Hello! I live in Missouri and we have a huge yard (3-4 acres of mowing), with over 100 trees to mow circles around. We had a husqavarna LGT2654 with a 54" deck with almost 900 hours on it, and the transaxle/transmission blew the other day. We have a pretty steep pond bank to mow and a couple other hilly areas, so I ruled out traditional levered zero turns. I have it narrowed down to the cub cadet Z force s54, and the John Deere x380, they both are around the same price 4600 or so with tax.
I was really into the cub cadet, until I read some reviews from their earlier Z models. (2011-2013ish), they had a lot of issue throwing and destroying belts, on fairly new mowers. I've read a couple other issues they had too. Apparently the belt problem was due to when engaging the parking brake, it would put slack in the drive belt, and rub against the belt guards, destroying or throwing the belt. I haven't seen many complaints from the last couple years on them, so I was wondering if they fixed the issue? I was really into this mower until I read about these issues. I like it because it's a zero turn with a steeing wheel, that can take hills better, supposedly.
The John Deere x380 also has a 54" deck, and my neighbor has an x series I've used, so I know about them a little. I was wondering how the automatic height adjustment on the deck holds up? Is that something that would go out in a couple years? I like the manual levered decks better, I am always lifting the deck to mow over things, or when I'm mowing around trees on angled/hilly terrain so the blades don't dig in. I also don't care for the feature that you have to pull that switch out to back up, I mow around a lot of trees and back up a lot. Is that something they can undo at the dealer? I'm not so much worried about it being an inconvenience, as I am looking at it as something that will break some day.
I would like to hear from anyone who has put a lot of hours on one of these mowers, or has a lot of good knowledge. We put 80 hours or so on a year, so I want something that's going to hold up. I don't need any other mower brand recommendations, I'm sticking with either Cub cadet or John Deere, as they each have dealers within 7 miles of me. I appreciate any responses in advance, hopefully some prompt ones as I'm going to look at the cub cadet tomorrow morning.!
I was really into the cub cadet, until I read some reviews from their earlier Z models. (2011-2013ish), they had a lot of issue throwing and destroying belts, on fairly new mowers. I've read a couple other issues they had too. Apparently the belt problem was due to when engaging the parking brake, it would put slack in the drive belt, and rub against the belt guards, destroying or throwing the belt. I haven't seen many complaints from the last couple years on them, so I was wondering if they fixed the issue? I was really into this mower until I read about these issues. I like it because it's a zero turn with a steeing wheel, that can take hills better, supposedly.
The John Deere x380 also has a 54" deck, and my neighbor has an x series I've used, so I know about them a little. I was wondering how the automatic height adjustment on the deck holds up? Is that something that would go out in a couple years? I like the manual levered decks better, I am always lifting the deck to mow over things, or when I'm mowing around trees on angled/hilly terrain so the blades don't dig in. I also don't care for the feature that you have to pull that switch out to back up, I mow around a lot of trees and back up a lot. Is that something they can undo at the dealer? I'm not so much worried about it being an inconvenience, as I am looking at it as something that will break some day.
I would like to hear from anyone who has put a lot of hours on one of these mowers, or has a lot of good knowledge. We put 80 hours or so on a year, so I want something that's going to hold up. I don't need any other mower brand recommendations, I'm sticking with either Cub cadet or John Deere, as they each have dealers within 7 miles of me. I appreciate any responses in advance, hopefully some prompt ones as I'm going to look at the cub cadet tomorrow morning.!
