At Home In The Woods

[Diamondpilot]

Get a quality ZTR like a Ferris or Scag. 60" deck and you will never look back. I bought a Ferris 2 years ago. Yes it was pricey but cut my 3 hours of mowing to 1:10.


More time for the kids, family, boating, ect.

Chris

 

[sld]

Get a quality ZTR like a Ferris or Scag. 60" deck and you will never look back. I bought a Ferris 2 years ago. Yes it was pricey but cut my 3 hours of mowing to 1:10.


More time for the kids, family, boating, ect.

Chris

Agree 100%. ZTR's are truly time savers and I have always felt my free time is very valuable.

 

[Tororider]

Having had a lawn care company before, zero turns are a huge time saver. Single use tools, but they are very good at that one use.

For the price you could probably get a finish mower to pull behind your JD and a walk behind blower to take care of the leaves and be money ahead over a new zero turn.

 

[Coyote machine]

If you want to see a real mower deck, go to a local Scag dealer, Toro or Ferris. Of course the cheap box store stuff is junk, light stamped steel. They make mowers now that have swirl or vortex concept decks for making the grass exit the underside of the deck, supposedly more efficiently. They have to be light weight to use less fuel and fall apart sooner. How long do you think your 20 year old Kubota was supposed to last? 30 years? 50 years? Longer than 20, possibly, IF you maintained it regularly, and didn't just do break down fixes. Just saying, you get what you pay for, and things aren't cheap.
For instance my Scag Wildcat cost me $8000 USED with 200 commercial hours on it. With the bagger system it was $12,000 new a few years prior. It has a 26 HP Kawasaki air cooled engine, that is one of the best engines out there. The deck and spindles are some of the best in the industry. I beat the crap out of it running over what I should be using my brush hog on; field perimeters with hidden short stumps and small log pieces that often stall the motor. I don't try to hit things, but it happens, and when it does the mower takes it like a champ.
So buy high quality new or used with low hours, and get 'er done.:confused3:

 

[Wilky]

I suspect this new deck type and the 1 foot long plastic safety cover will defeat my ability to rake my lawn with the lawn mover. I am obviously becoming an old crank - you know the kind - always complaining that things aren't like they used to be.

Obed if you use a elastic cord you can hold up the cover to allow use as a blower. That bottom bar sure is big. Most of my riders have had a bottom bar but no where that big . Agree about ferris we have a 60" deseal and do a large lawn sure saved time over the old rider we did have.

Wilky

 

[Katahdin]

I love my cheap box-store Toro 42 inch ZTR, I got it marked down as "last year's model" for $1800 back in '06 I think. Two years ago I added the mulching kit and that took care of our fall raking leaves problem.

My wife hated the Toro ZTR the first two years, she couldn't figure out how to drive it. Now that she has the hang of it we fight over mowing time.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

The above quote is from 2 years ago. Now my old Kubota lawnmower is broken again. I just can't figure out why a 20 year old lawn mower would keep breaking. The mower will barely move up a slight hill. I suppose the belt could need replacing. The tensioner pulley seems to be doing its job. However, it feels like the gear that moves the rear axle is worn.

I talked to my wife. We are ready for a new mower. So I went shopping yesterday. I started at the Kubota dealer. The 42" mower is $3600. Unfortunately, I hate the mower deck. I then went to 3 big box stores and looked at their riding mowers. It looks like all of the non-professional model mower decks are built the same way. Look at the grass outlet opening.


View attachment 422047 View attachment 422048

The old mowers had a clear opening without the ring going all around the bottom of the deck. I suspect the ring is there because thinner materials are being used so that ring must be there to support a flimsy deck. The picture above is a mower at a big box store; the $3600 Kubota has the same deck opening configuration. I use my lawnmower to blow the leaves off my yard into the woods. I suspect this new deck type and the 1 foot long plastic safety cover will defeat my ability to rake my lawn with the lawn mover.

I am considering taking my old Kubota to the dealer and get it repaired. The engine runs great. I may go buy a $200 push mower from a big box store so I'm not in a fix.

I am obviously becoming an old crank - you know the kind - always complaining that things aren't like they used to be.

Obed, great to hear from you again. Do some shopping. Kawasaki and Honda engines are usually better, but most small engines made these days are decent if their pollution control/safety stuff doesn't bring them down. Maybe time to invest a little in the old Kubota? If the mower deck is good, I would at least consider it.

 

[GLyford]

The chute is there to keep things from going too far, definitely against what you are trying to accomplish. I have heard of people (cough dad cough) who would drill a hole near the end and use either a bungee or a piece of baling twine so they could hook it up enough to throw the clippings and leaves where they wanted. Not that I would recommend modifying the safety devices on your machine of course.

 

[clemsonfor]

The above quote is from 2 years ago. Now my old Kubota lawnmower is broken again. I just can't figure out why a 20 year old lawn mower would keep breaking. The mower will barely move up a slight hill. I suppose the belt could need replacing. The tensioner pulley seems to be doing its job. However, it feels like the gear that moves the rear axle is worn.

I talked to my wife. We are ready for a new mower. So I went shopping yesterday. I started at the Kubota dealer. The 42" mower is $3600. Unfortunately, I hate the mower deck. I then went to 3 big box stores and looked at their riding mowers. It looks like all of the non-professional model mower decks are built the same way. Look at the grass outlet opening.


View attachment 422047 View attachment 422048

The old mowers had a clear opening without the ring going all around the bottom of the deck. I suspect the ring is there because thinner materials are being used so that ring must be there to support a flimsy deck. The picture above is a mower at a big box store; the $3600 Kubota has the same deck opening configuration. I use my lawnmower to blow the leaves off my yard into the woods. I suspect this new deck type and the 1 foot long plastic safety cover will defeat my ability to rake my lawn with the lawn mover.

I am considering taking my old Kubota to the dealer and get it repaired. The engine runs great. I may go buy a $200 push mower from a big box store so I'm not in a fix.

I am obviously becoming an old crank - you know the kind - always complaining that things aren't like they used to be.

Glad to hear form you as well. But that is not a new design i have a 19 year old MTD big box store 42" rider and its exactly like that with the ring. It probalby had the plastic chute which has long been removed (not byme if so) you can easily take that off.

Decks are expensive to replace and fix. I am welding up that one i have all the time.

Are you sure the pully is on tight and the belt is tight and not streached? Your hydrostat should out last the mower esp for that small yard your cutting?

 

[Larro Darro]

Hey Obed, good to hear from you. For the money, a RFM is a good bet. I have two, 6' & 4', and they both have served me well. The 4' is a 25 year old Woods and has a side discharge so something like that would work to blow your leaves. The chute on it was solid steel and has been removed for years.

But I'm never opposed to fixing old equipment either.