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Hello all,

This is gonna be your typical "whats the best mower for me" type post. Any and all advice will be greatly appreicated.

I have right at 3 acres (its in the counrty/rural) currently that my house sits on. It has alot of oak trees (around 30) on the place. The half that I consider my yard is fairly smooth, but has some pretty good inclines/grades on it. The back half that isnt my yard is pretty rough and has been in the past only mowed with a brush hog behind a 9N tractor (this is where the goats are going to help out).

The property is my childhood home. My father lived there until he passed away in 2008. I now have the property and live there. For the past few years ive been paying to have the property mowed. Its not that I couldnt mow it myself, Ive cut my fair share of grass, I just didnt have a good mower. As a kid, I mowed the yard with the ole trusty Craftsman and it seems like it took ages!

Im now in the market for a new mower. Ive been doing a little research and Im trying to find the best mower for my application. Im still pretty young, and my priorities have not yet shifted yet so I find it almost insane at how expensive some of these mowers are! I have no problem spending gross amounts of money on custom rifles, Harleys, boats, or new trucks......but shelling out $4K-10K for a lawn mower just blows me away! Ive been to Lowes, Tractor Supply, and Sears looking at Huskys, Cub Cadets, Deere's and Bad Boys. My budget is $1500-$2800 Max and the lower the better. Im just a weekend mower and my yard is in pretty bad shape overall, but thats a different story all together.

Ive looked at some D170's, Husky LGT2454 and LGT24K54, GT6000, and various Cubs. I dont know if I need a zero turn or a regular tractor style mid mount?? The guy that has been mowing it used a zero turn, not sure what it was, but it was orange, anyway he didnt seem to have any issues on the hills/inclines. I just want a good mower withing my price range that will cut my yard in a reasonable amount of time, and last atleast 8-10yrs. Im young so my back isnt worn out so im not going to complain too much about ride quality. All my trucks are lifted so im used to a rough ride. Also, I want to buy new, not used. I want to know what the mower has been through. I dont want someone elses problems.

Im not set on any model or any brand, but it has to be within my budget. Its not that I couldnt afford to spend $10K on a nice diesel mower, Im just not going to.....no way. I have other priorities at the moment that Id much rather perfer to spend my money on that will bring me much more pleasure and happiness. Also, Im going to need a tractor in the near future, a full size farming tractor so I wont be using the mower for any other tasks besides mowing grass. I anticipate the tractor costing me $12K-16K so I dont need a $8k mower on top of this for my country yard/pature.

Get the tractor and get a mower for it. You can get a mid mount or a pull behind. The pull behind is easier to get on and off (2 minutes or less). But it's harder to mow in tight spots with. No sense in buying both.
The sooner you get the tractor the sooner it starts paying you back.

If you have some negotiating skills you could get a dealer to throw in a pull behind 60" finnsh mower. I've got a king cutter from tractor supply...I think it was around 1200, not sure. Good mower, no problems whatsoever.
It won't cut as fast as a ZTR but for 3 acres it's not going to add up to much more than a few minutes a week.

Robert,
Thank you for the reply sir. I've bad a couple other people mention that same option to me as well, but that won't work for me. The tractor I buy will be a larger 50hp+ 4wd model that will be too large to mow my yard with. I have 3 acres my house sits on, but keep in mind I also have ALOT of trees. I would tear up a big pull behind mower hanging it on trees and it would take me forever maneuvering around all the trees. Also, the rear tractor tires would destroy my yard.

I'm going to have to have a dedicated grass cutter.

300wsm said:

Robert,
Thank you for the reply sir. I've bad a couple other people mention that same option to me as well, but that won't work for me. The tractor I buy will be a larger 50hp+ 4wd model that will be too large to mow my yard with. I have 3 acres my house sits on, but keep in mind I also have ALOT of trees. I would tear up a big pull behind mower hanging it on trees and it would take me forever maneuvering around all the trees. Also, the rear tractor tires would destroy my yard.

I'm going to have to have a dedicated grass cutter.

Click to expand...

My recommendation; a used Simplicity mower or a used CUB Cadet (2000 series) or a used John Deere. For the cub and john deere, make sure they are NOT custom manufactured for the big box stores. Go ahead and get a good, big, used machine, and run another 5 to 8 years with it.:smile: