We have a Kubota 60" diesel mower. Lots of power for getting through higher grasses, if needed. I like it very much. Also, the Kubota dealer is close by and has great service, which made a big difference in our decision of what to buy.
[QUOTE=khall;8580340]
We have a Ferris 60" and a Gravely 54" I think. Like them both for different reason, Ferris is great with the suspension and big Cat diesel engine. Gravely is good for smaller areas, that 60" deck not so good on uneven ground.[/QUOTE]
Second vote for Ferris, we have the same unit.
Love our Hustler. But it is terrible on slopes. Our neighbor’s has a roll bar; ours does not.
I have a Scagg Turf Tiger, 61" deck. Scaggs are built like a tank. The deck is powered by a drive shaft not by long belts coming from the engine like the others mentioned so far. A deck powered by a drive shaft has superior cutting power. This is a MAJOR factor along with being extremely well made that they are used by commercial lawn services.
I bought mine used a few years ago. It had low hours but was an early 2000 model. The seat was in good shape but not that comfy. Replaced with a better one. Mine is a 25 hp and is under powered for my needs. It does cut at 6 inches which is nice for the small paddocks and mowing around my outside jump courses. Had to replace one of the hydro pumps which are expensive at $600 each. Pretty easy DIY. It is advised they should be replaced in pairs and they should be. Will replace the other one soon.
Like most things you get what you pay for. If not cutting a lot of ground and the terrain relatively flat a lower cost residential/homeowner mower should hold up for a long time. But if cutting lots of acres of thick grass and using on challenging terrain the hydro pumps can and will wear out much quicker. This is not a cheap repair. Regardless of mower if taken to a service repair $1,500-2,000+. The other major wear part are the spindles on the deck that the blades are attached to. These can cost $200+ each. Though sometimes just the bearings can be replaced which are much cheaper. But some brands only sell the whole unit not just the bearings.
Durability/reliability along with cost of parts should be taken into account over price and the comfort of the ride. I am not pushing Scagg brand. I choose it over others because all of the reviews I read said how well built they are and the EASE of repair. I work/repair all of my equipment so I am more than handy with a wrench. I hate working on stuff where a “key” bolt that needs to be taken off can only be reached by a child’s hand. I don’t like a lot of plastic and “fluff” cheap parts that can easily be broken.
I see a lot of people running X-Mart machines. Don’t know anything about them.
If you are not a DIY person as others have said local service is important. Parts are easier and much cheaper on the internet than buying from my local Scagg dealer. So that’s not a factor for me anymore.
Beware of buying from from a “Box store”. They carry some of the “names” we know but they are not built the same. They are built to fit a price model. Box stores contract warranty repair to the lowest local bidder. I made this mistake on a mower. It broke not long after purchase. It took almost a month to get it back and it was a simple repair. I could have order the part and repaired in my self in an hour. Lesson learned. Buy from the local dealer but make sure they have a good service department also.
eX-Mark mowers are very popular with commercial landscapers. Most popular brand around here. They are fast, good cutters, and durable.
But as a Ferris owner with horse pastures, you couldn’t convince me to own one because it has no suspension beyond the bouncy seat option.
Kubota, hands down
We have 3, 72" Kubota diesel zero turns and 40 acres that my husband mows like a golf course. He occasionally uses them as bush hogs and has beat them to death. He put one in the lake clear up to the roll bar… it was fine. Their service is fantastic and they have held up better than well and are on year 13 with no major repairs.
[QUOTE=kcmel;8582368]
Love our Hustler. But it is terrible on slopes. Our neighbor’s has a roll bar; ours does not.[/QUOTE]
Which one do you have? Do you just use it on your lawn, or mow your pasture. I was looking at the Raptor SD or the FasTrak and maybe doing something different for pastures.
If you can find a used Howard Price mower, it is , bar none, the toughest you can buy. http://www.howardpriceturf.com/products.htm It would probably feature in your will ! There is a huge difference between a mower built for commercial use and those for consumers. There is nothing worse than a mower that keeps breaking.
We get our zero turn mowers from our farm JD dealer, not those sold thru the big boxes like Home Depot.
Ours are the commercial kind, that will do smaller pastures and horse and cattle pens under the fences, etc.
We never had any trouble with any of them, just gas them up and drive them, even in the heaviest stuff, so can’t say how the dealership would have handled any problems.
Zero turn are twice as fast as riding mowers, but not as versatile if you want to do more than mow with them, like pull smaller carts or wagons, etc.
We have some lawn services that mow for little.
If we were not so far from town, we may just let them do the mowing, is cheaper than buying the machine and spending that time.
They trim trees, weed and fertilize and spray for weeds and blow around the porches, do an excellent job.
I used them once a week for a couple of months when I had shoulder surgery and they were worth it.
[QUOTE=kcmel;8582368]
Love our Hustler. But it is terrible on slopes. Our neighbor’s has a roll bar; ours does not.[/QUOTE]
Terrible how??? Tippy??
[QUOTE=Bluey;8588088]
We get our zero turn mowers from our farm JD dealer, not those sold thru the big boxes like Home Depot.[/QUOTE]
That’s a good point, a lot of people don’t know that there is a difference in quality between what is sold at the dealership and what is sold through stores. John Deere and Cub Cadet are vastly different, off the top of my head.
The “box” stores get the brand name to produce a product that fits a price point, rather than the ultimate purpose. Those units do not perform or last as well as those produced for the authorized dealer network.
Regarding the concern about slopes, ZTRs are not built with “traction” in mind and their very nature for steering includes slipping the rear wheels. Slopes are best handled up and down but when it’s excessively wet, they may have issue with steeper areas. And yes, you can roll one because they move fast when you ask and can do hairpin turns. A ROPS should not be optional and one must ALWAYS wear the seat belt with a ZTR or tractor equipped with the ROPS so you stay in the seat if it tips and don’t get crushed.
Can someone post approx. costs for some of the mowers mentioned? I’d love to get one. We have a bush hog on our Kubota but still have 4 acres of “lawn” and pay a company $130 a cut!! The do a fantastic job and some of it is sloped but still…we do have a good push mower to do the little steep inclines. I am sure we could mow the rest ourselves. What do some of these better mowers run? And some brands I haven’t heard of…! Thx!
Gravely 60" $10,000 I think a few years ago, Ferris with CAT diesel $16,000 10 yrs ago.
My SCAG was about $5600.
2016 price quote I got: Hustler Raptor SD (SD is the heavier duty version of the Raptor) is around $4,000 (depends on deck size). It is not a commercial mower, but is the heaviest duty non-commercial I have found at that price point (welded deck, etc.).
The Fastrack SD is more of an entry level commercial, and I think it is around $5,500+, but I don’t remember for sure.
Ferris IS3200z is around $11k no discounts with gas engines and 61" deck.
Ferris’s always run $1k-2k higher than a comparably equipped other mower because it has the suspension system. I strongly advocate that suspension, and for horse pastures, the better the suspension the more you will tolerate speed and the faster you can get done.
No matter what mower you end up with, the seat itself should be a suspension seat too and a good one at that.
54" JD zero turn, at the JD dealers, the better ones, right now seem to be running around $3750 to $4000.
You may get discounts, AQHA bonus $500 off, or other such added to that too.
