Finishing mower vs Ride on mower

[stephan]

I'm thinking of buying either a ride on or finishing mower but at twice the cost and an additional motor to maintain I think just a finishing mower might do. I wonder what others views are on this?

Pro's and Con's of each?

 

[Gatorboy]

When you say "Ride On" mower, are you talking something like this?

 

[Kubbruce]

I just went through the same thing. I ended up buying a 595x for lawn mowing and I'm going to us it for snow removal with a snow blower this winter. Any how I tried a rear finish mower and my problem was that I couldn't get around my apple trees as easy as I would like and it left me a lot of trimming. I came to the conclusion that if it was all open space with not to many obstacles to go around then it would work great. I must also tell you that I have a L3010 so that alone is big for going around apple trees! One thing that I would try to do is try a rear finish before you buy one. Hope that helps you.

 

[JJT]

I faced this dilemna a few months ago. I ended up buying a Kubota ZD21, (zero turn mower). My only regret was not buying 1 years ago. It's cut my mowing time by 2/3.

 

[Henro]

Here is a related thread that may be of interest... /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[stephan]

Thanks guys.

 

[OhioGuy]

OK, I'm a little late on this one, here's my view.

I was trying to setup my CUT with a belly mower and before I found all the hardware needed to make that work, I came across a Cub 1872. The cub has a 60 deck and and mows really nice. I paid 2K for the tractor/deck/54 hydraulic snow blade, the tractor had 650 hours on it when I bought it.

I concluded I was better off putting those mowing hours on this much less expensive machine, plus, I've never had a Cub repair I couldn't do myself. You can pickup a 45" snowblower for one of these for 3 to 400 dollars and they do a great job.

I find myself using two tractors on a lot of projects, I'll be moving dirt with the FEL and trailering it somewhere with the Cub.

This past spring/early summer I got the Cub stuck more than a few times and just pulled it out with the 1220. If I'd stuck the 1220 with the finish mower on, it would have required a lot more thought to get it out.

I use the 1220 and RM 59 for a couple of acres of open field and have used it on my lawn around the house when I broke a wheel on the Cub deck, it's nice to have a backup.

The Cub doesn't ride as nice, it burns a lot more fuel than the diesel, but for me this was a good option.

I attached a pic of the Cub movin some snow.

Good Luck
Curt