Big yards - how big is too big for a walk behind?

[vi edit]

When I bought my house 2 years ago part of the deal included a 15+ year old riding mower. It made it through one ful summer and a part of another. The other day I was finishing up mowing and the whole thing started shaking, made a couple really loud backfiring sounds and then just started billowing out smoke. I looked under the engine and it had hemoraged oil all over the mowing deck.

Between the turning radius of a nuclear class air craft carrier, a horrible cut, constantly flat tires, and the now imploded seal/engine something or other I'm in the market for a new mower.

But I've got just short of an acre to mow. But it's a miserable acre. I have like 40 trees, a house, a well stem, septic tank vents, 2 sheds, a garden, raised beds, a basketball court, three ring circus tent, and two pieces of playground equipment to mow around. I think I spend more time turning than mowing.

I really *want* a zero turn radius mower but those are like $2500+ to start out at. A conventional 22" walkbehind would be murder. And a replacement garden tractor is going to be $1200 or so and still give me hell getting around the obstacles.

Then I saw these jumbo walk behinds - 33" inch deck, very high speed/power to really blow through the size of the yard, decent turn radius.

http://www.cubcadet.com/webapp...14101_162710_33831_-1#

Think something like that would work on just shy of an acre? It's about the same price as a lawn tractor, but would probably give a much better cut and is likely easier to maintain. Plus the time saved not having to dodge obstacles would minimize trimming afterwards maybe making for a similar net yardwork time.

 

[Riverhound777]

Sounds like it would work great for your situation.

 

[BurnItDwn]

My grandparents have about an acre and a half of land in Door County Wisconsin. (trees, garage, house, septic, tree stumps, rocks, bird baths, and all kinds of other obstacles in their yard too.) For over 20 years, it was mowed with regular 22inch conventional mowers (with no "drive" feature, so you had to push.) It took about 2 hours if I were to mow it (I walk fast), my grandfather walks slow so it used to take him 5-6 hours. They finally broke down and got a John Deere.

Now it takes about an hour to cut and you don't really have to work up a sweat.

I'm sure that that cub cadet would work great for an acre.

 

[TestedAcorn]

I wouldn't mow anything over 1 acre with a walk behind. Summer is just too killer.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Originally posted by: Riverhound777
Sounds like it would work great for your situation.

x2

 

[alkemyst]

that sounds like a mess of a yard. I'd probably find an alternative around the structures to grass.

That said I used to cut 1/2 acre of a nicely graded yard (save last 5' x 120' along the canal which was like a 45 deg grade) with a 5 or 6 HP self propelled. I had 3 large palms, 2 large citrus trees to mow around. The dropped citrus would make for a nice lawn cutting experience when I chopped them up.

I am cutting a much smaller yard now with a reel mower (8-9000 sq ft lot - about 1800 sq ft of living + driveway/patio).

High end lawn equipment can be found on CL, classifieds, etc. A lot of lawn companies come and go.

 

[Anubis]

i used to mow 3/4 of an acre with a normal push mower, i liked doing it
self powered ones make it even easier

 

[spaceman]

tractor for the bulk
cheap pushmower to touch up

 

[Riverhound777]

Something else you might consider if you haven't already is spraying Round-up grass killer around all the obstacles so you have about a 2-3foot radius so you don't have to get close.

 

[Sluggo]

We live on lots that are a little over an acre. I have an old tractor type, and my neighbor has a ZTR.

He blows through his mowing in about 1/3 the time that I do. If it were at all possible I would get a ZTR, even if it required eating ramen noodles for a month or so.

If you can suffer through a few weeks, most places will be closing out this years mowers in a month or so, might save some cash.

 

[Jadow]

Mine's .8 acres, and I would not want to push mow my yard, talk about suckage!

I would say .5 acres. It depends on if it's flat open grass, or there's a lot of obstacles too.

 

[iamwiz82]

Have you checked Craigslist? You can find some killer deals on higher end mowing equipment

 

[paulxcook]

If it were me in your situation I would much prefer that kickass walk-behind, especially if you can find a well-maintained used one (as someone mentioned, lots of landscaping businesses fail). For my tiny 1/3rd acre plot it'd be overkill, but for your lawn I think it'd be perfect, especially with the real wheel drive.

 

[AbAbber2k]

Here you go.

 

[EagleKeeper]

As a kid in high School, we had a standard Craftsman push mower (no power wheels) that was used for about 1 acre of land.

Now it took about 6 years to grow that 1 acre from about 1/4 acre. Every month, we would cut into brush another 15-20 ft to expand the lawn.

By the time, I was ready to graduate, my father thought it might be nice to get a 12HP rider mower.

 

[drnickriviera]

I saw that model at Lowes. One bad thing about mowers with casters up front. If you mow sideways on a hill, they will drift down. You have to manually steer the one you linked. I'd hunt craigslist or ebay for a hydro walk behind. I use a 36" Great Dane Hydro Scamper. I love it.

 

[kranky]

If you put up more circus tents, you'd have less grass to cut and get done quicker.

 

[kranky]

Originally posted by: drnickriviera
I saw that model at Lowes. One bad thing about mowers with casters up front. If you mow sideways on a hill, they will drift down. You have to manually steer the one you linked. I'd hunt craigslist or ebay for a hydro walk behind. I use a 36" Great Dane Hydro Scamper. I love it.

You can lock the wheels to face forward so they don't swivel.

 

[Jessica69]

Don't bypass another alternative I've always found quite useful.....estate auctions. Go to auctionzip.com, choose your state, then radius from whatever zip code you want to center on and day (tomorrow seems to be a darned busy day for auctions....)

We picked up a 24hp, 48" cut Husqvarna rider that had 52 hours on it, looked and worked like brand new, and paid $650 for it.....a brand new one of the same model retailed for $1800.....so I gladly accepted the 52 hours of use it had.

 

[dakels]

Originally posted by: AbAbber2k
Here you go.

I know you meant it as a joke but those reel mowers are some of the best for super special grass like golf greens and tennis courts.

Anyways to the OP, I used to do landscaping a while ago with bobcats and similar powered walk behinds. Even with lots of obstacles you can bang out a tricky acre in 30-45 minutes. How much is your time worth because even spending $1000 more on a really good mower may pay itself off in a summer. Also I don't know where you are from or what time of grass you have. Hot areas not only have the rediculous heat to deal with making mowing that much more of a chore, but also dense warm weather grasses like zoysia which can be super thick and very difficult to mow.

 

[hanoverphist]

Originally posted by: TestedAcorn
I wouldn't mow anything over 1 acre with a walk behind. Summer is just too killer.

hell i had a 1/4 acre and was wishing i had a riding mower... not many obstacles either.

 

[Whoozyerdaddy]

This is getting bad... All I saw was "Big yards" and I instantly thought "Who's playing? Did the pre-season start already?"

I miss football...

 

[meltdown75]

Good God that thing is ugly :Q

i know that's the last thing people care about in a lawnmower... i'm just sayin

dang

 

[Squisher]

You're only gaining 50% more cut than a standard mower with that. Unless that thing will pull a sulky, I think I'd go with a ZTR or another tractor. I'm sure there are tractors with smaller turning circles.


The used ZTR market is a mine-field though. You can find some great deals on ZTRs on craigslist of landscapers that are going out of business or homeowners that are upgrading, BUT you can also find landscapers that are selling you their worn out pieces of junk. YMMV.

 

[drnickriviera]

Originally posted by: kranky

Originally posted by: drnickriviera
I saw that model at Lowes. One bad thing about mowers with casters up front. If you mow sideways on a hill, they will drift down. You have to manually steer the one you linked. I'd hunt craigslist or ebay for a hydro walk behind. I use a 36" Great Dane Hydro Scamper. I love it.

You can lock the wheels to face forward so they don't swivel.

Then how do you turn?