New Riding mower

[Soccerman06]

My dad and I are tired of riding our pos thing that goes like 2 mph. Hes been looking at the newer (some used) John Deere, 3xx and 5xx series mowers. Hed rather not spend more than like $5000. I went to John Deere and did their little recommend me a mower, and it came up with the X540, which comes to $8000 :disgust: We've gone out to the local John Deere and it they just have huge markups and whatnot, so

I personally like the X540 but its too expensive, so the X520 /w 54" width is more in our range. Is there something similar to either one, maybe a year or two old or another brand that offers the same quality/features? We have some steep hills and ditches which require finess and lots of obsticles from big pine trees to little treelings. Me and my father wont need to worry about taking to a dealer for repairs because we have the ability to repair most problems, an exploding engine is the only thing we really cant fix.

Recommendations?

 

[acemcmac]

I wish I knew jack sh!t about lawnmowers. I can weedwhack my whole "lawn" (see: weeds & dead weeds) in about 10 minutes.

 

[GeekDrew]

I'd check some classified ads for older John Deere or Cub Cadet mowers. Both brands are fairly reliable (read: older models), and I recommend both (again: older models). The inexpensive newer models are relative trash... they aren't "good" until you get up into the multiple thousands of dollars range. Of course, all of that's IMHO.

 

[MikeMike]

Originally posted by: GeekDrew
I'd check some classified ads for older John Deere or Cub Cadet mowers. Both brands are fairly reliable (read: older models), and I recommend both (again: older models). The inexpensive newer models are relative trash... they aren't "good" until you get up into the multiple thousands of dollars range. Of course, all of that's IMHO.

we have a $7k John Deere, the thing is great.

54" deck, its fat, clean, never had ANY issues with it, has over 300 hours on it already iirc, i could recheck that later, but its atleast that high, its about 4 years old now.

 

[GeekDrew]

Originally posted by: MIKEMIKE

Originally posted by: GeekDrew
I'd check some classified ads for older John Deere or Cub Cadet mowers. Both brands are fairly reliable (read: older models), and I recommend both (again: older models). The inexpensive newer models are relative trash... they aren't "good" until you get up into the multiple thousands of dollars range. Of course, all of that's IMHO.

we have a $7k John Deere, the thing is great.

54" deck, its fat, clean, never had ANY issues with it, has over 300 hours on it already iirc, i could recheck that later, but its atleast that high, its about 4 years old now.

yeah, the ones that are not cheap (and yours is obviously not) are still good ones.

300 hours in 4 years? how many acres do you mow?

 

[ta8689]

go to the home depot. get a scotts lawn mower. its basically a deere just orange and diff logos. uses same parts completly. it would look the exact same as a deere if the seat was yellow instead of black and the orange was green. built to same standards. in fact i think deere actually makes them in the same plant. it even has parts labeled john deere. about 2 thousand dollars less

 

[MikeMike]

Originally posted by: GeekDrew

Originally posted by: MIKEMIKE

Originally posted by: GeekDrew
I'd check some classified ads for older John Deere or Cub Cadet mowers. Both brands are fairly reliable (read: older models), and I recommend both (again: older models). The inexpensive newer models are relative trash... they aren't "good" until you get up into the multiple thousands of dollars range. Of course, all of that's IMHO.

we have a $7k John Deere, the thing is great.

54" deck, its fat, clean, never had ANY issues with it, has over 300 hours on it already iirc, i could recheck that later, but its atleast that high, its about 4 years old now.

yeah, the ones that are not cheap (and yours is obviously not) are still good ones.

300 hours in 4 years? how many acres do you mow?

depends on if we mow the field way out back.

takes about 1 hour to mow the lawn, do it once a week, if not maybe twice.

and if we mow the field WAYYY out back, it takes 3 hours for that. about every other week.

 

[Soccerman06]

Originally posted by: GeekDrew

Originally posted by: MIKEMIKE

Originally posted by: GeekDrew
I'd check some classified ads for older John Deere or Cub Cadet mowers. Both brands are fairly reliable (read: older models), and I recommend both (again: older models). The inexpensive newer models are relative trash... they aren't "good" until you get up into the multiple thousands of dollars range. Of course, all of that's IMHO.

we have a $7k John Deere, the thing is great.

54" deck, its fat, clean, never had ANY issues with it, has over 300 hours on it already iirc, i could recheck that later, but its atleast that high, its about 4 years old now.

yeah, the ones that are not cheap (and yours is obviously not) are still good ones.

300 hours in 4 years? how many acres do you mow?

I would guess 2 acres.

Our current mower only has 265 hours but the connecting rods have broken atleast once every year for the past 4 years, the driving belt has torn 3 times (half way through its lifespan), something got through the filter and ruined the carb, and a whole bunch of other crap. Me neighbor recently bought a new 7xx mower with all the extra and whatnot and spent somethin like $10,000 on it, and uses it for only 2-3 months out of the year (its his summer house)-its nice as hell

 

[GeekDrew]

Originally posted by: MIKEMIKE

Originally posted by: GeekDrew

Originally posted by: MIKEMIKE

Originally posted by: GeekDrew
I'd check some classified ads for older John Deere or Cub Cadet mowers. Both brands are fairly reliable (read: older models), and I recommend both (again: older models). The inexpensive newer models are relative trash... they aren't "good" until you get up into the multiple thousands of dollars range. Of course, all of that's IMHO.

we have a $7k John Deere, the thing is great.

54" deck, its fat, clean, never had ANY issues with it, has over 300 hours on it already iirc, i could recheck that later, but its atleast that high, its about 4 years old now.

yeah, the ones that are not cheap (and yours is obviously not) are still good ones.

300 hours in 4 years? how many acres do you mow?

depends on if we mow the field way out back.

takes about 1 hour to mow the lawn, do it once a week, if not maybe twice.

and if we mow the field WAYYY out back, it takes 3 hours for that. about every other week.

you didn't say if the field was 10 square feet, or 10 acres

i only ask because i think that 300 hours is surprising low for a 4 year old mower of that caliber

 

[Jeff7]

Just curious, how old was your mower? I don't know how many hours are on the mower we've got, but it's around 24 years old and still works fairly well.



$5K is your budget? For that money, I'd expect nothing less than a robotic mower.

 

[drnickriviera]

Buy a commercial mower. Once you use one, you'll wonder why you every considered a riding mower.

 

[Chunkee]

I got a Cub Cadet with the KOHLER motor...runs like a champ...solid...

jC

 

[tfinch2]

Anything with a Kohler Pro motor :thumbsup:

 

[MrBond]

Originally posted by: drnickriviera
Buy a commercial mower. Once you use one, you'll wonder why you every considered a riding mower.

No kidding. Last year my Dad bought a 60" front deck mower that steers from the rear. It's awesome. Not quite ZTR, but it's damn close, plus you can drive it with one hand. You can flip the deck right up for cleaning. It's hyrdostatic drive as well.

I think he paid ~$4000 for it used, had about 100 hours on it. New it goes for around $6000 I think.

I can't see how anyone would buy a $8000 John Deere over this one. Then again, Dad's mower isn't green.

 

[Soccerman06]

Originally posted by: Jeff7
Just curious, how old was your mower? I don't know how many hours are on the mower we've got, but it's around 24 years old and still works fairly well.



$5K is your budget? For that money, I'd expect nothing less than a robotic mower.

I think its rounding out to 5 years in August. Its not that the mower isnt working fine, its just slow and for the lengths our lawn is, an extra few mph could definitely make the trip under 2 hours. We also have 2 ditches that need to be mowed, one every week, and one that maybe once a month (not much grass to mow).

Example of a good commercial mower?

 

[Baked]

I don't know what juiced up mower the dude was riding, but they showed some guy going 80+ MPH at the salt flats on Sports Center Top 10 last week.

 

[0]

kubota FTW.

 

[cKGunslinger]

Got to Sears and get a $699 mower. Replace in 3-4 years as necessary. Rinse and repeat.

 

[Pikachu]

Use what the professionals use...

...the right tool for the job!

 

[drnickriviera]

Originally posted by: Soccerman06


Example of a good commercial mower?

Anything here
http://www.exmark.com/pro_home_flash.asp
I'm not sure that you could get a Lazer Z, but you should be able to get something like the turf tracer walk behind. I had a 36" Metro (gear drive not hydro) and just sold it for $1200. Bought a 36" Great Dane Hydrostatic for $1400 (used 61hrs)

Also look at Toro, Scag, Deere also makes commercial mowers.

 

[Soccerman06]

Originally posted by: Pikachu
Use what the professionals use...

...the right tool for the job!

You missed the concept of riding mower. Aint no way either my dad or i are going to walk 2 acres worth of lawn.

 

[squirrel dog]

Used Scag Turf Tiger .

 

[LordMorpheus]

Originally posted by: Soccerman06

Originally posted by: Pikachu
Use what the professionals use...

...the right tool for the job!

You missed the concept of riding mower. Aint no way either my dad or i are going to walk 2 acres worth of lawn.

With those commercial mowers, you can get those little platforms thatget dragged behind that you stand on - those always looked incredibly fun to me.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: Soccerman06

Originally posted by: Pikachu
Use what the professionals use...

...the right tool for the job!

You missed the concept of riding mower. Aint no way either my dad or i are going to walk 2 acres worth of lawn.

The first one appears to have a seat on it.

 

[drnickriviera]

Originally posted by: LordMorpheus

Originally posted by: Soccerman06

Originally posted by: Pikachu
Use what the professionals use...

...the right tool for the job!

You missed the concept of riding mower. Aint no way either my dad or i are going to walk 2 acres worth of lawn.

With those commercial mowers, you can get those little platforms thatget dragged behind that you stand on - those always looked incredibly fun to me.

http://www.wrightmfg.com/

You can buy a velke which are wheels that attach to the back of the walk behind, or you can buy a stander which you stand on the back of the mower.