Just saw my first $80,000 lawnmower

[whitetiger]

The F series is all drive shaft and the blades are driven with oil filled right angle gearboxes. No belts

Most of us realize that you have a serious problem with the truth and facts, but:
Except for the fact that only the center blade is driven by an oil-filled gearbox. A belt drives the outer blades and they have greaseable ball bearings.

 

[whitetiger]

you can by an F series front mout mower with a climate controlled (as in heated and air conditioned

Once again, you and your tall tails,
The fact is Kubota does NOT offer AC in the cab on a F-series mower, they never have.

 

[Flogger]

I have only one machine that has an overheat problem and it is a Kubota diesel. Blowing out the radiator isn't an option. I have to soak it with a soap solution and wash it out every 15 to 20 hours to keep it cooling. Kubota radiators suck. With that said that is the only problem I have had with the machine.

 

[WinterDeere]

A belt drives the outer blades and they have greaseable ball bearings.

Wow... hard to explain how someone so familiar with their mower that they're modifying the spindle bearing seal arrangement to improve the design, could not realize the spindles were belt drive, versus drive shaft. Makes me wonder if he has ever even seen the mower he claims to own!

 

[Hay Dude]

Wow... hard to explain how someone so familiar with their mower that they're modifying the spindle bearing seal arrangement to improve the design, could not realize the spindles were belt drive, versus drive shaft. Makes me wonder if he has ever even seen the mower he claims to own!

Maybe he spends so much time in the “Kubota F-series factory AC cab” that he doesn’t know the outer spindles are belt driven?

 

[Dennis Mohn]

I have a Steiner 430, Kubota diesel. I got it as abandoned property , didn't run , wiring was messed up and the dynamo was shot. Got it running properly bought a blade for it and I'm told the value is around 15K . I went in to my local shop to pick up some belts this spring and asked the price of a comparable unit on the floor. $31K just for the tractor , no mower, no bucket , no blade . Just the tractor. A gas powered unit was $1000 less , so $30,000 just for the power unit. Go figure, I'll run mine until it quits and then rebuild it again. I did need to redo the mower deck and add teeth to the bucket but all in I have about $3k in this unit.

 

[WinterDeere]

Those little Steiner's are some stout machines. But they were produced in pretty low numbers, which of course means very high cost to manufacture.

My 3033r was somewhere in the $30k's base unit, and by the time I had it configured with added hydraulics, loader, bucket, plow, mid-PTO... it was somewhere in the mid-$40k's. That was in 2019, when the average car, produced in very substantially higher volume with no dealer customization or conversion required, was nearing $37k.

I have spent my career as a design engineer, perpetually having to predict cost on systems that haven't been designed yet, based sometimes on only the loosest concept of how the final product will be built. I learned from some who came before me, the phrase, "stuff costs money". Despite our products being very high tech custom electronics, the concept that they can be sold almost by the pound or cubic foot, has almost always held true. The same might hold for tractors or cars, produced in a given volume.

 

[Frxdy]

It looks like scam bait to me. It really does not look like a legit ad.

 

[OzarkChris]

Ok, so I've been pondering the OPs question and kept coming up with why anyone would spend $80k+ on a single use machine. I've come up with probably more questions than answers though. Anyway, here are my 4 cents (inflation )!

1. Unless you mow in extremely soft wet grass. Wouldn't it make more sense to spend $60-70k on a ~100hp cab with a $16k flexwing (JD FM4012), 144" (12')? You would have the ability to do other things too for just the cost of the implement!

2. When it comes to mowing grass, especially with the model in the OP post. Is there really that much difference in weight/in2 do to the size difference in wheel size?

3. Wouldn't a really wide ZT like that be just as bad as a tractor when it comes to avoiding obstacles e.g., trees, posts, etc?

I only ask these questions because I have no experience with ZTs - especially this size.

 

[jkahan]

You are going to like that zd1211. I have over 5000 hours across (3) zd mowers, and they are all great machines. My current "new" zd1211 has 1700 hours, problem free.

yes I love my ZD1211 -- got it back in 2017. I actually use it instead of my brushhog on very "lumpy" land -- have had a few minor issues (pulley wheel failures on mower deck) and a major PTO failure but these were all operator-caused matter -- stupid New England rocks. I actually have a bunch of Kubota equipment -- amazing quality.

 

[hiddentacocatneddih]

I mean on 2009 pricing, the gov contract was ~$40 an acre

Tractor and rear mower wouldn't get most of it due to having to mow around stuff.

That $80k mower maybe worth it. We used $7500 used Toro 72. Clapped out toro 54 and the 2 grand stands.

Probably $80k would of bought the truck trailer, and all the mowers we had

 

[Fixastuff]

It’s amazing how much people think they know about something they clearly know nothing about.

 

[dodge man]

In my mind the big advantage of any mower that has the deck suspended out front is it cuts the grass before you run it over with the tires. Yes a cab tractor with a rear mower can cut the grass too but not as well. Worth $80,000, not to me but I’d give $79,500 for it.

 

[KennyG]

It’s amazing how much people think they know about something they clearly know nothing about.

If we only talked about what we know, the conversations would be pretty short - and a lot less fun.

 

[tradosaurus]

It’s amazing how much people think they know about something they clearly know nothing about.

You should have read the thread about EV's. Plenty of ignorance to go around on that one.

 

[kozal01]

Ok, so I've been pondering the OPs question and kept coming up with why anyone would spend $80k+ on a single use machine. I've come up with probably more questions than answers though. Anyway, here are my 4 cents (inflation )!

1. Unless you mow in extremely soft wet grass. Wouldn't it make more sense to spend $60-70k on a ~100hp cab with a $16k flexwing (JD FM4012), 144" (12')? You would have the ability to do other things too for just the cost of the implement!

2. When it comes to mowing grass, especially with the model in the OP post. Is there really that much difference in weight/in2 do to the size difference in wheel size?

3. Wouldn't a really wide ZT like that be just as bad as a tractor when it comes to avoiding obstacles e.g., trees, posts, etc?

I only ask these questions because I have no experience with ZTs - especially this size.

1. These are made to mow, that's why they are marketed to lawn care companies who dont need a Swiss army knife of mowers, they ONLY need mowers. They would mow circles around a tractor day in and day out.

2. Not only can these large ZTR's fit easily on a landscaping trailer so they can be hauled from account to account but they do not tear up turf and they would weigh considerably less than a tractor set up like you describe.

3. No, these are thousands of times more maneuverable than a tractor and leave a beautiful cut. These ZTR's around here are mainly used on lush manicured turf, not pastures and cornfields.

 

[kozal01]

It’s amazing how much people think they know about something they clearly know nothing about.

No kidding!

 

[ray66v]

I asked the salesman years ago, who buys a $50,000 lawnmower?

He said, schools, municipalities, and other government agency's, are the target market. They are spending our tax money, not theirs.

 

[KennyG]

Again, time is money. When an employee is costing you 50k to 100k per year or more you give them the tools to be productive.

 

[kozal01]

I asked the salesman years ago, who buys a $50,000 lawnmower?

He said, schools, municipalities, and other government agency's, are the target market. They are spending our tax money, not theirs.

How else are they supposed to mow the grass? A push mower? It would cost us WAY more to pay someone to take longer to mow with an inefficient machine than to use the right tool for the job.