I'm quite open and not afraid to admit that I'm pretty cheap. I'm in an interesting situation here that I was curious about. Since I bought our home almost two years ago, I knew the riding mower that came with it was on its last legs and not the most efficient at mowing/maintaining my 2+ acres. With a 36" cut, 12HP engine, slipping clutch packs, and only a 6 speed transmission, not to mention the 600+ hrs that were on it, it's not the most enjoyable tool to use. With that being said, after two mowing seasons, it's still here. Granted, it's a bit worse (this past fall the clutch slipping seems to be getting worse, and the engine will periodically stall and fail to start after a while). I've been telling myself I need to get a nice commercial ZTR, call it an investment that will last most of my mowing life, and be done with it. Then I look at the price tag, think about all the cool toys I could buy, and it's hard to swallow dropping that kind of money on a tool to accomplish a task I don't really enjoy to begin with. I'm considering just waiting until the mower completely craps out before I make my decision since I'm not dropping money into it now that it's on its last legs. For the price of a nice Hustler Fastrak (top of my list of new mowers), I could buy three garden tractors from any of the major brands. With the condition of my yard (slope, dead furrows, etc) they wouldn't last long, but hey, more toys in the meantime, right? Right? So...am I cheap here, or being logical?
About 2 acres even. Ben, haven't gone to get a quote from Bestline yet, but if it's not ~$5200-$5500, I'm not interested. That's the figure I got from non-local dealers.
Do you have kids? Thats what my father did when he decided he was going to be cheap for a while. Made us boys (3 of us) push mow 2.5 acres. It sucked while it lasted.
I'd really be thinking about a nice Craftsman for a third of the cost. That's me. You have more discretionary income though. I'm sure that I'd love the expensive (nicer) one, I just would rather have the extra 3 grand. 2 grand buys you a pretty nice tractor too. I mowed my parents (comparable to your propery) with 1100 dollar Murray as a youth 20 years ago. I just killed that thing last year on my own property. I severely abused that mower as a youth, probably went a decade or more without an oil change.
I mow about 1.75 acres. I have no complaints about my cub cadet that I bought 9 years ago for $2000? if I remember right. Normal routine upkeep, no issues.
Plant some of your yard into native grasses like big blustem, indian grass, little blue etc. The stuff is beautiful to look at, and you just cut way down on your yardwork.
Talk to your local state or contracting landscape people, get inside, and they can get you some stuff to spray your yard to keep it green, but make it grow very slow, they use it on the interstates... lol. Seroiusly though, I think a well taken care of Residential Craftsman, Cub, Deere, would fit the bill nicely, I'll be looking at them myself as soon as I get a couple things payed off.
You do NOT need to drop a lot of money in a mower to mow 2 acres, nor do you have to stick with a crappy mower either. Buy commercial equipment used, or top of the line residential new and either way you are looking at half of what your current cost estimates are. To mow only 2 acres even weekly for a 25 week growing season (generous), you are looking at 25-40 hours of use per year. With regular upkeep ANY mower will do fine. One of my commercial John Deeres just topped 2000 hours useage. It would take you 60 years of mowing to reach that point. You can splurge on a faster zero turn mower than your current unit and still be economical. I just bought a John Deere 737 w 400 hours on it for $3500. It is identical to the one with 2000 hours so I'd say its safe to assume there is plenty of life left in it. Store it inside a garage out of the weather, keep it greased, and change all the filters and fluids regularly and you won't have trouble out of nearly any mower.
I don't NEED a commercial mower, but I also have seen how the residential units are built for the most part, and I don't want it nickle and diming me to death. My yard (hard to explain) is rough. By rough, I mean the lower section still has and obvious dead furrow from when it was a farm back in the 50s and 60s. It bounces you around pretty decent even on a rider.I also will use this machine to mulch my leaves every fall (I hate raking), and there are often times a couple branches at the bottom of the yard in the leaf mixture that get nailed while I'm running over. Most industry guys I talked to about this recommended (after seeing my yard, the slope, and the terrain) that a commercial-grade (mind you the fastrak is actually a "residential" mower by Hustler's standards) mower would be the best long term investment. Granted, I know you do this for a side job as well Trevor, so I'm not discounting your advice. Ideally I need something with suspension (Ferris is out since I don't have local dealer support), and the Hustler offers the flex forks and suspension seat as well. The other option is to certainly just pick up another rider, deal with the slower mowing, and have a better ride. IF I do that, I HAVE to have a floating deck, so that also limits choices.
Heck dude... go all out. I can hook you up with a mower that will put pretty stripes in your yard for around $40,000
I'll pass. I get a kick out of all of the guys I read on these lawncare forums. They literally sit around ALL winter waiting for spring to come because lawn care is their hobby. Where we might list our bow equipment in our signatures, they list mowers, trimmers, blowers, etc. Back on topic, though. Any recommendations for a good solid rider and/or ZTR that you feel will last me at least 20+ years (yes, I mean 20+ years...we had a Bobcat push mower at my parents that lasted almost 30yrs)?
I would get the Hustler. We have 2 of them and I never liked mowing lawn, until I got on one of them last summer.
I mow +/- 2.5 acres each week sometimes twice. I bought a 52" Simplicity Zero Turn ( I believe it's a ZT3000) and I love it. My Dad bought a 60" graveley and I'd 10 to 1 rather mow with my mower and so would he. I looked and tested out the Bobcat's with the Kawasaki motor and man their sharp, but it didn't warrant another 2 grand.
