dudgeonator
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- May 11, 2021
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Hello. Two and a half years ago we moved into the first home we'd ever owned which had more than a postage stamp yard. On top of that, the entire back yard is one long hill, and steep in places. The yard had been untended for what looked like an entire season, and, since we moved in at the end of 2018, I had to wait until the following spring to mow it. I had no mower(having lived in an apt for the previous 6 years), and very little mower experience, so I hired a friend who had a lawn business to come mow it with his stand-behind 36" commercial mower, in order to get it to a manageable condition.
I first bought an old walk-behind commercial mower (Fee?) with a 24" deck, and self-assist, which I used for one season. The self-assist was weak, using little friction gears to turn against the bicycle tires. Once they got damp, from the fresh cut grass, they would just spin mostly as I went uphill. That thing weighed 200 lbs, so it was a bit much to push uphill. The following season I bought a Lowe's Kobalt 80v Lithium battery-powered push mower, with a better self-assist. It weighed only 80 lbs, and was much lighter to handle, but had a 20" deck and such small wheels. My terrain is quite rough in places, so it ended up having its own handling issues.
The time it takes to mow my entire yard (front & back) has been approx 2.5 to 3 hours. The hill, plus uneven terrain, has been the greatest challenge. As it gets hotter, I would have to break it up into multiple sessions, and generally more than one day. By the end of last summer, I was really despising the task of mowing my lawn, compared to the excitement I had that first spring. This year, I decided to upgrade to something more capable of handling that hill, which would cut my time down significantly, and not leave me drenched in sweat, my eyes stinging, and having to collapse into a chair in front of a fan for 20 minutes. I made many observations and analyses of my back yard, in order to determine if even a lawn tractor would suffice, or if I was doomed to stay on foot. What helped, in the end, was my father-in-law loaning me his Kubota BX1500, a sub-compact tractor, which I used for clearing bramble from the edges of our woods. Seeing that I could safely make it up and down the yard gave me confidence that a lawn tractor would make the grade. ? After a good deal of research, and visiting some dealers, I settled on the Cub Cadet XT3 GSX, mostly because of its locking rear differential. If I could have gotten by with just a riding mower I would've, but that hill is a monster. Thing is, I was reluctant to go with anything I would sit down on, because of the steepness and odd angles, and felt much safer to be on my feet, but I'm about to hit 50, and am feeling my body's limitations.
The closest local Cub Cadet dealer, 18 miles away (all others are too far) just got one in last Thursday, but they didn't have it assembled and out on the showroom floor until yesterday. I drove down after work to haul it home, and after sunset I tested it out on the circuit I had devised, since they said I could return it if it wasn't going to work out. I got some butterflies the first few times I cut down that slope, but it did the job. I might still get the add-on weights for the rear, or put beet juice in the tires, as the dealer suggested, just to ensure low cog. Well, here it is!
I first bought an old walk-behind commercial mower (Fee?) with a 24" deck, and self-assist, which I used for one season. The self-assist was weak, using little friction gears to turn against the bicycle tires. Once they got damp, from the fresh cut grass, they would just spin mostly as I went uphill. That thing weighed 200 lbs, so it was a bit much to push uphill. The following season I bought a Lowe's Kobalt 80v Lithium battery-powered push mower, with a better self-assist. It weighed only 80 lbs, and was much lighter to handle, but had a 20" deck and such small wheels. My terrain is quite rough in places, so it ended up having its own handling issues.
The time it takes to mow my entire yard (front & back) has been approx 2.5 to 3 hours. The hill, plus uneven terrain, has been the greatest challenge. As it gets hotter, I would have to break it up into multiple sessions, and generally more than one day. By the end of last summer, I was really despising the task of mowing my lawn, compared to the excitement I had that first spring. This year, I decided to upgrade to something more capable of handling that hill, which would cut my time down significantly, and not leave me drenched in sweat, my eyes stinging, and having to collapse into a chair in front of a fan for 20 minutes. I made many observations and analyses of my back yard, in order to determine if even a lawn tractor would suffice, or if I was doomed to stay on foot. What helped, in the end, was my father-in-law loaning me his Kubota BX1500, a sub-compact tractor, which I used for clearing bramble from the edges of our woods. Seeing that I could safely make it up and down the yard gave me confidence that a lawn tractor would make the grade. ? After a good deal of research, and visiting some dealers, I settled on the Cub Cadet XT3 GSX, mostly because of its locking rear differential. If I could have gotten by with just a riding mower I would've, but that hill is a monster. Thing is, I was reluctant to go with anything I would sit down on, because of the steepness and odd angles, and felt much safer to be on my feet, but I'm about to hit 50, and am feeling my body's limitations.
The closest local Cub Cadet dealer, 18 miles away (all others are too far) just got one in last Thursday, but they didn't have it assembled and out on the showroom floor until yesterday. I drove down after work to haul it home, and after sunset I tested it out on the circuit I had devised, since they said I could return it if it wasn't going to work out. I got some butterflies the first few times I cut down that slope, but it did the job. I might still get the add-on weights for the rear, or put beet juice in the tires, as the dealer suggested, just to ensure low cog. Well, here it is!