If it will not jump start, you may likely have a loss of continuity in your battery cable connection points. Check, clean and tighten ALL places where your battery cables have an attaching bolt. Not JUST at the BATTERY. You gotta have good contact at the other ends of the cables too, both the ground and hot cable. Check and clean the cable that runs from the solenoid to the starter also.
After cleaning and tightening the cable fasteners, try a jump start.
If you lose continuity in the battery cables the battery will not charge either, so that may be why a dead battery.
Tackle the battery by having it load tested at Uh Oh Zone or other auto parts center.

Mownie - thank you for your quick reply. This tractor is about 6 years old. The original battery lasted 4 years and I had to replace a battery last year which at the time I thought was not too bad, and others on this forum thought the same. The fact that I got only 1 year of service out of the replacement might signal that it is not recharging.

Will do as you suggested and post back results.
Thanks again.

When you jump, jump directly to the starter. IF all is well now, then you know it is battery or cables, something up stream. Jumping to the posts of the old battery may not work because the old battery my have lost its' continuity.

Now IF you are successful jumping directly to the starter, use the jumper cables to jump from your "old" battery directly to the starter. NO luck, battery, IF it works, cables, solenoid safety switches. You can now use one side of the jumper cables at a time to isolate whether it is the ground side or the hot side cable/wiring that is at fault.

Walt Conner

end result, bad voltage regulator is what the shop said this evening. Explains why the original battery lasted 4 years and now with another "new" battery today I have now purchased 3 in the last 2 years. Glad I am back to using the shop where I purchased the tractor.

I stopped using them 2 years ago because they were unable to get me the snow blower attachment as they were no longer a "registered" Simplicity dealer. Went to a "registered" dealer and got toasted by them not doing a proper diag on the problem.

That is what happens when you ask for advice then don't take it.

Walt Conner

Walt - I followed the advice I was provided and realized once I started applying it that I had neither the talent or time to deal with this effectively so I called a pro who does this for a living. As a CPA, tractor repair is not even close to my sweet spot. Next time you are looking to evaluate your tax or retirement planning or some investment ideas I imagine you might call someone who does that for a living once you run out of bandwidth.

Last thing I need is for a storm to show up and not have the equipment to deal with it. I value the advice, but also acknowledge my limitations.