Zanon ZCR 800 lawn mower

   / Zanon ZCR 800 lawn mower #11  
NibbanaFarm, I have the 38" BCS mower, with the 850 tractor. It is a little big for tight places. I think it does a good job mowing, but without the bagger it does seem to throw clumps fo grass rather than an even spread. Part of that may be I let the grass get just a little too tall. I have the bagger, but really don't use it because our yard is fairly large, so it takes a lot of time to go empty. When I don't use the bagger, I bolted enough channel iron to the front of the mower to keep it on the ground. Unlike Jena, I do use my steering brakes a lot. between flower beds and hills, would not want to be with out them. I also have the 30" bush hog type mower, does good in rough areas. Not as smooth a cut, but it does have a single very thick, heavy blade, so briars, big weeds are no problem. I switch between a riding lawn mower with a 3 blade, 42" deck and the 38" BCS, depending on how much of a hurry I am in. Have a sweeper that works ok behind the rider, BCS is just not quite fast enough.
 
   / Zanon ZCR 800 lawn mower #12  
I have a 3 blade, 42 inch Cub Cadet. It does okay as long as the blades are sharp. The trouble is it takes a long time to get the blades off to sharpen them. And just a couple light hits on rocks and roots and they're dull. And I have a number of rough areas. So by the end of the season, it's not cutting very well at all. Neither that or the 38 inch BCS is going to fit the new places where I need to mow. All I really need is a 20 inch side discharge push mower. But that's another thing to store, maintain and winterize. I could get the 22 inch BCS. It might be a little tedious to mow with but it's not astronomically expensive (about twice the price of the cheapest Honda push mower) and I won't have to winterize it. The 33 inch Zanon is about twice the price of the 22 inch BCS. But I could use the Zanon on some of my rougher areas. And it would be big enough to make decent time. Don't know. This is getting expensive.
 
   / Zanon ZCR 800 lawn mower #13  
I have experience running both the Zanon 40" side discharge ZRA mower and a number of 38" BCS bagger mowers. Specifically speaking to late model BCS 38" baggers, they do an excellent job of cutting and bagging grass, even in wet conditions. Very impressive. Height adjustment is very easy, much nicer than on the Zanon. They also do a very good job cutting without the bagger.

As to the Zanon bagger mower I had a conversation with Earth Tools about the Zanon bagger and they don't like it. They told me "it does not work well". They don't stock it and had several customers return them. So unfortunately as far as I am aware there is not a good bagging option for Grillo tractors.

As to the Zanon ZRA 40" side discharge mower: It is awesome. I have cut 2-3 foot tall grass with it in 3rd gear at near full throttle and it powers right through it, nearly cutting everything cleanly in 1 pass! I would estimate that it will cut 95% of a given area in a single pass even when grass is very tall, well over 1 foot. I have mostly run it on an 853 Diesel. If you are looking for a mower that does not bag and is excellent at cutting tall thick grass, then look no farther. It will cut shorter grass as well of course. BCS 38" mower definitely has the advantage with ease of height adjustment, but Zanon is better when it comes to cutting taller thicker grass in 1 pass. Both are excellent for what they are designed to do. If one is always cutting on a regular basis than both BCS and Zanon do an excellent job cutting normal height grass when done regularly.

As to steering brakes, I use them all the time. Yes, its easy to use muscle to turn a mower (BCS or Zanon) on flat ground. But why would I want to use muscle to turn it when I can use steering brakes? Of course if one is running 739 or smaller they have no steering brakes. I do work on a good bit of slopes as well. But even when I am on flat ground I always use my steering brakes.

If you want a quote on one of these mowers (Zanon or BCS) feel free to send me a message.
 
   / Zanon ZCR 800 lawn mower
  • Thread Starter
#14  
Hi again NibbanaFarm :)

I fully understand that you are reluctant to get more "toys" than necessary to maintain and so on. Isn't that the whole idea of tractors (2- or 4-wheeled alike)? They do a few things best, but they do a lot of different things rather good. My "traditional" lawn mower did a better job mowing, but would have done a very poor job sweeping. The 2-wheeled tractor does a good job mowing, and also does a good job sweeping.

It sounds like the ZRA (33" or 40") could be the right choice for you if you are not bagging the clippings. The videos I have seen confirms my own experience; the Zanon will cut almost any amount of grass you put in front of it. UTCenturion has a good video in another thread, and this video also gives a good idea of what to expect:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH5A3bShn0o

Another interesting thing in the above-mentioned video is the way in which it is connected to the BCS quick coupling. It looks like the mower is fitted with a BCS male PTO-flange! If you have a chance to get that, I will highly recommend it! I wasn't aware of that possibility when I got mine, which makes my flange around 4" longer than needed :( The closer the mower sits to the tractor, the better it handles and the more even the cutting height gets.

Your comment regarding my picture is bang on. I wasn't happy with the standard 5x10x20" wheels, which gave very little ground clearance. As mentioned by many members; when mowing - perhaps with most front-PTO implements in fact - larger wheels are better! The picture you mention is with the smaller wheels, giving me a ground clearance around 4". Although the larger wheels are only 3" larger in diameter, the ground clearance has almost doubled to 8" due to less tilt of the tractor :thumbsup: I add 2 pictures both with the mower in its highest position (8 cm), but with 20" and 23" wheels respectively.

DSC03088.jpgDSC03090.jpg

You are right about the caster wheels. Based on the pictures and videos, I would prefer the wheels on the ZRA. They seems to be bigger and better suited for rough terrain than mine.

I like the way you consider all aspects before you make your decision, and I haven't found any better place than in this great forum to gather information, as a lot of knowledgeable members happily shares their experience :thumbsup:

You probably already have considered the FALK series of brush mowers from Zanon? They come in 60 cm (24"), 70 cm (28") and 80 cm (33") working width. The largest one is double-bladed like the ZRA, but the clippings exits the mowers at the back:

https://youtu.be/0ufW8wJ_XP0

As we all know, life is dangerous. When working with tractors and fast revving mowers we need to keep an eye on our own safety all the time. I stumbled over this video once, and I don't like to know what could happen if this man got his feet a few inches closer to the mower:

https://youtu.be/I3lC03RRmsk

This is how it's supposed to look with the same mower in the proper position:

https://youtu.be/9MQDOwkc8-g


Best regards

Jens
 
   / Zanon ZCR 800 lawn mower #15  
Jens, That second to last video is unbelievable and terrifying. I could hardly watch it. Serious accidents happen all the time due to carelessness.

The wheel spacing on my 739 was set up at 22 inches outside spacing. It didn't look like I could fit 23 1/2 inch wheels because the engine cylinder head was close to the tire. I moved the wheels to the other wheel position which made the spacing about 24 inches measured from outside. This was to run the rotary plow. Now it looks like there should be enough clearance but I'm not sure. What is the wheel spacing on your 740? Are the bigger wheels very close to the engine?

All these mowers look great. But, they're all way bigger than what I'm looking for now to mow the little area within my garden fence. I have a CC 44 inch lawn tractor. When this needs replacing I'll get one of the other finish mowers. (Depending on price and availability at the time.) But for this I really only need a small mower. And, anything bigger just won't fit.
 
   / Zanon ZCR 800 lawn mower
  • Thread Starter
#16  
Hi :)

The 2015-season - my third with the Zanon ZCR 800 lawn mower - is long over and with a total of 110 hours on the mower, there is not that much to add this time, other than the mower has worked flawless all last summer.

As I mentioned in the first post in this thread, I haven't been able to find an oil drain plug on my Zanon. It could be interesting if some of you, who have actually changed the oil in the gearbox of any Zanon mower, would enlighten those of us who haven't tried it yet.

I have tried to improve on one item last season though, and that's the wheel-setup when mowing.

Wheels are a constant issue in this forum - and rightly so, as this is one of the few features we can chance on our tractors, and a feature that can have a great impact on the performance and behavior of the tractor. Wheels comes in different sizes, with different tread patterns, and they can be mounted as singles, duals or even triples.

As mentioned earlier, I'm very happy with the 6.5x12x23" wheels, and it annoys me every time I see my 5x10x20" standard wheels just lying on the garage floor, and not being used. Part of my lawn has a slope of up to 15 degree (26.8 %), and even with the 23" wheels all the way out (26"), the up-hill wheel often slips, and tears up the sod. For added stability, I would also like to get the wheels even further out, and all of this gave me the idea; why not use the 20" wheels as the inner wheels in a pair of duals?

I am of course aware, that it makes more sense to use the same size wheels for duals - this was simply a test to see if these otherwise to me useless wheels, could at least be used for something good.

In order to keep the outer 23" wheels within the 82 cm (32") working width of the mower, I mounted the 20" wheels as close to the tractor as possible. The limiting factor is the gear quadrant, but with the help of a few washers, I was able to mount the 20" wheels with an outside track width of 48.1 cm (19"). With the help of one 5" axle extension on either side between the inner and the outer wheels, the outside track width of the 23" wheels were 78.2 cm (almost 31"). This is perfect, as it gives 1/2" to spare on either side, and it certainly has improved the balance of the entire tractor/mower unit.

I used this setup all last summer, and was very pleased with it. Compared to the 23" wheels mounted as singles all the way out - 66 cm (26") - the extra 5" of outside track width, gave a much more stable ride - especially on the slopes. It also gave a much smoother ride when mowing, as the smaller inner wheels kept the tractor more stable, when one of the outer wheels ran into a little hole, and they would support the tractor. As winter slowly comes to an end around here, I will prepare my tractor for the coming mowing season the same way, and again enjoy the fact, that my "useless" small wheels can be used in summer also.

I use them sometimes in winter for sweeping snow - if there is any :( Thank you for your offer Bill! I know some of you guys have had your fair share of snow the last few winters, but here we haven't had a decent snowfall the last 3 winters :weepy:

NibbanaFarm, you were considering a mower for your BCS 739 - have you got one? I understand your concern regarding the 23" wheels, but you don't need to worry if they will fit or not. The 23" wheels can be mounted with an outside track width of 22" as with your 20" wheels, and you will have around 1/2" to spare between the tire and the cylinder head. As you have noticed on my pictures, I got 4" of extra ground clearance with the modest 1 1/2" higher axle height, due to the upward tilt of the engine. I use my 23" wheels almost all the time, so I can highly recommend them.

I guess the wheel spacing on the BCS 739 and the 740 are the same. The 20" wheels have a standard outside track width of 22" on the BCS 740, and around 24" when mounted all the way out. The 23" wheels also have around 22" standard, but 26" when mounted all the way out.


All the best from

Jens
 
   / Zanon ZCR 800 lawn mower #17  
I imagine that your multi size dual setup would still be very effective for soil working applications Jens. I ended up getting the smallest, cheapest, Honda push mower I could find. It's another thing to take care of and I just stuck it outside under the overhang of the house. But regardless of the mower, the whole length of a mower and BCS tractor combo would have made it very difficult to mow inside my garden fence around my fruit trees. I probably only have 100 square meters or so to mow, inside a fenced area with a bunch of trees. It would have been difficult to maneuver a long mower around in there. No real good solution.
 
   / Zanon ZCR 800 lawn mower
  • Thread Starter
#18  
Hi rickyd79 :)

A year ago, you mentioned that you have experience with the Zanon ZRA mower. Perhaps you could please help me with a little information on that mower?

As mentioned earlier, my lawn is not exactly the sort of manicured English lawn, which most lawnmowers are designed for. It used to be a pasture before my house was build, so the grass is rather rough, and the terrain uneven. In order to avoid too much scalping, I have set my ZCR to the highest setting - 8 cm (3 5/32"), but if possible, I would prefer an even higher setting of 10 cm (4"), to get rid of the last scalping. Larger swivel wheels at the front of the mower would probably also give a smoother ride and a more even cut on my bumpy lawn. Finally, I have the impression from the pictures and videos I have seen of the ZRA, that it has a larger gap between the top of the tire and the mounting of the swivel wheels. The gap on my mower is only 1.6 mm (1/16"), which means, that I often have clippings trapped in that little gap, hampering the free rotation of the wheel.

In order so see if the wheels from the ZRA would fit my ZCR - and be better than my present ones - I would appreciate the following measures please:

- The outer diameter of the wheel - ZCR is 17 cm (6 11/16")
- The diameter of the vertical axel - ZCR is 25 mm (1")
- The distance from the ground to the hole at the top of the vertical axel - ZCR is 28 cm (11 1/32")

If the diameter of the vertical axel is the same on the ZRA and the ZCR, and the wheel diameter is larger and the wheel can be set lower, I will consider ordering a set of ZRA-wheels.

Thanks!


Best regards

Jens
 
   / Zanon ZCR 800 lawn mower #19  
Jens767
Sorry for my delayed response. Did you ever get answers to your questions about wheel sizing? I would be happy to help, but its a matter of time to do the measuring. Let me know if you found anything out and we can go from there. thanks!
 
   / Zanon ZCR 800 lawn mower
  • Thread Starter
#20  
Hi rickyd79 :)

Thank you for your reply!

No, I have not received any information yet.

In the first post in this thread, you can see the wheels on my ZCR. Comparing them to the wheels of the ZRA on the Zanon homepage, gives me the impression that they are bigger, and thus perhaps worth trying:

Zanon macchine agricole


Best regards

Jens
 
 
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