An update after 14 or so hours:
Mows nicely and is faster than the Deere garden tractor, but only when things are dry. Which so far has been just twice this miserable wet May. When it's wet and the grass and assorted clover, ground ivy, etc., are deep the deck quickly clogs up and fails to move the silage like clumps of clippings very well. Part of it may be deck depth and the other thing is probably the fact that the open arbors that I think asllow good air flow and lift when things aren't gooey simply clog up and stop working per deisgn.
The Deere on the other hand just chugs along and slings out green-chop windrows quite nicely.
The engine is smooth as butter and starts and runs perfectly so far.
It mows well in reverse these days (thanks for insight here).
Everything else is working as it should and no complaints. Arm rests would be nice.
Hope to get a chance to cut several acres with it down in PA in couple weeks, side by side with a friend's Ferris, just for comparison. (This sort of thing used to happen with motorcylcles, cars and trucks but has devolved to tillers, mowing toys, guns, cameras, etc. It's **** to get old . . . .)
-WSJ
Mows nicely and is faster than the Deere garden tractor, but only when things are dry. Which so far has been just twice this miserable wet May. When it's wet and the grass and assorted clover, ground ivy, etc., are deep the deck quickly clogs up and fails to move the silage like clumps of clippings very well. Part of it may be deck depth and the other thing is probably the fact that the open arbors that I think asllow good air flow and lift when things aren't gooey simply clog up and stop working per deisgn.
The Deere on the other hand just chugs along and slings out green-chop windrows quite nicely.
The engine is smooth as butter and starts and runs perfectly so far.
It mows well in reverse these days (thanks for insight here).
Everything else is working as it should and no complaints. Arm rests would be nice.
Hope to get a chance to cut several acres with it down in PA in couple weeks, side by side with a friend's Ferris, just for comparison. (This sort of thing used to happen with motorcylcles, cars and trucks but has devolved to tillers, mowing toys, guns, cameras, etc. It's **** to get old . . . .)
-WSJ