Kevin--for what it's worth, I'm putting mine back (Kaw 15 HP)on the pallet as soon as I run out the gas (as requested by DR prior to return). At the outset, their money-back guarantee is exactly as advertised--no questions asked. I'd planned to post the following information at some point, but thought it might be helpful now.
I had some early problems with DR; the whees were not shipped for the finish deck, for example, and a couple of wires were misconnected (it would start fine, but would not shut down--had to pull the plug wires)--obviously some QA/QC issues. But I worked it out with DR because the machine seemed like exactly what I needed for mowing steep banks and bushhogging woods trails. They were very helpful (although they sent the wrong wheel parts the first time), and extended the 30-day period to begin when I got everything (an extra two weeks). They shipped by ABF, and the driver unloaded the pallet so I did't have to come home.
I pulled the figurative plug on keeping the DR because I found that it has no ability to traverse even a moderate slope; it wants in the worst way to head off in the downhill direction and, even worse, to lift the high wheel off the ground as it does. While the limited slip is undoubtedly an excellent feature, I still found that with no slip on the grounded wheel, the one in the air would turn by itself--all in all, a precarious operation everytime I tried slopes from side to side.
It can go up and down pretty well. The transmission holds really well, and the brakes do to. But the power unit seems to have a high CG and the mower or cutter deck floats on a pivot point, so that it cannot contribute any stability at all if you get at all sideways--or even diagonal. I also had some trouble backing it up steep slopes, which may have been due in part to tire tread filling up with clay.
That was enough for me--it just doesn't fill the bill for our hills. There are for sure several good things:
Decks really do change in about 5 minutes, once you figure out a routine.
The rotary cutter really will cut anything it can bend down. Also, it is lighter than the bush hog and will go up over some nasty stuff the bush hog insists on trying to eat--usually to the detriment of the shear pin. I was able to clear some scrub which had overgrown 3-5" logs, and the cutter cleared them off with no complaint so I could clear them out.
The finish mower deck does a credible, although not pro-mower, cutting job.
Good headlight.
Hour meter doubles as tach, oil-change timer, and probably some other stuff.
The Kawasaki engine seems great.
Here are the other down sides:
The controls seem to me just a little cheap. The gear selector is a little jerky, wants to skip first, and needs to be ticked into reverse. The dead-man did not work at all until I lubricated it, and then sometimes seemed to stick, shutting the engine down when the blade was disengaged (I know this one sounds like operator error, but I watched it pretty close). Cutting requires squeezing a bottom handle (clutch) up and a top handle (dead-man) down on the same (left) side, which for me made it a trick to stop moving without the mower thinking I wanted to shut it down.
Like JimMO said, turning is an all-manual operation. I was used to this growing up with and owning Gravleys, but the DR is somehow harder to turn--Jim describes it pretty well. Additionally, because of the pivoting decks, the rotary cutter can swing sideways on a turn on rough ground, making a tight turn more challenging. Turning with the finish deck is easier, but still--don't think there's anything ZTR about these. Although my wife is used to Gravelys, she can't wield this around (although, don't tell her I said this, she is getting just a wee bit older /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif.)
Hour meter came with no instructions, and after 6 hours, started to flash constantly.
Price. $3300 (cutter, mower, chains, light, hour meter).
Good luck.
to me). Good for burning calories.