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I'll agree, you do need to look em over carefully, gear box internal parts, check for leaky output shaft seals, where the gear box attaches to the deck, make sure the gear box is tight to the deck, the deck holes can get ovalled out if the bolts loosen and no one tightens them. The deck and entire enclosure will tell you if some rough objects have been run through, you'll see that big circle pattern in the deck. Blade carrier and stump pan, check for cracks and failing welds. I don't know much about slip clutches, but they can be seized up, if it does not have one of those, also make sure the shear bolt in the mower PTO drive shaft where it couples to the gear box is a grade 2, so it shears. 3pt connection pins, do loosen up, overall there really is not much to these, you do want to avoid one that is obviously hammered. Some can have a deck that looks a little beat up but is mechanically sound. It's always nice to have the thing hitched up and see it operate, look for excess vibration and noise from the gear box, do check the fluid in the gear box/differential etc. I looked at a 4' or 5' model yesterday at my friends parents farm, all the welds on the deck were separated, no guard on the square type pto, maybe the gear box was a replacement and the rest might be mechanically ok, I'd enjoy fixing the welds, easy enough to do that, but if someone offered it for sale, $50-$100 max. I have a Rhino SE-6, has to be from the 80's, I found a book on it after some time, this will be it's 6th mowing season, it came with the tractor and was used. I have done repairs to it, even had the tail wheel come off, hit same on the next pass, getting dark, got 2 nice round rocks caught under there, shoulder bolts that hold the blades sheared like they are supposed to and I found all the broken parts, suprisingly though, I did some work to it last summer, new blades, changed the lube in the gear box, always keep the fittings greased on it, repaired the side of the deck, the tail wheel incident pushed the one side outward, adjusted it per the instructions in the book I got for it last year, finally got my leveling box unseized and it now cuts like a new one.
You never know with these, many of them never get serviced, been run through the worst conditions, let sit & rust up, then someone puts a high price on it when it is no longer needed, best to find one you know who owned it or you can tell what kind of condition it's in, they don't bring a lot of money, but even my old Rhino would be worth a few hundred, in field ready condition. You also want to consider what kind of guards it has, this Rhino has never sent things flying towards me, others can and will launch things, I think the way it's adjusted on the tractor has a lot to do with it, stay in clean fields whenever possible or make sure you do have the right guards on it.
All said and done, new might be the best way to go, take care of it, should provide some good years of service.
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