Buying Advice Kubota ZD1211 or Exmark Lazer Z X series

[MESSMAKER]

I have had my eye on one of those steering wheel zero turn units, seems there not bad on hills

If it was made by anyone other than Cub Cadet. The larger ztr mowers seem fine but not of the lawn guys use them even though we have 2 good dealers near. I had a Cub garden tractor and it was pretty good. The deck was miserable.

 

[daugen]

I looked very carefully at the CC zero turns with a steering wheel before I bought my X750 diesel JD. The deck wasn't in the same league as the JD Edge,
and frankly I have major hesitation about just about anything MTD. They spend too much time pumping out $999 garden tractors that sit in the front of Lowes and TSC.
Cub Cadet is their premium line and yes I bought a new XT2 garden tractor with a 23hp Kawasaki two years ago (long story but a loan to a friend) and the CC is horrible
to drive vs the JD. Ok, the JD was 12 grand and the CC was 2500. What should I expect right? But the same guys are designing those steering wheel z turns and everything always
seems to be built to price, not to be better than the rest. And for sure not to tractor levels of quality. I believe they made a model called the Tank that may have been discontinued that was much heavier duty. But when you think z turns, you think Hustler, Ferris, Grasshopper, Kubota, Scag, JD and Exmark/Toro. Not CC, unless you have a local dealer and a smaller lawn. Shoe for every foot.

Frankly with sealed bearings everywhere, I don't think the CC will last. Purely a homeowner grade zero turn for someone who wants the look and perhaps better steering circle than a garden tractor, but still wants a steering wheel. And I understand they do have more grip on the hills, because they have four wheels gripping, not two. Not very much grip in the front end, I bet weight over those steering tires would help. The basics... T
My conclusion was that no one made a heavy duty steering wheel zero turn style mower until you went over twenty grand with the Kubotas and the JD's. And my are they nice mowers.
If you can afford it, you should look there. I can't and left a lot of drool in the showrooms...

I have a life long love affair with Cub Cadet. Just finished restoring a 1968 125 and I have a relatively new unit of theirs. But I would not buy their steering wheel mowers for anything other than homeowner use. Or...be prepared to be constantly replacing parts. These mowers aren't hard to work on; just sad their parts now are not high quality. I genuinely believe they are designed to last just two or three mowing seasons. Out of warranty, and lots of parts sales afterwards. Jack up the price of your parts, and you have a nice enduring business. Like HP and their printer cartridges. But if you can do the work yourself, buying a less expensive mower that sooner vs later will break, then you may have a lower overall cost long term. Personally I want a good ride...and the models the OP has listed are great mowers. Super competitive business, and some new tech in zturns. Springs, shocks, electronic fuel injection, sounds like a car right?

But I think most of us want to be comfortable so a good suspension seat is critical no matter what you drive. If you can get a good suspension seat and a unit with a suspension, for bumpy ground that sounds like a winner. Though all that suspension complexity is sure to increase maintenance. I'd go for the best ride with a Kawasaki engine.

 

[lhansman]

I purchased the heavier duty Cub Cadet zero turn with the steering wheel which had the upgraded hydros in the rear wheels and the heavier duty fabricated deck. I am not a commercial mower but my teenage son drives it most of the time to mow our acre and a couple of neighbours properties. It has just gone in for its first shop service to have all fluids and filter changed and the only additional cost was for the battery which was week. It clearly is not in the league of some of the commercial machines but the OP was looking for a home use machine which was good on slopes and based on personal experience in the same ditch with Kubota and CC the Kubota could not hold the line anywhere near as well as the Kubota.

Regards,

Lauren

 

[lhansman]

I forgot to mention that the service mentioned was performed after four years and 254 hours on the metre.

 

[BigCountryMO]

I researched ZTR's for quite a while but ended up going with a garden tractor (X590) because I like my machines to do more than one thing. With the garden tractor I can mow, tow a dump cart, chicken tractor, aerator, spreader, lawn sweeper, or run a snow blower if I want to.....ZTR's are faster but GT's are more versatile.

The Kubota ZD1211 has an available hitch kit and you can easily tow a dump cart, aerator, spreader, etc with no trouble thanks to the diesel motor. A lot more ZTs are offering this these days which makes the a lot more versatile for a homeowner or farm owner.

 

[daugen]

welcome bigcountry. The Yanmar diesel may have the power, but are those hydrostatic units tough enough? In the early days zero turns
were not that well suited for towing. Maybe things have improved, bigger versions installed. I know there are lots of attachments for
zero turns; one company makes a whole business out of it. If the manual says you can, great. And the big Kubota zt's are tanks.

 

[kenmac]

I took delivery of my ZD1211 friday. Started cutting my grass. I made about 5 passes and the engine started to bog down. I took the blades out of gear. The engine never came back up to speed and begin to make a noise . I looked at the temp gauge and it was just a little over the 1/2 mark. I shut the engine down and raised the hood. It was clear the engine was hot. I removed the radiator cap to find no antifreeze . Now, the antifreeze was checked and the over flow tank was filled B-4 I left the dealer.
I waited for about an hour and filled the radiator with water and started it up. The engine now misses badly and smokes.
This engine also has an alarm that is suppose to sound B-4 something like this happens. It never sounded. This is the first use of this mower...I have no idea where the antifreeze in the radiator went.

Dealer was closed sat for the holiday weekend. I will be sitting in the lot tuesday morning when it opens !!

Right now, I have a 12,300.00 piece of scrap metal sitting on my trailer. have no idea what the dealer is going to say about this !

 

[daugen]

I took delivery of my ZD1211 friday. Started cutting my grass. I made about 5 passes and the engine started to bog down. I took the blades out of gear. The engine never came back up to speed and begin to make a noise . I looked at the temp gauge and it was just a little over the 1/2 mark. I shut the engine down and raised the hood. It was clear the engine was hot. I removed the radiator cap to find no antifreeze . Now, the antifreeze was checked and the over flow tank was filled B-4 I left the dealer.
I waited for about an hour and filled the radiator with water and started it up. The engine now misses badly and smokes.
This engine also has an alarm that is suppose to sound B-4 something like this happens. It never sounded. This is the first use of this mower...I have no idea where the antifreeze in the radiator went.

Dealer was closed sat for the holiday weekend. I will be sitting in the lot tuesday morning when it opens !!

wow, major bummer/disappointment. Sorry.
your dealer should give you a brand new mower

 

[rustyshakelford]

I took delivery of my ZD1211 friday. Started cutting my grass. I made about 5 passes and the engine started to bog down. I took the blades out of gear. The engine never came back up to speed and begin to make a noise . I looked at the temp gauge and it was just a little over the 1/2 mark. I shut the engine down and raised the hood. It was clear the engine was hot. I removed the radiator cap to find no antifreeze . Now, the antifreeze was checked and the over flow tank was filled B-4 I left the dealer.
I waited for about an hour and filled the radiator with water and started it up. The engine now misses badly and smokes.
This engine also has an alarm that is suppose to sound B-4 something like this happens. It never sounded. This is the first use of this mower...I have no idea where the antifreeze in the radiator went.

Dealer was closed sat for the holiday weekend. I will be sitting in the lot tuesday morning when it opens !!

Right now, I have a 12,300.00 piece of scrap metal sitting on my trailer. have no idea what the dealer is going to say about this !

Holy crap! Man I hate to hear this. I wonder what in the world what happened? When I ran my buddies I got it hot and it was making all kinds of noise from the alarms letting you know. I can't imagine what the failure was the would allow it to get that hot without alarming. I'm getting mine Tuesday morning. Let us know what they say. You got a great price too

Brett

 

[kenmac]

wow, major bummer/disappointment. Sorry.
your dealer should give you a brand new mower

I think so as well. We'll see what they say tuesday morning. Only thing I can think of is the engine was burning the antifreeze the entire time I was using it. I have no idea why the warning buzzer never went off. And like I said, the temp gauge was only a little over the 1/2 mark. I can somewhat understand that as, I believe the temp gauge is measuring water temp. With no antifreeze there is no temp to measure.
I hope this doesn't turn out to be an ordeal.