Mower recommendations anyone?

UncleCarl

Member
Hey folks. I'm going to have to look into buying a lawn mower for a fairly good sized yard and driveway. I'm wanting something thats big enough to handle everything without being overworked. The house sits on an acre of land and we have a quarter mile driveway and a few outbuildings we would need to mow around. What size, make/model of mower would you recommend? Whats the most reliable and best bang for the buck? And how much should we pay for it? Thanks
 
Hard to beat a good used New Holland TC18 or TC21.. 2000 to 2005 models sell for around here for $4500 to $7000 with 60" belly mowers and a lot of them have buckets. Good little tractors that have 4 wheel drive, 3 point hitch with PTO. You can do a lot with one from mowing to garden work easily..


Compare a good used New Holland to say a new $3500 Husqvarna GT52X.. You should quickly realize where you should put your money.
 
Well that's interesting. I never thought about a small tractor with a belly mower. I was kind of anticipating looking into a zero turn mower. Yeah I'll have to consider it
 
Z turns are good for what they are. I have a 2112 Ferris 1500Z and a 2008 Gravely Z260. I love the hydraulic on the Gravely and the smooth ride of the Ferris. Good for mowing but that is about it. Cant add a snow plow or even pull a trailer without a hassle of fabricating the brackets to do it.

Thing you need to know about Zero turn mowers.. I do not care what the brand or model may be. If the front axle/wheels are attached to a solid frame (Scag, Hustler, Dixie Chopper, John Deere etc) THEY WILL beat your back bone down through your butt and up through your skull.. When I went looking for a new one in 2008 I found that the Z260 had a floating front axle that smoothed the ride out some.. But it has nothing on a Ferris for a smooth ride. As long as they make mowers I will never own another brand of Z turn mower.

Here good used z turn sale for about the same price of a good little sub compact 4x4 tractor.
 
Well you are going to get a lot of options and opinions. If you just want a mower or a small tractor etc. etc.. Now for something that can get in and out of almost anything I would go with a GARDEN tractor. Bigger and tougher then a lawn tractor. Mount snow plows and or snow blowers with out too much trouble. The Husqvarna in the photo I have rebuilt virtually from the frame up! It has 22hp and a 54 inch deck. Made only one year it has a SIX speed manual transmission. I mow about two and one half acres with it. I wanted a "toy" tractor as I was raised on a farm and I love this little baby. Now with any lawn or garden tractor watch out for who makes it. A whole lot of stuff out there is built by MTD. The Husqvarnas are built by AYP. Much better built machines. Cost a bit more but more than worth it. Another thing is the deck. You want a tall deck. Mow much better than the cheep ones. Another thing is AYP decks have baffles on them. They mow SOOOOooo much nicer than just a plain deck. Keep the deck under the tractor for the best control and mow job. Do some careful shopping and look around. You should most likely go for 54 inch or bigger but the bucks start to add up once you get over 46 inch machines. If you stay with a garden tractor get it with 23 inch rears, Makes for a Much better ride! Most all garden tractors now are hydros. I have two Husqvarna machines and love them.
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PS. If a garden tractor make sure it has a Briggs and Stratton twin v-tech engine. Don't get a Kohler. MHO. The briggs engines are very strong and can be all of the way up to 26 hp. There is supposed to be a bigger one out there now.
 
I retired my last Kohler. My corral is full of BS singles for the small engines and V twins for 18 hp up. Have one 18 hp V twin Honda on my Hustler Fastrak 44" zt. Pressure washer has a Honda single. Neither Honda was the reason for the choice. Just what came on the equipment and work ok for me.

Considering 37 years of maintaining my place, I currently have about 5 dedicated mowers from 44 to 52", 2 of which are ZTs. One is a Husqvarna 46 twin blade. All these mowers have been modified to suit me and a soft ride and traction on hills are the two main concerns.

If I only had one, it'd easily be the Husq. 46, hydro. It now has a 20 hp BS V twin whereas it came with a single cylinder Kohler 20 which is in the trash. I noticed that new ones at local big box stores are equipped with the BS V twin.......wise choice. Having just 2 blades and a high deck, it sweeps grass out easily and the underside of the deck stays clean. Steering is tight so you can work around flower beds and trees but has the power and transmission drive power to climb hills and chop up the tough stuff. I did put ATV lugs tires on it, front and rear so that I can mow my 30 degree pond banks. Yes they can tear up the lawn, but not if you are easy when changing directions....ease the pedal down, don't stomp it. Fuel consumption is low to boot.

I have very rough terrain and the OEM springs were too stiff. I was going into TSC one day and they had Cub Cadet mowers on display. I checked the springs (do it on every mower I pass like that) and saw the perfect spring for a soft ride. Did the www CC search, found the model, found the parts list, found the springs and now all my mowers have those springs. At 6 bucks each, best money I ever spent.

Good luck in your search.
 
If I where you I would look for a Farmall Cub or cub low boy. Big enouhg to get the job done and never be over worked plus they can do a whole lot more then any riding lawn mower would ever think about doing
 
My place is 5ac. and I have the equipment to keep it nice. My Moms house is on 1ac.,there is no way to mow her place with anything bigger than a 60in deck,a zero turn would be a lot better.
 
If there are a lot of trees and obstructions, and the land is flat, go with a zero turn.

If there are slopes, ditches, hills, go with a garden or compact tractor.
 
I have 3 late 90's garden tractors (1 Yard Pro (AYP) Briggs powered & 2 Craftsman - Kohler Pro powered ) and 90% of the parts are MTD parts. All three have the 50" decks and take the same parts and are MTD parts. I find the Briggs to be a quite engine but the Kohlers seam to be a stronger engine. I would stay away from 46" decks. Neighbor has a 25 HP husky garden tractor with 46" deck and can't handle grass if it gets over 5" tall ( leaves gobs of grass all over the yard) the 50" doesn't do that.
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Best deal depends on your ability to repair and maintain. The less ability you have the closer you should stay to new. If you have no need for a tractor then go with a zero turn. A lightly used commercial model is much prefered over the home owner models. A good old tractor that doesn't get much mention here is the G1800, 1900 and 2000 Kubotas. The first two are diesels the latter is gasoline and very high quality. A good G1900 can be bought for 2000 and will run so long on a tank of fuel that you will be amazed.
 
I was in the middle of hooking up the trac vac. You need to remove the chute. Also I have a 1977 CUB with a 60 inch Woods deck. For wide open mowing with no stuff in the way they are fine but are a bear if you need to get around stuff like bushes, flower gardens, rock piles, etc. Also the decks cost over $3000.oo if your used CUB didn't come with one. FO
 
Take a look at my post "Found the cure". I bet your Briggs engines will work like magic! It has been almost one month since I have installed that new {third revision} carb on my machine and I still can't get over how fantastic it runs now. Should work on both of your AYP machines. The only trouble of that manual tranny is getting on and off of the darn thing. I have a very bad burn scar on my leg from when I was a kid and need to really take care getting on the machine. How do you like the set of ATV rear tires I found at the flea market? They are around $200.oo tires that I got for $25.oo. Now I really have a little tractor!
 
If your land has steep banks or hills stay away from a zero turn. But you probably already know if your a zero turn guy or not. Personally, I like to enjoy my mowing experience rather than imagine myself in some kind of video game. If I had 2500-3000 bucks to spend on a lawn tractor that was built like a tank, 100% serviceable and would handle anything I would buy a older Cub Cadet Super Garden Tractor (2072, 2082, 2182, etc.) in EC like this :

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I have had no problems with carbs on the 2 machines above. I like the ag tires on Craftsman and I have some banks to mow over and turf tires just don't work. Manuals are a little harder to get off and on but are better in pulling loads and I pull hay rack with cord of wood with ag tires. My third tractor is alsoo a Craftsman like the one above but has the Hydro Gear transmission in it and not much easier to get on and off. It has the turf 24-12-12's on it.First picture not good second is clear.
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The Yard Pro has a 20HP Briggs Vangard and is a quite running engine. I have an old Ranch King with a Briggs 18 HP apposed two cylinder with around 1,600 hours on it and never been touched outside of normal servicing every 20 hours.
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Yes 30-36 hp range, industrial duty rated. What people don't realize is that BS builds to the spec. You (the retailer) come in and want an el cheapo, they will build it for you. You want top of the line, they will build that too and everything in between.
 
"If your land has steep banks or hills stay away from a zero turn."

Married2Allis
Would you care to educate me??

Remember now I own two zero turn mowers, a Ferris 1500 and a Gravely zZ260. And have used many different brands of them since the mid 90's. I have operated them on some very steep hill sides and have yet to encounter any serious problems..


Also have a Kubota F2880

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That I use to mow on some steep hills on 350 acre where the cabin is located here in WV along with the z-turns.

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I know where there is a nice looking Simplicity 7117 available near me. (not mine, wife is telling me "NO MORE")
 

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