Input needed on Zero Turn Mower purchase

[Hunter29]

A Kubota zero turn under 13k is not a Kubota..

 

[dragoneggs]

My ' sperience is that if you have a fairly flat yard and do honest maint on it, just about any mower will last long enough for you to get tired of it. If you weigh a few extra pounds, and have some up/down mowing, you need to look at mid range or better machines to get a trans that will hold up. Then again, it is not that hard to replace the trans.

Good advice.

A Kubota zero turn under 13k is not a Kubota..

That's a bunch of hooey.

 

[Hunter29]

Good advice.


That's a bunch of hooey.

No it's not., no kubota diesel, no kubota.. don't mean a bad machine, but no kubota..

 

[dragoneggs]

No it's not., no kubota diesel, no kubota.. don't mean a bad machine, but no kubota..

Still respectfully disagree. Tool for the job.

 

[4570Man]

But the Kubota diesel is still the best.

 

[dragoneggs]

But the Kubota diesel is still the best.

Love Kubota diesel! Question is where do you draw the line between that and a more nimble gasser for smaller plots with tighter spaces?

 

[4570Man]

We’ll as for my yard if I can’t mow it with my diesel powered 72” than I’m not going to mow it.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

We went from 60" to 54" and enjoying the more narrow deck in tight places and when loading.

 

[Gary Fowler]

We went from 60" to 54" and enjoying the more narrow deck in tight places and when loading.

I mow around 6 acres with my Ferris IS700Z with a 52" deck and Kawasaki engine. My yard has numerous trees and other obstacles to go around and the ground is quite rough hence the Ferris with the suspension. It takes me about 3 hours to mow it all and even with the 52" deck, it will scalp the yard in some places. I would never go more than that width for my yard but your mileage may vary as they say. I burn about 3 gallons of gas doing my yard.

 

[EddieWalker]

After looking around, I bought a 60 inch Scag with a 26hp Kawasaki engine in 2010. The first couple of years it was amazing, but then electrical gremlins started up and it became more and more of a challenge to get it to start. I have now completely bypassed every safety switch, and to start it, you turn on the key, and then touch two exposed wires together. It now starts up every time that I want to use it, but then the PTO Generator went out, which was another pain in the rear. I've replaced the switch to activate the blades three times now. I also expect the through one, or both of the belts the first time I activate it when heading out to mow. It's not hard to put the belts back on, it's just frustrating to know it's going to happen fairly often. I also had the starter come loose several times and require thread lock to stop that from happening any more. Because of the electrical issues, I can't recommend it.


What I like about it is the amount of power it has, the ease of operating it, the comfortable seat and the solid front tires. I've had a few flats in the rear tires and it's always frustrating to deal with that. The blades are super easy to change, but the under side of the deck needs some serious scraping a few times a year. It has two separate hydraulic pumps that will probably bankrupt me if I need to fix them, but so far, that part of it has been excellent.

I go through 3 sets of blades a year. I don't sharpen them, I found that to be a waste of time. I've also found that for me, the factory blades work the best. The high lift, mulching and bahia blades all create too much dust and the cut isn't any better then the factory blades. They don't last any longer either.