Best lawn mower in $2-4,000 range?

[Mickey_Fx]

Don't know if you've given any thought to buying a used, low hr, premium machine that is better suited for the large acreage you're dealing with. Should not be hard to find one within your budget.

Here's what I can tell you about my Cub 3xxx series machine. Built heavy, about 1000 lbs for tractor and 48" HD deck. Shaft drive for trans and deck. Deck has hyd lift and comes with hydrostatic power steering. Plenty of grease fittings to keep things lubed up. The deck including the pto shaft has 12 grease fittings. Spindle bearings are tapered roller bearings. Rear axle housing is cast iron. I have some inclines and when climbing, all I hear is the gov applying a little more gas. NO slipping of the HST or strain on the engine.

I've had it 7-8 yrs and meter shows a little less than 300 hrs. I've avg ~50hr/yr at former location and now about 25-30 hrs/yr. Only problem to date is starter solenoid needed replacing last yr. This machine replaced a JD 318 who's rep almost walked on water and I prefer this Cub.

Hope you find the right machine for you.

 

[bcp]

Have up to 6-7 acres I could mow regularly if I had the right machine.

If I had 6-7 acres I could mow I would plant corn, beans, alfalfa, Christmas trees, or anything but grass!

I don't mow mine 'cause they don't make mowers for 36" diameter 150' fir trees.

Bruce

 

[Pete Judd]

I mow around 5ac every week. The "MTD $1,400-$1,600" riding mowers only lasted around 2 years (motors ran great, the rest falling apart". I then got a JD 234, it lasted 9 years, and then melted a hole in the piston, not very cheap to fix, and I think that I paid over 6k for it and the grass collection system. I now mow with my Yanmar 186D that is 30 years old and a 60 inch HF finish mower. On a side note, with the JD gas rider, it would take 4-5 gallons of gas to mow the place each week. With the Yanmar, 1.2 gallons. Quite some savings in fuel now that gas is $3.60 a gallon.

 

[tractorshopper]

Thanks all. If I could use an RFM, I would, but my main "lawn" is too hilly and/or has too many trees and other obstacles for my tractor to be effective at cutting it, plus it's pretty heavy with loaded tires and FEL. I took some of Mickey's advice and surfed a little used stuff and it looks like there are a number of good deals on used equipment, but I don't know if 1,100 hrs is too many on used commercial equipment or not. I will keep looking for a deal and don't have to buy right now since the Deere still keeps ticking, so maybe I too can wait until after the season and try to find a deal. We have a Hustler dealer nearby and I looked at a ZTR one time and was amazed at the difference in that deck vs. my lawn tractor.

 

[mikehaugen]

I personally don't think 1100 hrs is too much on a commercial machine, but make sure it has a wide deck. For 6-7 acres, depending on how much time you have I would want a minimum 72" deck- even that is pushing it for me. I only have 2.5 acres and don't think I would mow with anything less than 60". I used my mom's jd 345 once with a 54" deck and thought it took too long. The 345 though was quite nice though, she bought it with ~650 hours for $2200. I actually use a 90" rear finish mower for now, but will soon be using a 72" mower.

 

[pclausen]

I got about 8 acres that I try to cut every few weeks or so. I got a JD 1445 (front mover 72" Iron7 deck) and it takes a long time to cut with that. So I only cut with that if I'm getting ready to have a cocktail party in the field or something.

I prefer to cut with my Woods RM990 (90" cut), which will get the job done in about half the time. The reason is that I can go much faster with the Woods (behind a JD 5085M tractor) than with the 1445. While the 1445 will mow at about 12mph, my terrain is way to rough for that, I can only go about 5 mph or so. With the Woods, I can cruise at 7-8 mpg and not have a worry about braking stuff or getting bounced all over the place.

I do have the same issue as you in that the RFM behind the JD tractor makes it hard to trim close around trees, but unless you need to maintain that park like look, that might not be a big deal?

Could you take the FEL off and get a wide RFM? Don't know how often you use the FEL or how big a pain it is to take off. I generally always take mine off, unless I'm in a hurry. I always take the bucket/ grapple, forks off however. That one takes a few minutes.

 

[tractorshopper]

I usually take the bucket off when bush hogging. Have never taken the loader off completely, so don't know if it's a pain or not. My main 2 acres or so that I mow every week is around the house and has some serious slopes and lots of trees and obstacles, so an RFM just doesn't seem like an option especially because of the pucker factor on my tractor on that much slope. The other acreage I would probably only mow every few weeks or so would be much more conducive to using a RFM, but I don't really want to buy both, so am wanting to stick to a purpose built machine. I'm leaning toward finding a used commercial mower. Niether area is ball park look. Too many weeds. In fact, I want high blade speed because a lot of weeds I have, I just end up cutting the tips of the flowers off and the stems pop back up everywhere right after I cut. I have to make two passes in a lot of places to make it look okay.

 

[MESSMAKER]

You are looking at maybe 150 hours per year on a machine. Most non-commercial mowers will crap out in just a few years under that kind of workload. You are going to have to drop some cash to get a machine to maintain that much area. You may need two machines. A r.m. mower and perhaps a zero turn. I have a $4000 Cub and I feel sure it is not up to the job. Consider fuel cost as well. You could easily spend $40 per mowing on fuel. If you cut that in half, you save $500 per season over a 25 mow season. You can pay for a more effecient mower pretty quick.

 

[PioneerMan]

I don't know if you figured it out yet, but that is a pretty big price range. A zero turn vs tractor is a big debate, but I really like my x540. I do about 2.5 acres and it does great. You could probably get into a good condition used x5xx in your budget. Burns gas though. A diesel x would handle more acreage well, but sadly it's out of both of our budgets.

 

[PioneerMan]

Ps, if you're doing 6 acres or whatever on a lawn tractor or similar size machine, get a good seat, cause you'll be there for a while...