Need advice!

kmarzec

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I am currently in the market for a zero turn mower. I have had a John Deere tractor over the past 8 years and it has worked great. I am now looking for a zero turn to save time on my lawn cutting. I have 2 acres that takes me about 2.5 hours now with my tractor.

I am looking at the John Deere Z445. It is going to cost close to $5,000 with taxes. This is a huge investment. Other similiar zero turn mowers (Toro, Cub Cadet) are about $3,000. So I will be spending an additional $2,000 for the John Deere.

Is the John Deere worth the additonal $2K? Are the Toro and Cub Cadet just as good but would save me money?

Any advice is appreciated is this is a big investment for me. Thank you!
 

Ric

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I am currently in the market for a zero turn mower. I have had a John Deere tractor over the past 8 years and it has worked great. I am now looking for a zero turn to save time on my lawn cutting. I have 2 acres that takes me about 2.5 hours now with my tractor.

I am looking at the John Deere Z445. It is going to cost close to $5,000 with taxes. This is a huge investment. Other similiar zero turn mowers (Toro, Cub Cadet) are about $3,000. So I will be spending an additional $2,000 for the John Deere.

Is the John Deere worth the additonal $2K? Are the Toro and Cub Cadet just as good but would save me money?

Any advice is appreciated is this is a big investment for me. Thank you!

It's I think a it's all a matter of opinion, and my opinion is no, there not worth the extra money but you'll have a hard time discussing that with the diehard John Deere people. Personally I think for the money you'll have a hard time beating the Cub Cadet Z Force but again it's all a matter of opinion. I've been running Cub Cadets for almost seven years in my business doing sixty and seventy lawns a week and have had no problems other than a couple of safety switches, replaced some belts the normal maintenance stuff. So for the money I spent on my 48" and 44" they have more than paid for themselves.
 

Carscw

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It is not worth the extra money to pay for green paint and a name I like toro.

Toro or cub will be you best bet for the money

Sent from my iPhone using LMF
 

pugaltitude

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If you ever want the best out of a ztr a few years ago i would have said dixon.
Amazing machines. They invented the ztr in the 70s. We used to sell them over here and never had major problems.
Husky bought them and we couldnt sell them so dont know what they are like now.
Have a look for the Ram 50.
If not Dixon it has to be Toro timecutter or the titan.
 

Mr. Shamrock

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When I was initially in the market for a ZT I compared the features more than the name brand. When I say features I mean - brand and size of engine, thickness of deck, warranty, etc. If you compare most of the non-commercial units today they seem to share alot of the same components and usually the issues end up being with the motor not necessarily the deck in my experience. So I shopped around and tried to get the engine HP and the deck width as close numerically as possible. My thinking there was a 42" cut with a 20HP would have less strain than a 46" with a 20 HP so the closer those 2 numbers are the better IMO. I then shopped around and ended up buying a Snapper b/c there was a rebate at the time that made it a decent deal. I have since replaced my first ZT with another Snapper ZT this time went with a 46" with a 22HP engine (again b/c the price was right and Snapper was offering an extra year of warranty at the time). The only issues I had with the original one was with the B&S engine which supposedly has been resolved. The deck, drives, and everything Snapper still looked/performed like new after 5 years. So unless you are going commercial I wouldn't spend anywhere near $5,000.
I am not familiar with the JD line so if the one you are considering is a commercial mower than disregaurd all my dribble.
 

pugaltitude

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Have a look the Snapper 350z.
Very robust and reliable.
 

hitmanharleyk

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bollingball

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I am not a dihard of any brand I just bought a 2012 John Deere Z445 with a 54c deck. I did look at others. Thing about this one was it was used 1 week and then repoed. The guy bought it using someone elses ID he bad bad cridit. It had 14 hours on it and I got it for $4000.00 even out the door and they gave me a new set of preditor blades oil and air filter and oil and trailer hitch. Started the warrenty over with 0 hours 4 years 300 hours. So look around my dealer said they repo more lately times are bad. The tires still have the tits on them. It has the 27 hp briggs. All I did was change the oil I did not know if the guy did the 10 hr. break in oil change. Before I had a JD LT180 man what a difference. Never bought a used mower before but I could not turn this deal down. With the econamy like it is you may find a repo if not in a big hurry. I mow about 3.5 A.

Ken
 
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