6 foot lawnmower needed

[daugen]

East Coast Equipment in Washington was very responsive by phone, immediately got me a quote on "what would work:
1445 Series II Commercial Front Mower with 72 inch 7 Iron Vflex. Not sure what the last term means. Boy is that mower deck big bucks.
15,600 for the mower, 6870 for the deck, 22,500 for the package. Yanmar 31hp diesel.

so the Kubota seems to be 1-2 thousand less. Amazing how Kubota has raised their prices up to the top level...
which is probably why they are still around and making great stuff.
No question about the JD quality.

the JD Dealer, part of a big chain of JD dealers in the MidAtlantic, also quoted the 2023R CUT with a 72 inch mower deck for 20,282
all in the same ballpark and I don't need another three point hitch...already have two. No snow to plow, so just not sure what going with a SCUT will get me, other than
maybe, just maybe, a more comfortable seat or position. Only the rear end will tell...an air ride seat option is on one of them.

The JD pricing seems to be the normal 15% off list. Not sure beating up the dealer you need to go to is worth getting another 5% off.

boy that idea of hiring a lawn service and going fishing is not far from my checkbook...
before I buy anything, I'm just going to see what someone would charge to mow five acres each week. Of course they would be doing it on zero turns going 10mph or better. Particularly on that flat surface. One could really move...

sure are a lot of fence posts to weed wack...was looking at one of those tow behind string trimmers. Prefer not using chemicals, too near the fruit trees. Of course I'm also studying the Northern Tools catalog for tree sprayers and I'll be spraying those trees with some chemical for sure, hopefully a more green alternative. One that works. I sprayed our farm's orchard dozens of times in my teens, got that spray all over me, never knew it was bad for us. Sure did itch so at least we hosed off...
this time I will be wearing a mask for sure.

mowing or fishing. mowing or fishing. I like to mow, and don't like to fish...pretty strange huh? But I love to explore by boat, so I need to find time for both.
I'm told things are so much cheaper down there that I may be amazed how cheap it is to hire a service. Up here I'd say less than half the folks mow their lawns so the landscaping trucks are everywhere. I doubt it will be like that where I'm going. and try to find a guy to mow the lawn who has insurance...

 

[prosperity]

Kind of funny - I would much rather be mowing than fishing also!

Before the RA got so bad ~3 years ago I had a little side business of mowing camps and estates in my rural area - did that for almost 25 years and loved it. I slowly built my equipment up along the way to end up with a nice Deere 757 zero turn and a Deere 2520. Had to sell the 757 and trailer when I couldn't do it anymore to help pay bills for a while with no income.

My goal rate for mowing with the zero turn was $60 per hour or $1 per minute from off the trailer to on. I got 60% of the jobs quoted so I think I was pretty much on with the price - only can get what the market will bear. Dealing with estate and large camp owners was much easier than local people. My competition would have the little MTD Wal-Mart special tractor and no insurance. I always kept liability insurance and it wasn't that expensive at $300 per year.

My own mowable lawn area is ~2.5 acres and could do it in 35 minutes with the zero turn including a dozen trees to go around at the far end. With the 2520 and 62" deck it takes me ~90 minutes but I go much slower now - it really hurts if I get bouncing around. Plus I have to do it in ~20 minute increments as I will stiffen up to the point of having a hard time getting off the tractor if I do it for too long.

That brings a point also while you are looking at different style mowers is how hard or easy it is to mount and dismount. I have a hard time with my 2520 compared to the 757 zero turn.

I'm also a diesel fanatic, but the price on these mowers gets wild when you get into diesel territory. Don't discount a commercial gas engine. The 757 had a commercial Kawasaki engine on it with a full size canister air filter.

It looks like a front mower type with a steering wheel would be your best bet. Just wanted to say not to discount one with a commercial gas engine as it will really bring the cost down.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Even Forrest Gump gave up mowing for shrimping.

 

[daugen]

this is strange, I can't advance to page 4.
test test

 

[daugen]

again, can't go to page 4
hmmm

 

[hawkeye08]

Hope it works out for you.. I have been drooling over the Ferris zero turns but have not convinced the wife yet. I think if she drove one, it would seal the deal, but the dealer is ~200 miles away.

 

[Xfaxman]

this is strange, I can't advance to page 4.
test test

again, can't go to page 4
hmmm

I can see your posts, #34 and #35. They are on page one for me, because I changed the "Thread Display Options" in "General Settings" to display 40 posts per page.

 

[daugen]

thanks. It's still weird almost like the cache won't let go. I even turned the pc off and reboot, TBN helpdesk suggested trying another browser. Nothing worked.
but if I click on someone's name in this thread that has posted on page four, I can get here. Alice, I am in Wonderland...
could be worse...
I'll go back and change the thread display options, thanks.

update, yeah it worked, now I'm on page two.
we shall see...

back to our regular programming.

 

[boggen]

to much reading for this old fart. skimmed first half of your thread.

tow behind mower for like a 4 wheeler or simply attach it to rear of current mower, and use the "bending arm" i forget technical name of it. that side swings the mower clear out to one side of what ever is pulling it. basicly you have width of your current mower, and then some overlap between the 2 decks, and then extra length of rest of the pull behind / tow behind mower.

some of these mowers have self starting built on, but most i have seen are pull start. 5 to 8HP engines. been wanting one of these. so i can keep my smaller width mowing for trim work, and then add this tow behind on. so i can cut the large open areas on the farm.

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i would avoid "gang reel" mowers. or less you have time and know for sure you will always be out there to cut the grass before it gets just a little to tall for the reel mowers.

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i been hard up wanting a much wider cutting width over the years. and about only reason why i come up with not being able to find decks wider than 72 inch and a tad harder to find stuff over 60" inch decks. is because of how the decks float / roll over the yard. you get them to wide. and the sightless of dip in the yard or hole, and you end up scalping the yard right down into the dirt. and the dip could simply be from a tire sinking into the yard do to how wet everything is from the last rain.

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there are 2 builds i can clearly remember seeing pictures here on the forums folks have done for tow behind mowers. one was a complete custom job. and another was a old regular riding lawn mower. but was completely gutted only thing that was left was the frame, and the deck, a different engine, and raising lower setup was used for deck, and caster wheels were put onto it. ok i take that back 1 more tow behind setup. and someone was pulling 2 regular walk behind mowers behind a riding lawn mower. while it worked, there was alot of comments that rang out to me, of being rather risky, due to, how easy for the walk behind mowers to flip over and like. the frame work resembled something like a "gang reel" mowers spreading the mowers out for overlap both going straight and when turning.

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with above said, i think i am around 5 to 8 acres here on the farm that gets finished mowed. takes about 4 to 8 hours pending on how fast the bloody grass grows and time to get out there and get it cut.

 

[boggen]

if ya going with a zero turn that has a steering wheel. i do remember some options a couple years back for some of the higher priced proffesional sized zero turns for steering wheels vs the joy stick handles.

if you end up going with a regular tractor (SCUTS / CUTS) size tractors. might suggest going with a "split brake" a pedal side by side, each pedal is either for right or left rear tire. to make some sharper turns, to help with edge mowing