Which ZTR to Purchase for Residential Use? Suggestions Appreciated

[bertsmobile1]

Just serviced a 2014 Z master 3000.
Could be we get a slightly different version down here
Grease nipples on all 3 spindles and on tensioner arm.
Grease ports ( you have to fit your own nipples ) on the caster shafts.
Grease nipples on the caster wheels
Grease nipples on the 4 deck hangers
grease nipple on the drive tensioner arm
And not sure but I think there was nipples on the deck stays as well.


Did a Craftsman 42" residential ZTR last week
2 only grease points on the caster pivots

Sold 5 used engines this year to domestic customers who blew their engines because they did not check the oil and threw a rod.
Did one commercial repower this year because the mower was using too much oil. The owner had actually been keeping records and it ws at a lever where it could run out of oil in a week if the workers failed to do their DAILY CHECKS.

So no I am not calling you stupid and no you don't need tertiary qualifications to mow lawns or look after a mower.
But all of my commercial customers except 1 regularly maintain their mowers between my servicings.
Most of my domestic customers never so much as clean down their mowers let alone actually do any maintenance.
Some will but most don't.
Ask any repairer and you will get the same stories like getting a call out because the mower is cutting funny to find there is 2lb in one tyre.
Or the accumulated grass clipping have rotted through the deck so much the spindles are dragged inwards by the belt tension.
Or "my mower won't start" to find no oil so the oil switch earths out the coil.
Or no fuel in tank, or fuel tap turned off.

There is a YTH2648 in the shop at the moment for a service because it "won't drive"
The domestic owner, who runs a national supply chain so is not illiterate, never bothered to read the manual and has been mulching with cut height 1/2".
This causes a debris build up under the mower till it stops the brake pedal fully sitting on the dissengage stop so the clutch slips or in a previous case the brake did not disengage.
Both of these men are very intelligent, but they just don't give a toss about their mowers just so long as it cuts the grass and a YTH 2648 costs around $ 7,000 down here so they wern't cheap either.

Funny enough this sort of information gets back to the mower companies, who would have thought, a dealer's mechanic actually talking to a rep or an instructor at a service seminar.
So more & more the domestic mowers are going "maintenance free".
OTOH the lawn care operator needs his machine to be working because if it isn't working, he can't go & borrow his neighbours mower while his in in the shop.
Most lawncare operators go to the effort of reading the owners manual , cover to cover and make sure their equipment is maintained at least to the minimum level stipulated.
Some of them even buy the technical serice manuals because the machine is their livelihood, no mower = no money.

 

[Shughes717]

Just serviced a 2014 Z master 3000.
Could be we get a slightly different version down here
Grease nipples on all 3 spindles and on tensioner arm.
Grease ports ( you have to fit your own nipples ) on the caster shafts.
Grease nipples on the caster wheels
Grease nipples on the 4 deck hangers
grease nipple on the drive tensioner arm
And not sure but I think there was nipples on the deck stays as well.


Did a Craftsman 42" residential ZTR last week
2 only grease points on the caster pivots

Sold 5 used engines this year to domestic customers who blew their engines because they did not check the oil and threw a rod.
Did one commercial repower this year because the mower was using too much oil. The owner had actually been keeping records and it ws at a lever where it could run out of oil in a week if the workers failed to do their DAILY CHECKS.

So no I am not calling you stupid and no you don't need tertiary qualifications to mow lawns or look after a mower.
But all of my commercial customers except 1 regularly maintain their mowers between my servicings.
Most of my domestic customers never so much as clean down their mowers let alone actually do any maintenance.
Some will but most don't.
Ask any repairer and you will get the same stories like getting a call out because the mower is cutting funny to find there is 2lb in one tyre.
Or the accumulated grass clipping have rotted through the deck so much the spindles are dragged inwards by the belt tension.
Or "my mower won't start" to find no oil so the oil switch earths out the coil.
Or no fuel in tank, or fuel tap turned off.

There is a YTH2648 in the shop at the moment for a service because it "won't drive"
The domestic owner, who runs a national supply chain so is not illiterate, never bothered to read the manual and has been mulching with cut height 1/2".
This causes a debris build up under the mower till it stops the brake pedal fully sitting on the dissengage stop so the clutch slips or in a previous case the brake did not disengage.
Both of these men are very intelligent, but they just don't give a toss about their mowers just so long as it cuts the grass and a YTH 2648 costs around $ 7,000 down here so they wern't cheap either.

Funny enough this sort of information gets back to the mower companies, who would have thought, a dealer's mechanic actually talking to a rep or an instructor at a service seminar.
So more & more the domestic mowers are going "maintenance free".
OTOH the lawn care operator needs his machine to be working because if it isn't working, he can't go & borrow his neighbours mower while his in in the shop.
Most lawncare operators go to the effort of reading the owners manual , cover to cover and make sure their equipment is maintained at least to the minimum level stipulated.
Some of them even buy the technical serice manuals because the machine is their livelihood, no mower = no money.

Culture is different in every country, and the use of the English language differs a little bit as well. It doesn't appear as though you intended to offend anyone, but your comments did come out a little offensive. You seem to have some knowledge about mowers, except for repeating the lie dixie chopper spreads about being the worlds fastest mower. If you truly service commercial mowers you would know that all of them have similar drive trains, and there are many brands that have mowers that can reach speeds of 16 mph. There are some consumers who never maintain their equipment, but I can tell you that most on this site care enough about their lawns and equipment to take proper care of their mowers. I don't think anyone would take the time to go on line and research before making a purchase is going to ignore required maintenance.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Culture is different in every country, and the use of the English language differs a little bit as well. It doesn't appear as though you intended to offend anyone, but your comments did come out a little offensive. You seem to have some knowledge about mowers, except for repeating the lie dixie chopper spreads about being the worlds fastest mower. If you truly service commercial mowers you would know that all of them have similar drive trains, and there are many brands that have mowers that can reach speeds of 16 mph. There are some consumers who never maintain their equipment, but I can tell you that most on this site care enough about their lawns and equipment to take proper care of their mowers. I don't think anyone would take the time to go on line and research before making a purchase is going to ignore required maintenance.

I can never see any value in trying to offend any one or any benefit in taking offence from some one.
I like every one else here am here to learn.
The business is headding into the 3rd year of my ownership so I am still to see the full client list It has been a very steep learing curve.
A lot of the machines mentioned in these pages I do not see.
Untill a few year ago JD had the commercial end in it's pocket but Toro had done a Honda on them and taken a large lump of the big end.
I have a lot ( around 70 ish) of commercial customers on the books, mainly because I give them the respect they deserve and drop what I am doing to get them back on the road where as the Glass Fronts make them wait.
Just like winning at Datona bumps up vehicle sales, Joe public sees a lot of professional riding on Toro's so the thing Toro's must be bees knees and go buy one regardless of weather it is suitable for their yard or not.
Honda did a similar trick a decade ago to take the SP market.

But I do look at things objectively and I would estimate about 10% of domestic customers do any maintenance on their mowers and about 3 to 4 % of those actually do it correctly.
Because I value my customers and do not run the busines on the "infinite market size" theory when I see a mower with a customer neglect problem , I make efforts to rectify the customers behaviour.
It became blatiently obvious very few never glanced at the instructions let alone read them and of those who did, fewer still understood what they read.

To most of my domestic customers, their mower is mearly a means to an end, many of these customes had to be shown how to tap out an air cleaner . They do not care about the actual mower, they just want to sit back and admire the expanse of green carpet up to the front door. The rest seem to see their mower as a status symbol, pop on their best silk check shirt and go mowing the verge admiring their reflection in the windows of parked cars.

Again I have no problem with this, whatever floats your boat is fine just so long as it does not torpedo some one else's.

Bob, the OP seems to have his head screwed on the right way, got his information and then the thread got taken over by others.
There were some aspects that I dissagreed with so I made my point mainly for the benefit of those who might read the thread latter .
Some others chose to disagree with what I said and a some what robust discussion followed which is exactly as it should be.
All of us are right in our own minds, till some one convinces us otherwise , hopefully with some proof.
I enjoyed Ric's video post proving that I had allowed marketers hype to distort my limited evaluations of larger ride ons.
all very worth while.
When it's all said & done, we are just electronic presences in cyber space and no one knows who we actually are or what our real qualifications / experiences are.
I could be a bored 5 year old with advanced computer skills or a bigoted cranky old woman with 3Phd's I can't use, it is up to the reader to evaluste the valadity or otherwise of my posts.

 

[1striper1]

Well I don't know who knows more or if letters before or after ones name makes a difference or not but the problem as I see with his statement that commercial mowers are being designed to be used by professionals so require proper maintenance I find a little off because I see more commercial mowers being used by the homeowner than ever before and commercial mowers are leaning more towards less maintenance than ever before with sealed bearings every where on the mowers where grease fitting used to be View attachment 25701 I think my Z-Master has a total of one grease fitting and it's on the idler and has to be greased every 50 hrs.

If you are referring to my name.....I had to find something with the name "striper" (which I like to leave behind) and many of the combinations of "striper" are taken.

I don't have the time nor desire to sit and type all my knowledge to amaze people (few would be amazed LOL!!) but how many homeowners buy Craftsman, MTD or similar mowers only to have them break after "low single digit" years of use then throw them away because they are too expensive to fix.

If you are a homeowner (me) buy a product built for commercial use with high grade components and HD construction and it will likely last you 15 years or more. Even if you grease it and change the engine and hydro oil 1X per year.

 

[Ric]

If you are referring to my name.....I had to find something with the name "striper" (which I like to leave behind) and many of the combinations of "striper" are taken.

I don't have the time nor desire to sit and type all my knowledge to amaze people (few would be amazed LOL!!) but how many homeowners buy Craftsman, MTD or similar mowers only to have them break after "low single digit" years of use then throw them away because they are too expensive to fix.

If you are a homeowner (me) buy a product built for commercial use with high grade components and HD construction and it will likely last you 15 years or more. Even if you grease it and change the engine and hydro oil 1X per year.

No No I wasn't referring to your name. It's just something about certain people that has always bugged me and it's really not worth getting into. It would just start a