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I came across a 50'' deck Toro with Myride at Home Depot 2 days ago.
I am considering going back to ZTR and here's my question:

I have total crapfor grading in my 5 acres to mow. Small hills, bumps, what not. Ride is VERY uncomfortable and painstaking, as I have to creep through the property slowly.
Currently, I am doing main mow with UTV, towing a flail mower behind. UTV is most comfortable vs riding mower and two ZTRs I had before. But flail cut quality is meh...
So here's my question. Is that Myride a gimmick or it really works? As, otherwise, Toro does not have good rep, looks cheaply made and seat itself is not really that comfortable. Also, it has standard bolted frame and I KNOW it will start bending and cracking on my terrain. I don't want to invest into something that I will have to rid off because it starts falling apart or killing my back.
I can get Cub Cadet with floating front suspension, more comfortable seat, unitube frame and larger deck for same money as 54'' Toro. Ultima series. Have no rational explanation, but that frame looks solid.
Anyhow. Is that Myride worth the money?
Thank you

What I’ve got to say will probably make no difference in answering your question, as I think you have already made up your mind. That being said I’ll still post my $.02 opinion as it might help others. One, Toro’s MyRide system may be a gimmick to some, but the vast majority of people who have purchased them are very happy with their purchase. Two, I have no idea where you’re getting your info about Toro, but my years of selling and servicing Toro tells me that they build quality equipment and their frames hold up very well, even on rough terrain. Three, you say you can get a bigger MTD unit for the same $$$$. Yes, Cub Cadet makes MTD!! Bigger unit, lower quantity brand, lower price, self explanatory as to why. Personally I would hope you would do a little more research on the Toro units. All that being said, I’m willing to bet you’re going Cub Cadet, as if one little thing goes wrong with the Toro you’ll say, “I knew I should have not purchased this piece of crap“, even though the Toro is a better quality unit.

ukrkoz said:

I came across a 50'' deck Toro with Myride at Home Depot 2 days ago.
I am considering going back to ZTR and here's my question:

I have total crapfor grading in my 5 acres to mow. Small hills, bumps, what not. Ride is VERY uncomfortable and painstaking, as I have to creep through the property slowly.
Currently, I am doing main mow with UTV, towing a flail mower behind. UTV is most comfortable vs riding mower and two ZTRs I had before. But flail cut quality is meh...
So here's my question. Is that Myride a gimmick or it really works? As, otherwise, Toro does not have good rep, looks cheaply made and seat itself is not really that comfortable. Also, it has standard bolted frame and I KNOW it will start bending and cracking on my terrain. I don't want to invest into something that I will have to rid off because it starts falling apart or killing my back.
I can get Cub Cadet with floating front suspension, more comfortable seat, unitube frame and larger deck for same money as 54'' Toro. Ultima series. Have no rational explanation, but that frame looks solid.
Anyhow. Is that Myride worth the money?
Thank you

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Toro makes good mowers. However, Tractor Supply, Home Depot, Lowe’s, and etc. are not the place to buy them. I have 3 acres with similar terrain as yours. I started out with a 50” Toro. It was too small and it took too long to do those 3 acres. I moved up to a 54” Toro Timecutter HD (now Titan). It was faster but, it beat me up pretty bad. Neither had My Ride seating. For your application, you would need a 60” upper end residential mower or lower end commercial mower with a suspension seat. However, you might not want to spend that kind of money.
Solution: Buy you a 60” tow behind finish mower for your ATV.
At a minimum, this would be the Toro that I would pick. You will have to buy through a dealer.

OK, thank you.
Of course, short of test driving Myride on my property there is no REAL telling but, is it really dampening bumps and hills or not?
There are no decent tow behind finish mowers. The one and only I'd buy is not available due to parts shortage. That's just an opinion on the side. I am talking about Encores.
Problem with tow behind is I can't really go into tight spots and fence corners. So I have to do pre-mow, with my 50'' riding Cub, THEN do "main" mow. What adds about an hour to mow.
I had 54 and 60 Hustlers (never buy a Hustler!) and they did shorten time cutting but where super uncomfortable after about 2 hrs. Sea sick, really.

ukrkoz said:

OK, thank you.
Of course, short of test driving Myride on my property there is no REAL telling but, is it really dampening bumps and hills or not?
There are no decent tow behind finish mowers. The one and only I'd buy is not available due to parts shortage. That's just an opinion on the side. I am talking about Encores.
Problem with tow behind is I can't really go into tight spots and fence corners. So I have to do pre-mow, with my 50'' riding Cub, THEN do "main" mow. What adds about an hour to mow.
I had 54 and 60 Hustlers (never buy a Hustler!) and they did shorten time cutting but where super uncomfortable after about 2 hrs. Sea sick, really.

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My property is probably as bumpy as yours. I went through four different mowers in four years before finding one that was comfortable enough to suit me.I could have gotten by on the third mower but, the engine wasn’t worth a darn. I now have a Gravely Pro Turn 260 and I am very happy with it.
Have you thought about a larger garden tractor?

I am not familiar with the myride system but i have a Ferris 3100z with 4 wheel independent suspension and it is night and day difference to a regular Z.

Hammermechanicman said:

I am not familiar with the myride system but i have a Ferris 3100z with 4 wheel independent suspension and it is night and day difference to a regular Z.

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Well, it's also night and day cost.

MParr said:

My property is probably as bumpy as yours. I went through four different mowers in four years before finding one that was comfortable enough to suit me.I could have gotten by on the third mower but, the engine wasn’t worth a darn. I now have a Gravely Pro Turn 260 and I am very happy with it.
Have you thought about a larger garden tractor?

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Ah, yes. For $13 000 I'd definitely expect some comfort. I'd rather keep running my UTV and flail. After all, I am not in lawn cut quality competition, just don't want to spend 4.5 hr every other weekend mowing.

ukrkoz said:

Ah, yes. For $13 000 I'd definitely expect some comfort. I'd rather keep running my UTV and flail. After all, I am not in lawn cut quality competition, just don't want to spend 4.5 hr every other weekend mowing.

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I can tell you something that you may not realize. Getting a zero turn isn’t going to significantly reduce the time that you spend mowing. You can get the fanciest seating that you want for the money however, you still won’t be able to run any zero turn at their maximum ground speed. You can come close on smooth properties. With bumpy terrain, you are going to have to slow down. In fact, I rarely reach maximum ground speed, while mowing my lawn. I can run pretty fast on the rights of way next to my yard. That’s well graded and pretty smooth. Inside my fence, no way.
I’m not competing with anyone. I just needed something with some comfort, stout enough to handle the terrain, and a 60” deck. I don’t like mowing all day in 90F+ heat. I have to mow once a week.

Sure thing. It was 100% faster to cut with 60"" Hustler, just super uncomfortable. I even added spring front struts and still, it only made it worse. But I knocked down full mow from 4.5 hr to 2.5. As in - full mow, without doing fence and trees pre-mow. Just because ZTR would go into any tight spot. With tow behind turning itself is waste of time and cut. Plus, running 2 engines.

MParr said:

I can tell you something that you may not realize. Getting a zero turn isn’t going to significantly reduce the time that you spend mowing.

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Mine did.
For years I was mowing with a 35 HP tractor with an 84" rear finish mower. Took me 3 1/4 hours to mow my lawn (8 acre lawn)
I cut over an hour off my mowing time with my zero turn (35 HP with 72" deck)

MParr said:

I can tell you something that you may not realize. Getting a zero turn isn’t going to significantly reduce the time that you spend mowing. You can get the fanciest seating that you want for the money however, you still won’t be able to run any zero turn at their maximum ground speed. You can come close on smooth properties. With bumpy terrain, you are going to have to slow down. In fact, I rarely reach maximum ground speed, while mowing my lawn. I can run pretty fast on the rights of way next to my yard. That’s well graded and pretty smooth. Inside my fence, no way.
I’m not competing with anyone. I just needed something with some comfort, stout enough to handle the terrain, and a 60” deck. I don’t like mowing all day in 90F+ heat. I have to mow once a week.

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I have 4 acres of yard that has been destroyed by moles. Mowing with a rigid frame Z is torture. I have to go slow if i want to keep my teeth and kidneys. With my ferris 3100Z i can mow at full speed like 12 mph according to the gps on my phone. With 36hp and a 61" deck i mow the 4 acres in 1.5 hours unless i have to slow down to not tear up grass in turns. With my 60" 184 LoBoy tractor it took 3.5 hours. I run a mower shop so i get to run quire a few different Z's in my yard. So far nothing has come close to the seat comfort or ride quality of the ferris.

Hammermechanicman said:

I have 4 acres of yard that has been destroyed by moles. Mowing with a rigid frame Z is torture. I have to go slow if i want to keep my teeth and kidneys. With my ferris 3100Z i can mow at full speed like 12 mph according to the gps on my phone. With 36hp and a 61" deck i mow the 4 acres in 1.5 hours unless i have to slow down to not tear up grass in turns. With my 60" 184 LoBoy tractor it took 3.5 hours. I run a mower shop so i get to run quire a few different Z's in my yard. So far nothing has come close to the seat comfort or ride quality of the ferris.

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I know exactly what you mean. I have my share of moles and armadillos. My yard is part of an old farm. It was part pastureland and pecan orchard. The former owner only mowed in one direction. That contributes to the roughness. When I follow his pattern, I can run pretty close to top speed. It’s darned sure rough. I didn’t have a Ferris dealer within 90 miles so, that pretty much eliminated Ferris as a choice. I set my air pressure to the lowest recommended settings and that helps.

MParr, the quality of Toro mowers you can purchase at the big box store are the same as at a dealership. The only difference is that the consumer will not get the the support and experience with the product that a dealership can give them. If something would go wrong a good dealership will have your back.

Rivets said:

MParr, the quality of Toro mowers you can purchase at the big box store are the same as at a dealership. The only difference is that the consumer will not get the the support and experience with the product that a dealership can give them. If something would go wrong a good dealership will have your back.

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Normally, you will have to go to the dealer to find a Titan and up. I bought both of mine though the dealer.

I've been using a Sears craftsman tractor for 22 years and decided to purchase a Toro My Ride model 75755 because of back problems. I purchased one from a dealer that sold John Deere tractors as well. I 'm use to using a lever to go forward and backwards on my craftsman and thought it would be easy with a zero turn. It was. It was my first time on a zero turn. I wished I bought a zero turn years ago when they first came out. It would take me an hour and a half to cut my grass. Now it takes only 30 minutes. The ride is a little faster and not all the time do I make a zero turn. Sometimes I have to back up because I have narrow mulch areas on both sides of the area I'm cutting. Sometimes I make zero turns where as its wide open with no trees or mulch areas. Sometimes I'll just go around the perimeter of obstructions. But wow I can move around and cut my yard where as with the tractor I'm always stopping and backing up or making a three point turn. First thing I like is the soft ride. You don't feel a thing. The seat is on a separate suspension system. Second thing I like about it is the maintenance. Easy access to drain the oil, remove the oil filter, plugs, and air filter. I 've ordered a bagger for it and can't wait to use it. A third thing that sold me was the excellent You Tube videos on the Toro My Ride. A fourth thing was the John Deere dealer gave me 10 percent off the sale price and only charged me $100 for white glove delivery. The delivery gentleman went over the whole unit and stayed with me for a while to make sure I had confidence operating it.

I got 60'' Timecutter with MyRide.
It actually does cut crazy fast.
I already did several acre mows and will do the "big" mow today. 4 acre plus.
Unfortunately, I ended with Toro engine one and I can warn you - it does feel underpowered. Claimed HP is what it is, but I can tell, on tall grass, like I did yesterday, and 3 inch mow, it starts bogging. Spend extra $$, get a better engine one.

Cutting tall grass, at that height, will bog down most mowers.

Well, I didn't mean waist high grass. 6-7 inches. Pretty much, double the cut height. If I cut at the maxx 4, I'll have to cut every week, 5+ acre. Several hours every time.
If that bogs mower.... My now gone 50'' Cub didn't have that problem.

IT is not the engine size but the deck capacity tha is the problem
I cut head high grass / lantana / blackberries / privet etc etc etc after the cows have been in the paddock for 6 months with an 8Hp mower easily
The 26Hp Honda just stalls
IT is all about how much trash the chute can toss out .
After all you can cut a swathe thrugh very tall grass with a 1/2 Hp line trimmer

Anyhow.
Record time so far. I did about 85% of the last year largest mow in 1 hr 45 min, that's with starting, rolling out, rolling back in, parking, walking to the house to check on time. I say 85% because we reduced some mowable area, dedicating it to some gardening projects. Last year mow was 2.45 hr best time. With very shitty looking cut.
I have to sort of take back my previous opinion. I raised deck to 3.25 '' and engine did fine. Strains some but that's about it, on some very thick clumps. On open, flat sections, that mower flies.
BTW, socks in MyRide system are too soft for a 250 man. It bottoms out with clunk easily. I need to look into rubber inserts into the coils.

Oh, and to add. With factory tiers, mower goes through mud and puddles like they are not there. I have 1.25 acre wetland lower property tier. Normally, I was bypassing those puddles, waiting for them to dry. This mower does not care, goes through several inch puddles without noticing it.

One other thing I like is the PTO doesn't shut off when you back up. I do a lot of backing up cutting.