You said you just bought the tractor. Was it doing this when you took delivery? May be the linkage needs adjusted or a slipping drive belt. A little moan, especially in reverse or under heavy load is normal. There is an hour meter on this unit, how many hours reported?

Try pulling up on the reverse pedal to see if it goes faster in reverse. It may just need the linkage adjusted as yf suggests. If it was a belt it would have problems in forward as well. May be a good time to change the tranny fluid as well. There are many threads on hear about how to do it if you use the search function.

I guess I misunderstood his message, I read it as the problem is with F and R. Indeed if forward is not slowing or speed in forward is normal the drive belt is fine. In order to change fluid the unit would need to be removed. At that point I would change the drive belt as well.

Sorry for not replying sooner.

In forward, it definitely slows down up an incline (and I don't mean much of an incline). But it still goes. However in reverse, if there is any incline at all (again, VERY minimal incline), there is no power.

I have been pretty busy with other stuff here, so I have not had a lot of time to mess with it yet. I will try to look at the linkage and I guess change the fluid shortly.

Do these hydrostatic transmissions "go out"? Just hoping I don't have a bigger problem on my hands here....

Well, from past findings on my friends L110 JD tractor, it did exactly what you are describing. I advised him he needed a new transmission, but the man at the dealers shop said they could remedy the situation, so i earned a bit of cash by hauling it 20 miles to the dealer's shop. I didn't ask him how much they charged, but knowing how most JD dealers charge, i suspect it wasn't cheap.
So--did it work?? Yes---but---it started doing the same thing in about a month. And, this time--guess what---a new transmission did the trick!
So, any claims that it might be made to quit groaning and back up well, are not believed by me.
but, i could be wrong--i'm just giving some advice! If you are age 21 or over--do what you want!

My L130 had the same symptoms at just 3 years old or so. I traded it in on an X520 and have been much happier. The tranny on the L130 was very light duty, not suited to pulling much of anything or any kind of inclines. Disappointing. If you search on this forum, you'll find many threads about junior John Deere transmission problems.

By the way...it has 115 hours on it. (Someone asked earlier)

Also, any idea on the cost of a new tranny? I imagine it is going to be much more than I want to mess with.