Buying Advice Best riding mower for rolling land and 6 acres?

[SteveM70]

Depends on how steep the hills are, if real steep not so good if you have to turn. The better models will out perform the smaller and lighter models. Living in the mountains I use 4x4 garden tractors with good results.

I agree, if it is steep and or often wet then 4x4 is the way to go. My next best choice would be a cheap/lightweight mower. I live on a steep hillside and own a MF 2028? which is just a rebadged Simplicity Legacy. It is a heavy rear wheel drive mower with diff lock and filled agg tires. It does not go up these hills as well as any cheap riding mower I have had with turf tires and me swinging my #200 butt from fender to fender although it is more stable on side hills.

 

[buickanddeere]

I agree, if it is steep and or often wet then 4x4 is the way to go. My next best choice would be a cheap/lightweight mower. I live on a steep hillside and own a MF 2028? which is just a rebadged Simplicity Legacy. It is a heavy rear wheel drive mower with diff lock and filled agg tires. It does not go up these hills as well as any cheap riding mower I have had with turf tires and me swinging my #200 butt from fender to fender although it is more stable on side hills.

Upgrading a zero turn or lawn tractor to radial and even bias ATV lug tires do wonders for traction and do not tear up the lawn.

 

[MiserableOldFart]

Kubota GR or BX. GR AWD if you need to get under fruit trees - ROPS don't do well getting under fruit trees. Both of these are very expensive machines. If you are posolutely sure you only want to mow, the GR is a good choice. Simplicity tractors are very good machines, and they have 4x models too. The GR AWD releases the front wheel drive when you turn the wheels sharply so it doesn't dig into the grass. It also sits much lower than my NH TC26DA and I feel much safer on our very uneven terrain, and again, it gets under the semi-dwarf apple trees. JD makes some very nice machines (not the big box ones) but they are significantly more expensive than the GR is 4 wd models. I'd definitely get the biggest deck that you can use because the smaller decks hug the tractor and make it hard to get close to stuff. The GR has a very complex steering that makes it "near zero turn." Deere has some models with 4 wheel steering, but they are very expensive.

Of course, if you have $25,000 you don't know what to do with, you could go with a Kubota F series.. ;-)

 

[bdog]

I have a Deere 60" commercial grade zero turn. I bought it as a dealer demo with around 50 hours on it for around 5k if I remember. It is amazing how fast it cuts. I mow around four acres with lots of trees, corners, fences, sidewalks, etc and it takes me less than two hours. Today I cut about two acres of my pasture with it that I normally now with my 10' shredder and tractor. It was over a foot tall. It was slower going and took two passes one at 5" and the second at 2" but it did an amazing job and I was able to get right up to the trees which I never could with the tractor. I used to dread mowing but now I actually kind of enjoy it. I will never own another mower that is not a zero turn.

 

[Gary Fowler]

This (see photo) is typical of hills that I mow up, down and sideways with not problem with my zero turn Ferris IS 700Z. My old Craftsman 6000 ZTR doesn't do so well on the hills though and slides down and sideways easily. The cheaper ZTR mowers just don't have the weight or the tires to hold straight on a slope of more than 7-10 degrees and grass must be dry.
The heavier commercial or heavy duty residential work pretty good on slopes.

 

[TexasDad76]

Well, I decided to go with another "heavy duty" Husqvarna Landowner Series, since it's about the same quality as a John Deere X500 costing twice as much. Apparently, a lot of others agree.

I went with this model:
GT52XLS
Husqvarna Riding Lawn Mowers GT52XLS

It's part of the Landowner Series, so everything is thicker and heavy duty. Looking back, I think most of my problems with my old Husqvarna were due to my own inexperience (mowing thick, wet grass until the deck belt snapped) or stupidity (leaving gas in the mower for 6 months, or driving over small piles of thorny mesquite brush). Another example was the rubber washer over the gas tank (under the seat) which gets killed by Father Time and the Texas heat. Once it cracks, it lets water seep in to the gas tank. That problem cost me trouble for MONTHS. So a lot of my perceived "adventure" with this HV mower was really my own doing, or at least not HV's fault.

I also was REALLY BAD about never greasing the mandrel fittings. I bought a grease gun, but had trouble getting it to lock on (and remove itself) so I basically stopped using it. Stupid, I know. Recently I had some trouble with the left-front tire, because it needed grease and was constantly squealing and grinding the inside (bearing?) of the wheel until it needed replacing.

My solution? I bought another new grease gun (my old one, besides being a bit rusty and covered in grease, doesn't work anyhow. Grease comes out everywhere BUT where you try to inject grease!) I don't want to save $35 and manage to ruin a(nother) riding mower tire.

Except for that one glitch where my old mower somehow ran the battery down (and my "hours meter" UP), and the issue with the machine literally falling in two -- maybe I can just bolt the dang thing together pre-emptively, install a fuel-line cutoff for $3, avoid driving over piles of thorny brush, and be all set.

Including 6.75% sales tax and a nice discount off the mower itself, this machine cost me $3515.

The advantage of getting another Husqvarna is that I can use all my old attachments and spare parts ($400 trailer cart, $300 triple bag grass collector) plus two complete spare tires I bought -- not just the tire, but the wheel and everything. The back tires are quite large; I think that spare back tire cost me $150 or more. So if I get a flat, I can just change it out and keep mowing, and fix the tire later.

This one is a Kawasaki 24hp whereas my old one was a 26hp Briggs & Stratton.

I'm pleased with what they've done with HV mowers in the past 8 years. They have a gas pedal/cruise control now instead of an infinite-speed lever on the right side. This one still has the silly "translucent visual gas gauge" under the seat, which doesn't really help you at all, but "oh well".

Apparently my old 2754GLS had the lower end "reinforced" deck, at least low-end for the Landowner Series. My new one has a borderline commercial quality "fabricated" deck.

I could have gone with the SI series, which has a lot more bells & whistles, but I wanted durability, so that's what I bought instead. Thicker frame, cast iron spindles, fabricated deck, etc. I even like the fact it uses standard blades rather than the "tool-less blade replacement system" that some models offered -- I don't know if I trust something like that.



Here is what it feels like when I push the accelerator all the way down on my new GT52XLS:

Star Wars Hyperspace Jump (Extended) - YouTube

 

[big bubba]

w/zt just be prepared to see your share of skid marks on slopes, esp wet. safety prob ok.

 

[wmonroe]

Good luck, I hope it works out well. I'm sort of in the same situation as I'm looking for something to replace my current rider. I only use it for trimming around trees and a couple very steep slopes that I won't take my tractor across. Today's riding mowers are disappointing in what you get for the money. Let us know how you like it after a little use.
No pictures???

 

[rekees4300]

I also was REALLY BAD about never greasing the mandrel fittings. I bought a grease gun, but had trouble getting it to lock on (and remove itself) so I basically stopped using it. Stupid, I know. Recently I had some trouble with the left-front tire, because it needed grease and was constantly squealing and grinding the inside (bearing?) of the wheel until it needed replacing.

My solution? I bought another new grease gun (my old one, besides being a bit rusty and covered in grease, doesn't work anyhow. Grease comes out everywhere BUT where you try to inject grease!) I don't want to save $35 and manage to ruin a(nother) riding mower tire.

This inexpensive little device will solve the leaky grease gun problem.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/owning-operating/307933-review-locknlube-grease-gun-coupler.html?highlight=grease

 

[Poopdeck Pappy]

This inexpensive little device will solve the leaky grease gun problem.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/owning-operating/307933-review-locknlube-grease-gun-coupler.html?highlight=grease

+1 for the Lock-N-Lube. And it works best with a flexible hose on the grease gun.