bbraud6
Bronze Member
Nice!!!
Zero Turn Buying Decision Help/Price Check
- Thread starter Mpking
- Start date
Carl_NH
Elite Member
- Joined
- Apr 5, 2002
- Messages
- 3,257
- Location
- Coastal NH
- Tractor
- 01 Kubota B21TLB, 2010 Ferris 52" ZTR, Cub Cadet 1811, Gravely Super8
Very nice machine you got! Also cut quality looks great and like the before and after pics of the grass - I am sure you have a grin when running that!
Joe Dirt
New member
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2011
- Messages
- 23
- Tractor
- John Deere, Belarus, LS3010
Mpking, you are going to be pleased with that machine and one of the better ones in there line, I work part time for a dealer that sells them and Scag, you change your oil often and air filter, keep the blades sharp and that machine should last you 20 years, glad for you, have fun, Joe Dirt
DK35vince
Super Member
Nice mower. Good luck with it.
I've bought a Hustler FasTrak 54 for a couple years ago. I have been very pleased with it so far !!
I've bought a Hustler FasTrak 54 for a couple years ago. I have been very pleased with it so far !!
jwease
Member
I also bought a 54" Fast Track last weekend (after several weeks of research,reading forums and looking at them). Yesterday was the first mowing of my entire lawn and it took 1.5 hrs. It zipped around quickly and effortlessly. I had been mowing with a 42" John Deere 125, (a very long 3 hrs) because my Simplicity was out of commission. This is a replacement for my 7 year old Simplicity 50" ZTR. It had developed too many problems for me to want to deal with only 390hrs. I'm very happy with the Hustler! It is a great improvement over the Simplicity.
I too looked at the same mowers you were looking at plus the Ferris IS500z. The Ferris was very similar to the Simplicity and it had the same pump and wheel motor set-up that was the source of much of my problems with the Simplicity. I wanted to avoid that. I don't think I could have gone wrong with either the Scag or Gravely but the price on the Hustler was good and the dealer is only about 5 miles away compared to 20-25 for the others.
I too looked at the same mowers you were looking at plus the Ferris IS500z. The Ferris was very similar to the Simplicity and it had the same pump and wheel motor set-up that was the source of much of my problems with the Simplicity. I wanted to avoid that. I don't think I could have gone wrong with either the Scag or Gravely but the price on the Hustler was good and the dealer is only about 5 miles away compared to 20-25 for the others.
jwease
Member
I'm not sure of the exact problem. The mower wasn't going as quick as it did when new and especially lacked power going up the slight inclines I have on my property which slowed down my mowing time. Most notable was that the mower could not go up a hill at the back of my leach field that it easily did when new. A dealer, 2 years ago now, said they didn't find anything wrong but "tuned up the engine". He also suggested I buy a new Ferris if I wanted faster mowing speed. This spring I took it to another dealer who flushed the hydo system and found "metal fillings". With new fluid and filter he hoped it would fix the problem but it didn't. The final straw was when 2 weeks after the hydro service one of the hydro hoses started leaking. I had already replaced all four individually in previous years! This last dealer said that my problems were very premature and new hydro pumps and motors would be the only fix for the the problem. He also reassured me that I should not be afraid of the individual pump/wheel motor set up found in many mowers. To much money to repair. It also developed another problem where it wouldn't charge the battery.
Otherwise the Simplicity had a beautiful cut and never scalped the grass on my less than perfect lawn. Thats the short and sweet of it. I had also looked for answers to the mowers problems on this site in years past if you wanted to search them out. I could never find much help because it doesn't seem to be a common problem. I definitely got a lemon that only ripened after the warranty was up.
Otherwise the Simplicity had a beautiful cut and never scalped the grass on my less than perfect lawn. Thats the short and sweet of it. I had also looked for answers to the mowers problems on this site in years past if you wanted to search them out. I could never find much help because it doesn't seem to be a common problem. I definitely got a lemon that only ripened after the warranty was up.
LMan1967
Gold Member
FWIW, I also bought a Hustler FasTrak 54 after a lot of research..was the model that has my preferred combination of features (ZT 3100 HSTs, Kawasaki engine, etc) at my price point. Ive only had it about 3 mos, but so far its working well.
I'm in the same boat. I've been researching a lot and reading a lot on this forum.
My Dad has a 2006 RZT50 with a Kawasaki 22hp and 409 hours on it. It takes me 2h20m to do on it what it takes me to do with a 50" garden tractor or a 50" walk behind at roughly 5h20m. He has had no problems with it and he's a lot more abusive than me. So, I don't really buy into the whole "consumer mowers suck" and "EZT transmissions always fall apart" belief.
I'm looking at a 50-54" model as being ideal. I'd like something with at least 20" rubber on an 8" wheel to save my back. It needs to be physically short in length and it needs to be no wider than 57".
I won't buy a Kohler anything. I'd tolerate a Briggs even though they make almost nothing in the United States. I'd prefer a Kawasaki.
It needs to be fairly light also due to my lawn's nature. While I have about 1.5 acres of open area that takes like no time to mow with the garden tractor. It's the trees that are the problem and when I tried using a commercial model that weighed 960lbs it tore everything up.
I'd like a ZT2800 or ZT3100 drive, but the EZT doesn't scare me that much.
Kind of leaning towards the RZT54 as you can pick it up for $3k on clearance.
My Dad has a 2006 RZT50 with a Kawasaki 22hp and 409 hours on it. It takes me 2h20m to do on it what it takes me to do with a 50" garden tractor or a 50" walk behind at roughly 5h20m. He has had no problems with it and he's a lot more abusive than me. So, I don't really buy into the whole "consumer mowers suck" and "EZT transmissions always fall apart" belief.
I'm looking at a 50-54" model as being ideal. I'd like something with at least 20" rubber on an 8" wheel to save my back. It needs to be physically short in length and it needs to be no wider than 57".
I won't buy a Kohler anything. I'd tolerate a Briggs even though they make almost nothing in the United States. I'd prefer a Kawasaki.
It needs to be fairly light also due to my lawn's nature. While I have about 1.5 acres of open area that takes like no time to mow with the garden tractor. It's the trees that are the problem and when I tried using a commercial model that weighed 960lbs it tore everything up.
I'd like a ZT2800 or ZT3100 drive, but the EZT doesn't scare me that much.
Kind of leaning towards the RZT54 as you can pick it up for $3k on clearance.