Zero Turn, down to two. Would appreciate the help (Cub vs JD)

Mower Frank

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  • / Zero Turn, down to two. Would appreciate the help (Cub vs JD)
Have you looked at Gravley? They have a line of zero turns for commercial use and a residential line of zt's.
Bith carry heavy duty decks and good warranty. You should be able to get into the residential line within your price and they also own Cab Cadet.
 

oneoldsap

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  • / Zero Turn, down to two. Would appreciate the help (Cub vs JD)
Looking for some guidance on purchase. After filtering for reputable dealer near me, availability, budget, I'm left with 2 mowers to choose between and I just can't pick.

#1) John Deere 365r with the 48" deck
#2) Cub Cadet ZT2 with the 54" deck

I'm replacing a 42" deck John Deere riding mower that we bought when we had very different property.

The property is about an acre, big chunks wide open with nothing there, but we have about a dozen saplings we planted in the last year to steer around.

After putting on the accessories we use, accounting for the slight difference in trade in from the different dealers, the Cub is about $1200 more than the Deere.

If I could buy the 375R with the 54" deck, I'd be done, but there aren't any in stock until fall... but I can't. So these are my two choices. I'm seriously torn. I want the Deere, but I think the bigger deck and stepping up to the ZT2 I think makes the Cub worth it. Any one have some help in deciding, or questions I should be asking myself to help decide?
 

oneoldsap

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  • / Zero Turn, down to two. Would appreciate the help (Cub vs JD)
That would be an absolute "no brainer" for me . You couldn't even give me a Cub Cadet , for free. Now that being said , I have used John Deere ZTurns and Tractors for many years . Not so sure that will be the case in the future . Here in Vermont , every John Deere dealership is owned by one company . They accomplished this with the assistance of JD Corporate ! Some good people , mostly the senior people , were ushered out the door , never to return . It's quite the topic of conversation here , among us Green users .
 

fixit1ddh

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  • / Zero Turn, down to two. Would appreciate the help (Cub vs JD)
That would be an absolute "no brainer" for me . You couldn't even give me a Cub Cadet , for free. Now that being said , I have used John Deere ZTurns and Tractors for many years . Not so sure that will be the case in the future . Here in Vermont , every John Deere dealership is owned by one company .hey accomplished this with the assistance of JD Corporate ! Some good people , mostly the senior people , were ushered out the door , never to return . It's quite the topic of conversation here , among us Green users .
And like Me, You could not Give Me a John Deere. I would not touch one with a a 10 foot pole. Last good JD that they built was a 2 cylinder in 1959. Working on mowers in the 70's everytime a jd mower came in it was so hard to work on compared to other units. Parts are also $$$ and way to many electronics that seam pretty crap. Lots of Farmer's not happy with JD'S ethics!
 

VRR.DYNDNS>BIZ

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  • / Zero Turn, down to two. Would appreciate the help (Cub vs JD)
This is just my opinion but I would be hesitant to purchase a Cub ZT2 machine. Looking at them at my local HD and at a Farm Ag store nearby, I see some good and some Bad. The Bad is what is going to hurt you down the road. By Bad, I am referring to the cheap construction and short cuts and plastic. And the Cub deck seems to be on the weak side. The frame and engines and drive train are pretty solid but after that it gets a(n) from me. The John Deere 365r is probably in the mid range for JD with some short cuts taken to keep the price down, but it will likely last you longer. I would have more confidence in JD. But if you can't wait for a 375r and like the build and those features, you might have time to take a look at other options. Ferris, Scag, ExMark,Toro Simplicity, Kubota and others all have some pretty competitive models for the homeowner. This purchase will probably be a 5-10 year purchase. You will be driving it weekly and there is nothing worse than owning and driving a mower you hate. Regrets last a long time. I went thru this process last year for my 1-acre property and settled on a Simplicity Courier XT . It is a mid range unit built off a Ferris/Simplicity design. Take another look at your local options and if possible ask for a test ride. Compare them again. Most important to me is the deck and the finished look of the lawn. If that Cub meets all of your requirements then grab it and enjoy the mow.
Check out the Bad boy at Tractor supply. The difference will amaze you! As for Cub, traction issues on nearly all cubs which I attribute to the compound in the rubber of the tires, but I confess, that I have no feed back on current models as to this traction issue, let alone the specific model. I can attest to the Bad Boy as a great machine. We are an authorized service center, and defects do not exist after the electric lift option was addressed and most are manual lift with no issues at all.
 

7394

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  • / Zero Turn, down to two. Would appreciate the help (Cub vs JD)
My Cousin has a Hustler Raptor that has the lift deck feature,, Pretty helpful. But Hustler makes good machines.
 

Cornfield

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  • / Zero Turn, down to two. Would appreciate the help (Cub vs JD)
Most JD dealers will gladly work on Home Depot sold mowers. They understand that HD has inventory. The dealer makes $ on warranty and service work.
I wouldn’t buy at item from HD that the dealer wouldn’t normally carry if they could get them.
 

RayMcD

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  • / Zero Turn, down to two. Would appreciate the help (Cub vs JD)
Toro, Hustler, Bad Boy for a start
 

bertsmobile1

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  • / Zero Turn, down to two. Would appreciate the help (Cub vs JD)
Most JD dealers will gladly work on Home Depot sold mowers. They understand that HD has inventory. The dealer makes $ on warranty and service work.
I wouldn’t buy at item from HD that the dealer wouldn’t normally carry if they could get them.
You need to have a long talk to the dealers if you think they make a profit on doing warranty work.
Labour times are paid according the schedules service times and these would only be accurate if the mower was brand spanking new, you had a factory service stand for the mower and every factory service toll was there within arms reach .
The mechanics would have to be working so fast they were sweatting & gasping for breath .
Unless the manufacturers are a lot more generous over there than the franchise agents are down here no workshop paying technicians proper rate wages could make a living out of doing warranty work.
Customers who come in with with big box store / online purchases will not buy anything from the dealers if it is possible to get it cheaper elsewhere and are billigerant at best but usually aggressive and never thankful that the dealer has fixed the problem that would have been sorted during a predelivery check at a dealership .

So down here just about all brand name dealers use warranty work as loss reducers so warranty jobs will sit there & only get done when the techs have nothing else to do .
I get theses people storming through my front gat breathing fire because their tool has been at the dealers for over a week & not been fixed yet .
They I cop an ear bashing about the thieving dealers overcharging & price gouging then refusing to do the warranty work trying to make them pay .
Not if they seem to have 2 functioning brain cells I fire up the computer, show them my wholesale cost price then the Big Box retail price which in many cases is lower
Then I pull out one of the scheduled service fee books and show them how little the labour rate would be
After that is a warranty claim form that takes 1/2 a day to fill in because each & every steps has to be accounted form ( apart from scratching your bum ) .
And of course finally they see that most franchise agents do not actually pay the dealer cash money, what they get is purchase credits which are of little use if they don't sell that brand of wholegoods because even when the credits are applied to parts, the big box stores still get them cheaper so they can sell them cheaper .

If they are still here & not stormed out of the gate they get a quote which is usually about twice the purchase credits that a dealer would get for the job .
About 1/2 abuse me & storm off to the other independent shop up the road where they get slugged $ 75 before he will even fill in a job card .
The remaining group split fairly evenly in thirds for small tools , give it to me, take it back to the dealer , take it back to the shop for refund .
 
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