Have L3600 and need to mow about 3 acres of lawn...

[JOHNTHOMAS]

Buy a rear finish mower for your L. Heavier is better, in other words get a Landpride or Woods and not a cheap pretty light weight one. Keep your rider for around trees and the house. If it doesn't work to your satisfaction then you can always sell it and get most of your money back. People keep thinking of a purchase as costing a dollar amount and then that money is gone. It isn't gone, it's just traded to something usable till you want your money (dollars) back. If you don't get all of your dollars back then it cost you some dollars to use it for x number of years. Use it for enough years and take care of it and sometimes you get all of your dollars back and sometimes even more dollars. Equipment goes up in price, not down over years or months. If you own the bush hog/brush hog/rotary mower and it's in fair condition you can sell/trade it for/to the rear finish mower and use the finish mower except on land that has never been mowed in 5 or 10 years. Bush hog it all then trade.

 

[chim]

Not often that I make an effort to accurately time what it takes for mowing with the 6' RFM. Once before I timed it at about 22 minutes per acre. Immediately before mowing yesterday I had a cell phone conversation at 5:24. I first mowed for the widow across the road (1/2 acre, trimmed around house, trees, etc and blew sidewalks and driveway. Spent some time discussing the beautiful weather, adding salt to her water softener and adjusting a couple kitchen cabinet doors.

Back to my place to mow. We have a little over 3-1/2 acres but with the driveway, house, sheds I'll call it 3 for grass area. When I parked the tractor I looked at the time on my cell phone and it was 7:36.

 

[Mikeeemo]

I have been in your situation.

A RFM is a compromise as it lets you cut a lot of grass with the machine you have.

A ZTR with a fabricated deck, not stamped steel, is a more effective choice.

A good ZTR with a fabricated desk start at about $5000 here.

My solution so far has been to let my FIL mow around the house with his 'big box store' ZTR and I use the tractor for the rest of the mowing.

I can see a point when I will have to make the purchase.

FWIW, I vote to keep the tractor.