Help me pick a ZTR! 1 acre, very thick lawn, looking for best QOC possible!

[cruzenmike]

awesome post, thank you. I setup an appointment to get a demo. However, I would want the rear discharge and the whole kit im lookin at like 14 grand.

Ferris 400s is my current favorite.

You think the ferris will need replacing 3 times over the next 25 years?

The problem I have - these used mowers were beat to **** for 1000 hours. That's 20 years of use at my rate. Logic tells me its a bad idea....

Buying used commercial has never given me the warm fuzzy feeling. To put it into perspective regarding high end residential/low end commercial, I had an Exmark that cost around $6,000 new in 2006. I estimate that over it's entire life about $2000 was put into it for parts and routine servicing. At the point at which I sold it this spring I am quite confident that it would give at least a couple more years without needing anything simply based on what I had replaced. So at that point $8,000 for approximately 15 years of use. That is still over $500 a year for the cost of ownership not including the cost of gas to run it.

As with most equipment you just don't know what will happen long term but one thing is for certain that steel doesn't break as easily as plastic, routine service helps your odds of long life and buying something that is made for what you intend to use it for will ensure that your expectations are met.

As for your question about the Radius E, it does have a deeper deck than the MX4250 which will help move more grass out from underneath the deck resulting is a better cut. As for the difference in transmissions between the two, as a homeowner you may not notice a difference in the ground speed but as stated the serviceable transmissions will last longer if properly serviced.

Now on to the Ferris. The 400s is a good machine for the price. If you are contemplating the two engine options consider that the Kawasaki is more money while offering less power but it a bit quieter. I like that the 400s is quite compact and has a nice heavy duty build and deep deck. The discharge chute is wide and open allowing for grass to exit the deck. I do not know about bagger options or mulch performance but for side discharge it will work well. Also the speed is up to 8.5mph I believe which will certainly cut your mowing time in half.

 

[bertsmobile1]

awesome post, thank you. I setup an appointment to get a demo. However, I would want the rear discharge and the whole kit im lookin at like 14 grand.

Ferris 400s is my current favorite.

You think the ferris will need replacing 3 times over the next 25 years?

The problem I have - these used mowers were beat to **** for 1000 hours. That's 20 years of use at my rate. Logic tells me its a bad idea....

Walkers are a commercial mower designed to run forever.
1000 hours is nothing on a commercial machine.
They are built to run 5 to 10 hours a day 5 days a week for decades
That is around 1000 hours a year some where that it does not snow and about 500 hours a year some where that it does snow.

Residential mowers are designed to run for 2 to 3 hours a week 50 weeks a year so we are talking around 100 to 200 hours a year.
1000 hours on one of them is a lot of work.

We arer in drought right now so my commercial customers are not doing much ,mowing.
The Walker that was new last year has 800 hours on it and the 5 year old one has 12,000 hours on it.
I have Great Danes with 15,000 to 20,000 hours on them and some Toro Time Masters that are doing 2000 + hours a year.
New we mow all year right here but those sort of hours are whar commercial mowers are designed to do.

That is why they are all made on fully welded frames from 8 gauge steel and the better ones fit horizontal shaft engines.
What happens with commercials is eventually holes wear oval and sliding plates hollow out , or decks rust through so the commercial operators sell them off.
IF MAINTAINED properly most will do at least 10 years of domestic use and any one of the mowers in the previous post should be the last mower you ever buy.
What kills them is idiots who think because they are a commercial mower a domestic user should not have to follow the same maintanance routine so they don't do any apart from changing the oil & air filter.
These mowers very quickly become very unreliable just the same as any domestic that is not maintained properly would.

 

[footballfan33]

A Walker.
Even a used Walker.
Best cut and best bagging system on the market.
Anything else is a very looooog way behind.
If your yard is rough get the 4 wheeled one, if your yard is reasonably flat get a 3 wheeled one which will turn 360 in it's own length.
having the deck out in front of you makes close cutting a breeze and the deck will cut up to 3/4" against a wall so a lot less trimming.

What if I want a mulching deck? How well do those work on a Walker?

 

[jank]

 

[bertsmobile1]

Not going to fit through his 48" gate.

 

[ironhead3fan]

Depending on how smooth your yard is, keep in mind that Ferris has the 4 wheel suspension. I bought one last year and so far, the only issue was the hour meter, which was promptly replaced under warranty. Sure beats "that green machine" as far as the ride goes.

 

[bertsmobile1]

What if I want a mulching deck? How well do those work on a Walker?

I would imagine that you have already bought your mower but if you have not.
Any deck that is rear discharge will mulch 100% better than a side discharge deck.
This is simply a quirk of the way the air & thus clippings move under the deck
On a side discharge all of the clippings will end up clumping near the discharge chute because all of the blades send all of their clippings to the chute.
This can overwhelm the right hand blade which does not have enough air flow to hold the combined clippings up long enough for them to be evenly distributed across the entire cut length.
On a rear discharge deck usually it will be a 2 blade deck and each blade individually sends clippings to the discharge chute so both blades share the work and no blade ends up trying to work the combined clippings from both of them so they rarely clump.

Better quality mowers offer an individual mulch or discharge deck specifically designed to do one job.
Cheaper mowers will have removable baffle plates ( not just a block off plug ) to change the air flow under the deck so the deck will do both jobs reasonably well.
Bottom end mowers have a "universal" deck and as the name says it is universal, mediocre mulching. mediocre bagging & mediocre tossing .
When it come to decks you get what you pay for and nothing else
Search "clumping" on this forum and you will see it is a very common problem with cheaper universal decks as to get them to work properly, YOU have to mow at the exact right speed, cut the grass at exactly the right time and exactly the right length or they just will not bag/mulch properly