It is definitely a different machine, I knew that the minute I sat on it. May have been the way this one was set up, but I felt like I was sitting way back compared to the Raptor SD. Took a while to get my feel for center of gravity. Since I do have some hills, being stable is important for me. I felt the front wheels come off the ground when I was getting it off the trailer and the first time I 'gunned' it on my driveway. My Raptor rarely has the front wheels come off the ground, probably because I more in tune with how I have to shift my body to keep the center of gravity stable.
Although the Fastrack and the Raptor SD have the same engine, the Fastrack definitely felt faster. Speed was much easier to control. I feel very 'jerky' at times with the sticks on the Raptor SD; I was butter smooth with the Fastrack.
The Fastrack is a tighter machine in many ways. There's no rattle of the deck from the blades. Even running across the turf is smooth. Are those the flex forks on the front of this model (the website shows a yellow fork)?
I jumped back on the Raptor SD for a few passes and couldn't believe how harsh it felt compared to the Fastrack.
Discharge opening is clearly much bigger on the deck (I did not take any pictures).
The ROPS took some getting used to. I knocked some rain off a few trees and on to me and I almost took out the hanger that extends from my lamppost when I was cutting around it.
On to the important part, the cut:
I was cutting approximately 4 days of damp growth. This is sort of an apples-to-oranges comparison of what I've been cutting with the Raptor SD since I've been using it exclusively dry, but it's definitely a worst-case comparison. And I was comparing standard lift blades on the Fastrack to the high lifts I currently have on the Raptor SD.
I ran it the majority of the time with the chute down.
The Fastrack definitely left clippings. I noticed that discharge distance was not very far - maybe 3-4 feet at the most with the chute down. But no clumps whatsoever. I had to break out the Raptor SD for a few passes just to make sure I wasn't kidding myself, and as soon as I did, the clumps were there and very obvious.
In most cases, the clippings probably would have disappeared by tomorrow. But since I was demo-ing, I figured I'd run a few passes to see how the Fastrack handled it. One BIG difference I saw with the Fastrack was that successive passes chopped and dispersed the clippings even finer. For the most part, the Raptor SD would just blow around the clippings, basically moving around the clumps. The Fastrack made them finer and distributed them each time. I did a number of passes with the chute up, and the first and second passes of the clippings just disappeared.
The Fastrack chute did have an advantage over the Raptor - when I was mowing in between my flower beds, it did not throw the clippings across in to the mulch of the other bed like the Raptor likes to do. Consistent with my observation that the discharge distance with chute down is not very far on the Fastrack.
I wore virtually no clippings. In fact, I was able to take a trip to the bank on my way to return the mower. With the Raptor, I would have been covered up to my knees in clippings (see my picture from earlier this week).
So, with two passes over about 50% of the lawn, I was able to clean up virtually all clippings that were generated. I think I could have done better with the chute up and maybe even avoided the second cut.
As you can see from the picture I posted earlier - striping was phenomenal (and this is without my homemade roller). I see that Hustler does offer a striping kit for this mower - I did not look to see if it was installed (though I did see that the demo unit had the optional headlights), though I don't think it was. I'm now seeing the benefits of following the exact same lines each time I cut (something I started a few weeks back).
Bottom line: Far and away better than the Raptor SD. I think the outcome, even at one pass, was more in line with my expectations of how a mower should handle the growth I receive. I was definitely impressed!
