Rear Finish Mower First Choice Finish Mowers?

[Olympus]

I’m looking for a cheap, decent finish mower to use behind my house. I have about 1.5 acres that was previously wooded that I cleared this summer and I want to keep it knocked down next year. Probably looking at mowing every 3 weeks or so. I’m not looking for a manicured look, just something a little cleaned than a bush hog can do. The ground is very rough and I don’t want to take my $10k zero turn out there and beat the crap out of it.

Found a 72” First Choice brand rear discharge finish mower locally and I lowballed the seller at $300 and they said they’d take it. From my initial research, they appear to be Italian made. Anything in particular I should look closely out when I go to get it?

 

[duffer]

Couple of things to look at.

1. Check the gear box for oil level and condition
2. lift the mower and wiggle each of the spindles to see if the bearings are good.
3. Check condition of blades, or replace. Italian finish mowers are common in the US.
4. Take off the protective covers and check condition of the belts for cracks, freys, splits.

 

[bigtiller]

The front half of the pto shaft.

 

[DK35vince]

First choice mowers (made by Sicma in Italy)
Good mower IMO, I've owned one for 20 years. Been very pleased with mine and parts are easy to get
Pheonix mowers are the same mower/ different name far as I know

 

[Olympus]

They said the tires are solid, but dry rotted. Any suggestions on where to order parts? From what I could find, the tires/wheels are $66/each. That could get expensive to replace all of them.

Do you think it’s worth $300?

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

For $300 ----- darn right it's worth it!

 

[old and tired]

Yes, it's worth it for $300... Tires look good enough to run for a while. Check the oil but I would buy it first, check and change the oil at home. That's not a deal breaker. Even if a spindle or two is bad, That's a pretty darn good deal....

 

[Vigo327]

$300 and ‘usable as is’ means its worth it. You can decide how much you care about its faults after youve used it. Consider that even if the wheels fell off someone would probably buy it that way for $150-200 anyway.. You have very little room to lose on a $300 deal on this thing.

 

[qstott]

Get it! I bought an 84” one about 14 years ago, used but like new. I think I paid $1800-$2000 for it. Buy Smart is the importer for these and is less than 10 miles from me. I have replaced blades and belts twice. I also replace one wheel assembly and bearings in the other three. Since I managed to buy parts from the distributor the were cheap! The blades and belt for my John Deere 60” deck cost three times as much. I keep the spindles greased and changed the gearbox oil once. No problems with them at all. The deck shell is heavy duty. I hit something and bend the side under a little.I used a large pipe wrench to straighten it. It was good enough, but would have required a torch that I didn’t have to get it perfect.