Looking for advice

[Lancer]

Hi guys, I'm new here and looking to pick your brains about mowers.

My 55 yr. old sister is looking to buy her first riding mower and asked me to help. She has a small yard, less than 1/4 acre but due to health problems can no longer use a walk behind mower. She has tried out my JD 135 lawn tractor and found it to be much too big for her yard. She needs a small riding mower. I had a small Snapper rear engine and am hesitant to recomend that model to her. There were several features I hated about the Snapper, didn't have a floating deck, mower engagement lever was very difficult for my wife to engage and battery removal was a pain in the a**.

Any brand & model reccomendations you all could give me would be greatly appreciated.

 

[LandN]

not sure but i think snapper has 2 models and craftsman has a couple rer's . the rer's are probably the smallest ride on.:thumbsup:ariens also makes an electric small ride on called amp that might be a little pricey though

 

[RobertBrown]

Sounds like she is buying and you are maintaining.....
With a yard that size it's not going to be a big investment. Just get something serviceable, around 12-15 hp with a gel cell battery upgrade. Should be less than 2600$.
What ever you can get parts for reletivley easily. MTD will work. Change the oil and filters once a season and she will be happy and you will too.

 

[twall]

I agree with your gripes about Snapper. I also think those things (except for the floating deck part - I don't really care, and don't thing a little yard would either) are a real pain. But, for me, the positives far outway the inconveniences.

However, a RER would sure seem the way to go. The Weedeater One is a bit untried, and looks cheap to beat the band. However, it has a gel battery that's easy to get to, a disk drive, and great ergonomics (not to mention it's only $700). Or, you can look for a used Murray RER - those things take a lickin'! Or a JD RX75, or another RER by JD (there are several, although there are no brand-new RERs built by JD).

Snapper/Simplicity does have a great hydro RER with an electric PTO, but it's a tad pricey. Okay - a LOT pricey at $2600. :laughing:

With only a quarter-acre, I believe anything in good shape will last her forever.

 

[Roybretton]

Have you thought about a robotic mower? if your lawn is fairly straight forward, without narrow paths etc, a Robomow could help you. I have had experience of these mowers and they do work, fully automatically, there larger machine will cut over three quarters of an acre.

 

[Lancer]

Thank you all for your input. I have looked over all the suggestions.

First off, I know she will never consider anything used.

I was particularly intrigued with the robotic mowers. Seemed like this might be the ideal situation for one but after reading some reviews, they may be too prone to beak downs and seem to need a bit of ongoing repairs & tweaking to keep functional. My sister is not a patient person with mechanical things, she expects them to go when she needs them and there are no dealers near by for service if needed. So that is out.

I'm not sure how she feels about electric so I need to talk to her about the Ariens Amp. Nearest dealer is 30 miles away which is probably a deal breaker for her.

The Weedeater One has very poor reviews, lots of breakdowns and parts availability issues.

Right now I'm lean towards reccomending the Snapper RE200/Simplicity Corenet . This RER seems to be a huge improvement over the Snapper RE model I had but about a $1000 more money.

Well, that's kinda where I stand right now, just thought I'd let you all know how much I appreciate the advice . Still open to anything anybody else has to say.

 

[twall]

Thank you all for your input. I have looked over all the suggestions.

Glad to help!

Right now I'm lean towards reccomending the Snapper RE200/Simplicity Corenet . This RER seems to be a huge improvement over the Snapper RE model I had but about a $1000 more money.

.

It looks to be a very nice mower, if you can pony up the cheddar. However, it's a fairly new model, don't know about long-term problems.