Country Clipper thoughts?

[EddieWalker]

My Craftsman riding mower has busted a rear axle and Sears has it listed as a discontinued item on their website. I've had it ten years, and it was used when I bought it, so I got my money out of it, but I don't think it's worth putting, or trying to put a new rear end into it. It has all wheel steering, wich makes it more complicated.

I'm thinking about a new mower and something that's fairly decent. I only mow my front yard, which is small, and my fencelines, which is fairly long and growing. The longer I live here, the more mowing I'll have to do with it, but for now, it will only get a few hours a month usage.

The majority of my mowing is done with my finish mower on my tractor, so this is mostly for edges and small areas.

I've read allot of these posts and thought Toro would be a good fit. They have a good name, good dealer support and I didn't find any issues in my searches. My local Toro dealer is also somebody I've had good experiences with my chain saws, so that's a plus too.

The dealer listened to what I was wanting to do and then recomended the Country Clipper with a 42 inch cut for $4,095.

zero-turn mowers from Country Clipper

I've never heard of it and spent some time looking through old threads and surfing online to find out anything that came up. No negatives that I saw, which is always suprising. I really like how it's designed. Everything is real easy to get to and all the moving parts have grease fittings. No sealed bearings!!! It's all steel and appears to be rather heavy duty for a non commercial rated mower.

Any thoughts, suggestions or pointers?

If I spend the money, I'd rather not go through the box stores. Parts and support are important to me and play a big factor in what I'll buy. Sears is just too flakey to mess around with anymore.

Thank you,
Eddie

 

[Gravdigr]

We have a country clipper JaZee pro we use in the cemetery. For residential use they should be fine. We beat the wee outta that thing in the cemetery and it seems to be holding up alright, no worse than any other mower. I really like the joystick control though it is a bit twitchy and takes some getting used to. I also really, really like the way the deck folds up for cleaning and sharpening blades.

My problem is for their commercial mowers they jump from the low end $5,700 jazee pro which is really not enough for what we do to the $8,000 boss which is out of our price range. My next mower in the very near future will be JD 445z with 54" deck and mulch kit I can take it home for $4,800. It looks to be better built than the Jazee models and it uses a separate hydraulic pump and motors for drive rather than the integrated hydrostatic drives. For the $$ it seems to be an all around better machine.

 

[EddieWalker]

Is this the one you are talking about?

John Deere products for homeowners: Features for EZtrak Z445, 48-inch Edge™ Deck

It looks like it has a stamped deck and sealed bearings. I like the idea of being able to grease everything. I like the Kawasaki engine. That would be better then a B&S I'd think.

They list it as a Residential mower. From what I understand, there is Residential, Estate and Commercial grade mowers. I don't need Commercial grade, but would like to be better the Residential due to the amount of land that I have and how some of it is rougher then what most homeowners have to deal with.

Thanks,
Eddie

 

[myyaz33]

You might check to see if you have a good Hustler dealer close. The Fastrak line would compare to the JaZee. 2 years back when I was doing the research for a machine in the 4k price range I looked at both and had decided on the Hustler when an amazing deal on a used Toro Proline came along.

 

[wushaw]

I like that fold up deck feature, my Grasshopper and Hustler does not have that option and in spring when mowing thick bladed stuff it sticks to the deck like crazy, I hate scraping the deck laying on my back in the dirt

 

[EddieWalker]

I've been looking at the classifieds and have seen some commercial mowers for sale less then the Country Clipper. Hustler, Exmark and Grasshopper that have all cought my eye. Hours, abuse and future breakdowns are keeping me from doing anything right away. I'm a little gunshy on buying used, but still might. There is also a Diesel JD 455 ridealong on ebay that kind of has my interest. It's a new item, so the price is pretty low right now. I'm watching it to see where it's heading and if I want to buy it.

In the meantime, I'm mowing my front yard with my old 19 inch electric Torro push mower that I bought in 1995 for my first house with a very small yard. That thing still works great, it's just so darn small!!!!

Thanks,
Eddie

 

[billbill1]

Eddie, I have (I don't use it anymore) a tow behind that has it's own engine. The one I have is 8hp and 44" cut. I towed it behind a Huskey 54" rider and it gave me an 8' cut. The mowers offset or pull straight behind, and can be used on a 4 wheel ATV. They work pretty good and don't cost an arm and a leg-even new. I think mine was $800 several years ago, they sell a 60" model too that I think is $1200. Those prices might be low now but that is what they were a year or 2 ago. Northern Tool, TSC, and Orschliens sell them.

 

[EddieWalker]

Thanks for the idea of a tow behind, but the mower is really for getting into areas that I can't get to with my finish mower on my tractor. My front yard is only 50x50 ft, and my fence line is currently just over 1,000 feet that I mow both sides, the weed eat. I can't get very close to the fence with my tractor for fear of taking out the fence, so I use the ride along.

In time, I'll have allot of other things to mow around, including allot more fence. I wont add anymore to my goals, but thousands of feet of fencing is on my long term list. Then there are the gazebos I want to build as well as future buildings and the list goes on...

I'm going to go look at a few mowers and even another full sized tractor today that I really cant afford, but not buying this tractor might be a bigger mistake then just being broke. We'll see.

Thanks,
Eddie

 

[wushaw]

Something you may want to consider while you are looking since you are mowing so much fence line is the amt. the deck sticks out beyond the tire, the more that hangs out the more it can go under a fence and the less string trimming you have to do.

 

[EddieWalker]

Good point. I'm not sure if those Zero Turn mowers do this or not. My craftsman mower stuck out a fair amount, but more would sure be better.

I mowed about half my front yard yesterday with my electric mower that has always been old reliable. It died on me. Went from running full speed with lots of power to quater speed with nothing, and then totally dead.

I have another craftsman push mower with a gas engine that's been sitting for about five years and I tried to get it started yesterday. I took off the tank, fuel lines and carberator, cleaned them all out and put in fresh fuel. No luck, it will start with starting fluid, but then die again. There's not much to adjust on those carborators, so it must be a seal that's out.

I might just end up backing the finish mower over my yard read slow and easy and see if that will get it done.

I looked at a Hustler mower yesterday that was used and under $2,000 that I didn't care for. It was in fair shape, but it really didn't compare to the Country Clipper that I looke at for brand new and twice as much money.

Eddie