Advice on 2nd Mower

[Will_C]

I have a 2000 BX 2200 with a 60" MMM. I use it on my 2.5acres and also take care of my Mother's 2 acres. Mom lives around 6 miles away, and while I am fortunate enough to have a trailer, it still takes 45-50 minutes additional time to hook the trailer up, load the tractor, chain it down, etc. to do an hour and half job at her house.I took a promotion on work, and time is scarce.

I have been thinking about buying a second machine and leaving it at my Mother's.I don't know how much I need to spend, or what I look for. The lawn is fairly smooth, one hill, few obstacles. I don't want to spend much more time than I do now on the lawn. I would like something heavy duty enough to do both lawns, if I ever had a problem with the Kubota, or have the FEL on while I am working on a project.

Here's the questions. What would I be best served by- a lawn tractor or a ZTR? Either way, what should I be prepared to spend for a quality unit? I drool every time I look at a Kubota ZD, but I can't spend $10,000 on this purchase. Any thoughts?
Will

 

[MossRoad]

Have you considered a pull behind self powered 60" mower that you could tow behind your tractor offset? That would give you about a 9' cut (allowing for some overlap) and your cutting job would be done in 1/2 the time. That might offset the time you spend loading and unloading your tractor.

If you want to keep a seperate machine at her house, I would just opt for a nice riding lawn mower or ZTR, not a lawn tractor.

 

[chrisjbell]

Unless you want to spend some bucks, just get a decent (well, "OK" or "functional") riding lawn mower in the around $1K price range to keep at mom's. An offset tow behind will cost as much, and then you'll have more stuff to lug back and forth. If you dump the money out for a nicer toy like a ZTR you'll want to haul that back to your house to play with .

 

[LBrown59]

I have a BX23 and a CC GT2554 and a 6x8 utility trailer. Loading the Smaller CC on the smaller trailer takes a lot less than 45 minutes.

I have a 2000 BX 2200 with a 60" MMM. I use it on my 2.5acres and also take care of my Mother's 2 acres. Mom lives around 6 miles away, and while I am fortunate enough to have a trailer, it still takes 45-50 minutes additional time to hook the trailer up, load the tractor, chain it down, etc. to do an hour and half job at her house.I took a promotion on work, and time is scarce.

I have been thinking about buying a second machine and leaving it at my Mother's.I don't know how much I need to spend, or what I look for. The lawn is fairly smooth, one hill, few obstacles. I don't want to spend much more time than I do now on the lawn. I would like something heavy duty enough to do both lawns, if I ever had a problem with the Kubota, or have the FEL on while I am working on a project.

Here's the questions. What would I be best served by- a lawn tractor or a ZTR? Either way, what should I be prepared to spend for a quality unit? I drool every time I look at a Kubota ZD, but I can't spend $10,000 on this purchase. Any thoughts?
Will

 

[LBrown59]

The lawn is fairly smooth, one hill, few obstacles.
1*I don't want to spend much more time than I do now on the lawn.
2* I would like something heavy duty enough to do both lawns, if I ever had a problem with the Kubota, or have the FEL on while I am working on a project.
Will

A 54'' deck shouldn't take much if any longer than your 60 ''mmm.
2*I have a CC 2554 garden tractor with a 54'' deck which covers all this and then some nicely.

 

[BTDT]

I have a 2000 BX 2200 with a 60" MMM. I use it on my 2.5acres and also take care of my Mother's 2 acres. Mom lives around 6 miles away, and while I am fortunate enough to have a trailer, it still takes 45-50 minutes additional time to hook the trailer up, load the tractor, chain it down, etc. to do an hour and half job at her house.I took a promotion on work, and time is scarce.

I have been thinking about buying a second machine and leaving it at my Mother's.I don't know how much I need to spend, or what I look for. The lawn is fairly smooth, one hill, few obstacles. I don't want to spend much more time than I do now on the lawn. I would like something heavy duty enough to do both lawns, if I ever had a problem with the Kubota, or have the FEL on while I am working on a project.

Here's the questions. What would I be best served by- a lawn tractor or a ZTR? Either way, what should I be prepared to spend for a quality unit? I drool every time I look at a Kubota ZD, but I can't spend $10,000 on this purchase. Any thoughts?
Will

If you bought a nice riding mower, would your mom be able to use it, or do you have to mow for her due to her health/inability to do so? Might be cheaper if she can't mow, to get a unit to leave over there and let her have a neighbor kid mow it for her. Easy for her, more time for you.

 

[JerryG]

I have a 2000 BX 2200 with a 60" MMM. I use it on my 2.5acres and also take care of my Mother's 2 acres. Mom lives around 6 miles away, and while I am fortunate enough to have a trailer, it still takes 45-50 minutes additional time to hook the trailer up, load the tractor, chain it down, etc. to do an hour and half job at her house.I took a promotion on work, and time is scarce.
Any thoughts?
Will

That is a lot of extra time. Is it because of the way the chains has to be attached or just the setup in general? I know that the most time consuming thing with loading my trailer is the tie down portion. I just bought some more loops to weld onto the trailer to speed things up. After that, I plan on adding chain key-hole tie downs or grab hooks bolted to the tractor frame.

 

[Will_C]

Thanks for the replies. I actually timed myself with the loading and unloading process tonight. That is hooking the trailer up, loading and securing the tractor and the push mower, then unloading, then the whole process again, then storing the trailer. It took 32 minutes, so I was a little off. It justs like a lot of time for mowing I get done in 2 hours.
Mom is not physically or financially able to do her own mowing, so that is not an option. I just don't know if I would be happy with a discount store mower. I guess my best plan is to start looking and see how much I would have to spend to get a tractor or ZTR I would be happy with.
Thanks,
Will

 

[Iplayfarmer]

If you bought a nice riding mower, would your mom be able to use it, or do you have to mow for her due to her health/inability to do so? Might be cheaper if she can't mow, to get a unit to leave over there and let her have a neighbor kid mow it for her. Easy for her, more time for you.

I believe he said Mom is 6 miles away. That's not far enough to worry about having someone else do it.

As for what to get, I suggest something that compliments what you already have. 32 minutes is a long time to spend every week to go 6 miles, but it's not that long to spend every month when you want to use what's at Mom's house. What do you wish your BX 2200 had that it doesn't? Look for something that has that.

 

[Mud Dr.]

Will, curiously I had the same exact situation. My mother is 86 and can't operate a mower now. She lives a bit farther, 17 miles. I got tired of having to trailer my mower there to cut. I upgraded my 17 hp Murray 42" cut, to a 23 hp snapper with a 50" deck to cut my 2 acres with and just leave the Murray at her house. We have a great arrangement, I get there about 10:30, cut the grass, and she loves fixing a good home cooked meal for me. The Murray set me back $1000.00 in 2001 and has really been a good mower. I think Murray has been absorbed by B&S now, but H-Depot or Sears sells a
42" mower that will handle 2 acres fine. Just my thoughts anyway. Good luck.