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Hi All,

I'm a new member. This looks like a great site!

I've ever owned a lawn tractor before, only push mowers. Just purchased a new house with 1.2 acre lot so I'm looking at upgrading. Relatively flat yard, although one section has a medium grade. A number of huge old oak trees, but no other significant obstacles. I'll be using the tractor for mowing (obviously), but clearing leaves from the yard and long driveway is also important (the oak trees drop a huge amount of leaves). I always just mulch the grass. At my current house I just mulch the leaves, but there aren't that many trees. At the new house I don't have to bag leaves and could potentially just do a leaf pile if I don't mulch them.

I went to two different local dealers this week looking for advice. Both salesmen were knowledgeable and helpful, but they gave me two different recommendations.

One recommended the S240. He said it is more than capable given my yard size. For the leaves he recommended just using the mulching feature and not collecting them. I'm not totally sure, though, how I'd manage all the leaves on the long driveway.

The other recommended the X350. He said it was more powerful and therefore would be able to handle a chute and hopper system for the leaves. He said mulching the volume of leaves from the oak trees probably isn't practical and I'd need the chute/hopper.

A few questions:

1). In general, thoughts on S240 vs X350? Obviously the cost is higher on the X350. I'm not totally sure what I'm getting for the extra money.

2). Thoughts on leaf management? Is mulching going to work for a large volume of leaves, or am I going to need to collect them?

3). If I collect the leaves, thoughts on the Power Flow system vs cut and throw?

4). 42" vs 48"

I asked all of these questions to the salesmen, but I just received different recommendations and advice. Probably just based on different experiences.

Thanks in advance for any help! Sorry for all the questions.

Both of these mowers use the K46 transaxle. I personally would not buy a mower with a k46 trans. You can google k46 problems if you want more info. If you want to keep the mower for long term i would spend a few more dollars and get a mower with a more robust trans.

The trannies are good for around 500 hours on average ( I have customer who have done 1000 )
1.2 acres should be no more then 2 to 3 hours a week , 30 weeks a year works out at about 6 years speaking very generally

The X is a lot better mower.

As for the leaves , make some compost bins.
Oak leaves make really good compost all by them selves.
In many cases it is a lot easier to blow them into a corner then fork them into the bins.

What are you going to do with the leaves if you collect them? I bagged the leaves from my daughter's normal, city-sized lot surrounded by mature trees. Every time I did, had a Ranger pickup load of leaves to dispose of. Luckily I had a friend with a big ditch on his property and he let me dump them there. Otherwise, I'd have had a mountain of leaves piled up.

Our first house was on 3/4 acre with 30-some trees of all types. Some were Pin Oaks, which lose their leaves in the Spring. Most of the other deciduous trees lost theirs in the fall. I just mowed the leaves on this property as the mower had neither a mulching feature or a bagger. That worked fine.

I just blow most of the leaves to the woods with a backpack blower and mulch up and/or bag the rest on most of the properties I maintain. Most of them have a wooded buffer between the lots that I disperse them into. Every situation is different though.

Thanks for all the insight.

Which JD mowers don't use the K46 transaxle?

Planning on composting the leaves. I think it's going to be hard to blow that volume of leaves from say the front of the yard to a compost bin in the very back of the yard with my backpack blower.

If I use the chute/hopper will the leaves get shredded up pretty well to cut down on the volume and make the composting process quicker? Can you use the mulching blades with the chute/hopper for leaf collection?

Thanks!

lawnforanderson said:

Thanks for all the insight.

Which JD mowers don't use the K46 transaxle?

Planning on composting the leaves. I think it's going to be hard to blow that volume of leaves from say the front of the yard to a compost bin in the very back of the yard with my backpack blower.

If I use the chute/hopper will the leaves get shredded up pretty well to cut down on the volume and make the composting process quicker? Can you use the mulching blades with the chute/hopper for leaf collection?

Thanks!

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You can buy a bigger blower, but whether you can comfortably operate it depends on your size, overall health and fitness level. The Echo PB-8010 and the Stihl BR800 are monsters that make quick work of leaves. If you have long distances to move them you can load them onto a tarp and drag them with your mower. Or you could get a walk-behind blower. Personally I find walk-behind blowers of limited usefulness on lawns and don't even use mine anymore. Here's me operating my Echo PB-8010.
Yes, mulching the leaves will make them compost much faster. Bulk leaves don't compost very fast.

You can run the leaves over a bit to mulch them up before bagging, but if you mulch them too much you'll have trouble picking them up with a non-powered bagger, especially if they're wet. If you're bagging with a non-powered bagger you need to use hi-lift blades to have enough air velocity to send them through the chute into the bagger. Depending on conditions, trying to bag with a non-powered bagger can be infuriating in general due to clogs.

Generally speaking if you're going the mulching route you'd use a mulching kit and mulching blades, but then you can't bag without taking the kit off and changing the blades. But you can mulch with high-lift blades and an open discharge and then connect the tube for the hopper and pick them up. There's also the high lift mulching blade route, where you have the ability to mulch them with an open discharge to reduce their volume or just mulch them without bagging until they get thick and then bag them when there's just too many to mulch. I run the Gator G5 high lift mulching blades, but they're not available for all machines and they don't have quite as much lift as a dedicated high lift blade, but I have a powered bagger so the lift doesn't matter as much.

The other option would be a tow-behind leaf vac system such as a Cyclone Rake, but they can be clumsy and difficult to maneuver.

The key is to tend to your leaves frequently and do the getting while the getting is good rather than let them get thick, wet and matted. The big-ass backpack blower route may be your best option rather than having to spend a ton of money on mower that can do the job. Why use a $6,000 machine to do a job that you can do with a $600 one, ya know...

It is just a matter of getting used to using your tools properly.
The bark mulch companies use BR 45's to blow 50 cubic yards of bark around peoples garden beds.
Keep you leaf pile damp and they will compost well.
Naturally the dropped leaves protect the roots from being frozen then rot away during the spring.
If not you would have a 500' thick layer of oak leaves covering 1/2 the USA.
Leaves are very light and a problem to mulch as previously mentioned .
the fine dust goes everywhere and requires annual engine cleaning

bertsmobile1 said:

It is just a matter of getting used to using your tools properly.
The bark mulch companies use BR 45's to blow 50 cubic yards of bark around peoples garden beds.
Keep you leaf pile damp and they will compost well.
Naturally the dropped leaves protect the roots from being frozen then rot away during the spring.
If not you would have a 500' thick layer of oak leaves covering 1/2 the USA.
Leaves are very light and a problem to mulch as previously mentioned .
the fine dust goes everywhere and requires annual engine cleaning

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Have you seen the newest generation of 80cc backpack blowers? The Echo-8010 and Stihl BR800 are game changers. My Echo is loud as hell, thirsty as hell, heavy and yet I love it. Having total control of a 200+ mph 1,000+ cfm air stream is awesome!!!!

Good stuff. Thanks. Yes, maybe it makes sense to use the mower to mow and a blower to blow. I'm going to check out those blowers.

lawnforanderson said:

Good stuff. Thanks. Yes, maybe it makes sense to use the mower to mow and a blower to blow. I'm going to check out those blowers.

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There are smaller ones that will do the job too. The Husqvarna 570 and 580 are a step down yet still very capable. I wore my Husqvarna 580 out after 7 years of professional use, but I miss the waist strap. The Echo 580 is a nice smaller blower that's still pretty capable. The Husqvarna 150 and 350 aren't bad either but will struggle for large jobs. But for no nonsense insane power the Echo 580 and Stihl BR800 are the ones. They're not for everyone though. My Echo pushes 30 pounds fueled and can wear you out. Just the force of it can make you lose your balance

I've had smaller Echo blowers in the past. They are great. I'll have to see if my back can tolerate the bigger ones.

Anybody have any experience with the Cyclone Rake? Looks like that could be a good option for the leaves.

lawnforanderson said:

Anybody have any experience with the Cyclone Rake? Looks like that could be a good option for the leaves.

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I've never operated one but I've seen them in operation plenty of times. One thing to keep in mind is that the Cyclone Rake units have a rigid mount to the mower and caster wheels, so the tail swing on them is significant - they can be cumbersome where there are a lot of obstacles and you may also find yourself spinning your tractor wheel(s) at times. I believe some others have an articulated trailer-style hitch system. It's also putting a strain on your transmission, so you'd want a tractor with a robust transmission.

DR has a similar leaf vac as does Trac-Vac I believe. You can often pick these units up used with low hours on them because people find they're just too cumbersome. But for bulk leaf pickup of large amounts of leaves, with the detail work left for other methods, they can be quite useful. It's certainly a viable option.

I have a DR leaf vac and as long as you are careful with your turns you”ll be fine. Ive had mine for 12 plus years and I use a John Deere X324 and it has 4 wheel steer. I har to get a John Drrer power flow assembly because the shoot that came with the DR kept clogging. That cost me an additional $450.00 then had to fabricate a connection between the power flow and the DR. All said and done it Does a great gob. It really makes the lawn look nice and the leaves are chopped up real fine. You can then dump them where ever you want.

Some of the commercial guys use "X" blading to mulch. You put 2 blades on each spindle , a mulcher and a high lift at 90 degrees to each other. It chops up the leaves real fine and they disappear into the grass

Heck I might try that, but those blades are spinning so fast it does a great job, I just have a high lift of the right side just before the blower, thanks for the tip.

Its Me said:

Heck I might try that, but those blades are spinning so fast it does a great job, I just have a high lift of the right side just before the blower, thanks for the tip.

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Chances are that if you try the "x-blade" setup while the blower/bagger is connected you will be disappointed. The blower vac for you bagger is designed to be used with a specific blade under the deck.

X-blades while discharging can shred leaves up good, but a true mulch kit can also do the same. Your best results would be to side discharge using "leaf shredding blades" like G5/G6 Gators and then to follow up with your bagger on. You might be able to keep the Gators on with the bagger but typically the blower vacs require a normal high lift blade.