New Lawn Tractor Help

[tazco]

Yes, I’m also looking for a mower and my head is hurting trying to decide what to do. I live in the hills of Colorado at 7,400 ft with an acre of lawn. I also have 200ft driveway that I’m looking to plow. I can get a LT155 15hp used from a John Deere dealer with a new plow, wheel weights and chains for $2k. It looks to be in good shape but I’m concerned that the HP isn’t going to handle what I need to do. At my altitude I’ll be down on advertised HP quite a bit.

Option number two is I wait and save some money and get something larger and new. Maybe just get the mower first and buy the blade, chains and weights next fall. I would look in the $2800 range for the mower so a JD LT160 which would only put me at 16hp. Another option would be a Cub Cadet Series 2000 18hp v-twin.

Am I looking too much into this HP issue? My lawn is on a bit of a hill. I do also understand that a blower on it would be ideal but I can’t afford it and do think a blade will do a good enough job.

Thanks in an advance for any thoughts!

 

[JDGREEN4ME]

How much snow do you get a season? I would be concerned about that if you get a bunch every year.

 

[tazco]

I'm not sure about total snow fall. It normally melts between storms. Another thing to add is that the snow is very dry and light, that's why we have the best skiing. We normally get less then 6in at a time with the occasional foot. I'd also be pushing down hill.

 

[bontai_Joe]

Normally, I tell folks not to sweat the HP ratings on todays machinery, but you are right in that your altitude will reduce your HP measurably. I'd recommend getting something with 18 or more HP. I'd also recommend the blower and you might find something used in good condition that you can afford with some hunting around.

 

[1962]

here in pa,i cut 2 acres(all hill) and plow the driveway(all uphill) with a 10HP c- series wheel horse. i think the horse power thing is alot of buying hype for the consumer at this level of lawn and garden tractors... got folks thinking, "more is better"...when plowing i will loose traction, before i really bog the engine down.. i see all these garden size tractors(sears, lowes,ect. with these really nice engines,big HP too. and there only going to do what the machine weight allows..plenty of engine not enough tractor(weight).

 

[Charlie_in_TX]

In short it depends. If you like spending a couple hours each weakend mowing, 15hp is fine. If mowing is something you barely tolerate get a ZTR.

I don't know about snow plowing, we get near none. I would think snow plowing is one of those things were you run out of traction long before you run out of hp. The opposite is true of mowing. I would think that even being down 20% on hp or down to 12hp, it will still do fine mowing an acre.

When I was growing up, '60 and 70', we used a 7hp Craftsmen mower for 1 acre. It was slow. In the early '80s we stepped up to a JD 110. It had a 10hp B&S and a 38in deck. That engine had enough hp to shread the belts on the deck. I moved to some property in '99. I bought a 20hp koyler with a 50in deck. What a waste of hp. It would shread belts without even bogging.

 

[tazco]

Thanks for everyone's replies. I decided to just go with the used LT155. Since it's so dry here in the summer I really only cut my grass maybe 6 times a year and would plow probably only 10. With that in mind it's hard to spend over $3,200 for something I would use so little. The setup I got was only $2K and I'm sure it'll be fine. I may buy more weights next winter since I'm guessing I'm going to need them.

One last question, is there any options when it comes to tires? Maybe some meatier ones would help instead of the stock lawn type?

Anyway, I pick it up on Friday! Thanks again!

 

[Chadtoolio]

It depends on your tire size...I just got some AG's for mine last week from CR tire. The website is cedarrapidstires.com

Chad

 

[creeper]

Congrats on the tractor..... Enjoy it!

 

[frank_f15]

i would stay with the tires you have and if you need more traction for plowing get weights and chains