2002sliverado
Member
This message is a reply to an archived post by UncleCarl on October 01, 2016 at 18:45:47.
The original subject was "Mower recommendations anyone?".
Probably going to get an assortment of opinions and responses on this one. My opinion will be to stay away from the entry level discount machines. Much on these machines is cheap and light duty. My preference for my situation is a lawn and garden tractor of the higher end and heavy duty type. They tend to be built to handle harsher conditions. Mine has a liquid cooled gasoline powered engine, power steering, full function hydraulics, and is built for heavy duty usage. I purchased it used about 8 or 9 years ago. I have had very few issues with it, with only one requiring me to have a full service dealership perform service on the engine. The components and the overall design of the machine itself takes quite a beating on my property, as the ground conditions are far from smooth and level. This is my preference. I think you can find the brands of Cub Cadet (probably older models), John Deere, and Kubota will probably be the most common makes of machines offering the higher end, heavier duty tractor style machines. If you get into the zero turn models, you will find mid mount and front mount decks. I do not own or use any of these, but I believe Hustler, Grasshopper, Kubota, and John Deere probably are going to be your more common brands making the heavier duty machines. Look for those machines offering engines with full pressure lubrication and replaceable engine oil filters, which I think is most prevalent today, but I remember the time when the full pressure lubrication was just making its debut in lawn and garden equipment just 30 years ago. The liquid cooled Kawasaki in my current tractor has been a great engine offering long service intervals and the oil remains relatively clean and brown at service intervals of up to 100 hours. The drivetrain on my machine is well built, too.
The original subject was "Mower recommendations anyone?".
Probably going to get an assortment of opinions and responses on this one. My opinion will be to stay away from the entry level discount machines. Much on these machines is cheap and light duty. My preference for my situation is a lawn and garden tractor of the higher end and heavy duty type. They tend to be built to handle harsher conditions. Mine has a liquid cooled gasoline powered engine, power steering, full function hydraulics, and is built for heavy duty usage. I purchased it used about 8 or 9 years ago. I have had very few issues with it, with only one requiring me to have a full service dealership perform service on the engine. The components and the overall design of the machine itself takes quite a beating on my property, as the ground conditions are far from smooth and level. This is my preference. I think you can find the brands of Cub Cadet (probably older models), John Deere, and Kubota will probably be the most common makes of machines offering the higher end, heavier duty tractor style machines. If you get into the zero turn models, you will find mid mount and front mount decks. I do not own or use any of these, but I believe Hustler, Grasshopper, Kubota, and John Deere probably are going to be your more common brands making the heavier duty machines. Look for those machines offering engines with full pressure lubrication and replaceable engine oil filters, which I think is most prevalent today, but I remember the time when the full pressure lubrication was just making its debut in lawn and garden equipment just 30 years ago. The liquid cooled Kawasaki in my current tractor has been a great engine offering long service intervals and the oil remains relatively clean and brown at service intervals of up to 100 hours. The drivetrain on my machine is well built, too.