I, too, was worried about the ground clearance when compared to conventional tractors. But what a lot of folks don't realize is not only does it articulate left and right, it oscillates between the front and rear sections. When you encounter and obstacle, like a log, you can drive the left front tire up on it, and when you turn the wheel all the way to the left, it closes the gap between the two left tires to where they're only a few inches apart. Since the bottom of the unit is essentially entirely a skid plate, you just slide over stuff. I've only hung it on a log one time in 12 years. It was a wet log and my turfs peeled the bark off of it. The far side of the log was also a drop off, so I couldn't push down with the FEL to raise the front up enough to back over the log. So I grabbed the chainsaw, cut a chunk of log, put it under the mower deck, lowered the mower onto it and pushed myself back off of the log. :thumbsup: And, again, I was in a place that I never could have gone with my IH. It was deep into the woods between narrow gaps in trees on a sandy ridge with a too steep side slope for that big tractor. If I was just dedicating the machine to the woods, I'd get larger wheel motors for more torque and tires with larger tread, and, perhaps tire chains. But for now, its the perfect do-all machine for my varied chores.
