Cub Cadet with steering wheel

Craftsman Garage

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@GearHead36 It's lawn tractors all day for me. They are much easier to work on and small GTs like my husky GT48XLSi with a ✨servicable✨K66 are a Beast on my hills. The hills at my house are so steep, I'll have to upload a pic sometime, but cheap hydros don't last long on my slopes.
 

StarTech

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I know , but she old and all. I can't tell her she just needs to learn to drive it. I know I'm a coward, but I'm keeping my head down! :-D
Now don't be afraid of those cast iron skillets...They only hurt for a little while...Though you might lobe side afterwards...
 

Tiger Small Engine

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Why not go with a lawn tractor? I have a Cub Cadet steering wheel ZTR. It's main advantage over lap-bar ZTR's is it's slope handling ability. Lap bar ZTR's don't work well on slopes. So since she has such a ZTR, I'm guessing her yard is fairly flat. If I were mowing nothing but flat areas, I would consider a lawn tractor. Unless she has lots of obstacles. The steering wheel CC's are almost as good at handling obstacles as lap-bar ZTR's.
Zero turn mowers work great on hills versus a riding mower or zero turn with steering wheel.

When using a zero turn there is obviously a learning curve to get good at it. The farther apart your hands are on steering arms, the more control you have.

I do not like the Cub Cadet steering wheel zero turns. They are for people who don’t like a real zero turn, but want more maneuverability. Just finished working on one with blown head gasket and mouse eaten ignition coils that I will sell for nice profit.
 

StarTech

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At least the Cub Cadet system works a lot better than the old JD Spin Steer system. Those old mowers you had to crab them on hillsides.
 

GearHead36

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Zero turn mowers work great on hills versus a riding mower or zero turn with steering wheel.

When using a zero turn there is obviously a learning curve to get good at it. The farther apart your hands are on steering arms, the more control you have.

I do not like the Cub Cadet steering wheel zero turns. They are for people who don’t like a real zero turn, but want more maneuverability. Just finished working on one with blown head gasket and mouse eaten ignition coils that I will sell for nice profit.
While you're certainly entitled to your opinion, I strongly disagree. I have a steering wheel ZTR and a "real" ZTR, i.e. one with lap bars. The slope holding ability of the two are not even close. The one with the steering wheel is much better. The lap-bar machine wants to slide down a hill if going across it. I am not someone who doesn't like a "real zero turn". In fact, I wish I didn't have to mow slopes so that I didn't need the steering wheel ZTR. The lap-bar ZTR is more maneuverable around obstacles, and I have a lot of those, too.
 

Tiger Small Engine

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While you're certainly entitled to your opinion, I strongly disagree. I have a steering wheel ZTR and a "real" ZTR, i.e. one with lap bars. The slope holding ability of the two are not even close. The one with the steering wheel is much better. The lap-bar machine wants to slide down a hill if going across it. I am not someone who doesn't like a "real zero turn". In fact, I wish I didn't have to mow slopes so that I didn't need the steering wheel ZTR. The lap-bar ZTR is more maneuverable around obstacles, and I have a lot of those, too.
I mowed commercially for 10 years running and owning a lawn care business, so it isn’t my opinion, it is personal experience and talking with many other people in the field. It is true that some zero turn mowers do not do as well on hills as others. Ferris and Scag hold a hill very well.
 

Auto Doc's

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It really is not a matter of zero turn with or without steering wheel vs conventional lawn tractor.

It's a matter of machine weight, operator weight, wheelbase, tire size & tread design and ground contour.

With that said, there are always benefits versus hinderances with every ride on mowing machine.
 

GearHead36

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Ferris and Scag hold a hill very well.
I may have to keep an eye out for a good deal on one of those. I really would prefer a lap-bar ZTR, but my steering wheel ZTR just works SO much better on slopes and hills.
 

SamB

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Zero turn mowers work great on hills versus a riding mower or zero turn with steering wheel.

When using a zero turn there is obviously a learning curve to get good at it. The farther apart your hands are on steering arms, the more control you have.

I do not like the Cub Cadet steering wheel zero turns. They are for people who don’t like a real zero turn, but want more maneuverability. Just finished working on one with blown head gasket and mouse eaten ignition coils that I will sell for nice profit.
I don't know that the woman in discussion has any hills to contend with, she just doesn't like her lap bar mower. I'm not getting in the middle of the mower selection, she can have a dealer demo her one and she can go from there. My lap bar ztr does well on my highway shoulder slope when father in law's tractor would spin the uphill side tire and then be stuck. The selectable power to individual drive tires works well for me.
 
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