I had been considering a dedicated mower for my 5.5 acres so that my elderly Deere 955 compact has less mowing load and I am not so frequently changing attachments on it. I ordered the 955 back in 1995 with the 72" midmount deck, 5 foot rough cut 3 pt mower, loader, and tiller and have added an aftermarket blade and snow blower. Besides the usual fluid and filters, its only maintenance issues have been three replacement idler wheels on the midmount deck and loss of power once when a mud dauber either loved the smell of diesel and built its house on the fuel cap vent or hated the smell of diesel and decided to plug the vent.
I had been seriously looking at either a Deere or Kubota diesel ZTR but I don't have that many obstacles and I do have some rougher areas where ZTR bounce wouldn't be welcome and plenty of slopes and a waterway so there were a lot of areas the 955 would have still handled much of the mowing. But after looking at the F series, the front mount mower seems ideal for what I need with a bit more easy access than the tractor/midmount deck and with the deck out front I expect a better cut from the F 2690 in less than perfect conditions.
The Deere 955 is a fairly heavy compact utility 4WD with a 1.4L Yanmar diesel with base weight just under 2000 pounds without any attachments or a mower deck so the front tires create an issue with pushing down the grass before the deck when I often have to mow in damp spring weather and high lift blades only help a little. It will still be used fairly often with its brush cutting rear deck and for mowing along one section of the street where one bank of the roadside drainage is near vertical but the width of the Deere tires is enough to comfortably span the ditch and 4WD keeps it going where I point it.
I found a F-2690 at a local dealer that was ordered without any deck and they are getting a 72" rear discharge deck to go with it so I will continue mowing with the Deere until everything comes in. The 955 is under 1,000 hours so it still has a long life ahead but it will be nice to leave the loader on it most of the time instead of pulling it every time I need to mow. I guess I am trying to have diesel engines from all of the major Japanese manufacturers with the Yanmar in the Deere, a 3.3L Mitsubishi turbo powering my standby generator, and the 6.6L turbo diesel in my 2018 GMC pickup started life as a GM/Isuzu joint venture and I had the original generation 6.6 in my 2001 GMC.
I may actually start looking forward to mowing again
Rodger
I had been seriously looking at either a Deere or Kubota diesel ZTR but I don't have that many obstacles and I do have some rougher areas where ZTR bounce wouldn't be welcome and plenty of slopes and a waterway so there were a lot of areas the 955 would have still handled much of the mowing. But after looking at the F series, the front mount mower seems ideal for what I need with a bit more easy access than the tractor/midmount deck and with the deck out front I expect a better cut from the F 2690 in less than perfect conditions.
The Deere 955 is a fairly heavy compact utility 4WD with a 1.4L Yanmar diesel with base weight just under 2000 pounds without any attachments or a mower deck so the front tires create an issue with pushing down the grass before the deck when I often have to mow in damp spring weather and high lift blades only help a little. It will still be used fairly often with its brush cutting rear deck and for mowing along one section of the street where one bank of the roadside drainage is near vertical but the width of the Deere tires is enough to comfortably span the ditch and 4WD keeps it going where I point it.
I found a F-2690 at a local dealer that was ordered without any deck and they are getting a 72" rear discharge deck to go with it so I will continue mowing with the Deere until everything comes in. The 955 is under 1,000 hours so it still has a long life ahead but it will be nice to leave the loader on it most of the time instead of pulling it every time I need to mow. I guess I am trying to have diesel engines from all of the major Japanese manufacturers with the Yanmar in the Deere, a 3.3L Mitsubishi turbo powering my standby generator, and the 6.6L turbo diesel in my 2018 GMC pickup started life as a GM/Isuzu joint venture and I had the original generation 6.6 in my 2001 GMC.
I may actually start looking forward to mowing again
Rodger