Zero Turn mower for moderate slopes?

[Jaybr]

The wife mowed around the house yesterday and came to the realization that having separate mower for the yard and the other areas won't be such a bad thing, so she'd like to keep the 54" hustler for the yard and get a bigger mower for the rest of the mowing. She also decided she could live with the seat on the CC.

We were still going to go look at the Wright and a few others, but calling around I could only find one dealer with a Wright in stock, and they are a Kubota dealership that also carries CC and a few other brands including Ventrac. I asked the very helpful salesman how the Wright compared to the CC and he told me nothing compared to the CC on slopes other than the ventrac and it's really slow and very expensive. He also said the owner of the dealership uses a CC 972 with dual wheels at his house with very hilly yard and a pond, and that he use to use a 4 wheel drive Kubota (that he put in the pond several times) but the CC is more stable.

That conversation sealed the deal for me (and the wife) and I'll be picking up a CC Pro Z 972s this afternoon hopefully.

 

[Runner]

The wife mowed around the house yesterday and came to the realization that having separate mower for the yard and the other areas won't be such a bad thing, so she'd like to keep the 54" hustler for the yard and get a bigger mower for the rest of the mowing. She also decided she could live with the seat on the CC.

We were still going to go look at the Wright and a few others, but calling around I could only find one dealer with a Wright in stock, and they are a Kubota dealership that also carries CC and a few other brands including Ventrac. I asked the very helpful salesman how the Wright compared to the CC and he told me nothing compared to the CC on slopes other than the ventrac and it's really slow and very expensive. He also said the owner of the dealership uses a CC 972 with dual wheels at his house with very hilly yard and a pond, and that he use to use a 4 wheel drive Kubota (that he put in the pond several times) but the CC is more stable.

That conversation sealed the deal for me (and the wife) and I'll be picking up a CC Pro Z 972s this afternoon hopefully.

 

[Jaybr]

View attachment IMG_0775.jpeg
Got the June pricing a little early

Mowed all the areas along driveway and pastures that I couldn’t get with tractor this evening with no issues, holds slopes great! Didn’t have time to mow around pond yet but don’t expect any issues.

 

[Rdrcr]

The wife mowed around the house yesterday and came to the realization that having separate mower for the yard and the other areas won't be such a bad thing, so she'd like to keep the 54" hustler for the yard and get a bigger mower for the rest of the mowing. She also decided she could live with the seat on the CC.

We were still going to go look at the Wright and a few others, but calling around I could only find one dealer with a Wright in stock, and they are a Kubota dealership that also carries CC and a few other brands including Ventrac. I asked the very helpful salesman how the Wright compared to the CC and he told me nothing compared to the CC on slopes other than the ventrac and it's really slow and very expensive. He also said the owner of the dealership uses a CC 972 with dual wheels at his house with very hilly yard and a pond, and that he use to use a 4 wheel drive Kubota (that he put in the pond several times) but the CC is more stable.

That conversation sealed the deal for me (and the wife) and I'll be picking up a CC Pro Z 972s this afternoon hopefully.

I demo’d quite a few mowers on my often damp and steep hills on my property (Ventrac was outside of my budget), nothing compared to the commercial, steering wheel equipped CC. I have no complaints and zero regrets with my purchase. But, a diesel option would be hillside mowing nirvana!

Mike

 

[Ronald G]

The seat is the most important thing in a mower, you need to be secure to safely operate it.
As far as my experience a zero turn has no business on a slope a tractor type mower is much more stable as far as sliding down into the ditch.
If the wife doesn't like it then don't question it. Get her what she likes, unless you want to take over all the mowing.
You have quite a lot of choices, go check them all out until she finds what she is comfortable with. Need I mention how fortunate you are.

 

[Rdrcr]

^^^^
The OP already bought a commercial CC ZTR with 4-wheel steering designed for mowing slopes and hills. They are fantastic mowers.

Mike

 

[ruffdog]

Slopes? Hills?
It’s had to beat a commercial Cub Cadet for both performance and safety.

View attachment 3495742
I have a Cub Pro Z 560 S KW. The 4-wheel steering is fantastic on the steep hills and the suspension seat absorbs the bumps pretty well. Plus, these things are built like tanks!

My only complaint, which is typical for heavy commercial gasoline powered ZTR’s is fuel consumption. I use about a gallon plus per acre.

Mike

^^^^
The OP already bought a commercial CC ZTR with 4-wheel steering designed for mowing slopes and hills. They are fantastic mowers.

Mike

He made a good choice. My dad's neighbor had VERY steep slopes to mow and had dealers demo their products. He ended up with the CC with the steering wheel because of the ease it did the slopes.

 

[Jaybr]

Did some mowing today and the wife used the new CC for the first time. I was on the tractor and she mowed the sides of driveway including ditches, all the slopes I can’t run the tractor on, and the pond bank. She likes the new mower! I was mowing at 4mph in the rough pasture and she was flying by me .

I’ve named this thing “Honey Badger”, thick knee high grass, weeds, steep slopes, it just doesn’t give a ****

 

[nancyk]

Does this CC 972 have dual rear wheels? 4 wheel steering? If 4 wheel steering, is this "on" all the time? I am using a Ferris IS2000z, 2007 model, with taller seatback and canopy, which is fine going up a moderate hill but does not like coming down. A spindle pulley just broke, even though all were replaced 2 years ago, and the shop said they are backed up at least a month, probably more.

 

[boatmoter]

Mowing season is here and we're in the new place with 15~ acres of grass. I'm using my Yanmar with a woods RD990 for most of it, but there are areas that are too tight, and the the sides of the long driveway that has somewhat of a ditch. There are also some sloped areas and a lot of pond bank that I'm just not comfortable running the big tractor on. We have a homeowner model Hustler, but purchased it to mow about an acre, and it's undersized for what we need here. Doing a lot of online research, I decided on a Cub Cadet Pro Z 972S, or 960S as they seem to be really good a holding slopes. Here's where the challenge comes in: My wife does most of the mowing around the house, which gets mowed more often than the pastures. Since she does a lot of the mowing, she gets a little say in the mower choice. Went over to the dealer Friday and looked over the Cub Cadet and she took it for a spin in the parking lot and she doesn't like the seat, feels too big to her. I suggested that I could get a cushion or something but she doesn't like that idea either. I know a seat may sound trivial, but in this case it's not. So now I'm shopping again for a mower (ZTR) and would like suggestions.

There are 3 dealers relatively close to me that I have good experiences with and between them they carry:
Cub Cadet
Toro
Grasshopper
Dixie Chopper
Hustler
Kubota
Wright

That's not to say that I won't consider another brand, but I'm comfortable with those dealers

I would do a compact tractor with a 3 point & pto. run a 6ft sickle bar along with a 60" belly mower at the same time. that would give you a 11 ft cut and the sickle bar is great for slopes by water. get done in a faster time to get to watch more star trek on TV and a cold brew