54" with MyRide vs 60" without?

[drew_351]

The speed of cutting depends upon the driver and the lay out of the yard, particularly obstacles like fences & trees.
I have a customer who uses a tractor style mower and he cuts a lot faster than others using ZTR's .
It is all about knowing how to get the best out of your machine
Little things like cutting around a tree in reverse on a tractor & doing 3 point turns .

There are lot of things you can do to cut down the amount of time you spend doing yard maintenance .
Do you actually need all that grass ?
Are you using it or just gazing out over the estate ?
Converting a large yard to shrubs trimmed clean a foot off the ground then heavily mulched means that you will only need to spray it 3 times a year with round up ( or similar ).
Mounting a sprayer on your mower will knock hours off spraying on foot if you border spray

I mow as much as I do because I have kids, they need room to run around, and help keep down ticks closer to the house. Plus it looks nice.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Space to run around and explore is very important for kids of all ages .
Time playing with parents is also important
A space that is mentally stimulating is also important.

3 acres of flat grass is not an exciting or stimulating space and has little use other than as a baseball diamond or rifle range .
It can very quickly become a rod fo the owners back and in high season requires a lot of maintenance.
converting 2 of those acres to planing done as virtual rooms provides a mentally stimulating space for kids to explore when young and find some privacey when they get older.
Birds & insects provide hours of mentally stimulating and visually appealing time while requiring a lot less time to maintain & if you miss doing something by several weeks does not become an eyesaw.
My workshop is on the urban / rural interface of Sydney
Most of my customers are on lots of 1 to 20 acres and the bulk of them work in Sydney which is 40 miles away and 2 to 3 hours in each direction depending upon the time of travel.
Prior to subdivision most of the land was poor dairy country , being farmed because of corrupt government allotments of dairy quotas .
Those who decided to have endless acres of lawn are forever cursing trying to live the "country dream " , they can never keep up in spring & summer and are forever calling me to fix their mowers.
Those who have turned over a large proportion of their yard to bushland or garden rarely call me out and spend a lot more time enjoying their spread than working on it .
When i do come out it is usually for routine service and just this week we sat on a customers patio watching the kangaroos in the back yard over some coffee & creams .
When I fist came to this customers yard it was 10 acres of tussock grass & weeds .
Now it has a single acre of lawn plus lawn pathways to connect the different plantings . They have not bought a piece of fruit for the past 2 years and the kids will run out into the back yard without any prompting .
He is spending about 2 hours a week total maintaining his property and is now thinking about buying the property next door. When I first meet them they were about to put the property up for sale because it was too much for them .

Now it is your yard & I am not trying to preach to you but if you asked the people in the days of Henry Ford what they needed,the answer would have been more horses .
Thus the answer to cutting down on your yard maintenance time might not necessarly be a bigger faster mower.

 

[drew_351]

Space to run around and explore is very important for kids of all ages .
Time playing with parents is also important
A space that is mentally stimulating is also important.

3 acres of flat grass is not an exciting or stimulating space and has little use other than as a baseball diamond or rifle range .
It can very quickly become a rod fo the owners back and in high season requires a lot of maintenance.
converting 2 of those acres to planing done as virtual rooms provides a mentally stimulating space for kids to explore when young and find some privacey when they get older.
Birds & insects provide hours of mentally stimulating and visually appealing time while requiring a lot less time to maintain & if you miss doing something by several weeks does not become an eyesaw.
My workshop is on the urban / rural interface of Sydney
Most of my customers are on lots of 1 to 20 acres and the bulk of them work in Sydney which is 40 miles away and 2 to 3 hours in each direction depending upon the time of travel.
Prior to subdivision most of the land was poor dairy country , being farmed because of corrupt government allotments of dairy quotas .
Those who decided to have endless acres of lawn are forever cursing trying to live the "country dream " , they can never keep up in spring & summer and are forever calling me to fix their mowers.
Those who have turned over a large proportion of their yard to bushland or garden rarely call me out and spend a lot more time enjoying their spread than working on it .
When i do come out it is usually for routine service and just this week we sat on a customers patio watching the kangaroos in the back yard over some coffee & creams .
When I fist came to this customers yard it was 10 acres of tussock grass & weeds .
Now it has a single acre of lawn plus lawn pathways to connect the different plantings . They have not bought a piece of fruit for the past 2 years and the kids will run out into the back yard without any prompting .
He is spending about 2 hours a week total maintaining his property and is now thinking about buying the property next door. When I first meet them they were about to put the property up for sale because it was too much for them .

Now it is your yard & I am not trying to preach to you but if you asked the people in the days of Henry Ford what they needed,the answer would have been more horses .
Thus the answer to cutting down on your yard maintenance time might not necessarly be a bigger faster mower.

I completely see what you are saying, and I feel like I have already done that with some of my yard. I think my yard isn't what you have pictured. It is not flat, it has character, plenty of wavy parts and little hills. I have flower beds, I have 3 different food garden areas, one veggy, one corn and pumpkin, the other berries. I have 18 fruit trees. I have flower beds. I have a couple chunks that are where trees grow wild and I don't mow and actually couldn't without removing some trees. Then there is a decent sized area that I like to mow, looks nice mowed and gives us area to play around, have friends over and setup volleyball, slip n slides, race RC cars, etc. Looking out back on land that isn't owned by me is nothing but fields and trees as my house is raised a little.

Technically it is probably more like 2.5 maybe 2.7 that I mow, this would be my guess, I don't feel like that is endless acres to mow. I was rounding it to 3. My kids play all over my yard not just the mowed areas. They help grow things and care for it. I wasn't trying to get into this type of conversation. I used to spend about 3 hours mowing, but since I have changed around and added things to the yard I now spend about 2.25 to 2.5 hours give or take depending on if the grass got a little extra long in some areas. If I could get a different machine to help make that lets say 1.5 hours, maybe less? That would be great. Easier for me to get done after work some night during the week or find time during the weekend. Might be easier on my back since some of my yard is a bit bumpy. And of course, to have more time with my family.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Sound like you are an excellent parent & your kids are lucky to live there.
Unfortunately we can only go by what is posted .
Good luck with whatever you end up buying