What's a good riding mower brand to look at?

[RJ in KY]

You could always go old school, and find you a refurbished 1960s or 1970s vintage
Cub Cadet. Tougher than nails, built heavier and better than most all tractor style riders manufactured today.
Parts readily available. Kohler engines. Some come with hydraulic lifts, good heavy mowing decks,
tractor grade rear ends and final drives. My nephew collects, buys, and refurbishes them on a regular basis.
Usually has the shop cluttered with them, as you can see.

 

[oosik]

I've had two JD riding mowers. First one was a JD G100 - don't make that model anymore. Had it for 17 years. Just last month bought a new JD X570. It's a fantastic machine. Plenty of power - nice finish cut.

 

[SubK]

I just bought a Husquavarna ts 348xd, with their big trailer, bagger, mulch kit, cover, and dethatcher for $4480, I believe MSRP was about $4800 so I think I did okay. Obviously I can't comment on longevity, but supposed to be their model with a heavier duty frame and transmission. Plus it has a 24 hp Kawasaki engine, and electric differential lock. I was considering a JD x570, but this ticked all the boxes I was looking for (Kawasaki/diff lock/ ability to pull trailer on hills) for a much lower price. If cash flow is a concern (or you would just rather leave your money in the market) they also have 0% financing.

I had heavily considered a SCUT for my lawn work, but with the maneuverability issues, septic tank/ leech field, and high center of gravity, it didn't make much sense for my yard. This will do much better for the lawn tasks. Then maybe next year I'll get a SCUT or CUT for the big tasks.

 

[oosik]

Well - having local dealers for a wide variety of riding mowers is just like finding used agricultural implements in these parts. Very few and far between. I've had good luck with JD and choose to stick with them. Besides the price only hurts once...........

 

[fruitcakesa]

I am frugal and look for good used machines for mowing my 1/2 acre lawn and 2 acre fruit tree field. I had a Kubota T1400 HST that I recently replaced with a T1460, both machines are older 80's-90's vintage. Kubota power in the 1400, Kawasaki in the 1460. These can be had for low dollars if you look around.

 

[shooterdon]

3 acres would take me about 3 hours with my Husqvarna 48" rider. I have close to two acres with two dozen trees to deal with, fence line, pond, patio and flower beds. I have had it for 8 years and it has been a decent machine. Broke a spindle but that was due to hitting a large rock...not a fault of the machine IMHO. I just replaced the starter (less than $50 off Amazon). Kohler Courage 24 HP engine and it sells for about $2000 currently.

My next machine will be a ZT. Twice as fast. The advantage of the ZT should not be overlooked. The time savings of 50% are important for two reasons. First you get the job done more efficiently, but more importantly you double the life of the machine. In my case, it takes almost 2 hours to cut. Most "cheap" mowers will last about 500 hrs. I cut 20 times a year so I should get 13 years out of my Husky. If I reduce my time by 50%, a "cheap" ZT will last me 25 years...if it does not rust out...LOL. I will be 70 this year. A $3000 ZT will be the last mower I will ever need and it will reduce my time in the sun and bugs to half.

Beware of people recommending high end mowers as I believe many try to justify why they spent a lot of money to cut grass. It's freaking grass!!!! Unless someone has horrible terrain to deal with, and/or needs to cut a lot of grass many times a year the economics of $6-12k mowers do not make sense for most users IMHO. Nothing wrong with wanting a nice machine if you can afford it...but to me it is only a tool.

BTW, I wish my Husky would die as I want a ZT, but it has cost me less than $200 (not including blades) to maintain over 8 years. Unfortunately, maybe I got a good one?

 

[Diggin It]

^^^ We've had that discussion before though. A ZT is a mower ... only. A rider will at least pull a cart, small trailer, lawn roller, spreader, aerator or a few other similar things too small for a tractor.

 

[4570Man]

^^^ We've had that discussion before though. A ZT is a mower ... only. A rider will at least pull a cart, small trailer, lawn roller, spreader, aerator or a few other similar things too small for a tractor.

A ZT will pull a cart just fine. You just have use some caution when driving and not turn too sharp.

 

[shooterdon]

^^^ We've had that discussion before though. A ZT is a mower ... only. A rider will at least pull a cart, small trailer, lawn roller, spreader, aerator or a few other similar things too small for a tractor.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Ox-Cart-OxCart-Universal-Zero-Turn-Hitch-Kit-GTM0101/313267940

There you go!!! Unless I bulk up to over 300 lbs, I doubt pulling a small attachment will be much of a problem with a ZT. But my land is flat. YMMV.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

^^^ We've had that discussion before though. A ZT is a mower ... only. A rider will at least pull a cart, small trailer, lawn roller, spreader, aerator or a few other similar things too small for a tractor.

My zero turn Grasshopper has a trailer hitch option, guess what it is for??

SR