Personally I am not impressed with Woods paint jobs, it seems they must not use primer coats. I have a RM990 and am in the throes of rebuilding the deck where it has rusted to the level of stress cracks secondary to thinned metal. Not sure about the Landpride paint, but I can say I have been thoroughly impressed by the quality and durability of the paint Bushhog brand put on the 287 brush cutter I have.
wickedinhere, Why do you want to stop using the ZTR? I had to borrow my dad's Ferris to cut my yard ~6 acres because of the above problem. His unit has a 48" deck and I found I was able to cut it in the same amount of time that it takes with the JD5300/Woods RM990 combo and it looked more "groomed" according to my wife. Based on this I have been wondering if it would not be wise for me to consider a Kubota 331 with a 72" deck, the extra 2' would probably knock another hour off of my total time.