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Well I did.
Got a new 48" Kubota Kommander the other day never having ever driven a zero-turn before. Thought I'd start out on the 1/2 acre behind the house. It is only a slight slope. (I should have practiced/learned on the flat 2 acres out front)! All was going okay until I lost traction on a diagonal downhill section and slid about 10' over my wife's favorite azalea bush and into some brush. How the #$%@ did that happen so fast. Yes, I had read the manual and did have my seatbelt on. Guess I need some more practice :confused2:

If it helps, you are not the first, nor will you be the last to have this happen. Last year it happened to an experienced landscaper when he got on a wet slope. Had to replace a bed of cone flowers and assorted lilies. just think of it as some extra fertilizer.

I was on a slope not long ago and wound up on a parking lot and I run one everyday. Slick, steep, and fast can lead to a fast crash with a zero turn.

I was on a lawn tractor going down a hill. Had a hydro transaxle well it let go like it was in neutral I hit the brake and continued to pick up speed until I hit the woods and a few small trees. Was about a 75 foot ride.

I drove a scag with sulky into a car once. Lucky was my friends. My co worker on a toro z master was experienced and got cocky took a area to fast and not sure what happened but he ended up I'm top of a civic... Blades still engaged lol

The very first time? Hell yeah lol. The Gravely was the first I'd ever been on. Th guy I bought it from started it up and said try it out. I didn't realize it would be that fast or the steering would be so touchy. I ran into one of his cars :laughing:

Yes - just last weekend.

Got my new ZT wedged on the trailer I brought it home on, trying to back it off. Stopped very quickly when the front caster hit the side of the trailer. Nothing a friend and I couldn't adjust, but not a good first experience.

Still learning the hills. Nothing severe on my property, but a few slopes away from the house that I need to be careful of, one that ends in a wooded/brush area.

Never goofed...I've been lucky. It'll happen one day!

OK, here goes one of my life's most embarrassing moments:0).....my father-in-law who has had a 72" Kubota Diesel ZTR(a $12,000 mower) for about 5 years goes with me to pick up my Gravely and take it to the house. When we got there he drove it off the trailer for me and told me:
"Start out VERY slow, maybe 1/3 throttle, drive it around the yard until you get a feel for the controls and practice changing directions(it's tricky to keep from leaving divets in the grass). You must learn to move one lever slightly forward and the other slightly backward AT THE SAME TIME. This keeps the tire(if you had not pulled the other lever backwards for reverse) from being stationary, therefore when the mower turns it spins on the same spot creating the divet/twirl in the grass which looks kinda bad. It'll take some time to get the feel for it."

So after about 15 minutes, I was getting "comfortable" with the controls and thought...."this bad boy goes 10mph, I wanna see how that feels"......BAD IDEA!!! I ended up hitting a 4" pcv pipe that sticks up about 4" out of the ground where I change my septic tank field lines, with the deck breaking the pcv pipe off at the ground......freaked me out and at that point I "froze up", looked up and was headed right towards my wife's 6 foot tall/200lb wishing well(and couldn't pull back). I hit that thing square and knocked it about 6 feet in the air. Significant damage to the wishing well(made out of landscape lumber) but because of the commercial build of my Gravely absolutely no evidence of damage to the mower aside from a couple of mars on the paint on the front deck, wheel casters and frame. I checked the deck and it was still perfectly leveled. Fortunately, my dealer gave me some Gravely touch-up red paint:0)

Again, that speaks volumes about how well built these ZTR's are........but I guess you can imagine how embarrassing that was in front of my father-in-law and how I felt about wrecking my brand new ZTR that was 15 minutes old:0) I'm just now getting where I can laugh about it...but believe me my whole family has had several bouts of rolling on the floor laughing just trying to visualize my experience since then(that would have made America's Funniest Videos.....or maybe a really good Gravely TV ad:0)

Soooooo, when you buy that first zero turn Lawn mower my advice to you is "start out VERY slow, maybe 1/3 throttle and practice until you get a good feel for the controls":0)

P.S.
The wife is still a little peeved about me ruining her 6 foot tall wishing well(the shake shingle roof is loose and the front kinda "hangs down where it hit the ground, and it's kinda "sitting on top of" the bottom two layers of 4x4 landscape timbers that came loose:0)

Yep mowing my pond damn it has to be mowed up and down, so I tired to hold it back and ease down the dam the first time, well lets just say as the tires were locking and rolling, I darn near trenched the damn in two tracks and slid at least 20 feet from the bottom in the field and could not stop that mower to save my butt.
The weight of a good quality ZTM is right at 1 ton, once those puppies get to sliding there is no stopping them.

Now on a steep embankment I have learned you let the machine go down at it's own speed and direction, I get mine to the break over point with now pressure on the levers, it rolls itself easing down without any slipping and just moves right along, if I try to take it left, right, or slow down look at here goes the slide. I am lucky since I do not have to worry about obstructions on my pond dam, so just practice away from trees, stumps, fences, or anything else and once you get use to it you will know what you can and cannot do and how steep you can mow on with less risk to you and your machine.