5 acres - Subcompact vs Compact & Suggestions

[edgarrian]

crazy to buy a mower if you don't need to

 

[edgarrian]

So 800hrs every 9 years. So in 27 years you will put on 2400hrs. Thats just getting broke in. You aren't even putting on 100 a year which is nothing. The justification for buying a lawn mower so you don't rack up hours on the tractor doesn't support the idea. As diesels basically run forever if you know how to take care of them
how many hours are you getting a year???

Now that's a point I hadn't thought about. Using up tractor hours to just mow doesn't make sense.

 

[Mat4644]

My MMM made by Ameriquip had multiple weld breaks in 400 hours. The deck easily clogged and the aluminum spindles were too light weight and not durable. The belt slipped easily. It was also expensive to replace spindles. It was nothing but a whimpy lawn mower with poor cut clearance and inadequate wind tunnel to throw out grass. The Deere and Kubota decks are better products. My zero turn was more durable and handled thick grass better.

Current 3 pt finish mower by Woods easily cuts 6-8 inch grass and chops up the little sticks shed by the trees. All cast iron spindle housings with large HD spindles.

 

[Doug62]

Now that's a point I hadn't thought about. Using up tractor hours to just mow doesn't make sense.

It does if you have AC on the tractor.

 

[turbotom1052]

I was facing this very dilemma about 6 months ago, when I began my search for something that would "do it all". When we purchased our property, which has like yours a long gravel driveway. about 2 acres of lawn on some pretty steep slopes with undulating lawn, and the remaining 28 acres of rugged wooded terrain. For a full year I tended to it all with a 26HP Husqvarana garden tractor with a 48 inch mower deck, a tow behind garden cart, and a 48inch snowblower. I feel like the only task this setup did well was to mow my lawn, and even then at 48 inches wide, the mower deck had a hard time getting a good cut when making the sharp transitions from slope to flatter lawn areas. When it came to moving snow this past Vermont winter, on my 700 foot steep gravel driveway, the Craftsman front mounted snow blower was very lacking. It was great to blow the snow deep into the tree-line of my driveway, but the rig struggled with any accumulations over 6 inches. Constant breaking of shear pins if I pushed it too hard, and at least 2.5 hours to complete the job. My takeaway from all the learning of the past year is as follows. Match the tool to the job!!! Within the last week i took delivery of my new Kioti CK2610. I purchased a nice heavy 72 inch rear blade that will for at least a season allow me to move snow off to the side of the driveway. Next year I will be purchasing a 3 point mounted blower that Im confident will be robust enough to not be snapping shear pins every time I use the machine. I can operate the tractor year round with full ground clearance, because I don't have a mower deck hanging off the bottom of the frame. For the brief time I considered buying something that I could hang a mower deck off of, but I had to take into account that there was no mid mount mowers available for a compact tractor, under 60 inches wide. I was already having issues on my sloping lawn with a 48 inch wide mower deck.
So to wrap it all up I kept my Husqvarna garden tractor for the sole purpose of mowing grass and pulling a garden cart around for light cleanup. Ive got the CUT for moving snow, and grading my driveway, and any other heavier tasks that require a front end loader or access to three point hitch implements to include a brush hog for getting into the deep stuff. At this point my lawn doesn't need to ever see the tire tracks from my R4s, and my garden tractor never has to trudge through 12 inch plus snow accumulations that are common to my part of the country.