Belly mower to zero turn time savings?

[Mike Cruz]

A little late to the party, Matt, but I have a John Deere zero turn with a 60" deck. It does a great job. There are some design issues that they may have solved/changed by now (mine is 8 years old), but other than that, I love it. It would be very hard to go back to a riding mower. The advantage to a riding mower is that you can pull a cart and such. But I have an ATV, so I don't need that feature...

I mow about 2 acres (around the house, the driveway, and around the exterior of our pastures...two swipes). Does a great job. I used to mow our three 3 acre pastures with it. But the tallest I can set it is 5" and needed higher so I got a finish mower for my tractor for that. But even so, when I was mowing the fields, I could do a 3 acre pasture in about 1 1/2 hours. Cutting wet grass? Well, yeah, you "can", but wet grass clumps up. So, I don't do it...

[Matt Meiser]

We'll be keeping the compact tractor for general purposes, brush hogging, and snow removal if we get the ZTR. I'll still have to maintain 6-7 wild acres, a lot of driveway, and landscaping. And the tractor loader is handy to move machinery too

[Matt Meiser]

I went today and test drove the one I was looking at on their lawn. There's a definite learning curve but I can definetly see where time savings will come from. And with easy of maintenance. It's very comfortable to drive even on rough terrain.

Anyway, they are delivering mine as early as this evening if they can get the prep done.

I'll check back in down the road when I get proficient at driving.

[Jim Becker]

Yea, the first couple times you drive a ZTR it can appear a little like driving under the influence...heh...heh...

[Matt Meiser]

Yeah, the salesman warned me to practice away from stuff. One of their customers too out the side of his truck first time out.

[Mike Cruz]

The morons I got my ZTR from thought I knew how to drive one. So, they let me just drive it up on my flatbed trailer. Then when I got home, I had to BACK it off the trailer! Yeah, THAT was fun...

[Matt Meiser]

By the way what I ended up buying is a Husqvarna PZ6034fx which is one of their commercial units.

[Dave Lehnert]

By the way what I ended up buying is a Husqvarna PZ6034fx which is one of their commercial units.

This spring, when I went to the Toro dealer to get tuneup stuff, I noticed they started selling Husqvarna ZTR's. I looked them over and was impressed. Looked like a good price too. Keep us up to date how you like it.

[Matt Meiser]

Well, they delivered it about 8 this evening. I thought I overheard them say they sold 2 this week. Nope. Three.

IMG_1478.jpg

The bugs were getting bad but I mowed a fairly open part of the yard MUCH faster than I would have with the tractor.

[Mike Cruz]

Bottom line is that mower decks on ZTRs tend to be wider than on mowers, and the manuverability of the ZTR just makes things easier and less jerky. You can go back and forth and turn on a dime without snapping your neck. My JD is also the commercial version, Matt. And I think you'll love your Husky.

[Jim Becker]

Mike, in general, ZTRs do have wider decks than typical "mowers" and "garden tractors", but in my case, I went from a 60" deck on the Kubota to a 54" deck on the ZTR...That was the largest available on the Scag model I wanted to buy, but I don't miss the 6". Mowing is still faster and enough sticks out to the left side that I can get just as close to trees and fencing as I did with the larger deck on the tractor.

[Matt Meiser]

I went out this morning before starting work and mowed the first time. It wasn't really ready but the yard is already pretty wet and we've got a lot of rain forecast over the next couple days. At first I was pretty slow and I have some decent divots from turns. By the end I was getting pretty quick. If the small amount that was stuck on is what happens wet, dry will be real interesting. The best part, despite the slowness and washing and blow drying it at the end due to splashing through a hidden mud hole.....2 hours from when I got it out to when I put it away! Woohoo!!!

There's a lot of time yet to be found as I get more comfortable and as I learn new mowing patterns. I used to cut around everything 2 mower widths to allow room for maneuvering. One is easily plenty.

[Keith Outten]

Matt,

Welcome to our Zero Turn Mowers Group

Mine is a Dixie Chopper with a 72" deck and 25 HP. I haven't had to rake a leaf since I bought my Chopper and it will even make gum balls disappear. Tree limbs about the size of my thumb and smaller will also be reduced to dust in a heart beat.

I just acquired a plastic roof from an EZGO golf cart to make a canopy for my Chopper. I figure a couple hours of cutting and welding should have me mowing in the shade this year
.

[Bruce Page]

Country boys have the coolest toys. I have a 20 year old, 21” Lawnboy..

[Keith Outten]

Bruce,

I still own an International Harvester Cub Cadet model 71 mower that was built in 1964. I retired it from mowing about 16 years ago but I still use it to pull a trailer around the yard. The Cadet mowed two and a half acres for 32 years straight with only one engine change, the mower deck has been rebuilt a couple of times. It has a big cast iron rear end, a drive shaft and clutch with disk and pressure plate.

When you buy the good stuff it lasts forever.
.