of a Troy-Bilt push mower. It was bought in 1998 and ran until the coil went out 2 years ago.

By that time I lived in the country and didn't really need a push mower anymore, and it had holes rusted in the deck anyway, so I let her go.

15 years was a good run for a $99 mower

[DR99]

You can't ask more from a 99 dollar mower after running strong for 15 years!!

[kornomaniac]

After all that time it sure did it's work !

[chadlanthier]

I did its job, I never complain when I get my monies worth.

[Goose]

had mine for 15 years & used the heck out of it on 1acre lot; never a single problem!

does anyone know if & how I can convert it to a brush cutter?

[ABF]

I am looking for a coil for this same string trimmer.  John Deere T105C.  Did anyone ever find one for a decent price?