At many’s suggestion Im going for a zero turn. 1 acre, garden islands, a small slope up frt. Found KUBOTA’s and JDs, looking for other.
figure 52 inch +/-. I have a tractor, to big to mow with, but nice for other tasks.
Just my opinion, if you're only mowing your own yard, you don't need a commercial mower. What would be nice, though, is to move up to one with suspension or at least a pivoting front axle. On rough ground, rigid frame zero turns often will have no traction on the wheel you want to drive. But suspension or the pivoting axle is a luxury a lot of people do without.
The 200 series is a 2020 replacement for the 100 series, residential. The 400 is a mid level commercial. Which series has the ride upgrades spoken of here?
the 400's are much faster. They are still, IMO, residential mowers. I know plenty of folks who use them commercially, and I also know plenty of companies who don't care of their equipment. THOSE--are the ones who always and consistently have to buy mowers every 3-4 years.
maintenance is key. If something is loose don't ignore it fix it. Valve adjustment is a requirement on the kawasaki and kohler as well. Keep the flywheel screens clean and make darn sure the air filters are serviced OFTEN. Leave the rockers run loose it'll beat up the top of the valves, the rocker arms, sometimes on the kawasakis the rocker arms will actually come off/loose from the head. Kohler is a little different design and that hasn't been seen at least not with my eyes.
I know plenty of guys who mow commercially, we speak often. The general consensus is that there are a few companies that dis Kubota for commercial use and there are a few that love them. Those that hate them? They have hired hands and their guys are minimum wage employees that couldn't care less about someone else's equipment. Ones that like them, actually take good care of them-including washing, blade sharpening, replacing worn deck wheels, etc-on a daily basis. Costs a little and takes time but it's almost guaranteed to prolong the replacement of the machine. One commercial customer I know of--has over 2700 hours on a Z421KWT, and it looks great. But he also make sure his stuff is maintained DAILY--meaning he don't run 500 hours on an oil change, and he don't let the flywheel screens get plugged solid with clippings.
0-turns with large decks running on unlevel ground = scalping issues.
I don't see the full 1 acre. Must be in the back yard. From what you posted in your pics, a simple push mower with no self propel is perfect. What a small yard.
0-turns are very expensive when new. Just wait till the hydros fail on you $$$$. Plus you have to maintain that monster. Those are tough to get under the deck for maintenance. Finally with such a nice looking yard, a 1,300 pound 0-turn will rut the crap out of the turf. They compact the soil terribly. Hope you don't have hard clay like I do.
For 1 acre particularly for the way yours looks a small ZTR would probably suit you best .
You can get a 36" to 42" deck in a lot for very tight spaces where you would have to cut with a push mower or line trimmer .
The time saved using those will be a lot greater than the time saved with a big deck.
Big decks are for football field lawns , not garden lawns.
I have commercial customers who can mow an acre on a 34" mower a lot faster than the owners can with their 61"
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7394
A friend in N.C. bought a 61" Z, thinking it would cut his mow times way down. Found out it doesn't fit in many areas & will scalp other rolling areas. So he is now pushing more that he ever imagined. And mows the areas the 61" will fit.
Bigger is not always better.
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7394
And I happen to know of a 42" Toro w/FR651V Kawasaki & only 149. hours on it. That is going to be For Sale.
Been cared for & maintained to OCD standards. Still runs/ mows & Looks new.
Even waxing after end of season cleanings. Just an FYI.
Well not quite true
The Walkers will do an equivalent cut as do the articulated mowers.
Ant mower with timed overlapping blades will do the job as good if not better
And of course any locally assembled mower down here with a blade disc & swing backs will also do a perfect job.
a properly adjusted zero turn mower will cut circles around a push mower, and will cut BETTER to boot.
The grass looks better when there are stripes that are 48, 54, 60, 72" wide rather than a whole bunch of 21" stripes. Plus those little narrow wheels lay the grass down and a lot of times leave little ruts in soft yards like mine.
The problem is, most dealers that sell mowers don't properly adjust the decks and tire pressures, and those that do end up feeling shafted because the owner will run it over curbs and whatever else, and let the tires go flat and just air them up tight without checking the pressures. On ZT's the tire pressures are critical. If one side has 15 psi and the other has 13, the 13 side's tire is a little flatter/lower than the other, reducing the blade cut height on that side and causing cut issues. Secondly most dealers get the mowers in on a crate or pallet, and the decks are almost all set 1/4-3/4" low. That's acceptable by manufacturing standards. However, once one sets the front-to-rear bias to as close to zero as possible, the mower then cuts absolutely perfect, it just takes a little more power to do it and sometimes you need to slow down. On that note, many times what I saw of those complaining about cut quality also were the same ones who were going as fast as they can possibly go, with the deck in the dirt, at part throttle--and the mower just couldn't digest all that grass. It's about like buying a Ferrari and going full throttle all the time everywhere you go--just because it CAN go 200mph doesn't mean it should go 200mph all the time. Same for a mower.
one other thing about any mower-particularly ZT's, I see this a lot. Folks that mow in the same direction every single time. The grass kinda develops a memory and the yard develops ruts. It's always best to change directions every mowing cycle. So if you mowed the yard one way this time, say IIIIII, next time mow it diagonal, say //////, then the next time \\\\\\\. You get the idea. The yard over time will smooth itself out and your cut quality will improve dramatically.
I would argue that Lugbolt
Rule of thumb is the finer the cutting edge the better the cut
Push mowers usually have a 1.5mm blade with a 0.5mm edge
Ride ons generally have 3 to 4 mm blade with a 1mm edge.
Most US push mowers have a single blade in a round deck so you get a lot better air flow than you even can with multiple bar blades.
Cheap cars have a 3 or 4 blade radiator fan , quality ones have a 5 or 6 blade fan.
A bar blade is in effect a very thin 2 blade fan and they are pushing it to control the air flow properly .
Add to that a lot of mowers use the exact same deck on both the ZTR & Tractor style mowers
