I'll be closing on my new home in 3 weeks so it's time to start looking at ZTRs. After talking to some folks (friends, relatives, and coworkers) advice is pretty much all over the map on brands and models which, I suppose, it both good news and bad. Good in that there are a lot of quality brands with loyal followings, and bad in that there's no consensus on what's important in a residential ZTR. So I figured why not turn to the internet to make sure what I'm looking at is in line with my requirements and expectations. :laughing:
First off, a little about my property. It's 2 acres, relatively flat (small drainage ditch at the front along the road), few trees (9 total) with lots of space between the trees (no trees are planted close to each other), 820 linear feet of fence (9' spacing between poles and 4' 2"x4" no-climb wire). Seeing as I'm north of 50 comfort is important to me. Also on my list of important things are: reliability, cut quality, minimal time spent cutting the grass, long life (I would love if this is the only ZTR I had to buy), and of course price.
So I went to one of my local Scag dealers this afternoon and he let me ride the Liberty Z and the Patriot on the field next door. The field looked smooth - flat with no ruts and no rocks or dips that I could see. But even looking relatively smooth, I was bounced out of the seat several times while riding the Liberty. And it was pretty jarring hitting unseen bumps even when I didn't get bounced all the way up. But on the Patriot things were much better. It was more of what I would describe as a bouncy ride instead of a jarring one. He didn't have a Freedom to demo, but I suspect the ride is similar to the Liberty
I know it's a subjective question, but what are your thoughts on the Patriot for my application? Are there other things I should be considering?
Thanks,
JPE
First off, a little about my property. It's 2 acres, relatively flat (small drainage ditch at the front along the road), few trees (9 total) with lots of space between the trees (no trees are planted close to each other), 820 linear feet of fence (9' spacing between poles and 4' 2"x4" no-climb wire). Seeing as I'm north of 50 comfort is important to me. Also on my list of important things are: reliability, cut quality, minimal time spent cutting the grass, long life (I would love if this is the only ZTR I had to buy), and of course price.
So I went to one of my local Scag dealers this afternoon and he let me ride the Liberty Z and the Patriot on the field next door. The field looked smooth - flat with no ruts and no rocks or dips that I could see. But even looking relatively smooth, I was bounced out of the seat several times while riding the Liberty. And it was pretty jarring hitting unseen bumps even when I didn't get bounced all the way up. But on the Patriot things were much better. It was more of what I would describe as a bouncy ride instead of a jarring one. He didn't have a Freedom to demo, but I suspect the ride is similar to the Liberty
I know it's a subjective question, but what are your thoughts on the Patriot for my application? Are there other things I should be considering?
Thanks,
JPE