Strengths 24 HP Briggs & Stratton Intek engine, ease of installing attachments.

Weaknesses PTO mounting, drive belt, difficulty of drive belt installation and adjustment, mower deck, optional bagger, expense of attachments.

Overall I own a GTX2446 which is the same mower with the smaller deck. From day one, I've had a love/hate relationship with it. When it functions well, I love it, but mostly I love to hate it. The first day I used it, the engine suddenly stopped. After 20 minutes of poking around, I found a partially seated electrical connector. After getting the engine restarted, things went well until the drive belt broke on the second usage. After getting the unit back from the repair tech at Lowes, the PTO fell off the engine. To keep it from falling off, I've had to use thread locker and an impact wrench to mount it. I just replaced the fourth drive belt in four years, and for the life of me, I cannot understand why the manufacture didn't use hydrostatic drive. It would have made the unit outstanding. The belts are moderately difficult to replace, and just about impossible to adjust properly. Poor design. The 46" deck doesn't give enough air flow to use the optional bagger in an effective manner. Unless the grass is perfectly dry, the chute clogs frequently even at the highest cutting setting. This makes me put off cutting until after the heat of the day has burned off the morning dew. Even while not using the bagger, the deck clogs badly with wet grass. Dry grass is hard to find in the Pacific Northwest, so I've spent way too much time removing the deck and manually cleaning it out. So much for the washout port functionality. I purchased the unit with the thought of using it for more than a mower. However, cost of attachments was prohibitive. For example, to install the tiller required the electic sleeve hitch which cost almost $800. Add the cost of the tiller, and you paid more than the cost of the tractor for a single attachment. After starting the fifth season with this unit, the wife finally caved in and let me order a Deere. My X500 arrives today, so adios Troybilt. No more MTD products for me.