Strengths This tractor turns on a dime , power steering , power lift tilt wheel.plenty of room to get off tractor quickly. Leaves NO circles around trees. Good on fuel , back tires skinny. 48" deck mulcher.Great motor KAWASAKI. comfort seat....

Weaknesses Must get use to your backside sliding around subtle but noticable.Can not use a tiller , but did not buy it for this purpose.

Overall Near as perfect as you can get.a real stickler on equipment must perform.

Strengths Solid performer, very comfortable.

Weaknesses Design flaw in AWS creates a condition where by the unit and deck tilt when the tractor is turned. This results in a pretty pronounced scalp on the outside edge of the cut every time you turn.

Overall I want to love this machine. It is over-designed in almost every way and should have lasted me for 20 years. Unfortunatly, I can't reccomend this unit due to the flaw described above. I started to notice scalping in my 2.5 acre lawn at the beginning of spring when the unit was new. I figured that the deck needed to be leveled and proceeded to try to level the deck over and over again. Each time I leveled the deck, I'd go out and mow. Soon I noticed that the scalping and ridges were confined to turns. Idling the mower in the garage and turning the steering wheel lock to lock produced some pretty startling results. The whole tractor and deck assembly rocks from side to side as you turn the wheel. The outer edge of a 48" deck will rise and fall as much as an 1 1/4". It seems to me to be a flaw in the rear wheel steering geometry. The dealer took the unit back with 48 hours on the clock and fiddled with it for 2 weeks. I'm not exactly sure what transpired between this dealer and Deere but in the end they traded me my 534 for a new and more expensive (albeit with no AWS) X540..no questions asked. Sorry to see the 534 go but VERY satified that the dealer is standing by their commitment to customer satisfaction.