Buying Advice What should I use to mow 5 acres?

[houston burt]

If all your mowing and tending to is five acres there are still alot of older gas tractors out there that can get the job done easily for under your budget. i had a 76 ford 5000 gas burner that i put a back hoe on and dug the foundation and septic for my house plus removed may stumps with to

 

[567234ta]

This is what i used for 3 acres of field so im sure she could handle 5 acres.

LOL just joking, she did mow about 1.5 acres like that though with the pushmower.

 

[JCCinOhio]

I did forget to mention that my wife would be doing most of the mowing.. I'd do the other stuff ;-)..

LD-1 - Just outside of Wilmington around Ceasar Creek..

Thanks all for the suggestions. Nobody really said the x530 was a good choice, so have to rethink that.. Not sure I want to deal with a used tractor, just don't know what to look out for. I do have a 4WD Jeep, so maybe the snow removal can be done by that.. will keep looking..

 

[KU Gator]

When we bought our current home on 3 acres, I bought a JD GT245 from the previous owner. It has a 54" deck plus came with a snow blade. Frankly it did a pretty good job and generally met my needs for that property which is essentially a big yard with a 400' drive. I was able to clear the snow with the blade and chains on the tires. It takes about 2 hours to mow the 3 acres. I would say it is similar in size to the X530.

We then bought 11 acres that is about 1/2 grass and the rest woods and a small pond as recreational property. We mowed the areas that had previously been baled a few times with the little JD until we researched and bought the Kubota we now have. While able to mow what was already pretty tame, the JD245 would have been out matched if I got behind and would not have been able to tackle any of the rougher areas.

It will be difficult for you to see all the advantages of having one of the small CUTs until you have one, but they will be significant. And they are easy to drive, so your wife would have no problem operating one. While I understand the desire to stay in the budget of $8K, there are older used tractors out there and it is worth considering going ahead and getting a new tractor with the 0% financing. With resonable care, it is going to last a long time and hold its value. It will give you the versatility to add attachments later to maintain a drive such as a box blade, spray weeds, etc. As an example of the difference, taking the mower off the GT245 and putting the front blade on it was a couple of hours sitting in the garage with the manual and a bunch of tools. Taking the mower deck off the Kubota I have and putting the rear blade on it is no more than 10 minutes and no tools. If I used a rear mower instead of a MMM it would be less than that.

 

[cubcadet69]

keep it cheap.a good 50"lawn tractor and a 60"swisher tow behind is the hot set up

 

[jenkinsph]

If the lawn is mostly open I would recommend an X748 with 60" 7 iron deck from Deere. I would be very careful with any of the higher tractor profiles on the slopes you have mentioned. If the lawn is more congested the X749 may be a better alternative with AWS.

 

[doall]

I would suggest a commercial zero turn and a tractor later. No substitute.

 

[D33r3 6r33N]

I would suggest a commercial zero turn and a tractor later. No substitute.

I'd have to agree with you. Though you could buy them used to get to that goal quicker. I wouldn't want to mow that much without a ZTR.

 

[Carykong]

You have 10 acres but will leave 5 acres in tall grass for deer and game,right with little attention? I think you would still want to hog that patch,at least,once a year to keep it accessible and attractive. So we are talking 10 acres of attention not really 5. I managed nearly 40 acres with my old 1952 CASE tricycle and a 5' Howse brush cutter for several years before buying new CUT. Total cost of my CASE VAC and brush cutter was less than $2k.

 

[jenkinsph]

You have 10 acres but will leave 5 acres in tall grass for deer and game,right with little attention? I think you would still want to hog that patch,at least,once a year to keep it accessible and attractive. So we are talking 10 acres of attention not really 5. I managed nearly 40 acres with my old 1952 CASE tricycle and a 5' Howse brush cutter for several years before buying new CUT. Total cost of my CASE VAC and brush cutter was less than $2k.

Cary,
I started out with a Case SC tricycle with a 5' Mohawk pull behind to mow 170 acres, I agree we all have to start somewhere.