Advice on a new Riding and Self propelled.

[jclarknet]

We just bought a new place and now have a bit over half an acre to mow, mostly flat with a culvert at the front. I've been shopping around for a riding mower and think i've narrowed it down to a John Deere 110, or at least thats the advice i've gotten so far. As far as a self propelled for cutting in, I haven't narrowed it down yet.

Looking for opinions on the riding mower and ideas for a self propelled for a half acre lot.

p.s. i'm in ontario, canada.

Cheers

 

[LandN]

We just bought a new place and now have a bit over half an acre to mow, mostly flat with a culvert at the front. I've been shopping around for a riding mower and think i've narrowed it down to a John Deere 110, or at least thats the advice i've gotten so far. As far as a self propelled for cutting in, I haven't narrowed it down yet.

Looking for opinions on the riding mower and ideas for a self propelled for a half acre lot.

p.s. i'm in ontario, canada.

Cheers

generally speaking, if you're a diy'er or tinkerer go to the big box stores,if you want service, parts, and an informed owner/salesperson go to a 'good' dealership.good warranty matters(imo).only YOU know what you can accept ,tolerate,and handle between them.i run a toro s.p.mower for the small stuff,but there are other good brands.i run a jd 42" for the larger stuff,but there are other good brand tractors/ztr's as far as the larger machines go there are a lot of choices. your thoughts should be on handling obstacles in yard(for tight turning)also keep in mind another driver for the big mower should you not be able to cut for one reason or another, how are they going to handle it. Attatchment capabilities including winter time blowing. Room in the garage/shed to store it in. price. and fencing gates. see what the neighbors are cutting with and their satisfaction with what they cut with.happy hunting

 

[Carl in CT]

generally speaking, if you're a diy'er or tinkerer go to the big box stores,if you want service, parts, and an informed owner/salesperson go to a 'good' dealership.good warranty matters(imo).only YOU know what you can accept ,tolerate,and handle between them.i run a toro s.p.mower for the small stuff,but there are other good brands.i run a jd 42" for the larger stuff,but there are other good brand tractors/ztr's as far as the larger machines go there are a lot of choices. your thoughts should be on handling obstacles in yard(for tight turning)also keep in mind another driver for the big mower should you not be able to cut for one reason or another, how are they going to handle it. Attatchment capabilities including winter time blowing. Room in the garage/shed to store it in. price. and fencing gates. see what the neighbors are cutting with and their satisfaction with what they cut with.happy hunting

All good advice there. The JD 110 is a box store mower. Not saying it is bad but it is definitely not a heavy duty machine. Expect 3-5 years out of it, maybe more if you baby it and if you don't weigh over 200 lbs and you don't have a lot of challenging hills to mow. It may fit your needs just fine but be aware of what it is. Also check out your closest Simplicity dealer. They have some really good mowers built well for close to box store prices as well as higher end machines that are obviously priced higher but either way you get dealer support which you won't get from a box store. If you decide on a JD get it from a dealer instead of the box store. The price is the same and you will get some support but I have heard of some JD dealers refusing to support the 100 series mowers but that's probably not the general rule, just be aware of what the deal is no matter what you decide on.

Best of luck.

 

[jimrs]

I have owned my JD L110 for I don't remember how long but it was the first year that Home Depot sold them. You won't be able to get service from HD but if you have a JD dealer in your town they will service it and have the parts for it. If you only have 1/2 acre that is all you need. I have a little more just over an acre and I want a new zero turn. You will need both a tractor and a push mower to do your yard as there are places in most yards you cant get to with a tractor. Again Home Depot and a self-propelled 22" Honda and your ready to go.

 

[rekees]

Assuming that you are going to be cutting the bulk of the grass with the rider and just need the push for trimming, it would make sense to get a cheap-o push at Wally World. Nevertheless, if you want to spurge on a push, Consumer Reports rates the Honda HRX2172HXA as the best self propelled. It will set you back around $700.

 

[Oddball]

If you plan on bagging the clippings, one thing that concerns me about the new JD riders is the attachment points for the bagger. They're just holes in the plastic body with black plastic inserts to strengthen them. The new attachment system looks awfully flimsy to me. My 10 year old LT150 has substantial round tubing that fits into a bracket and is secured with big metal clip pins. Basically a weld would have to break somewhere for the bagger to fail. I have not actually seen a bagger attached to the new mowers, but I just don't see that strength in the new system. As far as getting 3 to 5 years out of a D110, I think that's a little pessemistic. The same was being said about my LT150 that was being sold by HD and its 10 years now and going strong. I decided to support my local servicing JD dealer over HD since the price was the same.

I also agree with Rekees. I bought a cheap lightweight used pushmower to do my trim work with. I didn't see the sense in spending a bunch of money on a mower that's just going to be run around the perimeter of the yard once a week. The first thing I did when looking at the mower was pick it up to see how light it was. The guy at the shop I bought it from laughed and said that was the frist time he'd seen anyone do that. I said I wanted light and maneuverable and figured if I could easily pick it up, it would be plenty easy to maneuver in the yard.