The Biggest Mower on the Tightest Budget - What are my Options?

OkieDoke

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  • / The Biggest Mower on the Tightest Budget - What are my Options?
Hey all, newby here just looking for some guidance. I chose my subject line because I feel it is perfect for my situation, lol. I am looking at potentially getting what would be my first zero turn mower, but have some questions and catches. Below is my situation. Just wanting some guidance on what all of you out there on the interwebs would recommend and think for a model.
-Reason for wanting to buy a new mower - Our existing mower is a 2007 Husqvarna lawn tractor with a 46" stamped deck. It's got something like 800 hours on it. It still runs and mows, but it burns some oil and my wife absolutely hates it. And it's been abused. I've mowed into tree stumps with it, it's had the deck mounts ripped off before, and it has mowed extremely heavy and wet grass on multiple occasions, and it will continue to. It's tough, but it's now 13 years old and for our large/rough lawn it takes anywhere from 4-8 hours to mow.
-What we want to get - We are wanting something that can mow areas that are currently unmowable for the current mower, and have to be brushhogged. Our actual "lawn" is a couple of acres large. We have several other grassy areas, such as the bar ditch and the area around our outbuildings, that are not suitable for a small lawnmower, and currently we brushhog them. These areas are generally not suitable to mow because of tall/thick grass, uneven terrain with ruts and gravel from the road and driveway, and occasionally objects, including the occasional steel pipe or other metal parts that are forgotten about. We would like a zero turn so that we could mow at a higher speed, and we want a wider deck so that it doesn't take so long to mow. I would also want a deck that is fairly heavy so that it can withstand dirt, gravel, and occasionally the metal that may go through it. We would also need something that could handle grass that is upwards of 1-2 feet tall at times. As a wild guess, I'd say our overall desired mowing area would be 5 acres.
-The fun part, our budget - Our budget is tiny. There is a reason we've run the same little lawn tractor for 13 years; for as big as our place is, we've never really had money for "nice things", so a new mower has been off the table. I did get another vehicle paid off recently, however, so that's why I'm wondering if now could finally be our time for a new mower. I figure if I could get something financed for about 5 years, I could probably swing about $5,000 for a mower. Anything much above that, and we'd need to wait probably another 5 years or so to see if money gets any better and prices come down.

So, with our disaster of a scenario, what are your thoughts? Is there a zero turn out there that could check those boxes, or are we just SOL until we hit the lottery? Lol. Appreciate any input. I've looked at most of the major brands, with Deere and Kubota being my top picks, but I'm not really sure what model would best fit us for out budget. Deere has a Z700 series that looks nice, but it's a couple thousand bucks too high for us. Kubota has a Z400 series that's around $6,000, still kinda high, but looks like it'd work well.
 

Rivets

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  • / The Biggest Mower on the Tightest Budget - What are my Options?
First of all please don’t get made at me, as at times I’m to honest with my replies. Your $$$ amount and project sized are a bit unrealistic. Any mower you purchase in that price range, for that job, is not going to do a good job for you. On top of that I doubt it would last you five years, so you are going to have to rethink you budget. That being said, I would recommend the Kubota line of Z-turns, but in my opinion the Z400 series might be a little on the light side. I say that because I’m going by your description and am not standing there to actually see the conditions you have. It may work, but you will have to make that decision on your own. Sorry, for bursting your bubble.
 

bertsmobile1

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  • / The Biggest Mower on the Tightest Budget - What are my Options?
And in the same vane because I am an Ozzie & we speak our minds plain & direct .
You are dreaming .
For that cash you should be able to get a second hand commercial ZTR with a fabricated deck that should be able to fit your requirements but nothing made new today for that money is worth buying for your situation.

However I will offer a simple solution
In the rough grassed areas plant out lots & lots of shrubs that grow 3' to 6' tall.
Pick some that grow from cuttings so you can increase ones that you like by a hundred or so a season
Poison the offending tough weed grass then once a season spray under the shrubs to keep the weeds down.
After severall seasons the shrubs will have become dominant & will look after themselves like a forest does.
Plant in clumps of the same shrub and do random mixes so if some die it will not look silly,
 

Born2Mow

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  • / The Biggest Mower on the Tightest Budget - What are my Options?
Exmark Quest and Radius series (their residential lines) are $1000 off until Oct 31. You might check that out. The downside is that these mowers are rare in some areas due to C-19 caused low production rates during the Spring. You can get up to a 48" E-Series Radius for under $5000 during this sale.
 
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