Does anyone have "zero turn regret"?

[Dredwolf]

Lots of good info in this thread, good to hear the honest long term opinions on the equipment instead of nothing but "anything made by X is terrible..." stuff. I have gotten so much info, I am revisiting my top three choices again to try and make sure I spend my money well. For example, stopping by the local JD dealer, looks like Tuff Torque has some "residential heavy duty" hydros, and there are some stamped decks that are heavily reinforced. More to think about.

 

[warment]

Nice pics BukitCase! My opinion exactly. I should have bit the bullet and threw out $10k or so for a well built model. Oh well...my RZT54 is mowing well at the current moment and I have several other mowers/tractors to use if need be.

 

[warment]

BukitCase...I just noticed you had the same deck problem ad near the side discharge. My rightmost lower deck bar/connector broke as well. I installed a thick bar on the bottom like you did. The fix has worked well, but is **** close to the right most blade on mine.

 

[BukitCase]

If you're talking about the brace ACROSS the discharge opening, I radiused that with the plasma and circle guide, same as the latest bandaid - on the latest one I radiused first, then trimmed away anything that stuck back into the deck more than about an inch - Did this with the new piece MOUNTED on the deck (just 2 bolts during this, then unbolt, dress up, paint, bolt back on, transfer punch for the rest of the holes, off again, drill the rest of the holes, back on with new bolts/nylocks.

If you mean the short, offset area I just used some scrap, same criteria, and kept rotating the blades to check for clearance. Once that rolled lip gets worn through, bye-bye whatever stiffness the deck has

I may eventually re-radius the discharge brace, think it may be a bit too close to the blade - not for actually hitting, just for better lift... Steve

 

[warment]

Yep...the one near the discharge chute. My fix was not radiused. Your fix is much nicer than mine. I will NEVER buy another mower/tractor with a stamped deck. Fabricated for me from this point forward.

 

[Soldier415]

Funny this thread popped up. Been thinking I need to upgrade to a zero turn. Just started looking around and the amount of info out there is insane. I do have slopes on one section of the lawn, and havent heard good things about zero turns and slopes

 

[frugalangler]

I absolutely have no regrets about buying a ZTR mower! Well, maybe one, I didn't do it soon enough. We bought the first one (actually, our second), a Hustler Fastrack-Z, because the wife does most of the mowing and was struggling with steering the JD 260 series we had. She took to the ZTR quickly, and now I don't ever have to mow - I can do other chores that she can't.

I actually owned one before the Hustler, we inherited a broken down Dixon with the cone&disc transmission that I dissembled every part on it, replaced any thing worn like chains, sprockets, bolts, nuts, and basically refurbished it, it even got some fresh paint. That thing was a mowing monster for what it was, a 30" single spindle and it had a 13HP B&S L-head that wouldn't quit. Only reason we got rid of it was we upgraded to a larger 42" one, these live at our country property and the Hustler does the chores at our main residence. Yea, I know, you scoff at only a 30" or 42" deck, but when you are weaving in between 40 or more trees on less than an acre of mow-able grass, anything bigger is just a nuisance. Size does matter, actually RIGHT SIZE is what matters!

 

[BukitCase]

"I will NEVER buy another mower/tractor with a stamped deck. Fabricated for me from this point forward."

If I LIVE long enough, my deck may LOOK fabricated :laughing: Oh and thanks for the compliments, I was partly just lookin' for a reason to play with the plasma

Actually, the more I mess with the Cub deck the better grafting on my 60" Swisher fabbed deck looks...

soldier415, there are slopes and then there are SLOPES - some options, depending on which you have - if you MUST go side-hill, go slow (as in, CRAWL) - and only drive the DOWNHILL tire, the tendency to "crab" will take care of the upper one - I have one area that's approaching 45 degrees (NOT percent) that I mow that way - if I go too fast, I'll end up at the bottom of it by the end of the pass...

If you have level areas below, you can mow up/down - I have areas like that, zip down, slow down, turn around, power UP, do a quick 180 (it is a ZERO turn, after all) - repeat - it's actually kinda fun - hint - you may wanna lean FORWARD going up fairly steep hills; pretty much ALL ZTR's tend to be "butt-heavy"...

I read a few days ago that some switch to more aggressive rear tires and it helps on sidehill - no personal experience on THAT so far, but my rears ARE gettin' a bit "under-whelming", so maybe soon... Steve

 

[Gary Fowler]

My regret is that I wasted money on my first ZTR buying a residential box store brand. My entry level commercial grade Ferris is super fast, tough and has the 3400 Hydrogear transmission for long service life. It has about everything one needs in a zero turn- chain hung deck, foot lever to raise and lower (no electronics to wear out), Kawasaki engine that just sips fuel, heavy fabricated deck, large tires and as someone said they wanted a pivoting front axle with coil over shocks front and rear for a smooth ride.
The only con I have found is the way the anti-scalping wheels are attached with just one point and a bolt which is easily bent. I remedied that by adding a second attachment bracket to each wheel and putting in a thru bolt on the wheel. It is much stronger now and more like the heavy commercial units.

 

[BukitCase]

Just discovered this today; as soon as I can find a legit buyer for one of my kidneys, I'll dump the Cub for this -
Raptor(R) Flip-Up | Hustler Turf Zero-Turn Mowers - Residential
I'm not super fond of Kohler engines, but that thing sure addresses a bunch of OTHER things I could live with - check out the 2 videos... Steve

 

[Creamer]

Whoa! You are selling a kidney to buy a lawnmower?

 

[BukitCase]

Sorry, the kidney part was a joke - didn't notice I hadn't added the "I'm just kidding" emoji...

I just meant that I REALLY wanna find a way to pay for one of those, getting tired of re-designing the RZT50 every few mowings (keeping about 2-1/2 acres of (very much NOT) smooth ground mowed)

If you haven't already checked out their videos, it's really cool whether you need one or not :thumbsup: ...Steve

 

[Creamer]

Thank you! I couldn't quite figure out what you were up to. For somebody like you buy a used Deines and you will be ecstatic. You can obviously work on them yourself and all the parts are off the shelf. There is a dealership in Iowa that has them for as low as $2500 on a regular basis. They are good guys and you will be happy you did.

 

[BukitCase]

Yeah, having been in maintenance of one sort or another pretty much my entire life (either doing or teaching) I can usually figure out most things (except maybe German craftsmanship, they seem to be able to hide almost ANYTHING :laughing: )

Thanks for mentioning the Deines machines (again) - I was gonna look them up and got distracted (probably by lunch, happens a LOT ) Sounds like my kind of machine, hopefully there's a closer one or reasonable shipping... Steve

 

[Bob_Bainbridge]

Sorry, the kidney part was a joke - didn't notice I hadn't added the "I'm just kidding" emoji...

I just meant that I REALLY wanna find a way to pay for one of those, getting tired of re-designing the RZT50 every few mowings (keeping about 2-1/2 acres of (very much NOT) smooth ground mowed)



If you haven't already checked out their videos, it's really cool whether you need one or not :thumbsup: ...Steve

Some of the reviews said they experienced loose bolts and a belt throwing problem. Home Depot sells the Flip-up but perhaps there are better grades at dealers?

Bob B.

 

[BukitCase]

Good question Bob - didn't know HD had ANYTHING that far up the "food chain", but I DO know they used to sell the "Sabre" line of JD mowers, everything about them reminded me of Sears' old "even at this low price" line of crap...

Kind of a moot point for me, I was mainly dazzled by the idea of NOT having to either "find a convenient tree" and add a chain hoist, fire up the 580B and pick the whole thing up, or remove the deck every time I wanted to clean out the crud - the reality is more like "keep fixing the Cub til it (or me) dies" :laughing: ...Steve

 

[GBHRPS]

BukitCase,

Have you considered buying a used Zero Turn? I found a used Z Force 48 (deck width) that had a new 26 HP B&S on it, with about 300 hours. That was 5 years ago and cost me $2200 CDN. Two new drive tires (one original developed a bulge), a new deck belt, and just normal maintenance since then, but it runs like a top and cuts well. My old JD 175 Hydro just does tow duties now.

Yeah, I'd love a new one, but I can't justify it, even though I have the resources to do so. In fact, should something major go wrong with the Z Force, I'll find another used JD, CC or similarly heavy built make that has a parts dealership within reasonable distance.

 

[BukitCase]

Yeah, I have considered a used ztr - but for now, I'm getting invaluable experience figuring out ways to make more of a "silk purse" out of the RZT50 - when it finally gets to the point that the bandaids need bandaids, I'll probably give up and see what's available in that market - meantime, it's doing fairly well lately - the cheesy seat frame finally split, so I just replaced the entire thing with a hydraulic tractor seat with arm rests - little bit of "re-arrangeing" and I kept the COG as low as original, new seat is TONS more comfy and less spine-crunching on my "destruction derby" grass area.

I also forgot to mention the deck actually FALLING OFF a couple months ago - I cleaned up and re-welded every one of the marginal plug welds between the stamped deck and all the hanger brackets, it should stay together for a while now... Steve

 

[RoyJackson]

My only regret is that I didn't buy one sooner. They are just awesome machines.

Same here!

Bought my Deere Z920 used. One neighbor has the Z930, another has one of the smaller Deere zero-turn mowers. All three machines do the job...the guy with the Z930 uses it as a field mower too. I'd say that more then the mower was designed for, but it works for him.
My only "regret", is I wish I could afford the 997 (Deere's diesel ZTR)

 

[GBHRPS]

Roy,

I agree! I'd love a diesel Kubota ZT but I can't justify the need or expense, even used, when having only about an acre of grass to cut.
I cut a neighbour's 4 acres with his Kubota 60 inch diesel ZT when he vacations. Its a Cadillac compared to my CC Z Force.