Best lawn tractor brand

[M-5]

 

[John SD]

Hero,
After using it awhile let us know how you like it. It cut my mowing time in half. Most people who convert never go back. :banana:

I'm sold on zero turn, just not with sticks. I really don't know if anyone except Cub Cadet makes a zero turn without sticks :???: Mine are both riders, not tractors. One has a 50" stamped deck with Kohler power. The other is a 54" fabricated deck with a Kawasaki. Both 23 HP.

 

[John SD]

bought a yardman in 2004 and still using it. I mow about an acre of lawn. I bought the 22 horse 42 inch cut and have only replaced blades and belts. Change oil and filter every spring. Still trying to figure out why the be nice you need cruise control on a rider mower.

Cal

I want and like cruise on a rider mower. My foot would get awful tired with my foot holding the pedal down for a long time. I wouldn't buy a mower without cruise :idea:

What you gotta cut the yard there in South Dakota, once a year?

Unfortunately, it's starting to look like it Haying got started this week and doesn't look like much. Will be next week before I get to it.

Last year I mowed most everything 4 or 5X and put just over 100 hours on the mower.

 

[ga.prime]

I want and like cruise on a rider mower. My foot would get awful tired with my foot holding the pedal down for a long time. I wouldn't buy a mower without cruise :idea:

What you gotta cut the yard there in South Dakota, once a year?

Unfortunately, it's starting to look like it Haying got started this week and doesn't look like much. Will be next week before I get to it.

Last year I mowed most everything 4 or 5X and put just over 100 hours on the mower.

That's a fair amount of mowing. I was just guessing ya'll didn't get enough rain or have a long enough growing season there to require a lot of mowing.

 

[Supa Dexta]

Lawns here have to be mowed twice weekly this time of year, to keep ahead of it. I'd rather mow hay for hours than mow the lawn for 20mins. Not a fave job of mine.

JD outsells everything by quite a bit here, cub cadets and huskys likely next. In the tractor style. Not sure on zero turns, never pay much attention to them.. See some kabotas around.

 

[hillbilly beef man]

I know I sound like a broken record on the Chinese stuff, but I can't help it.

I seriously doubt if you can buy a riding mower for less than $2500 that is not a piece of disposable junk. I like the cub regret remark, I had one of those. Belt kept popping off. Took the deck off and found the cheap Chinese bolts had bent and wallowed out a hole in the cheap pop can deck and was sitting crooked. All that from 50 hours of mowing a flat fescue/bluegrass lawn. What a joke.

It seems you get what you pay for in a mower.
I got three years out of a Yard machine (mtd), four out of a Husky (not husquvarna). I finally broke down and paid out for a JD x320. I paid twice as much for it as the other two, but it seems to be more than twice the mower that the other two were.

 

[John SD]

What you gotta cut the yard there in South Dakota, once a year?

Unfortunately, it's starting to look like it Haying got started this week and doesn't look like much. Will be next week before I get to it.

Last year I mowed most everything 4 or 5X and put just over 100 hours on the mower.

That's a fair amount of mowing. I was just guessing ya'll didn't get enough rain or have a long enough growing season there to require a lot of mowing.

Last year was an exceptional year. I covered a lot of ground including the church/cemetary, community hall/fire hall, a couple lawns in town, my own yard/corral/lots, and quite a bit of road ditch.

Wall to wall on one mile of ditch and about 6 laps on each side of another 2 miles Yes I get carried away. Still put 70 hours on the snowblower last winter too :mrgreen: Seriously considering getting a 8' or 10' bush hog type mower for the Kubota for the big jobs :idea:

 

[Nesikep]

If you're mowing that much and not making hay, you need more 4 legged mowers!.. and they don't care how rough the ground is or how many obstacles are around either!

 

[John SD]

If you're mowing that much and not making hay, you need more 4 legged mowers!.. and they don't care how rough the ground is or how many obstacles are around either!

Problems is, I would have to fix the fence a little tighter if I were to turn some sheep in to mow the cemetary :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[lavacarancher]

Does the term "you get what you pay for" come to mind?

 

[Dave]

I know I sound like a broken record on the Chinese stuff, but I can't help it.

I seriously doubt if you can buy a riding mower for less than $2500 that is not a piece of disposable junk. I like the cub regret remark, I had one of those. Belt kept popping off. Took the deck off and found the cheap Chinese bolts had bent and wallowed out a hole in the cheap pop can deck and was sitting crooked. All that from 50 hours of mowing a flat fescue/bluegrass lawn. What a joke.

It seems you get what you pay for in a mower.
I got three years out of a Yard machine (mtd), four out of a Husky (not husquvarna). I finally broke down and paid out for a JD x320. I paid twice as much for it as the other two, but it seems to be more than twice the mower that the other two were.

I also got about 3 years out of a Yard Machine. But it took a few repair bills to get that much. I have a Cub Cadet now. It has been working fine so far but the jury is still out. Since I got married the wife has a Husqvarna push mower that she prefers to a riding mower so my mower has been parked. Who am I to argue with her over which mower she uses to mow the lawn? A lawn mowing gate opener, boy am I lucky.

 

[D2Cat]

I'm in need of a 42" lawn tractor; nothing fancy. I'm just using it for my lawn, nothing commercial or something that will be run to death. I don't need any bells and whistles; I just want it to mow the grass and not break down after i use it a couple of times. I'd rather not go with the high priced mowers. I'm looking at Huskee, Craftsman, and Troy-bilt. Those are around $1,000 in my area.

I read reviews and some people praise them while others say they have issues. What do you all recommend?

The two sentences I highlighted tend to contradict each other. When you set the price low, the repairs go up!

I bought a 15 year old Kubota GT1860 that had an engine with a broken cam gear. It had been in a storage shed for 5 years. I rebuilt the engine. So now I have a rebuilt Kawasaki 18HP water cooled, 54" cut, power steering mower for under $1000. (I liked it so well, I bought another one...diesel... for $1200)

Buy something good, needing repair....fix it, then you have something that will out last the cheapies many times over.

 

[Nesikep]

D2Cat.. you WAY overspent

 

[Bigfoot]

You can't compare the cub cadet of old, to the cub cadet of new, but I had an early 70's model cub once. Heavy welded deck, and bushings in all the wear points on the thing. One made like that and serviced would last a good many years.

 

[M-5]

I'm in need of a 42" lawn tractor; nothing fancy. I'm just using it for my lawn, nothing commercial or something that will be run to death. I don't need any bells and whistles; I just want it to mow the grass and not break down after i use it a couple of times. I'd rather not go with the high priced mowers. I'm looking at Huskee, Craftsman, and Troy-bilt. Those are around $1,000 in my area.

I read reviews and some people praise them while others say they have issues. What do you all recommend?

The two sentences I highlighted tend to contradict each other. When you set the price low, the repairs go up!

I bought a 15 year old Kubota GT1860 that had an engine with a broken cam gear. It had been in a storage shed for 5 years. I rebuilt the engine. So now I have a rebuilt Kawasaki 18HP water cooled, 54" cut, power steering mower for under $1000. (I liked it so well, I bought another one...diesel... for $1200)

Buy something good, needing repair....fix it, then you have something that will out last the cheapies many times over.

YEP-- I have a 48" zero turn LESCO- Private label CUB CADET TANK mower. it a commercial one that has thousands of hours on it. I got it from my FIL before ne hauled it to the scrap yard. Bought a 24hp Briggs and replaced the 18hp blown up Kawasaki. I cut 2 acres every other week with it for last 4 yrs or so. and I still only have maybe 1500.00 in it with motor and clutch.

 

[D2Cat]

Nesikep, ya I know, but I also got a snow blower that is virtually new and a plow blade that will fit either. AND WE DON'T GET SNOW!

 

[D2Cat]

Those water cooled Kawasaki engines gave up, usually at around 1000 hours. They were used on many brands of mowers, usually quality brands, like Kubota and JD. When they run, they are excellent.

They had a nylon gear on the camshaft and they were all one piece. When the gear became brittle after so many heat/cool cycles they gave up. When they broke it often tore the teeth of the water pump gear or oil pump gear. Engine just quit instantly!

The new parts are metal on the camshaft. All the parts inside are readily available and not very expensive. The cam is $140, and the rest of the parts don't total that.

 

[Dave]

If you are mowing 2 acres every two weeks you need to put a fence around it a let some cows in.

 

[M-5]

Well, you see this place has been a farm its whole life and the locations of the barns and the grassed area makes it tough to do. When the farm was in it hayday there were 6 tractors feedmills 5 or 6 trucks as well as other equipment in this area. I have shrunk it down by Half of what it used to be. From time to time I will use poly tape and let them in but its a pain to keep them out of the barns and shyting on everything

 

[greybeard]

You can't compare the cub cadet of old, to the cub cadet of new, but I had an early 70's model cub once. Heavy welded deck, and bushings in all the wear points on the thing. One made like that and serviced would last a good many years.

I agree--the old ones were well built and pretty easy to service as well.They'll last a long time and the deck was thick enough you could actually repair it easy if something happened.