I've been reading up on Lawnsite and enjoy the website. There are some great stories over there about dealing with clients and some really wacky people that they have to work for!!!! As for mowers, it does appear that all of the top brands are used by them. I can't narrow down one over another, but have been concentrating on issues that they have and how well they are resolved.
Dealer support is everything and my biggest reason for what I will buy.
I test drove the Scag yesterday and was, REALLY impressed. The Kubota is nice too, but doesn't have as many features as the Scag, or seam as heavy duty, but costs a grand more for the same sized cut and power. A big difference is the Scag has a water cooled Kawasaki engine with duel hydraulic oil coolers for each pump. Nobody else has this. Another thing that none of the others have is a comfortable seat. Scag has a very nice seat. It's a simple thing, and I find it hard to believe a big price difference, but the seat on the Scag is just allot nicer then the other brands.
Of the other brands that I've seen so for, their decks are thinner, there hydraulic motors are cooled with plastic fans over them as well as plastic parts all over the place. None seem to have as big of tires on them, and soem don't have any way to grease the front spindles.
The Grasshopper dealer really went out of his way to discourage me on his machine. He kept telling me how it lacked tracktion and that mowing to the waters edge of my pond and backing up would never work. He is the New Holland dealer, and has a nice shop, but was a little too desperate to sell me a machine. I hate the high preasure, lets bring it out to your place right now and work out a deal approach. I really lost interest in it because of this.
The ExMark and Hustler are nice machines, drive good, but seem to lack the overall mass and for a better word, pressense of the Scag. For the HP and 60 inch cut, they are all priced in the same range, but lack the water cooled engine and hydraulic oil cooler.
Torro, Landpride, Snapper, Cub Cadet, and Country Clipper are just not in the same leage as the others and of no interest. Deere has me nervous. For every great story I read about somebody who has one, I read another with problems. I didn't go to the dealer to check out their commercial stuff because I just don't trust them. The ones I saw at the box stores were pretty sad and one was leaking hydraulic oil on the floor of Lowes.
Bad Boy and Ferris don't have a dealer close to here. Tractor Supply sells Bad Boy, but they can't even keep their shelves supplied with what they normally sell. There is no way that I would buy anything from them that would require maintenance or repair.
The Scag dealer is also where I bought my Echo trimmer and both of my Stihl chainsaws. I never thought I'd pay that much money for a lawn mower, but he has one Wildcat left, and just sold his last Tiger to the University Hospital. He actually sold them two and had to get the other from Texarkana.
He said that these are the last of the 2008's and the price list for the 2009's will increase about ten percent. I don't know if that's a sales tactic, or not. None of the other dealers are running out of mowers like he is.
The cities of Tyler, Bullard, Flint as well as Tyler Water District and the University of Tyler all use Scag. He's been selling them for over 20 years and said he has over ten grand in filters, belts and replacement parts for them in stock. From what I can tell, it looks like a Napa store with the racks of parts he has behind the counter.
His final price is $8,500 with a tank of gas and delivery.
Eddie
