I don't own any John Deere products. Never have. My cousin owns this F725. I was coming up for the weekend to stay with my mom, and while giving me the details I needed about her medications etc, he just happened to mention where the mower was parked. And it just happened to be full of gas.
Hint accepted, after settling in at the house, I went over to the shop and checked out the mower. At first I somehow got it stuck in park, but I figured out what I had done wrong. I could get this puppy to go just fine, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to engage the mower.
I parked it and headed to the house, jumped on the laptop. Google first sent me to what my snif-sensor seemed like rip-offs wanting me to pay for manuals. This route wasn't working--I just went to johndeere.com. It took me 7 clicks and four text characters to find the page in the manual that gave me the answer I was looking for. (There is a knob you pull up to engage the mower--I had tried pushing and turning that knob, but hadn't thought of pulling it up)
Just pull up the knob for maybe half an inch and there goes the belt and there go the mower blades. Here we go.
Thanks John Deere for supporting your products with your web-accessible online manual. I liked the design and simplicity--all html with no pdf download involved. Well done!
Here is the location of the manuals for the John Deere F725.