OK....You brought this up, so here goes.....You know me....I don't pull punches.
You took light duty, low end, economy grade Rhino single spindle mowers and tried to use it for continuous commercial use. I'd EXPECT it to fall apart, and would have been amazed at any results otherwise. I'm absolutely certain any Alamo/Rhino rep that you'd ask would have told you the same thing going in. Then your DEALER wasn't strong enough to get results with what you perceive as warranty issues. That's not Rhino's fault. Blame your dealer on that one too. That dealer drastically undersold the mowers you ended up with, then failed to stand behind what he sold. The local dealer where I buy my mowers stood up and helped me get a tailwheel assembly replaced on a mower just last week. It was heavily damaged when one of my operators backed hard it into a tree. A GOOD dealer will go to bat for you and get results.
None of the major brands light duty mowers will stand up to full time hard commercial use on a sustained basis. Using one for duty far beyond their designed purpose surely constitutes abuse. Damage resulting from abuse isn't something normally covered under anyones warranty.
I can't count the number of mowing contractors I know of with Rhino/Shulte/Alamo commercial duty mowers who have nothing but praise for them. My #1 source of competition uses Rhino batwings and I've seen first hand how they'll wear out tractors before the mowers give out. They're ANYTHING BUT JUNK.
And long story short, there is absolutely no relationship between light duty single spindle consumer grade mowers and commercial duty batwings.
Bush Hog is still Bush Hog until such a time as they change their products and/or way of doing business, regardless of who owns 'em.
I understand you're upset, but you're upset with the wrong folks.
I told the salesguy what I wanted to do. (same thing I told the bushhog dealer) and he sold me these.
both are medium duty (and we don't really get big thick stuff out here, it's weeds and grass typically) not the light duty homeowner.
and it doesn't matter, the heavy duty models are just thicker metal and bigger gearboxes, the assemblies are still the same. And, BTW, they cost almost the same as the heavy duty bush hog
All of the tail wheel assemblies bent on the shaft within less than 100 hours of use. Not the side pieces (the fork part) which you expect as a normal part of duty. The shaft. And if it's continuous, 100 hours of use is less than 2 weeks of work. Because the piece holding the shaft up isn't long enough. (compare side by side with any other brand).
They wouldn't even look at it, much less actually warranty it.
BTW, another dealer has dropped rhino because guess what? ALL the tail wheel assemblies came back in the first year and rhino honored exactly NONE. (the dealer started putting aftermarket tailwheels in and they all stopped coming back).
This is clearly a manufacturing/design defect.
If they want to charge top dollar, they should have a top dollar product and they don't. IF they want to charge top dollar they should back their product and they don't. Might as well buy a king cutter and save your money.
Wouldn't touch that crap with your money.
They made their bed, let them lie in it. Was happy to take the beating, sell the things used and watch them go away.
buy rhino at your own risk, you've been warned.
Pull your punches all you want, but you're wrong on this one. Rhino == Junk.
read this quick before the PTB delete it for saying bad things about a brand.
How fast did you want to mow?
