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I'll be in the market for my first zero turn mower next year and thought this website would be a good resource for learning what I need to know to make the right choice. I have Kubota, Hustler, Scag, Ferris, Bad Boy, Grasshopper, Walker, Exmark, Husqvarna, and John Deere dealers within 10 miles of me and a Bob-Cat dealer about 20 miles out so a lot of choices available. I mow and bag about 1 acre and mow only another 0.5 acres. That will be expanding in the near future. Appreciate any help in raising my ZTR consciousness.

Squidley said:

I'll be in the market for my first zero turn mower next year ......

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Welcome.
Be sure to monitor the mower repair subforum.

Trust that helps some.

KK

Squidley said:

I'll be in the market for my first zero turn mower next year and thought this website would be a good resource for learning what I need to know to make the right choice. I have Kubota, Hustler, Scag, Ferris, Bad Boy, Grasshopper, Walker, Exmark, Husqvarna, and John Deere dealers within 10 miles of me and a Bob-Cat dealer about 20 miles out so a lot of choices available. I mow and bag about 1 acre and mow only another 0.5 acres. That will be expanding in the near future. Appreciate any help in raising my ZTR consciousness.

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Well you've named some excellent mowers the Hustler, Scag, Walker, Exmark, along with the Toro who makes Exmark are all good commercial machines used by the LCO's but is that what your really wanting to go to for just an acre or so of property. Hustler, Scag, Exmark and Toro make some excellent high end residential units and the Hustler Fastrak is the one that comes to mind and maybe you should take a look at.

Hi and welcome to the forum. :welcome:

I am moving your thread over the buying and pricing section to see if we can get you some advice.

Ric said:

Hustler, Scag, Exmark and Toro make some excellent high end residential units and the Hustler Fastrak is the one that comes to mind and maybe you should take a look at.

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Thanks for the welcome. I left out Gravely and Big Dog:smile: My wife is of the opinion that a sturdy pair of nail clippers is adequate for the job so I'm in with a Super Z HD and hoping to land on a Hustler SD (with bagger). The 8 year old JD 115 big box has about had it.

Squidley said:

Thanks for the welcome. I left out Gravely and Big Dog:smile: My wife is of the opinion that a sturdy pair of nail clippers is adequate for the job so I'm in with a Super Z HD and hoping to land on a Hustler SD (with bagger). The 8 year old JD 115 big box has about had it.

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I understand what you are going through. I was looking to upgrade to a ztr mower for my 1 acre lawn in 2012. I had used different ztr mowers over the years, so I already knew what I wanted as far as drive train. I went in hoping to get a 61" heavy duty commercial mower. My wife put the brakes on that, so I ended up with a 48" heavy duty commercial snapper pro s150xt. My wife and father both told me that I had way more mower than I had lawn:smile:. Little did we know that we would sell our home a couple of years later and move to a new home with over 4 acres to mow. Neither of them are messing with me about my mower decision now.:laughing:

Shughes717 said:

I understand what you are going through. I was looking to upgrade to a ztr mower for my 1 acre lawn in 2012. I had used different ztr mowers over the years, so I already knew what I wanted as far as drive train. I went in hoping to get a 61" heavy duty commercial mower. My wife put the brakes on that, so I ended up with a 48" heavy duty commercial snapper pro s150xt. My wife and father both told me that I had way more mower than I had lawn:smile:. Little did we know that we would sell our home a couple of years later and move to a new home with over 4 acres to mow. Neither of them are messing with me about my mower decision now.:laughing:

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Sounds like you got what you needed:thumbsup: Better too much mower than too little but it sounds like you're just about right now:smile:

I've installed a new deck, transaxle, and motor as well as numerous smaller repairs on the 115 since I got it 8 years ago. The mower was undersized for my needs from the start and I admit to flogging the thing to get work done around the house such as hauling dirt and rocks, mowing grass that bordered on bush hogging, etc. There is now a 4 wheeler to handle all the heavy chores so the mower will be a mower with occasional tall grass demands.

Squidley said:

Sounds like you got what you needed:thumbsup: Better too much mower than too little but it sounds like you're just about right now:smile:

I've installed a new deck, transaxle, and motor as well as numerous smaller repairs on the 115 since I got it 8 years ago. The mower was undersized for my needs from the start and I admit to flogging the thing to get work done around the house such as hauling dirt and rocks, mowing grass that bordered on bush hogging, etc. There is now a 4 wheeler to handle all the heavy chores so the mower will be a mower with occasional tall grass demands.

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I purchased a 42" scotts lawn tractor with a 17.5 kohler from Home Depot in 2002 because my wife wanted to mow the lawn and had never used a ztr mower. We had it for 10 years and it was still running pretty well when I sold it. She wasn't mowing as much as she used to, and I got tired of it taking nearly 3 hours to mow my lawn. I also had to mow large lawns with a lawn tractor as a kid, and hated mowing. That all changed the first time I sat on a ztr mower. When I got my ztr mower I could mow my old lawn in about 40 minutes. Enjoyed it so much that I even mowed my neighbor's 1/2 acre lot between our houses. It was open and flat, so I could open it up. Takes a little over two hours to mow my lawn now, but I look forward to it every week.

I can totally understand why you want a ztr mower. There are several very high quality brands out there. If your wife has you on a budget you may want to look at husqvarna or snapper pro as well. You can get more bang for your buck so to speak. Both offer commercial zt3400 hydros, a commercial fs series Kawasaki engine, and a heavy duty commercial frame/deck in the $5k to $5,500 range. Every brand you mentioned offers a high quality machine though. Let us know what you end up with. good luck.:thumbsup:

Well, after months of looking through Craig's list and the on-line equipment houses I found a smokin' deal on a 2015 Gravely Pro-Turn 52 with less than 40 hrs on it. I celebrated the purchase with an oil change, a little mowing, then a cold beer while admiring my handiwork. No comparison between the Gravely and the Big Box JD. Now to find a used bagger and a front mount dethatcher.

Good choice! Gravely make good mowers!

Any pictures?

I tried to upload 3 pics but it didn't take. Each pic is about 4.5 MB. Maybe too big a file?

Squidley said:

I tried to upload 3 pics but it didn't take. Each pic is about 4.5 MB. Maybe too big a file?

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Where are you posting your pictures from, your computer or url??

Downloaded from camera to computer.

Your screen can only display 72 DPI amd most screens are 14" to 25".
So start by saving a copy at 72 DPI somewhere around 6" to 10" wide.
Depending upon your softwear you might have a "save for the web" option.
This downgrades the image and changes colour to the "web safe" gammit and drops the file size down substantially.

Well the File Upload Manager didn't do any better. I'll have to re-lick that calf this weekend with the iPhone and see how that goes. Couldn't re-size what I have with what is loaded on the computer.

If you are running Micro sloth, download the pictures to your computer then email them to yourself.
Usually MicroSloth automatically resizes emailed images.
People forget that there is a finite limit to the size of an image that individual machines can handle.
Professional photographers are the worst.
They used to send images to the trade houses in RAW format 64 bit files that were anything up to 5Gb per image in order to "keep the depth resolution & colour".
The trade houses all work in 8 bit colour so they downgrade the image do whatever processing was required then interpolate the tiny file back into a gargantuan 64 bit file ,convet it back into RAW format then send it back to the photographers who never ever noticed the quality difference.
It might make one feel great to think you have an image with 2,000,000 shades of grey in it, but the newspapers can only print 8 of them and a glossy magazine 32 and a fine art print 64.
Most men can see about 24 of them and women around 200.

Downsized the pics in Paint and got a popup from the site saying the pics can be no larger than 1200x1200. Aha! Downsized a little more to meet the max size criteria and they still wouldn't load. Converted them to PDFs and they would upload but when you clicked on the pic it would download to my computer. Don't figure anyone wants to download my mower pics. Here's one pic. Still working on it though...

Thanks for the pictures! Mowers looks real nice!