Help me understand (zero turn -vs- tractor)

[4570Man]

Wow 500 dollars. what model is it. I'm amazed you could get a product like that for $500. For $500 you can't even get 2 new rear wheels and 2 new rear tires

It’s a 428D which is a midmount not a front mount. $500 is way less than market value. I was at a TWRA owned gun range and saw the grasshopper behind the shop with 2 foot tall grass around it. I found the guy in charge and asked about it. He said he was going to sell it to a dealership for $500 but you can have it for $500. The grasshopper had been in service about 10 years and they bought a new Hustler. The deck doesn’t handle hills as well as my small deck but it does pretty good. The deck has a lot of overhang and it’s possible to mow between most things that are narrower than it is. I mow 2 big yards with several acres and the time savings is considerable. It’s every bit of 50 percent faster than my Dixie chopper or MMM. And the fuel bill is less than the Dixie chopper.

 

[BoylermanCT]

If you have the money, get both the ZTR and a tractor. If you can only afford one, get the tractor. I have both, and my neighbor mows his lawn with a Kubota tractor. He is almost as fast as my ZTR, so he mows almost as fast as I do on the ZTR. I would prefer to put the hours mowing on a ZTR as it was much cheaper than my tractor. Don't worry about lawn damage with a ZTR. You will create bald spots to begin with, but after a few hours you will get the hang of it and learn how to turn without damaging the lawn.

Another reason to have both - I was mowing my trail behind my pond today and got stuck in a wet spot in the trail. Had to use the tractor to get the ZTR unstuck. I used my FEL with forks to get under the ZTR tires and simply picked up the ZTR and carried it home!

 

[4570Man]

I’m betting if you bought a new tractor without the MMM the savings would be close to enough to buy a used ZTR. Plan B buy s cheap finish mower that you can use until you save up enough money for the mower and sell the finish mower then. Plan C buy a used tractor and ZTR. The problem for plan C is it requires having the money since your options for financing aren’t as good.

 

[dragoneggs]

After reading through all of the responses and going back to read the OP first post, here are my thoughts. First of all I have a BX tractor with backhoe and no mower, a Zero Turn mower, and a traditional garden tractor/mower with no other attachments other than a small dump trailer (this unit at the time of my tractor and z-turn purchase) was at my rental property so I didn't have access. I decided up front that I wanted a separate mower because some of my property was untamed/rugged and ground clearance would be an issue if I wasn't going to remove my MMM. First, I bought the tractor and as I put in more grass/lawn I upgraded from a push to a z-turn mower. Sounds like your past the push mower phase.

In your case, I think it depends on how much additional taming, landscaping, digging, spreading, etc. that you personally plan to do. If a lot, then a SCUT and maybe a MMM makes sense. If it will almost be always mowing, I would go for the Z turn. It is much faster and more pleasurable and I think a better mow. You can always rent or hire out a SCUT for the less than occasional work beyond mowing to get things to that condition. If you see yourself continually doing projects/landscaping and increasing your area requiring maintenance, then both is the answer.

Two is the uncompromising answer and I couldn't be happier but if you plan to be mostly a mower, and not a DIYer then maybe only a Z turn. After mowing with my z turn, and now that my Garden tractor is back home, I only use it for hauling brush, bark, etc... no mowing. Lots of great input from others... just my :2cents:

 

[dougtrr2]

I would recommend neither. If this is a business location then hire it done and concentrate on the business. Your time has to be more valuable than that of someone mowing lawns. There is a book "In business for yourself" by Bruce Williams that has a lot of common sense advice on running a business. The issue of the owner of a business mowing lawns was one of the points he made. If you are doing it for "therapy" then go ahead. If it is to "save" money then you should read his book.

Doug in SW IA

 

[dodge man]

I’ll just add a couple thoughts. If you get a tractor, you will be surprised how often you use the end loader. I didn’t think I would use mine that much but half my tractor hours are using the end loader.

At least for me the mower deck isn’t in the way when using the FEL. I take it off during the winter because it does catch snow.

I don’t think my BX with a 60 inch deck mows great but it is good. If you want the perfect hard I think a quality zero turn is probably the way to go.

 

[LD1]

Both will do the job and do a nice cut. As others said, time will be saved with the ZTR.

Its clear there are some on here who are ZTR haters. But once you mow with one, you will wonder why you ever mowed with anything else.

And I agree, we need to kow where you live. Just how much snowfall do you plan on getting? Is this a few 2" events per year? or several 10" storms per year? Because it makes a big difference in equipment selection, size, blower vs plow, etc. And of all the stuff you can use to remove snow, a front end loader is about the worst. Better than a shovel, but thats about it.

Now when it comes to mowing, You need a much larger mower on a tractor to even compete with a ZTR for speed. ZTR's are designed to mow....thats it. And they are very good at it.

I have a 60" scag and mow at 8-9MPH and leave a stellar cut. I mow 4.5 acres, with ~30 trees, two gardens, shop, house, and a pond to mow around. takes me ~1.5hrs to mow.

Just for kicks, I took my MX5100 with 8' twin spindle mower and set it down to 4" like I mow my lawn. Now this is a HST tractor, so I can make turns and maneuvers pretty quick, and I mow medium range full speed ~7 mph. So you would think 7mph with an 8' mower would be quicker than 5' mower at 8-9 mph right....
Wrong, took about 15 minutes longer and that wasnt even worried about getting real close to anything. Just hogging it out.

Now with a ~25hp compact tractor and 60" MMM, I would expect to only get ~5-6MPH tops. Slower and much smaller than my MX / 8'. So if I was a betting man, I'd say a a 25HP compact / 60" MMM combo would be every bit of 3 hrs mowing my 4.5 acres. VS my 5' ZTR at 1.5hrs.

Tears in the yard on a turn.......yea if you are an idiot and actually do a "zero turn". You need to do a 3-point turn (K turn).

ZTR's not good on side hills.....another fallacy. I mow my pond bank which is 20-25 degree slopes without any issues at all. Very little risk of rollover too on a ZTR. They are so low and wide that sliding is much more likely than rolling.

So as to what to get....I cannot answer that for you. IF you are dead set on only getting one piece of equipment, you have to decide if taking 2 hrs to mow 3 acres as opposed to 1 hr to mow 3 acres is worth it to get a loader and versatility of a "tractor"

 

[PA hayseed]

MY woods mowing machine (zero turn) can have a broom attachment, cab, chains, dozer blade,snow blower, etc, it can tow a cart. There is no competition in cutting grass with my zero turn and my 7' RFM on my tractor. the zero turn beats the snot out of the tractor. It is fast. I hardly use my tractor for cutting grass anymore, it is faster to cut 9 acres with the ztr. It is a diesel engine and was not cheap. The attachments are kinda pricey too. If the field gets too high then the tractor wins with the rear discharge finish mower as the zero turn bogs down a little too much and I have to slow down or raise the deck and cut twice.

 

[gtstricky]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts. Lots of great suggestions. I am thinking both is the best answer
I will start shopping for a good used ZTR and that will buy me some time while I find a tractor that will fit my needs.

 

[atomchaser]

I started out with a BX tractor and MMM mower. It did fine mowing and other tasks but mower often got in the way of other tasks (most due to ground clearance) and was a pain to get on and off. It was also about a $3K option on the tractor, IIRC. For that money, you can get a used commercial ZTR or a decent homeowner ZTR. I have a ZTR and a tractor now and it is much more efficient set up for me.