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Hi folks,

First post here. I'm in the market for a new riding mower that will also be used for fall leaf cleanup. For the last 5 years I've used my craftsman most of the year and then rented my neighbor's kubota with large bagging attachments (tg series) to suck up the leaves. But I hate the inconvenience.

I've been looking at the Snapper NXT2346, which looks like an awesome riding mower.

For the fall cleanup I was planning on using the 3-bagger for it and the "turbo" attachment.

But will that be sufficient? Anyone out there have thoughts on this? One dealer is saying it should be fine (but they haven't used it directly) and another is saying the nxt with turbo and bagger is really only about a 7 out of 10 for leaf cleanup. I only have 1 acre, but it does get lots of leaves in the fall here in new england. It SEEMS like this setup should be comparable to my neighbor's kubota for leaf cleanup, but I'm looking for more comments.

One person suggested I get a tow-behind unit (Swisher) but that's a huge piece of equipment just for the month or so I need it.

Help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Steve

We sell Simplicity & Hustler products. The Broadmoor is in the price range
you mentioned. It also does a great job of cleaning leaves with their bagger
system (no turbo required).
You also get the benefit of lawn stripping each time you mow.
Visit our web site olf1.com to see examples of lawn stripping.

olf20 / Bob

olf20 said:

We sell Simplicity & Hustler products. The Broadmoor is in the price range
you mentioned. It also does a great job of cleaning leaves with their bagger
system (no turbo required).
You also get the benefit of lawn stripping each time you mow.
Visit our web site olf1.com to see examples of lawn stripping.

olf20 / Bob

Click to expand...

Hi Bob,

Thanks for the reply. Are you saying that the NXT with turbo is not as good as the broodmoor without? I'm confused. I would never use the NXT without the turbo so that's what I'm trying to figure out - is the NXT with turbo reasonable with leaf cleanup, or is it deficient in some way.

Thanks for any help. (and I'll look at the info you sent as well)

Steve

No I was not saying that the NXT was not a good mower.
I have not heard or dealt with anything bad on the NXT.
Just giving you some options. Simplicity's deck design allows
them to bag without the need of a turbo on decks up to 50"
Less things to purchase less $$, less maintenance, less hassle.
Hope this helps!!
ofl20 / Bob

olf20 said:

No I was not saying that the NXT was not a good mower.
I have not heard or dealt with anything bad on the NXT.
Just giving you some options. Simplicity's deck design allows
them to bag without the need of a turbo on decks up to 50"
Less things to purchase less $$, less maintenance, less hassle.
Hope this helps!!
ofl20 / Bob

Click to expand...

Thanks Bob.

My snapper dealer called one person who purchased the nxt with turbo and bagger last year to find out how it was. Apparently that person doesn't have lots of leaves in his lawn, but he keeps it like a golf course according to her (the dealer). He didn't have any trouble last fall, and he was surprised that it sucked up tons (not all but most) of the chestnuts he had lying around. I think that's a good sign that it should be fine for leaves.

I'll keep looking for comments of course!

Steve

With the Snapper NXT, your paying for a ton of bells and whisles (all the electronic gadgets). Thats not a bad thing if you have the money, However when something breaks (which EVENTUALLY something will) it will cost more to fix. If your JUST looking to use it for leaf pickup, get some cheap used single blade mower with a bagger. Single blade mowers are cheaper and pickup better.
I also always see those commercials for those giant tow behind leaf vacs, maybe you could look into those.

yoyo, that Snapper is real nice and my hat is off to whoever thought of that mesh seat but I had the same thoughts as you regarding all the stuff they have, there is not much of a track record yet, but people do seem to be satisfied.

Steve, I don't work for Cub-I would go and take a good look at the 2000 Cub Cadet, first because you would be getting a real hd drive (fan, spin on filter, 6 quarts or so of fluid) not a completely sealed unit like in the Snapper AND you would NOT be getting the Briggs ELS (mine is in a zt and has been problematic since the first 1/2 hour of operation) the ELS is an Intek, no more no less BUT there are thousands of people who have had no issues. With the Cub you would have a Kohler Command, horizontal rather than vertical, shaft drive (for what it is worth).

There are an awful lot of detailed pictures at a site I found,
betsy-tom (betsy-tom)'s Photos | SmugMug

trick is to go down past all the text and click the Cub Cadet gallery.

Just out of curiosity what does your neighbor charge for use of the machine, don't get me wrong its the best way to do it, that way should something dumb happen, not your fault, there should be no feeling that you have to cough up for the repairs, or at least I would not feel as though fixing it was my responsibility-its a business deal.

I am impressed with what I see in the Cub, and more so when you realize that the price is in the mid 3k or so but I believe that this is without a bagger-I wish I had one rather than my Exmark, which I still don't even have.

Thanks for everyone's comments. I pulled the trigger on the Snapper NXT2346 on friday, with bagger and turbo (and delivery, setup, taxes, etc...) came to about $3600. The more I checked it and other brands and models out, the more I liked this one. Just a good fit for me I think. The original questions about whether it can work for leaf cleanup seems like it should be a non-issue.

And I really like the local snapper dealer - that means a lot to me since I'll have this for a long time.

As to the question of what my neighbor charged for using his kubota, it was more me giving him $40-$60 each time I used it to help him cover diesel, maintenance, repairs etc... He was happy with that, but it always felt like I was inconveniencing him to use it. It'll be great to have my own solution.

I'm so excited! Can't wait.

One thing that's really amazing about many of these new lawn tractors is the turning radius. Incredible (14" on the nxt).

I'll give a bit of review after using it for a while.

Thanks again everyone...

Steve

Steve
Congrats, I'm sure you will enjoy your new mower.
Feeling comfortable with your dealer is more than half
of the benefits. If there every is a problem a great dealer
will take care of you.
Again congrats.
olf20 / Bob
Simplicity / Hustler Sales N Service.

Congrats on your new toy Steve. Let us know how it works out for you. My John Deere is great at picking up leaves, as long as they're dry, but the bagger is a bit small and does require frequent emptying. Leaves are always a big issue for me as well. We are at the bottom of a slight hill and in the middle of a cul-de-sac, so our yard catches every leaf that falls on our entire street, and we have a ton of oak trees around here. I'm thinking of putting a silt fence up around our yard this Fall just to see if it'll stop a significant amount of the leaves from blowing into our yard. You said you hated to get a bulky tow behind unit just for the month or so that you'd need it. Down here leaves fall all winter long and some don't drop off until Spring when the new leaves finally push them off. I envy you only having to deal with it for a month or so. I could literally pick up leaves with my rider 2 or 3 times a week during the Fall, Winter and into the early Spring. I pick up the leaves and sure enough, within an hour the wind will begin blowing hard and blow straight down our street picking up leaves as it goes and then dumps so many in our yard that you can't tell I just picked them up.

Oddball said:

Congrats on your new toy Steve. Let us know how it works out for you. My John Deere is great at picking up leaves, as long as they're dry, but the bagger is a bit small and does require frequent emptying. Leaves are always a big issue for me as well. We are at the bottom of a slight hill and in the middle of a cul-de-sac, so our yard catches every leaf that falls on our entire street, and we have a ton of oak trees around here. I'm thinking of putting a silt fence up around our yard this Fall just to see if it'll stop a significant amount of the leaves from blowing into our yard. You said you hated to get a bulky tow behind unit just for the month or so that you'd need it. Down here leaves fall all winter long and some don't drop off until Spring when the new leaves finally push them off. I envy you only having to deal with it for a month or so. I could literally pick up leaves with my rider 2 or 3 times a week during the Fall, Winter and into the early Spring. I pick up the leaves and sure enough, within an hour the wind will begin blowing hard and blow straight down our street picking up leaves as it goes and then dumps so many in our yard that you can't tell I just picked them up.

Click to expand...

Yikes. That does make me feel lucky.

I'm so excited - it was being prepped yesterday and will be delivered later today. I've been letting the grass grow extra the last few days just so I can have fun trying it out later today with the bagger! I feel like Tim Taylor with a new tool. oohhh ohhh ohhhh

Steve

SteveG said:

Yikes. That does make me feel lucky.

I'm so excited - it was being prepped yesterday and will be delivered later today. I've been letting the grass grow extra the last few days just so I can have fun trying it out later today with the bagger! I feel like Tim Taylor with a new tool. oohhh ohhh ohhhh

Steve

Click to expand...

:laughing: The lengths we'll go to to ensure we'll have an opportunity to try out our new tools as soon as we can. I just got a new edger and a trimmer. I edged the curb in front of our house and our neighbor's the other day as soon as I got it home just to see how well it would do. Our curb wasn't in dire need of it, but the neighbor's hadn't been done for over a year and I wanted to test the edger out. It worked great. I haven't gotten to try the trimmer yet.:frown:

Snap a couple of pics of it to post on here before you go and get it dirty.:smile:

Oddball said:

:laughing: The lengths we'll go to to ensure we'll have an opportunity to try out our new tools as soon as we can. I just got a new edger and a trimmer. I edged the curb in front of our house and our neighbor's the other day as soon as I got it home just to see how well it would do. Our curb wasn't in dire need of it, but the neighbor's hadn't been done for over a year and I wanted to test the edger out. It worked great. I haven't gotten to try the trimmer yet.:frown:

Snap a couple of pics of it to post on here before you go and get it dirty.:smile:

Click to expand...

I'll see if I can remember to take some pics. The excitement may overwhelm my senses however and prevent me from remembering.

Just finished first mowing. Nice.

Here's my quick review post...

http://www.lawnmowerforum.com/gener...-had-snapper-nxt2346-delivered.html#post30981

steve

Just so folks know, I've been using the NXT for leaf cleanup and it works great with the blower. The only thing folks should know is that with the high-speed 3-blade system, if you're trying to suck up leaves on pavement, it doesn't work well because the blades have blow-out from the front edge. What I've figured out however is to push them into the lawn and then I can suck them up just fine!

I actually look forward to leaf cleanup now!

Steve