stick steer
 

will settle on a new residence at the end of next month. no. have not sold my present residence. great timing. anywho, new place has a lot of about 2.2 acres. basically flat. maybe a dozen trees. have purchased 4 mb diesels over the past 10 years or so. total cost something in the $5k range. looking at 'mowers' for new place. stick steer/zero turn, is this the way to go? they range in price from about $2500 to close to $6k for my application. basically 48 inch cut with engine choices of briggs, kohler, honda and kawaski. if i go this route, favorite is a bear cat with kawasaki and 7 guage deck and 3 blades. the other option, at the low end is a deere lawn tractor from say home depot. price as low as $1200. 42 inch cut. briggs engine. some really cheap stamped mower deck. 2 blades. anybody have any ideas to help me in this decision? wonder if i can attach a bush hog to the back of my 126 diesel. plenty of hours left in the 300sd!!!!!!

I mow 1 acre of grass with a 52" honda commercial mower. I just repowered with a 2 cylinder 18hp honda. I can cut my yard in about 45 minutes. I also have a 36" bunton which takes about 70 minutes.
I would suggest a zero-turn hydrostaticly driven walk behind (make of your choice). 48-52 would be the best size in my opinion, zero turn so that you don't chew-up your lawn as you turn.
In my opinion, all the new ride-on tractors are kind of junk (please don't flame me). There are nice tractors from the 1960's that are really well made, so if you prefer a tractor, I would buy a beautifull old one in great shape. But, without doubt, the commercial walk-behinds cut the best. Your lawn will look much nicer if you buy a walk-behind.
Hope this helps, just my $0.02

I have a 52" Keese zero degree hydro walk behind with a stand on sulky. They dont make them anymore, but i would deffinately recomend a walk behind with an out front mower. With an out front mower you can get under things that you would not think about if you were sitting on top. If you get something newer with a 50" plus cut be sure it has 18HP minimum. I also highly recomend discarding the standard blades and multching kit and get Gator blades. You can go over knee deep grass and it will cut it up into small bits without loading down the engine. They will even handle wet grass.

a Dixie Chopper is the fastest out there.. so I've been told

plus if you want they can run on propane (models avaliable with propane)


or this one

http://www.dixiechopper.com/models_XC.php

74" deck

http://www.dixiechopper.com/models_AP.php

or a propane ..or a diesel powered one...

RLEO is the man you need to ask.

dejavu:D

.02 - You can't hold a beer and cut grass with a zero turn;)

RLEO can!

When my arthritis is bad I use a Farmall Cub with a 3 blade belly mower.

Otherwise It's an ancient Locke 3 reel golf course walk behind mower.

Didn't pay a red cent for any of'em......save your money and improvise.......

That wouldn't be a beer...

Believe me, I'm no expert.

At BHF, we use a Kubota BX1800 with a finish belly mower for the ROW and other finecut areas. The Kubota is just a diesel powered lawn tractor on steroids...hydrostat drive, 4WD, loader, real 3-point with a PTO. Consequently, it gets used for a lot of other stuff too. It does a nice job and is fast. Because of the small wheels, it is a little rough on you if you spend several hours riding it.

If all I needed to do was finish mow a big lawn, I'd be looking at at a commercial-grade zero-turn...with a cup holder.

The big toy isn't really all that big; it's a old 40HP Deere swinging a 6' Dale Phillips shredder. The damned grass is so tall now that it takes everything that Deere has got and more just to flail through in 2nd gear. Basically, I need more cows.

and don't forget the ash tray for the Cohiba!

I was in the market for a used mower about 4 years ago. I wanted a zero-turn mower, but found that I could get more bang for the buck by settling for a standard format Kubota riding mower. It has a 60" deck, a 19 HP diesel engine, and a hydrostatic transmission. The drivetrain is totally sweet - a real pleasure to operate. It is not as fast as the zero-turns I've seen but I can cover some ground with it plenty quick. Probably more comfortable than a zero turn.

As for zero-turns, I think there is a big difference between the Home Depot versions and the true commercial mowers. I helped my neighbor with his Home Depot zero turn (the white and yellow type - Cub Cadet?) and found the skid steer to be more difficult and less intuitive than the commercial grade Ransons I used a few years ago.

Whatever you get, make sure it has plenty of power and a good, high-speed mower deck. Those are the keys, IMHO.

Oh, I thought this was about an emaciated cow. Stick man, stick steer. Stick cowboy . . .

Steiner, BobCat, or Bunton 25hp 60" deck, ZT. It will take you all of 1 hour to do it all, max. And you can swing around trees and bushes with ease.

My wife worked for Textron, so I got to buy one at true cost. I offered my neighbor one at cost a couple of years after we bought our first, because I knew he was looking for a new machine.

We both had identical 6.6 acre lots. I mowed all 6.6, plus I had lots of trees and evergreens. He only mowed the middle 2 or so acres.

He decided on a Deere undermount for about $6,000 more.

I did my 6.6 in less time than it took him to do his 2. And my grass was cut evenly, as a professional machine should cut.

I am totally sold on commercial golf course zero turn equipment.