Commercial lawnmower questions...
 

I'm thinking about starting a little lawn service side business for some extra cash, nothing big just about 10-15 lawns. I want to quite my part time job and stay busy between projects.

My question is who makes a decent commercial mower? I need the excersis so I figured I'd get a 36in walk behind. I'm doing this for extra cash so I don't plan on taking on any monster yards, I can afford to be picky.

I figure $1k to get all the equipment, IE trailer, push mower for little stuff, trimmer, blower, odds and ends. The largest expenses by far is the big mower, thats going to cost a few bucks.


Are Scag's any good?
http://www.scag.com/swz.html

My ROI isn't to horrible, 15 lawns at $25 a pop is about $375 a week. So after the first season its all gravy. I'm willing to shell out the cash to avoid a part time job, to me thats a worth while investment.

Scag's are great. Pretty much an industry standard. My friend has a JD walk behind that's pretty impressive too.

Do you really need a commercial mower for 10-15 lawns? Seems kinda overkill. I used to do some mowing back in highschool for extra cash with our lawn tractor, probably 7 or 8 a weekend, it never gave me any issues. Only went to adjacent subdivisions though, drove the mower there.

I want to get done fast, and I want to be flexable. I plan on taking on more or less clients depending on how the building side is. When I was a kid I would do 3-5 a week with just a 21in push mower but it took awhile. But when your 11 the money is fantastic!

Plus I could use a write off.

Its either a 30 hour a week job at Lowes or this. I'm thinking I could invest $5k-$6k to build myself a little side business and avoid that. Working in a big building for other people frankly sucks as far as I'm concerned. Also the idea of doing the same thing inside for 8 hours is pretty miserable for me. My goal is to make the same money with 1/2 the time investment, and have flexable hours. This way I can concentrate on building up the real estate business which is where the money is.

The plus side is that I can cut the lawns of some of the houses I want to buy and get friendly with the owners.:D;)

If I were you I'd probably go with a honda 21" commercial mower. I work with some guys who have a side business and this is what they use and it works great for them (and my dad has one of the hrx non-commercial ones and he loves it). I've used them both pretty often with much satisfaction. Their self-propelled mechanism isn't anything to sneeze at, you have to walk at a nice little clip in top gear. Plus, they're much lighter than the 36" you're thinking about. Even though the 36" has 0 degree turning radius it's still a big mower on neighborhood lawns (unless these are large neighborhood estate-type lawns you're talking about). But, if you're still set on a 36", Toro has good products, give them a looksy too.

Skag, Someting Z Gravley, Jacobsen are the mowers I use

i'll agree on the honda self propelled,they suck.my little local junkyard has had lots of em,they just do not stand up.don't know what it is about the self propulsion but they have issues with it.but the engines thats another story.they won't quit.

I mowed lawns for years and years....then the clients saw that I bought a Mercedes-Benz and the number of jobs very suddenly dropped off :rolleyes: I forget the make but we have several 1980s "Rear Bagger 21 inch" mowers with commercial grade motors that have proven to be bullet proof.


But yeah don't go too overboard on equipment and search for some good used equipment if you can. Depending on how much you charge per lawn it could end up taking you quite a while to pay yourself back (I used to charge $20-25 a lawn being a young kid...what is the going rate for professional companies?)

Agree that they suck. Um, no. I've seen many honda mowers beat to hell and the self-propelled mechanisms still worked. That's been my experience.

Honda.

If you can find a 2-stroke Lawn Boy that's the top of the heap for reliability. Our family has owned a few over the years. My 20 year old 2-stroke Lawn Boy runs flawlessly.

I can't vouch for the self-propelled model 2-stroke, nor the 4-strokes, but I wouldn't want a push-mower with that kind of acreage you're going to be cutting without the self-propelled feature.

Some guy was trying to buy a like-new 2-stroke Lawn Boy here last year - expecting to get it for $50.00!:rolleyes: What a laugh that was! Ha, ha!

You need a commercial riding mower of at least 48". It'll take you waaayy too long using a 36" walk behind. A good commercial mower will cut at 10mph or more. Walking speed is 3mph.

Fantastic!

Now where does he buy this mower "a commercial riding mower at least 48"," AND all the rest of his equipment including trailer all for his budget of "$!K?"

If he can't find what he needs at that budget he's not going to make it. That's th equipment the competition has, along with undocumented workers getting paid a minimal wage.

I fix lawn mowers for fun and profit on the side.

The honda self propelled mowers are a solid choice. I would stay away from anything with a Tecumseh engine. They are especially bad (found mostly in older Sears and Toro mowers). Luckily, that company is out of business now (good riddance).

I suggest you start easy with just one basic self propelled mower and a weedwacker. Do not get a trailer yet just in case you change your mind about the whole venture.