Advice On A Sub $3000 Zero Turn Mower

[Shughes717]

Did you look at the pictures in the link above ? You want to use the mower for a Business and that's the SD. Yes I suggest the Raptor all the time... to a homeowner with a half acre or less of property for there personal use and for what it is designed for (a once a week mowing) but not for a business. PVHlll is right the mower and the decks aren't made for commercial work.

That op on that thread is having some trouble, but there are other owners out there who aren't having any trouble with their mowers. There is another thread on this site about several other brand mowers having this same problem. There are many reasons why a mower streaks a lawn. Hopefully that op will figure out the problem with his mower, but you can't tell me that a mower with a 54" deck is only designed to cut a half acre. secondly, if the op is push mowing lawns now then he is mowing lawns smaller than a half acre, and I'm sure the push mowers he is using have shallow decks that are not nearly as heavy as a commercial ztr mower deck. Mowers are not built to only run 30 minutes a week. I don't see your logic that a raptor will mow the first half acre fine, but will tomahawk the rest. If t will mow a half acre well then why won't it mow the rest?

There is a limit to how many hours you can get out of a machine. If you run a mower every day you will usually get more hours out of the machine than you will by putting 20 hours a season on it and storing it for half a year. You will probably only get 3 to 4 years out of it instead of the 10 to 15 years you will get out of it for personal use, but it will handle the job. When I was young I worked for a man who used residential murray 42" lawn tractors for a small lawn care business. I had to mow the town's ball park (3 baseball fields), while he and my brother mowed the cemetery. It had to be around 8 and 10 acres between the two places. We started at 7 am and usually didn't finish until around 2 pm. We mowed the park and the cemetery with those mowers for 2 seasons. Have you ever mowed anything like that with a residential mower? The raptor has a better engine, deck, and a much faster bts than those mowers did. You will never get me to believe that a raptor can't handle 20 hours a month.

 

[Shughes717]

My question to the OP is his many of those lawns could be push mowed?...he more than likely..at this stage of the game..should be lookin for a tractor style mower until he can bank some of that profit and purchase him a low end commercial ZT or good used full commercial unit with 500 or less hours on it...JMO though ;-)

The op was asking about a ztr mower for under $3k. A lawn tractor will be slower and won't suit his needs any better.

 

[Shughes717]

LOL!...thanks for clearin that up for us...Ric..I guess you didn't tell him about your psychic abilities... LMAO!

This post make no sense... What are you talking about? Ric didn't clear anything up. I was asking the op to post again and explain his intentions. If he does intend to continue this as his career, then maybe he should invest in commercial equipment. If he is just doing this as a highschool job then there would be no need to buy a $5k mower.

 

[Ric]

The op was asking about a ztr mower for under $3k. A lawn tractor will be slower and won't suit his needs any better.

:laughing: Tell me how is a tractor with a 46 through 54" deck going to be slower than a push mower and they can be purchased for under 2K

 

[Shughes717]

:laughing: Tell me how is a tractor with a 46 through 54" deck going to be slower than a push mower and they can be purchased for under 2K

I never said a lawn tractor was slower than push mowing. Said it was slower than a ztr and wouldn't suit the op's needs any better than a ztr. The bts of a $2k lawn tractor is also slower than the raptor. I think we can agree that the raptor is a much better mower than a $2k lawn tractor. The deck on a $2k lawn tractor are not as sturdy, and the engine options offered on a $2k lt are not nearly as good as the fr series Kawi on the raptor.

 

[Ric]

I never said a lawn tractor was slower than push mowing. Said it was slower than a ztr and wouldn't suit the op's needs any better than a ztr. The bts of a $2k lawn tractor is also slower than the raptor. I think we can agree that the raptor is a much better mower than a $2k lawn tractor. The deck on a $2k lawn tractor are not as sturdy, and the engine options offered on a $2k lt are not nearly as good as the fr series Kawi on the raptor.

You can get the Cub Cadet XT2 series46" cut for $2499 with a fab deck your choice of the Kawasaki FR or the Professional grade Kohler courage or 7000 Pro series Kohler and Believe The XTI series has the same engine options and there under 2K and personally I'd rather have the CC. Both the tractors have comparable running speeds as the raptor 5.5 on the cc and 6.5 on the raptor. Not all that different. You can also buy either of the tractors at HD also and both are in the price range the OP is looking for.

 

[Shughes717]

You can get the Cub Cadet XT2 series46" cut for $2499 with a fab deck your choice of the Kawasaki FR or the Professional grade Kohler courage or 7000 Pro series Kohler and Believe The XTI series has the same engine options and there under 2K and personally I'd rather have the CC. Both the tractors have comparable running speeds as the raptor 5.5 on the cc and 6.5 on the raptor. Not all that different. You can also buy either of the tractors at HD also and both are in the price range the OP is looking for.

Ztr mowers are much more maneuverable than tractors. a ztr will mow much faster.

 

[Shughes717]

WOW...we didn't know that...you must be some kind of mowimg genius... What doesn't make any sense is you debating the capabilities of a ZT with a lawn pro (Ric) and someone who's owned two of those same ZT mowers... I think the OP even as young as he is will be smart enough to figure out who knows what they're talking about and with all due respect you don't ;-)

I'm not getting personal with you. We are each allowed to have our opinions. Has Ric ever used one for his business? I don't think so. You have obviously based your opinion on a bad experience with a raptor. Not everyone is going to have a positive experience with a new mower. If they have a problem then their opinion will be that all of them are junk. I have however used residential mowers to mow large areas for 30 years. The smallest lawn I have ever had to mow was the one acre lawn that I had at my old home.

You have no idea what my back ground is. I grew up mowing my parent's 5 acre lawn, and my grand parent's 3 acre lawn. I have used everything from a rer snapper to commercial zero turn mowers. I don't think Ric mows anything that big. I have also worked for lawn businesses during the summer in my youth once the cotton crops were planted and sprayed. As I mentioned in an earlier post I worked for a man who used 2 42" murray residential mowers to mow a local ball park (consisting of 3 ball fields), and a fairly large cemetery. If low end residential mowers can handle properties that size then the raptor should handle 10 small lawns with ease. Just because we don't agree it doesn't mean that we should get into insulting one another.

 

[PVHIII]

Hello everyone its great to be on the forum!!!!

Ok so im trying to start my own lawn care service for my high school job, I got a good amount of yards right now and im using a push mower ........ So im now looking to buy a great Sub $3000 Zero Turn Mower.

I have been looking at the Hustler Raptor 42in (Since it has a fabricated deck instead of a stamped).

But i want to know if this is the right mower for me, because i have light slopes to mow and for absolute must!!!! fit in a 50in wide gate.

Thanks,
Randall

My dealer would advise you that the Raptor is not made for that...he has sold them for many years...he would rather not sell you the mower than to have you in there complaining when it doesn't hold up/preform ...it's almost a stretch to say the Raptor is good residential mower because of the deck clogging issues...the deck is solid but the mounting brackets aren't they will bend easier than you think trust me....compare how the deck is mounted to how competition mounts theirs such as the Husky or John Deere parked right next to it at Lowe's
...and for what your doin a solid stamped deck would be fine and probably discharge better...when the deck packs up is when your cut quality suffers..as long as you keep it clean it will deliver a nice cut so keep the scraper handy.

 

[PVHIII]

I'm not getting personal with you. We are each allowed to have our opinions. Has Ric ever used one for his business? I don't think so. You have obviously based your opinion on a bad experience with a raptor. Not everyone is going to have a positive experience with a new mower. If they have a problem then their opinion will be that all of them are junk. I have however used residential mowers to mow large areas for 30 years. The smallest lawn I have ever had to mow was the one acre lawn that I had at my old home.

You have no idea what my back ground is. I grew up mowing my parent's 5 acre lawn, and my grand parent's 3 acre lawn. I have used everything from a rer snapper to commercial zero turn mowers. I don't think Ric mows anything that big. I have also worked for lawn businesses during the summer in my youth once the cotton crops were planted and sprayed. As I mentioned in an earlier post I worked for a man who used 2 42" murray residential mowers to mow a local ball park (consisting of 3 ball fields), and a fairly large cemetery. If low end residential mowers can handle properties that size then the raptor should handle 10 small lawns with ease. Just because we don't agree it doesn't mean that we should get into insulting one another.

I apologize if you took that personal like I did when "someone" said my post "didn't make sense"...let's not get to PC here...were talkin about lawn mowers for gods sake... I have owned TWO of'm not ONE..neither were worth the $3000 paid for them...deck performance ruins the mower...and this is JMO..and this actually pains me to say because I'm a "Hustler guy"...so to speak and I don't have any complaints on my FTSD.