You can get low hours 36 inch walk behinds and z riders with low hours used. There's a reason for that. They seem like a great idea but end up not getting used. I see them as a specialty machine not a general purpose mower. Personally I think a 36 inch Z is kind of silly. I'd rather have a 48 inch hydo walk behind with a stand-on sulky or a stander if I could only have one larger mower.
If you were mowing 20 backyards a day you might just change that opinion.
When ride ons were expensive the 8-30 / 10-32 was the backbone of the industry.
I still have a couple of 10-32's and would not be without them.
The difference in cutting time between 36" and the most popular sized deck, 42" is only 6 inches so that is one extra pass in 7.
A 36 will usually give a better cut with less scalping than a 42
And most 36's cut faster than 42's do.
It all depends upon the yard .
If you have 15 football fields of boring flat yard that you have to stripe to make them visually appealing then the 36 will be way too small
OTOH if you have lots of trees, sheds, pool, etc then the smaller mower will rip through it a lot quicker than a big deck where every second pass is only cutting 1/3 of the width.
You save more time by cutting more grass with the ride on and less with the push mower than you will by cutting down on 6 passes out of 30.
There was a sale last week.
The 61" ZTR mower had 140 hours on it for 8 years of mowing
The 48" tractor has 1100 hours on it in 10 years
The 36" tractor had 3500 hours on it in 5 years
Why?
It fits between the fence and the trees and he has around 4 miles of fence
I tend to downtrade more than I uptrade when it comes to deck size.
I could sell 36" decks all day long if I had enough.
The worst example was a customer on 20 acres with a 72" Deere ( tractor )
The big deck tilts badly on every turn so scalps the grass something fierce.
It gets caught on hills and dips ( more paddock than lawn )
If he doesn't mow every 3 to 4 days in peak growing season the volume of grass coming out the chute overwhelms the 72" deck & it clogs
So he has to mow at a slower than walking pace as he only has weekends to mow.
Thus in season he has to mow every weekend without fail or call in the contractor.
The big deck can not be used on the gravel drive which is about 1000 yards because of the trees & the gravel that gets picked up & tossed into the grass.
I sold him a Greenfields Fastcut 36 to do around the shed & drive.
He uses it almost everywhere because it will handle grass 4' tall in a single pass at a reasonable speed and cuts the drive flat chat.
He was not sure about the smaller deck but before I did the first service on the Greenfields, he had already sold the Husky
Prior to that it was trim with the weedeater followed by the 21" Honda SP then the 42" husky followed by the 72" Deer .
The Fastcut goes everywhere the Honda used to and cuts 1/2" away from fences & walls so that cut down the weed eater work by 3/4.
Whatever you buy, the important thing is mastering the mower so you can cut without even thinking about it and being able to cut at full speed makes a really big difference.
Having to crawl around corners to avoid scalping will not make you money no matter how big your deck is and customers will not tollerate any scalping.
So it is all about the right mower for the yard and apart from having a 36" gate and the yard being small that is all we know.
IF he wants to pick up some mowing jobs, mastering a small ride on so he can cut full speed on it will be a big advantage as he will be able to cut the yards that every one else has to quote hand mowing on.
Got a few customers all using 36" mowers.
Most use the Greenfields because they use swing back blades & gives an excellent cut compared to the bar blades because that are thinner and the carrier disc gives better air flow control under the deck.
The rest are using the small JD Z 225 Toro Time Master & one has just sold his Scag with 200 hours on it and gone back to his Greenfields .
Difficult yards are where you will make a killing.
Any monkey can run a mower the size of a combine harvester over a few acres so the rates tend to be very cut throat but no one wants to do the 10 man hour yards cause they can not turn a profit on it.
Knocking over a 10 hour yard in 4 to 6 hours is profitable.
Getting a small mower off your trailer is a doddle.
Getting a big one off can be a nightmare. And then there is securing it,
Time spent unloading & reloading is time not paid for so it costs you money.
I have seen a singe man crew, unload his mower & be finished the edge trimming before the 3 man crew opposite had their gear out of the truck.
I tried to sign him up but he does all his own servicing , He was doing 12 mows a day all by himself.
His SP only comes off the trailer on a few jobs that the 36 is too big for.
