Sun Treader
Member
I'll try to keep things succinct! I'm currently mowing about three acres of yard, its not manicured lawn, but it isn't pasture either. This is our third season at our place, I bought a Lowe's special Husqvarna when we moved here. Its a 25-something-hp Briggs and 48 inch deck. The mower has performed way beyond what anyone should expect of it, so no complaints about the mower. I've really beaten it hard. Replaced the steering spindles twice, the deck spindles twice, steering linkage, front tires, replaced rear tires with ATV tires, and generally maintained it to the manual and replaced anything that breaks. I end up mowing at night a bunch so I've got LED flood lights front and back. I need a heavier duty machine, I'm just working this one harder than it was design for.
The land has all sorts of slopes, hills, bumps, dips, and other obstacles. The process of restoring the property back to lawn meant a ton of bush hogging with the mower and tractor, just plowing into stuff taller than I am. Like I said, the mower has been really beaten and pushed beyond its limits and its done way better than I could expect.
My big frustration is how the deck loads up with debris and clogs. If the grass gets too tall or is even the slightest bit wet the deck will clog up in seconds so I have to stop and get filthy under there scrapping out the grass goop by hand. Getting the deck off and flipped over is a major pain. It has a deck wash port which has proved useless. I've tired parking in a few inches of water and running the deck and that isn't doing anything much either. A pressure washer is the only thing that gets the deck cleaned out.
This time of year I'm mowing twice a week to keep ahead of things. If it rains for a couple of days the grass grows so much even once it dries out a bit it's going to take a couple of days of progressively lower passes to get back to its finish height. Finish height is the second highest setting on the mower.
Now that we've been here a while and gotten a better idea of our needs I'm thinking about the next mower. I'd like to sell this one while it still works well and before any sort of big failure that would kill its value.
I don't need to go any faster, I actually like my time mowing so the speed of a zero-tern isn't a selling point, I don't think they'd work with the hills anyway. A front-deck looks like a great solution. Why isn't every mower a front deck? Access for cleaning and sharpening is a game changer. What's the downside? I've been reading about Grasshoppers and the Husqvarna and Kubota front deck machines. The Grasshoppers and the Kubota are probably far too expensive for a dedicated mower, my concern with the Husqvarna front-deck is it looks to be built to about the same standard as my current mower; which while pretty good, isn't a heavy duty machine. The AWD on the Husqvarna would be ideal though.
We have a Case 495 utility tractor for the big stuff and I really like the idea of a B-series Kubota for the smaller stuff and the things that would require being on the turf. The mid-mower on those looks well built enough but the problem of getting under there to clean it and change/sharpen the blades is the same problem I have now. A rear finish mower could work. I'm also interested in the flail mowers Woodmaxx is carrying now. They have a smaller one with a hydraulic offset that could eliminate the clumping problems, I just haven't run one before. The front flail they offer on the L-series looks magnificent but the price is way out there and that's just too heavy a machine for the grass.
That's the long story, short question is what's a good mower that isn't going to clog, be easy to clean under the deck, and provide a decent cut without tearing up the turf? Speed isn't important, traction is.
Best solution would be to have dedicated machines for everything; big Case for heavy stuff, small B-series for other tasks, front-deck mower for the yard; but then that's a lot of machines to purchase, store, and maintain.
Thanks for any input!
David
The land has all sorts of slopes, hills, bumps, dips, and other obstacles. The process of restoring the property back to lawn meant a ton of bush hogging with the mower and tractor, just plowing into stuff taller than I am. Like I said, the mower has been really beaten and pushed beyond its limits and its done way better than I could expect.
My big frustration is how the deck loads up with debris and clogs. If the grass gets too tall or is even the slightest bit wet the deck will clog up in seconds so I have to stop and get filthy under there scrapping out the grass goop by hand. Getting the deck off and flipped over is a major pain. It has a deck wash port which has proved useless. I've tired parking in a few inches of water and running the deck and that isn't doing anything much either. A pressure washer is the only thing that gets the deck cleaned out.
This time of year I'm mowing twice a week to keep ahead of things. If it rains for a couple of days the grass grows so much even once it dries out a bit it's going to take a couple of days of progressively lower passes to get back to its finish height. Finish height is the second highest setting on the mower.
Now that we've been here a while and gotten a better idea of our needs I'm thinking about the next mower. I'd like to sell this one while it still works well and before any sort of big failure that would kill its value.
I don't need to go any faster, I actually like my time mowing so the speed of a zero-tern isn't a selling point, I don't think they'd work with the hills anyway. A front-deck looks like a great solution. Why isn't every mower a front deck? Access for cleaning and sharpening is a game changer. What's the downside? I've been reading about Grasshoppers and the Husqvarna and Kubota front deck machines. The Grasshoppers and the Kubota are probably far too expensive for a dedicated mower, my concern with the Husqvarna front-deck is it looks to be built to about the same standard as my current mower; which while pretty good, isn't a heavy duty machine. The AWD on the Husqvarna would be ideal though.
We have a Case 495 utility tractor for the big stuff and I really like the idea of a B-series Kubota for the smaller stuff and the things that would require being on the turf. The mid-mower on those looks well built enough but the problem of getting under there to clean it and change/sharpen the blades is the same problem I have now. A rear finish mower could work. I'm also interested in the flail mowers Woodmaxx is carrying now. They have a smaller one with a hydraulic offset that could eliminate the clumping problems, I just haven't run one before. The front flail they offer on the L-series looks magnificent but the price is way out there and that's just too heavy a machine for the grass.
That's the long story, short question is what's a good mower that isn't going to clog, be easy to clean under the deck, and provide a decent cut without tearing up the turf? Speed isn't important, traction is.
Best solution would be to have dedicated machines for everything; big Case for heavy stuff, small B-series for other tasks, front-deck mower for the yard; but then that's a lot of machines to purchase, store, and maintain.
Thanks for any input!
David
