Thread: Ride on mowers - advice needed

Originally Posted by def90

Hi guys,

I am about to take the plunge on a ride on mower... Land is about 3/4 acre of country grass, on a decent slope. Takes me about 1-1.5 hours of steady hand mowing and I am pretty strong/fit (for now!).

It grows so fast so I am looking for a better solution.

I am looking at 38-42 inch cutting width, and a hydro/auto transmission.

Current model I am looking at is husqvana. There are some cheaper ones and more expensive, but I am hoping to only buy once...in 8-10 years anyway!

Any thoughts/advice would be great!

3 words DON'T BUY HUSQVANA

Baz.

Huskies are good. I have a John Deere 42" auto. Have had for 5 years, bought 2nd hand like new off a bloke who needed a bigger one. Does my 1 1/4 acre in good time. I have a bottom part with a steep slope to get up and down. Does this OK with a trailer on etc. I have a good 1/2 acre plus flat area with good thick grass, about 15 to 20 min.

If I was to buy again I would get a V twin over a single pot engine. Also, try to stay with a floating deck.

They all hate rocks and branches.

Hope this helps.

Tony

Originally Posted by def90

Hi guys,

I am about to take the plunge on a ride on mower... Land is about 3/4 acre of country grass, on a decent slope. Takes me about 1-1.5 hours of steady hand mowing and I am pretty strong/fit (for now!).

It grows so fast so I am looking for a better solution.

I am looking at 38-42 inch cutting width, and a hydro/auto transmission.

Current model I am looking at is husqvana. There are some cheaper ones and more expensive, but I am hoping to only buy once...in 8-10 years anyway!

Any thoughts/advice would be great!

I know you want an Auto box, but may I suggest a Cox mower with the cone and disc drive, had mine for 10 years now and no discernible wear on discs or cone. If you want to mow nice soft lawn go for the Bar type cutters, but don't use them for cutting anything tall/tufted or woody because they don't have the inertia in the blade. The Cox has a large disc with replaceable blades on its outer edge, it's this large round disk that gives the Cox the inertia needed to cut tough scrubby paddocks.
The rear axle is solid so it is extremely hard to lose traction on a steep slope, unlike the differential action of most lawn orientated mowers. the drive system is simplicity itself, you have a solid axle shaft between the wheels with 2 inboard discs with a taper on their inner sides. In between these 2 discs is a friction material Cone which is pushed sideways to make contact with one of the Discs, one disc provides forward motion and the other disc provides reverse with push of a pedal on the running board.
As I said, had mine for 10 years now it has the 15hp B/S and in that time the only thing I have changed is the oil and filter, give a Cox a look at they are tough and reliable, no I am not getting paid for this comment, just networking, Regards Frank.
P.S. mine loves rocks and sticks

Our next door neighbour has a Husqvana, which he bought brand new in December. It's broken down 5 times since then (we do laugh when we see it going out on the trailer!)

I've got an 6 year old Craftsman with a 18hp B&S engine, which does our land pretty well, 1 acre is flat, 1 acre on a good slope (and another 1/2 acre or so that's....natural), and takes about 45mins per acre.

However, my neighbour on the other side, who has 12 acres to go at, repairs mowers for a living, and he swears by Greenfield.

we got a john dear, nothing elce to it,, its been floged, its our plower/mower/mulcher/genral-good-fun.

been rolled sevreal times, ( as its terns out they have very stong seats and steering wheels) as we got a spot that is very very steep and realy shoudlent mow there, but theres no way im doing it buy hand,

would be about 12yrs old,, serviced maby 2 times, and only ever had the throtle cable ware out, other then that works perfict, runs on a mix of pettrol and deasel( thanks customers at work for filling there deasels with pet)

never misses a beat, starts everytime, were off a farm and only use john dear, more expensive but will last for ever, just the bonnets dont like been rolled on

I have a few acres to mow with a ride on. (I have a slasher on the tractor for the paddocks).

The ride on is a Rover Ranger. Good features. Hydro clutch and so no gears to change. Rock the pedal forward or back in direction you want to go. Single deck with no alignment issues. Copes with slopes fairly well.

Poor features. Simple diff means less traction especially on damp grass.

Do not let sales people con you into believing that the horsepower you need has anything to do with the size of the paddock you are mowing. The power you need is determined by the grass and how hard it is to get through it. Bigger is usually better

I hope this helps. Good luck.

Mate, I too have a John Deere, I have a 2acre lot, its fairly flat tho. Before I brought this one I too did alot of research. I settled on the LA115 from JD, For $3990 I just couldn't go past it. Its 42" cut Hydro drive. Had it now for 2 years and during summer it gets used for 2 or so hours a week, only had the blade belt go so far. Cant fault it otherwise! I recommend looking at John Deere as I found them quite competitive!
Cheers.

Toro, Kubota and John Deere are my pick
To do the job fast a front deck like the Toro TITAN TIMECUTTER is a nice option