zero turn mower

[ddbackhoe]

in the market for a new zero turn mower, maybe 60" deck.. Have a kubota dealership here in town and will be getting a kubota 7060 tractor as well so leaning towards the kubota mower good or bad move?? any first hand experience with the kubota mowers? Whats the general census on these mowers??

IMO, Kubota makes a nice mower, but so do quite a few others. I'm upgrading from a fastrack ztr. After doing some research and pondering, I went with a hydro walk behind instead of a ztr. A little less expensive, more versatile and (hopefully) I'll be able to avoid scuff marks. It was six months from the time I decided to get a new mower until a decision was made, my closest local guy sells Kubota, Ferris and Cub. He ordered my new Ferris (Kubota didn't make the configuration I wanted), hoping it'll be here this week. I used lawnsite.com, lawnforums.com and quite a few others for my research. Just google ztr vs. walk behind. :2cents:

they were mowing at the gas station last night, using a propane powered exmark ztr. I could barely hear that thing run, not sure why but it was quiet. That was something I had not thought of until then.

 

[check 6]

One more thing. The new Kubota zero turn mowers released this year have a different deck on them. I'd sure want to see how those decks handle various conditions before I plopped down the big bucks for one of them.

They are also using low profile tires on big rims and, for the life of me, I can't figure out why. Seems like it would make the mower ride even rougher, and mowers don't ride very good even with regular profile tires on them. The low profile tires seems like form over function to me.

I'm upgrading my 10 year old Kubota ZD 1800 to a new one and the dealer lent me one to try last weekend. Yes the deck is different, fabricated rather than stamped. It exhausted the grass well and the underside was still clean after mowing in some semi wet conditions. They changed the exhaust chute from metal to flexible plastic ( will probable have to be replaced in 5 years or so). As for the low profile tires I did not notice a rougher ride but that may be because of the incredibly comfortable and supportive new seat. That alone is a great selling point for this old and damaged back. They have changed the blade design slightly on the trailing edge and I like the cut and it improves exhausting the grass clippings. They have also made a opening panel to easily check and fill the mower deck transmission fluid and get at the grease fitting for the middle fully. This also is a great improvement in maintaining the mower. All in all I am very pleased and these changes warrant my upgrade. Staying with a diesel of course. For those that may be interested I cut one acre at least weekly and share in cutting another 17 acres that comprise a grass runway. My mower has the 54 inch deck as will the new one and that is due to avoiding scalping as my yard has lots of undulations.

 

[Clay45]

Great advice above. So much depends upon the size and condition of the property you intend to cut grass on. I cut approximately 5 of our 6.87 acres every week. Because it was and is still rough with some steep grades on one end of our property with tall weeds initially I acquired a new SCAG TigerCat with 52" Velocity Deck and 23hp Kawasaki FX691 engine. It has been fantastic. A lesser quality homeowner mower would have never made it nor be adequate now because of the rough and uneven ground. A wider deck would be nice in the flat, wide open spots but it would constantly be scalping in more spots and wouldn't go between the trees I barely go between now. A narrower deck would take a few more passes but is more convenient in tight spots.

Tne newer Ferris mowers in the same class but possessing independent 4-wheel suspensions and the newer Kubota zero-turns with the forward decks that tilt up are both something I would explore were I shopping today. Diesel engine versions as well.

Be sure you shop around and pick one that best fits your needs. None are perfect no matter what the salesman says. All commercial mowers require commercial maintenance. Its just how it is.

Kindest regards,

Clay

 

[Poopdeck Pappy]

Check, thanks for the great first-hand report. Glad to hear that the new Kubota is working well. I've been hoping this new one would turn out to be a real winner.

 

[MF283]

I love my JD's, years back i worked part time on another farm mowing grass & bush hogging fields, all with Kabota equipment.
They had a ZD Kabota with a 60" deck, that thing was the "cat's meow", from handling, cut & nothing slowed it down except for me.
The only reason i don't have one, $$$$, even though they are well worth it.

Ronnie

 

[shank102]

Gravely offers a 15% military discount so I went to the local dealer and liked the people so I bought from them.

 

[Steppenwolfe]

Gravely offers a 15% military discount so I went to the local dealer and liked the people so I bought from them.

That's a cool marketing strategy. Good for Gravely.

 

[ddbackhoe]

My new Ferris didn't show this week. I got a ZT21 with 48" deck to play catch up with. It's an ok mower, but one I'm glad I didn't buy. Cut quality was so-so, slow going produced better cutting, but why spend money on a ztr to cut slow?

 

[xring100]

I have a new zd1211 its awesome the only thing it doesnt like to do it cut more than about 3-4" off of grass in a single pass at 10.5 mph A percentage of it seems to fold over and not get cut. Even cutting this much it discharges uniformly and doesnt clump. You will definitely get some windrows a couple feet wide but at this point your more brush hog than finish mower
If i slow down to 6 or 7 mph it cuts it great in the tall grass.

Under normal cutting its provides an excellent.
The 26" low profile tires have nearly the same amount of side wall as my old turd cadet with 18" rears. The mower with awesome suspension seat is far smoother than the residential cub. I think the weight and longer wheel base also a contributing factor.

 

[Carl_NH]

Since you are buying the tractor I would lean to getting the Kubota ZTR too (if they will make a good pkg price) and as others have said its the ride quality, suspension or suspension seat, that makes a big difference in brands.

I looked hard a Kubota but the $3K price delta vs the Ferris and our ground is rough so the suspension feature and then cost led me to the Ferris.