2022 Simplicity Regent or Broadmoor

[bkeller500]

Keep in mind, the reason for the dragging is one of the reasons you would consider a Regent. That rear deck roller is supposed to follow the ground and raise and lower the deck as needed. That is also is the mechanism for striping your lawn. The Broadmoor has the electric lift but because of the electric lift it will not lower the rear deck roller as far thus rendering less lawn striping. It's a tuff choice but there is a difference. The Regent will put the full weight of the rear of the deck on the ground for striping......The Broadmoor's electric lift will lower the deck only part way and will not put the full weight on the turf. I have had both. I am uncertain but I think the Regent has a deck transport lever that lifts the deck into a transport position ( not sure it's still manufactured that way).... When you set the Braodmoor cut height vial the electric switch and start mowing, the deck potentially be too high when you get to some low spots. Chasing the cut height with the electric switch is hit and miss and causes uneven cutting.

 

[pegken]

Keep in mind, the reason for the dragging is one of the reasons you would consider a Regent. That rear deck roller is supposed to follow the ground and raise and lower the deck as needed. That is also is the mechanism for striping your lawn. The Broadmoor has the electric lift but because of the electric lift it will not lower the rear deck roller as far thus rendering less lawn striping. It's a tuff choice but there is a difference. The Regent will put the full weight of the rear of the deck on the ground for striping......The Broadmoor's electric lift will lower the deck only part way and will not put the full weight on the turf. I have had both. I am uncertain but I think the Regent has a deck transport lever that lifts the deck into a transport position ( not sure it's still manufactured that way).... When you set the Braodmoor cut height vial the electric switch and start mowing, the deck potentially be too high when you get to some low spots. Chasing the cut height with the electric switch is hit and miss and causes uneven cutting.

So it sounds like you're saying that the Regent may stripe and cut uneven grass better than the Broadmoor? Also there maybe a way of having the deck on the Regent lift higher for transport into a shed or from going from driveway to grass without gouging or scalping? Wow, it looks like I have to do a whole lot more research into the two. I would have thought that the Broadmoor was going to be a big step up in overall performance compared to the Regent but now you've got me thinking again!!

Thanks for the great insight and helpful comments before I pull the trigger on one of these two mowers.

Ken

 

[enigma-2]

Keep in mind, the reason for the dragging is one of the reasons you would consider a Regent. That rear deck roller is supposed to follow the ground and raise and lower the deck as needed. That is also is the mechanism for striping your lawn. The Broadmoor has the electric lift but because of the electric lift it will not lower the rear deck roller as far thus rendering less lawn striping. It's a tuff choice but there is a difference. The Regent will put the full weight of the rear of the deck on the ground for striping......The Broadmoor's electric lift will lower the deck only part way and will not put the full weight on the turf. I have had both. I am uncertain but I think the Regent has a deck transport lever that lifts the deck into a transport position ( not sure it's still manufactured that way).... When you set the Braodmoor cut height vial the electric switch and start mowing, the deck potentially be too high when you get to some low spots. Chasing the cut height with the electric switch is hit and miss and causes uneven cutting.

That's complete nonsense. You don't understand how these tractors work. Both Regency and Broadmoor have manual lift levers to rase and lower the deck off the ground.

The electric lift on the Broadmoor only adjusts the height of the blades inside the deck. On the Regency its done by manual screw. (And its a bitch when raising the height as your screwing against the weight on the deck).

When the deck on the Broadmoor is lowered, it puts full weight on the back roller. It strips just fine. But, it comes completely off the ground when the deck raised. The Regency deck never off the ground. The Regency is just a poor design. After calling Simplicity the dealer turned to me and said "that's bs". He tried different lift links and finally decided there was no way to get the deck to lift off the ground. Its the larger tires on the Broadmoor that gives the extra clearance for the deck.

Speaking of stripping, it's not all its made out to be. Ok on large, open areas, but on small side yards, it loses its charm. Making turns and small areas mess it up.

And even on the nice stripped areas, the stripping fades fairly quickly. (Grass straightens back up). Looks nice for a little while, but I could live without it.

 

[pegken]

That's complete nonsense. You don't understand how these tractors work. Both Regency and Broadmoor have manual lift levers to rase and lower the deck off the ground.

The electric lift on the Broadmoor only adjusts the height of the blades inside the deck. On the Regency its done by manual screw. (And its a bitch when raising the height as your screwing against the weight on the deck).

When the deck on the Broadmoor is lowered, it puts full weight on the back roller. It strips just fine. But, it comes completely off the ground when the deck raised. The Regency deck never off the ground. The Regency is just a poor design. After calling Simplicity the dealer turned to me and said "that's bs". He tried different lift links and finally decided there was no way to get the deck to lift off the ground. Its the larger tires on the Broadmoor that gives the extra clearance for the deck.

Speaking of stripping, it's not all its made out to be. Ok on large, open areas, but on small side yards, it loses its charm. Making turns and small areas mess it up.

And even on the nice stripped areas, the stripping fades fairly quickly. (Grass straightens back up). Looks nice for a little while, but I could live without it.

Thanks enigma-2 for the clarification. I too thought it rather odd that the Broadmoor 44 would be a step back in comparison to the Regent 38 as far as striping and ground clearance? It just didn't make any sense to me?

Anyway, truth be told, the striping is of little importance to me as I do have a smaller lawn. What is important to me is reliability of the mower, cut quality and it's ease of use especially now that I'm in my late 60's.

Thanks again for clarifying the differences,

Ken

 

[bkeller500]

That's complete nonsense. You don't understand how these tractors work. Both Regency and Broadmoor have manual lift levers to rase and lower the deck off the ground.

The electric lift on the Broadmoor only adjusts the height of the blades inside the deck. On the Regency its done by manual screw. (And its a bitch when raising the height as your screwing against the weight on the deck).

When the deck on the Broadmoor is lowered, it puts full weight on the back roller. It strips just fine. But, it comes completely off the ground when the deck raised. The Regency deck never off the ground. The Regency is just a poor design. After calling Simplicity the dealer turned to me and said "that's bs". He tried different lift links and finally decided there was no way to get the deck to lift off the ground. Its the larger tires on the Broadmoor that gives the extra clearance for the deck.

Speaking of stripping, it's not all its made out to be. Ok on large, open areas, but on small side yards, it loses its charm. Making turns and small areas mess it up.

And even on the nice stripped areas, the stripping fades fairly quickly. (Grass straightens back up). Looks nice for a little while, but I could live without it.

Just looking at the Boradmoor parts diagrams, I don't see where the Simplicity electric lift just adjusts the height of the blades up and down Must be something new. Never heard of that before. My bad!

 

[mechanic mark]

Broadmoor™ Lawn Tractor

The Broadmoor lawn tractor has what it takes to create the best looking lawn on the block. By marrying performance features with comfort features, we've created a masterpiece that is more like a luxury experience than a chore.

www.simplicitymfg.com

Electric switch lowers & raises deck, click above.

 

[pegken]

Broadmoor™ Lawn Tractor

The Broadmoor lawn tractor has what it takes to create the best looking lawn on the block. By marrying performance features with comfort features, we've created a masterpiece that is more like a luxury experience than a chore.

www.simplicitymfg.com

Electric switch lowers & raises deck, click above.

Wow, absolutely didn't know that?? I thought the deck itself was raised or lowered by a manual lever on the mower?

Thanks for the update

 

[enigma-2]

The deck is raised and lowered (from transport position to mowing position) via a lever on the right fender (next to the seat). And its a bitch to use, very hard to unlock. Lowering go quick, raising requires a good jerk to get the momentum needed. I liked an old tractor i had, forget the brand now, but it had the deck lift lever on the side of the engine shroud. Swung in a large arc and made lifting the deck easy.

On the Broadmoor, the electric blade lift is mounted on the deck (not tractor) and just raises and lowers the blades by raising and lowering the deck by pressing against the stripping roller. The roller is ALWAYS pressed to the ground by the weight of the deck, and the deck lifts separately from the rollers, which changes the height of the blades (which are fixed height in relation to the deck).

I liked the old way Simplicity raised the deck. (Big, long lever.) The current one is made for looks, not ease of use. If you spend around $10 grand, you can get an electric deck lift on the Prestige.

Unrelated, its almost impossible to remove my deck from the tractor. Dealer said "oh its easy, just" .... then he tried it. Spent 10 minutes, looked at me with a red face and said the Simplicity didn't engineer this right. 52" deck. Smaller decks come off easily, avoid thd 52" deck. Damn Simplicity engineering. Chains are too short. If I add a link, deck won't clear the ground for transit.

 

[bkeller500]

The old Broadmoor I had years ago, had a long lever on the left side that you could pull back to lift the entire deck to a transport position. It had a screw mechanism on the right to raise and lower the height of cut which worked pretty as long as you kept it lubricated.
I have the 52" Simplicity Fabricated deck on my Courier XT and it's a beast. It's very heavy. Fortunately my XT has a foot lever to raise the deck and locking mechanism at the top position.
Simplicity has changed the method and mechanics of raising and lowering their decks over time trying to make it easier to transition from mowing height to transport position for their heavy decks while still allowing for the rear deck roller to do it's job of carrying the weight of the deck and striping.
The systems they use on the tractors to lift to alter the HOC and transport is a little different from the systems they use on the Zero Turns. Rather than try to man-handle the deck (removal) for cleaning and maintenance, I purchased a MoJack to lift the front of the XT so I could slide under and scrape the deck, change blades and maintenance. The 48" isn't much lighter.

 

[d2wing]

As a service guy for John Deere said, don't buy the 1xx series John Deeres. I would go Broadmoor at least. I have a Prestige. I removed the deck once. That was enough. I use a Mower lift to service the deck now. At 75 easy is better.