I bought my XT2 GX54D last year and absolutely love it. Got the Fastattach plow for it as well, and it moves some serious snow. No hills here, but a little over an acre of lawn to cut and a 225 foot U-shaped driveway to plow. The ground is wet here most of the season, and the locking diff is a Godsend. It's also a huge asset for plowing. I removed the mower deck and installed tire chains without any additional weights and it handled a ton of wet sloppy snow with no problems. Mine runs the Kohler 25HP engine, and so far it has been perfect with just under 50 hours. The only con I can really think of is the "Fastattach" mower blade system. Would much prefer a standard spindle as there's no good way to balance the blades during sharpening, and it gets difficult to manipulate the locking collars once the mulch buildup gets in the assembly. I also think it creates more deck vibration than a standard spindle would. That being said, the fab deck gives me a great cut (or as good as I could ask for on my sorry excuse of a 'lawn'...lol). Your "hill" looks like a good candidate for this model as that locking differential would be of great help to negotiate the slope, especially if things are a little moist.