Is it possible....

[agford4x4]

To get a decent riding mower for about 1000 bucks? I know....i know...but i recently purchased a 55hp tractor for our place, so the riding mower is getting whats left over for money. I need something to mow the yard with since the shredder tears it up. I have a push mower now, which is good, but it gets old doing it that way. The machine's sole purpose in life is to be long lasting and to cut the grass. I am having a hard time looking at garden tractors.....since as a kid i grew up with a Case 446 that would outrun, outmow, and outlast anything you find today. I did find its equivalent, but they want about 8000 for it, so thats way out.

 

[VABlue]

For ~$1500 its possible to get a serviceable machine that can last a long time if you're only cutting 'finished' grass. I had a 14HP MTD that lasted 7 years before it blew up, and still have the Craftsman I replaced it with in 2000. It's an 18HP Kohler w/ hydro drive and still cuts decently. No, its not the same cut I get with my new 2305, but it works well enough.

I guess it depends on what you expect to do with it, and what quality cut you need to see. It won't be robust, but it will work for what its designed to do.

 

[Chuck52]

Agford,

You're going to get a lot of replies about buying a good used machine, and I'm certainly not going to argue with that....if you can find one and know what you're getting. If you want a new machine, you're talking big box stuff. For the record, I bought a 46" cut YardMachine, an MTD product, from Home Depot in 2004. I mow probably three acres, and there are lots of rough places, and lots of trees to mow around. The first year I beat that thing to death. I was flying around the five foot circles of fence I use to keep the deer at bay. One of the neat features of this machine is a fairly tight turning circle. I can mow right against the fence circles. However, like all of the cheap machines, the wheels are hung on with cotter pins, and I several times jammed the wheels into ruts while doing the fast, sharp circles. I popped the front wheels off 3-4 times in the first two years, and eventually bent the front "axle", which is a formed steel pivot bar. I replaced the front axle and have been taking it a bit easier this year. It cuts the grass pretty well, has plenty of power, and does what I need it to do. It was about $1,100 in 2004, and the equivalent is still about that now. If it had a cast iron front axle and some better way to hold the front wheels on than little cotter pins, I'd probably have never had any problems with it. Heck, if I'd just been careful about hitting the ruts so hard, I probably wouldn't have had any problems. Thousands of dollars to cut grass just bugs me, and I'm not confident of my ability to recognize a good used high quality machine, so I did OK buying this one.

Chuck

 

[BTDT]

I would buy one in some of the shopping guides or try to find a used dead one behind someones house. Some of the mowers are used 1 or 2 years, then they won't start (usually bad gas or some simple something). Get it fixed and running, use it till it quits, then put a new engine on it and keep on cutting.

 

[agford4x4]

Well, i might be able to get my hands on a mower from a lady i know that purchased it new in the 60's or so. All i know is its a Gravely, and there is a seat on the 'back'. I have no idea how big the deck is. She said it runs great and has been maintained and repaired at the dealer when it needed it. So...who knows, maybe this will be what i need.

 

[SATOHBULL]

I sent you a PM.