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Where did you get that picture of me??

 

Ok, so another mowing related question.

I have found quite a few used Commercial grade Zero Turn mowers within 150 miles of me, within my price range.

After discussing with my wife, she would really prefer a small / compact tractor (not a riding mower) that we can a couple different attachments for, including a drag behind mowing attachment (such as this pic).

So, what is the thought on which would be a better mowing device - a dedicated commercial grade zero turn, or this type of attachment for a small tractor? Our land is very gently sloped, very open, only a handful of trees in the area needing to be mowed, and around 5 - 6 acres at most (9 total) that will be mowed.



Very much appreciate the continued input.

 

You need to try a zero turn mowers before you make a decision.

Having a garden tractor with different implements is good, but it will never be able to cut grass as fast as a commercial ZT.

I have a garden tractor with implements as well as ZT mower.

I don't even put the mower deck on the thing anymore.

You didn't hear it from me, but I may have/do use my ZT as a brush hog. The fabricated decks don't care. They just chop up the brush.

I get it, the Mrs should have a say in any major purchase, but she needs to run a ZT before the final decision is made.

5 acres is a lot to mow with a commercial garden tractor. I'm not gonna endorse that choice.

This is my opinion and not a write up to push my ZT mowers I want to sell.

 

Thank you, I was hoping for some good, honest, unbiased viewpoints one way or the other.

I would like to have a small tractor with a bucket, tiller, maybe another attachment or two, but that option is a huge difference over a used ZT mower. And we have other issues we need to pay for, such as some roof repairs, some fencing around a "dog run" area, etc.. We have the cash to cover a ZT, but not a tractor - and I would hate to finance something if it wasn't a hands down BEST solution for us right now.

 

Im looking at zero turns now and I currently have a compact tractor (Kubota B series). I have a tow behind mower that’s a “finish mower” for my Kubota that I used the last few months before winter at our new property. It worked fine but I wouldn’t want to use it to mow a large area of land consistently. I have maybe 1.5 acres of lawn that needs mowing for reference. The issue for me was tires as well. I have Agro tires, not turf tires, so that would tear the lawn up if I tried any sharp turns. I love have the tractor for the bucket, plow, 3 point hitch, etc but I wouldn’t want it as my primary mowing method on a lawn. I’d even consider a walk behind for my size property before mowing with the tractor consistently.

 

More excellent, first hand experience. Thank you!!

 

I got both, and same recommendation with 3 or more acres.

 

I'd agree; JD LOVES their parts! I once had a traditional JD riding mover gifted to me when I bought my first house. At best, I thought it to be a $200 machine, but it still ran and mowed the yard. Some bearing or another went out on the mower deck, and it wouldn't engage, so I took it to the local JD dealer to have them look at it. The dealer called me later in the afternoon to say the mower was ready to be picked up. The cost of repairs was only $1500; they were supposed to look at it and call me with an estimate of the needed repairs. Not actually fix it. I laughed at the guy and told him to keep it. For that price, I could have bought a new Cub Cadet from the Exchange. Their manager apologized for failing to call with the estimate and not getting my approval for the repairs. After some discussion, I kept the mower once we negotiated the bill down to about $400. It worked for a couple more years until someone else decided they needed it more than I did while I was on vacation.

I went the route of a compact tractor. I have a Kioti CK3510SE with a loader and a 60" finishing mower, a 60" brush hog, and a 60" box blade. The package lets me do almost anything I want or need to. Including grading my long driveway, brush cut the field, and mowing around the house, building my rifle range. It is a little more difficult to mow up close to structures and trees. There are times I wish I had a smaller mower for the close-in work. I also can't mow if it has rained in the previous 2-3 days. Even industrial tires will leave ruts in the soft ground. I would not get Ag tires on a tractor unless you regularly plow fields, and don't get turf tires unless you work on a golf course. While this package has many more uses than a zero-turn mower, it also costs much more. Five years ago, it cost me 25K OTD; today, it would be many $$$ more. You don't have to buy all the implements immediately and could save some money buying them used. You have to ask yourself if you will use the extra functionality of a compact tractor. There are certainly some drawbacks to mowing with a compact tractor, but they can also be very useful tools for many other applications. A zero-turn will be a better mower, but that is all it will do. I'd love to have the tractor and a ZT, but I can't justify the ZT cost in my budget. Someday I'll probably get a small mower to do a few laps around the house and under the trees.

I would swap tires out for the R4 industrial tires or the new R14 tires. Ag tires on a lawn will literally tear up the surface unless the ground is rock-hard.

 

This is our yard, sorry for the distortion caused by the window screens. We don't have any lawn, it's all just wild grass/weeds that grow up naturally. So type of tires and causing damage to a lawn isn't an issue for us. Basically everything you can see is our property, right up almost to the neighbor's house At the very lowest point is a small creek, and while our property continues to the other side of it, we wouldn't bother mowing that part.

 

Cool I’ll have to look into them, appreciate the advice. I started to look when I first bought the machine from my future FIL but saw the cost and stopped haha. They work for the time being but need an upgrade sooner than later. New house to us, full septic system, gut a few baths and it adds up quick.

I wouldn’t want to mow that space with a compact tractor. Would much prefer a dedicated lawn mower for that space. Looks nice though!

 

When I bought my tractor, I told them to put Ag tires on it. But after looking at the different tires in the showroom while the sales guy typed up the paperwork. I changed my mind and told him to switch to Industrial tires. It was a good decision. I wish the R14 tires would have been an option at the time. I think they would be a good improvement on a very old design. Whenever I eventually wear out my current tires, I plan to upgrade to the R14s. If you use the loader a lot, I highly recommend getting the back tires filled with beet juice.

 

Once you mow with a commercial grade ZT you will never want to mow with a tractor again.
They are not only fast but the level of maneuverability far exceeds that of any tractor and makes them very time efficient.
Probably lower overall fuel consumption too, the ZT would take less hours mowing than a tractor.

 

From left field here. Why do you have to mow all those acres? Do you use the grassy area for something in particular? If I had that much space you better believe I would be farming it or letting sections go with wildflower and or return to natural habitat. Just my $0.02

 

I rent out the front field about 4 acres out to my neighbor who uses it for hay. No labor for me and he rides around in A/C.

 

A fair question.

Here in southeastern KY it rains a fair bit year round, and grass/weeds grow pretty tall and pretty quick. Everyone keeps things mowed down, except for grazing lands. And my wife doesn't want to feel like we're living in the jungle, so we need some sort of solution. I haven't found any advertised lawn mowing people here, everyone has a zero turn or riding mower in their yard, I was quite surprised when we moved here.

 

Yeah i think its a violation here to have your yard look like crap. Nevermind the 3 junked cars...but your yard better be mowed

 

I just ordered a set of pallet forks for my tractor actually. I think they’ll get good use this spring/summer. I spent a month or two looking used and found nothing. Ended up with a new set of Titan attachments in 42 inches. Definitely not the best quality but hopefully will work well for me.

 

I think I have the same forks. They have worked quite well for me. I probably use them more than I use the bucket.

 

Im thinking it will be very handy to have. Of course using them to move pallets but also move larger logs/timber, move some rock with a pallet on top, etc.

 

So I kinda lost track of this thread over the past several months, but now I'm back with another question about my Scag Liberty Z 36" that I bought in the Fall. I also bought and planted in my back yard some annual Rye Grass seed (for the first time ever) hoping that it would allow my dog to continue to play in the back over the winter without ripping the dormant St. Augustine to shreds. Anyway, I learned that you do really need to cut the Rye Grass twice per week, and I learned that cutting it wet (it's gonna be WET during the winter where I live) is horrendous. After the first few times cutting it, the ground got to be so soft and mushy that I could no longer use the Scag and had to resort to my Honda self-propelled. Cutting with the Honda, the plastic deck would get absolutely plastered underneath with a thick layer of clippings that resembled papier mache mixed with concrete. I became increasingly worried about what was under my Scag after using it on the wet Rye the initial few times.

So yesterday I bought a MoJack 550 from my local Tractor Supply so I could more easily look (and work) underneath the Scag. For anyone that might consider this lift for a Liberty Z, it works without interference with the front wheels of the mower being in the normal Forward drive position, however the rear end of the mower hits the pavement if you try to raise the front end higher than 20" (the first safety-click of the lift).

My question is regarding the operation of the Dump Valves on the mower. The instructions for the lift say to release the Dump Valves as well as the Parking Brake on the mower while raising and lowering, so that the mower is free to move a few inches forward (toward the lift) as it is being raised. I did that, and then set the Brake after the mower was raised. After cleaning the underside (yes it was gunked up) I released the Parking Brake again to lower the mower. A short time later I used it to cut the Rye in the back yard... we've finally had chance to mostly dry out over the past week.

A couple hours after I cut I realized that I didn't remember closing the Dump Valves before using the mower. I went to the garage and looked, and sure enough they were not closed. I didn't notice anything unusual when cutting, but now I'm surprised that it worked at all based on what I read in the manual. Did I damage anything??

EDIT: So now that I'm re-reading the paragraph from the manual attached here in my post... maybe I didn't really release the Dump Valves. I pulled the levers out, but I neglected to lock them by sliding them inward a bit. Maybe that's why it still drove ok . . .