Hustler Flip Up Zero Turn

[coolreinfarm]

Curious if anyone here has bought one of these and how well does it work. Getting a little old to crawl under my zero turn, thanks in advance.

 

[Poopdeck Pappy]

I don't have one, but I have a Grasshopper with the flip up front-mounted deck. Once you get a flip-up deck, you'll never go back. It makes blade changes and under deck cleaning a breeze.

 

[4570Man]

I think it's a $1500 option. I'd way rather have a real front mount with a hydraulic lift. A clogged fuel filter decommissioned my F2560 and I had to finish the day on a regular riding mower. It was painstaking not being able to mow within 2 feet of stuff. I know the hustler is a ZTR but I don't see it being any better than a regular ZTR.

 

[DK35vince]

I think it's a $1500 option. I'd way rather have a real front mount with a hydraulic lift. A clogged fuel filter decommissioned my F2560 and I had to finish the day on a regular riding mower. It was painstaking not being able to mow within 2 feet of stuff. I know the hustler is a ZTR but I don't see it being any better than a regular ZTR.

If its a $1500 option, personally I would take the 1500 and upgrade to a higher end residential or low end commercial Z turn vs spending it for the flip up deck.

 

[Duwop]

I too am getting to the age where I'm thing of smarter ways of doing things. I purchased a hustler this year but couldn't justify the cost of the flip up because of how often I would use it. Unless your running over rocks or operating in very sandy areas your not going to be changing blades that often. If clipping build up is the issue you can install a water hook up for a lot less. Not knowing you limitations though you might be smarter to get it.

 

[skipmarcy]

My 5' Country Clipper is a stand up deck, but I have to use the FEL on my tractor to pick the darn thing up !!! Letting it down is no problem. I do like having the stand up deck for maintenance. It is a standard feature on Country Clipper.

 

[RRRancher]

Curious if anyone here has bought one of these and how well does it work. Getting a little old to crawl under my zero turn, thanks in advance.

I purchased one of these about five years ago, mainly because of my age, and the difficulty of changing blades on the previous zero-turn I owned. And I do unintentionally run over a lot of rocks here where I live. We call the place Red Rock Ranch because the entire 70 acres is a mixture of iron ore rocks from one ton in size to pea gravel in size, embedded in the top soil, all the way down to the underlying clay. You can pick up rocks until you are blue in the face, and after a couple of rains, there are plenty more to take their place. So, I researched this mower and decided to spend the extra money over and above the cost of the Raptor model that it is derived from so I can more easily keep sharp blades on it. Let me give you my pros and cons.

The flip-up option works very well, in my opinion. It is not hard to do at all. You move a pin that is about a half inch in diameter, from its holding place close by, to a set of holes that must first be lined up with the electric deck lift. Great idea to have a dedicated holding spot for the pin, so it doesn't get misplaced. But the holes that it goes through will not line up good enough on mine to allow you to just slip the pin into them. I have tried everything short of drilling out the holes a bit to get the pin to slide in, but no go. I have to tap it in every time with a hammer. And I also have to hammer a half inch bolt into the back side of the pin to get it back out afterward. I don't know if QC missed this on mine, or if it is like that on all of them, but it is aggravating to me.

So after you place the pin, you have a lever behind the seat that you move to put it into the flip-up mode. After that, you just push the button on the electric deck lift and in a few seconds you have all three blades easily accessible for replacement. It takes me about five to ten minutes to flip it up, change the blades, and flip it back down. That beats the heck out of the last mower where I had to remove the deck and flip it over to get the blades replaced. One thing I will suggest is that you check the blades drive belt after you flip it back down, as the belt can come partially off a pulley in the flipping operation. Mine did this the second time I flipped it and when I energized the belt clutch, the belt came completely off the pulley and something cut it so bad that I had to replace it. Now, every time I flip it, I go to the back of the mower and manually pull the belt a couple of times to make sure it is on all the pulleys before firing it up.

Another problem is with the transmission drive belt. I don't know what causes it, but I suspect that a chipped up piece of wood gets between the belt and a pulley and throws it off. I say this because all three times it has happened I was mowing under some pine trees where I was mulching up pine needles and small branches when it occurred. It is a royal pain to get the belt back on again as there is very little room to work in the crowded space where the belt is. I have made a couple of tools to help me with this procedure as I'm quite sure it will happen again.

After saying all that, I really love the way this thing operates. The fabricated deck is well built, in my opinion, and has taken quite a bit of unintended abuse with no problems at all. Very rugged. I mulch a lot of stuff under the trees around our place and it will easily chop up the small stuff and blow it out the side. I pick up anything that looks too big or too hard but leave all the little stuff for the mower. It really will clean up an area and make it look nice. And when the blades are sharp, it does a great job on the grass and it looks really nice when you're done. I mow about an acre regularly, and another acre or two a couple of times a year. Most of this grass is Bahia, which is some tough stuff, and the 25 horse engine rarely has the governor really kick in hard. Seems to be a good match. I have the 54 inch deck, by the way.

Another thing I really like is the discharge chute. It does a great job of letting the grass out, but keeping rocks and chopped up branches from flying out. Much better than any mower I've ever owned, and I've been mowing since the late 50's. It also is designed so that if you accidentally run it into a tree or something, it will raise up and out of the way, then fall back in place when past it. I don't think it is designed to do that a lot, and I don't do it intentionally, but it handles it very nicely when I mess up. The only time I have seen it clog up with grass was when I was mowing really tall and thick grass where the quantity of discharge material was excessive. Usually, you just have to back up a bit to clear the clog.

The electric deck lift works very well. You put another pin in one of several holes to set what you want to be the lowest deck height, then you can lift it from that height with a push of a button, and put it back as easily.

One other problem is the parking brake switches that are actuated by the steering arms. When you push the steering arms out to lock the parking brake, the switches don't always get actuated, and if you get out of the seat, the engine will be cut off. And you can't start it again until you wiggle the steering handles a bit and make the switch. Annoying for sure. And I have found that it is a common problem, not just on mine.

All in all, I like the mower and its capabilities. They definitely need to change a few things, no doubt, but overall, it is a well built mower. Very rugged and comfortable to use. I knew my yard was a challenge for any mower I purchased, and I was impressed with the materials, fabrication, welds, and the ease of blade changes. Would I buy another? If they fixed the problems I described above, I would most likely get another one. I keep it out of the weather, and other than some chipped paint spots on the deck where I run into stuff, and some stains on the operator chair, it looks almost brand new.

Sorry for the length of this, but I wanted to be thorough and honest about everything.

 

[RalphVa]

We bought a Scag back in about 1980 for the 5 acres of church lawn in NJ. It had a crank up deck that brought all 3 decks up together. Could remove through-bolted blades in about 5 minutes. Would take home, sharpen them and then spend 5 minutes to put them back on.

Ralph

 

[coolreinfarm]

I purchased one of these about five years ago, mainly because of my age, and the difficulty of changing blades on the previous zero-turn I owned. And I do unintentionally run over a lot of rocks here where I live. We call the place Red Rock Ranch because the entire 70 acres is a mixture of iron ore rocks from one ton in size to pea gravel in size, embedded in the top soil, all the way down to the underlying clay. You can pick up rocks until you are blue in the face, and after a couple of rains, there are plenty more to take their place. So, I researched this mower and decided to spend the extra money over and above the cost of the Raptor model that it is derived from so I can more easily keep sharp blades on it. Let me give you my pros and cons.

The flip-up option works very well, in my opinion. It is not hard to do at all. You move a pin that is about a half inch in diameter, from its holding place close by, to a set of holes that must first be lined up with the electric deck lift. Great idea to have a dedicated holding spot for the pin, so it doesn't get misplaced. But the holes that it goes through will not line up good enough on mine to allow you to just slip the pin into them. I have tried everything short of drilling out the holes a bit to get the pin to slide in, but no go. I have to tap it in every time with a hammer. And I also have to hammer a half inch bolt into the back side of the pin to get it back out afterward. I don't know if QC missed this on mine, or if it is like that on all of them, but it is aggravating to me.

So after you place the pin, you have a lever behind the seat that you move to put it into the flip-up mode. After that, you just push the button on the electric deck lift and in a few seconds you have all three blades easily accessible for replacement. It takes me about five to ten minutes to flip it up, change the blades, and flip it back down. That beats the heck out of the last mower where I had to remove the deck and flip it over to get the blades replaced. One thing I will suggest is that you check the blades drive belt after you flip it back down, as the belt can come partially off a pulley in the flipping operation. Mine did this the second time I flipped it and when I energized the belt clutch, the belt came completely off the pulley and something cut it so bad that I had to replace it. Now, every time I flip it, I go to the back of the mower and manually pull the belt a couple of times to make sure it is on all the pulleys before firing it up.

Another problem is with the transmission drive belt. I don't know what causes it, but I suspect that a chipped up piece of wood gets between the belt and a pulley and throws it off. I say this because all three times it has happened I was mowing under some pine trees where I was mulching up pine needles and small branches when it occurred. It is a royal pain to get the belt back on again as there is very little room to work in the crowded space where the belt is. I have made a couple of tools to help me with this procedure as I'm quite sure it will happen again.

After saying all that, I really love the way this thing operates. The fabricated deck is well built, in my opinion, and has taken quite a bit of unintended abuse with no problems at all. Very rugged. I mulch a lot of stuff under the trees around our place and it will easily chop up the small stuff and blow it out the side. I pick up anything that looks too big or too hard but leave all the little stuff for the mower. It really will clean up an area and make it look nice. And when the blades are sharp, it does a great job on the grass and it looks really nice when you're done. I mow about an acre regularly, and another acre or two a couple of times a year. Most of this grass is Bahia, which is some tough stuff, and the 25 horse engine rarely has the governor really kick in hard. Seems to be a good match. I have the 54 inch deck, by the way.

Another thing I really like is the discharge chute. It does a great job of letting the grass out, but keeping rocks and chopped up branches from flying out. Much better than any mower I've ever owned, and I've been mowing since the late 50's. It also is designed so that if you accidentally run it into a tree or something, it will raise up and out of the way, then fall back in place when past it. I don't think it is designed to do that a lot, and I don't do it intentionally, but it handles it very nicely when I mess up. The only time I have seen it clog up with grass was when I was mowing really tall and thick grass where the quantity of discharge material was excessive. Usually, you just have to back up a bit to clear the clog.

The electric deck lift works very well. You put another pin in one of several holes to set what you want to be the lowest deck height, then you can lift it from that height with a push of a button, and put it back as easily.

One other problem is the parking brake switches that are actuated by the steering arms. When you push the steering arms out to lock the parking brake, the switches don't always get actuated, and if you get out of the seat, the engine will be cut off. And you can't start it again until you wiggle the steering handles a bit and make the switch. Annoying for sure. And I have found that it is a common problem, not just on mine.

All in all, I like the mower and its capabilities. They definitely need to change a few things, no doubt, but overall, it is a well built mower. Very rugged and comfortable to use. I knew my yard was a challenge for any mower I purchased, and I was impressed with the materials, fabrication, welds, and the ease of blade changes. Would I buy another? If they fixed the problems I described above, I would most likely get another one. I keep it out of the weather, and other than some chipped paint spots on the deck where I run into stuff, and some stains on the operator chair, it looks almost brand new.

Sorry for the length of this, but I wanted to be thorough and honest about everything.

Thanks for the long term and honest review, it痴 been 3 years since the post and I haven稚 bought a new mower yet but it痴 good to know the problems that you致e had. I believe that Hustler has corrected some of the design problems you have described, this mower is still on my list.
Thanks Again.