Time to get a little more specific....
I mow for a living. More specifically, we mow highway right-of-ways, and large acreage tracts (for several real estate brokers/absentee land owners/law firms/legal conservators) We've piled on hour after hour of continuous duty mowing in some of the harshest conditions you're apt to find. I get to see what years of average use can do to a mower in a lot less than a years time.
I DO NOT like Woods mowers....In recent years, I had an MD172, 2 BB8400's, a BB720, and a BB7200. 3 gear box failures, multiple events where 3-point hitch structure failed (welds snapped, and metal fatigue) , paint that peeled off in sheets (no primer/poorly prepped surface under top coat), not to mention less than satisfactory mowing results. They just didn't hold up well under hard use. And don't even get me started on their bat wing mowers....I don't have anything good to say about them. YMMV Mine didn't......
"Entry level"/economy grade mowers aren't so "economic" when you start piling up the hours. The more you use a mower, the greater the likelyhood it's going to see the occasional "abuse". (ie, hitting a rock or 2, hanging the edge of a skid into a tree, bouncing the tail wheel into a hole in the ground, ect...) The light duty mowers, and cheaper "heavy duty" mowers just don't "cut it" when the going gets tough. Many brands have a light duty mower, and a SLIGHTLY heavier built model that is THEIR "heavy duty" mower.....Since there is no benchmark for what "heavy duty" really is, those two words get tossed in with quite a few mowers that aren't really so heavy duty when you line them up against a TRUE heavy duty mower. Point being, most of these so called "heavy duty"/low cost mowers will fold up like a cheap lawn chair when you start hammering on them. Some people make a case for buying a less expensive mower and planning on replacing it more often. I'd rather pay more initially, get more for my dollar, and be able to rely on what I buy for a long time. So....Scratch the economy brand mowers off my Christmas list....Not interested.
ALL the "big names" in the industry build economy grade mowers too. IMHO, that waters down the reputations they spent years building. Yes, it increases bottom line. That also lures in a number of buyers who only know "Brand X" has a sterling reputation for building high quality commercial grade mowers, only to get a throw-away model instead. Some less than scrupulous dealers will pitch "Brand X" light duty mowers as the "little brother" of BrandX heavy duty commercial mowers as "almost the same". Don't be naive....Light duty consumer grade mowers have no place in a heavy duty/extreme duty environment. Just because it has the same DECAL as a heavy duty mower, it does NOT have the "heft" of their big boys.....
If you're only going to mow a few acres of well maintained pastures, maybe 5 or 6 times a year, light duty/medium duty/economy grade mowers can get the job done and live to see another summer. But start mowing in hostile conditions, mow hundreds/thousands of acres over a projected lifetime, or (especially so) let a hired hand/semi-inexperienced operator get ahold of the mower and you better have a top quality, heavy duty/extreme duty piece. Otherwise, don't throw away the sales literature, because you'll be buying ANOTHER mower very soon after the one you're shopping for now....BTDT, quit trying to "save money" by buying anything less than the toughest mowers.
Look at what brand(s) you see behind commercial mowing rigs....Far more often than not, it'll be a product of the Alamo Group. (Alamo, Schulte, Rhino, and Bush Hog) When you NEED rugged dependability as well as a good return on investment, the list is short.....
I've got a Bush Hog 6' mower out behind the barn that dad bought in 1957. It's rusted, dented, bent, and worn......But I could go hook to it and cut weeds if I wanted to. Show me a 54 year old King Kutter still in useable condition......
I've got one particular Bush Hog (2715L) bat wing that has seen thousands of hours of highway ROW mowing without anything more than blade sharpening, the occasional greasing, and a wheel bearing that needed replacing after 4 years. 6 more bat wings of varying ages, ALL with excellent service records. Same story with 2 model 406 cutters (Extreme heavy duty commercial grade), and a 286 (medium duty 6'er)....The latter is kept here at the farm to mow along a creek bank. It never sees use when it doesn't get beat up on rocks, tree roots, drift wood, and Johnsongrass thats over the cab of the tractor....6+ years of torture, and it still cuts like the day I hauled it home.
No, I don't buy light duty Bush Hog mowers. But the medium duty/heavy duty/extreme heavy duty products they sell take a thrashing and keep on keepin' on. I'm not recommending them because they're "pretty", nor because the are less expensive....I recommend them because I KNOW they'll do the job, outlast most mowers by a sizable margin, and be out behind the barn, still usable, in another 50 years.....
