Knowing what you know now, which mower would you buy?

[BuggyMasters]

Hi guys. I am looking at getting a new zero turn. I have a TimeCutter 5000 for the last 8 years. Still does ok, but the cut sucks in my opinion and I am getting ready to be mowing an additional 2 acres so we are talking up to about 5 acres of mowing. If you look at the picture below, take note of the lawn on the right and then take note of the grass looking forward. With lawn like you see on the right, the cut looks like what you see looking forward, I practically need to mow twice. This is with a brand new set of blades. In fact those are gator blades after several failed attempts using factory blades. My only other recourse is to mow so slow I cannot stand it. My time is valuable like everyone else and I dont always have time to mow at 2 MPH or mow twice. I want a mower that could breeze through anything you see in that picture (or worse) and do it at speed and practically never miss a blade. And I am willing to pay for it.

That said, and for you guys that cut grass for a living, knowing what you know now based on experience, what mower would you buy based on what I listed above?

Here is a pic I took last year

 

[CADplans]

Put a REAL mower on the Mahindra ,, :thumbsup:

 

[BuggyMasters]

I actually thought about getting a finish mower to do just that but thought it might be overkill!

 

[MossRoad]

The nice thing about a finish mower is it probably costs less than a dedicated mower and there's no other engine to maintain.

 

[3Ts]

First, I don't mow lawns for a living, but I've cut a lot of different lawns and fields with different equipment. How tall is the uncut grass? I'm guessing in the 8" range. If so, you won't go from 8" to 3" in one cut and have it look like a manicured lawn. Grass is one of the more difficult things to mow. You'll need plenty of HP and sharp blades. Forward speed is important. If you want a manicured lawn like in the 2nd post, you'll have to mow more often. Take a look at how high the uncut grass is on the 2nd post. You should plan on removing at most about 1/3 of grass height, so for 8" you'd end up with 5"-6" grass height.

As for the best choice of mower: I see that you have (essentially) a field with no obstructions (trees, etc) and fairly flat land. Your choices boil down to 1) ZTR, 2) tractor mount finish mower, 3) bush hog. My choice for your field would be #2, the tractor mount finish mower. You can get a wider one than a ZTR so it will be quicker and you don't have to mow around obstacles which would slow you down a lot.

Also, I intentionally left out the flail mowers. I don't think you'd be satisfied with their cut, they're more like the bush hog cut but deal with hidden objects better than rotary blades.

 

[LouNY]

Here's what you need:

a 12 foot swath each pass.

 

[BuggyMasters]

Hmmm...so there’s really nothing that would take say 6” grass and take it down to 3” or so in a single pass at speed? I admit, sometimes I stay too busy to be able to cut grass every week and that’s how it gets to that 6+ inch height. I guess sometimes it is 8 inches of grass. I was under the assumption that there are mowers that could do it you just gotta get something high end. I mean if I could do it every week, my TimeCutter would have no problem. I can cut grass at speed with not much of an issue if it is not too tall to start with.

 

[MF2604h]

I own a lawn care business. There is no zero turn that I know of that will cut that in one pass with much speed.

I have a jd, snapper pro, and Ferris zero turns all commercial.

I have cut plenty of overgrown yards that look like that. I can cut them at about 4 to 5 mph with sharp blades. The blades won稚 stay sharp for long cutting that. You would probably get 2 to 3 good cuts before they will need to be re sharpened or slow down more.

If you want a zero turn see if any dealers will let you demo some. Try different brands and models to see what works best for you.

My jd cuts faster and the good blades jd sells last longer. My snapper pro has a better cut, but is a little slower. My Ferris would leave it like your toro does. I知 not sure I will ever buy another Ferris.

Good luck

 

[BuggyMasters]

MF2604F thank you. Do any of you think a finish mower on the back of my tractor would in fact do what I want? Do I just need to cut the grass more often for real?

 

[MF2604h]

Youæ±*e welcome, if you cut it more often you can cut faster. If it was 4 to 5 inches tall with sharp blades you may be able to get 6 to 8 mph. As long as it level enough to go that fast.

A finish mower would work if you want to go that route.

A good commercial zero turn starts around $9000 and up for the size you would need.