Help with choosing new rider mower

[tacticalturnip]

If you're mowing hills you need a garden tractor and not a lawn tractor, as the transaxle in a modern lawn tractor is not going to last. The oil will heat up, break down, and cease performing. One can change the fluid, but it isn't easy.

When you get into the garden tractor category, you're typically getting a heavier transaxle, serviceable, with a filter.

You're not getting 4k hours out of any lawn tractor today, it's just not going to happen. Your Deere X320 had a transaxle 3 steps up from what is in an entry-level lawn tractor. You needed an X500, at least. Did your dealer try to direct you towards it?

 

[JasperFrank]

I have a 17 hp Kaw and was shocked after I bought it about how much fuel it gulps.

Yeah..... there is that. I don't run at the recommended engine speed anymore. And tried to figure out what what was its MPG, or gallons per hour, while mowing at the normal PTO speed.
I never figured out a number that made sense. Not sure how to frame the question.
Some one with a lot of flat grass land should make a vid, and run different models, cutting the same grass, till dry tank, with a measured 1 gallon of clear gas.
I think those results will be shocking if put in MPG terms.