SteveM:
<font color="blue">This is an unfair competition. </font>
It’s unfair? Sears sells the GT5000 as a garden tractor. It advertises all the wonderful implements you can get with it, including, and I quote from their literature, “ground engaging” implements. They try to sell it as a multipurpose tractor. It’s a con to convince people they’re getting something they’re not. In another thread in this forum, DanielNY asked for advice about buying a “garden tractor”. Different posters recommended this or that “garden tractor”. All bull. If people had said to DanielNY “well, Daniel, you’re really not getting a garden tractor, you’re actually getting a lawn mower that will do couple of other things, sort of” we wouldn’t be having this conversation and I never would have started this thread or made the bet.
I don’t doubt that a GT5000 is a decent enough riding lawn mower, at a reasonable price – in fact, when I studied one yesterday, prior to starting this thread and posting my bet, I thought it was better assembled, had better fit and finish, smoothly working controls, etc. than I had expected. But even just limited to mowing, I guess you didn’t realize that the 2 wheelers have riding sulkies. You don’t have to mow acres and acres walking. In fact, if I were going to mow that much ground, I would use my TC40. It took me 15-20 seconds to hook, or detach, the sulky on my Gravely. But, in addition to open, flat mowing while riding, the Gravely would easily mow under overhanging branches and bushes. With the sulky off, it would mow 30+ degree slopes. Try that with your GT5000.
Regarding cost, you are certainly correct. A BCS 850 with mowing deck will run quite a bit more than the GT5000 with mowing deck. However, it will last a lifetime, the warranty on the gearing and transaxle has no time limit. What’s the life expectancy of a GT5000? Also, the GT5000 weighs more and has more HP. So, maybe its <font color="blue">unfair</font> for the BCS! But, again, my quarrel is with misrepresenting something like the Craftsman GT5000 as a “garden tractor” not the relative quality of the two.
Regarding some of your other comments, I included pulling weight in my suggested list of test items. Of course, if all you want is a tractor pull, it’s real easy to add duals (or triples for that matter)-or, better yet, the BCS has factory, steel tracks (like a dozer), let’s bolt those on, and, while we’re at it, pull 4 bolts and in a few minutes we can swap out the gas engine for a diesel. We hook up your GT5000 against the BCS and see which one can pull the other. As far as “one armed” (or one legged for that matter) people are concerned, I watched Harrison Ford in the Fugitive a few nights ago-so I don’t need any of those.
In your post, you admit, in effect, that equipment like the GT5000 is really not an all-purpose garden tractor. That, of course, is my point. If anyone thinks it is, let them take me up on my bet and we’ll go see how well a lawn mower can do against an all purpose garden tractor (a real one, that it).
JEH
