new lawn mower

[Tom King]

I ordered this last April, during 15% off sale.  It was supposed to get here June 28th.  It just came.

It's going to save me a Lot of work!!!  No more weedeating on the shoreline.  The acre and a half field in front of the house took me 15 minutes to cut, including time to put two 5 gallon cans of gas in it.

It's better than I thought it would be.  I drove it 2 miles to the nearest store, to fill it up, after I finished cutting around here.  They have a steep slope in front of the store, that hadn't been cut.  It's steeper than anything I have here, so I tried it out.  The guys were hooping, and hollering, and the guy taking pictures with my camera said that the pictures "didn't do it justice".  At the end of the run, I turned, and went straight up the slope.  This will standard turf tires.

They make a dual rear wheel version, but I figured I'd try singles, and add the duals later if I saw the need.  The drivetrain is the same.

This 35 hp Kawasaki seems like a strong motor, but it loves gas.  Will be worth it though.  This just cut my grassing cutting time by a factor of 5, or 6, at least.

The  16" diameter tires on the front wheels are steerable, and linked to the two large zero-turn drive units for the back wheels.  You can drive straight up to something, almost touching it ( or maybe even touching it), turn hard one way, and the rear wheels counterotate, and you drive directly through a 90 degree turn, without touching whatever was right in front of you.

Cuts tall grass pretty easily at 14 mph.  Air ride seat, and power steering.

Best toy I've bought in a good while.

 

[wtnhighlander]

I can't see a logo in the pics, but that looks like the Cub Cadet a friend of mine owns. He says its a great mower, but its about as big as a VW Beetle!

[Tom King]

Yes, a Cub Cadet.  They're the only ones that make a zero turn with steerable front wheels, linked to the back hydraulic drive units, that lets it hold a side slope.

It weighs 2,000 pounds.  Those front tires are 16" in diameter.  I cut stuff today that I've never been able to cut before.  Our whole place is going to look a lot better than it ever has before, with Much less work output than it has been.  Our two small pastures look like lawns now.

I moved it with the gooseneck trailer, using the back ramps.  The spaces between the angle iron in the back ramps have 8" gaps.  They work fine for a tractor, but I was worried that this wouldn't go up the ramps.  It was no problem.

The slope around that big rock, in the one picture on the shoreline, is steeper than 45 degrees.  I drove it down the slope, turned it around on the rock, and mowed up the slope.  It took about four trips, angling up different ways.  It's bigger than it looks in the picture.  

[pkinneb]

Some interesting features Tom! First I like the steering wheel vs the handles on mine second the steerable front end would be really nice for the ditch I mow. I've been thinking of getting something different and curious about the seat. I have thought I needed some kind of suspension due to the rough nature of the grass I mow is the air suspension seat enough to lighten up the bounce?

[Tom King]

It seems like it makes a tremendous difference.   If you're going fast over rough ground, it's still not comfortable if you're sitting back in the seat, but I sit forward with only my butt in the seat, and the machine can bounce around under me.  Without the air ride seat, I'd have to slow down a Lot, like I used to have to in a regular seat.

One "improvement" this one has over the last version, is the air in the seat is electrically controlled by a switch.  The last iteration had a knob.  I'd really rather this was still just the knob, because I won't change it anyway, once set, and the electrical stuff is just something else to stop working.

I really was about to buy a Ferris, with full suspension, but a regular zero turn would slide in the lake.  The front wheels on a regular zero turn just caster, and if the back wheels slide at all, the front wheels say, okay, we're going that way.

I've pulled several zero turns out of the lake with my tractor.

They make a dual rear wheeled version of my mower, but it's a lot more expensive with extra stuff I didn't want, like electric lift on the deck.  Mine has the exact same drivetrain.  I figured I'd add the second set of rear wheels, if the need came up, but after yesterday, I'm more glad I didn't get the dually.  I did get the dealer to check on the parts needed for conversion, and surprisingly it was only $169 for one adapter. 

I did order an extra set of wheels, and tires with higher traction tires.  They didn't come in yet, and I'm not sure if I will cancel them yet, or not.  One thing about the dual rear wheels is that they do tear up the grass in tight turns.  I figured I'd put the high traction tires on the inside, and these turf tires on the outside.

edited to add:  Even on rough ground, you're still sitting on air, but I think it's the rocking motion that is bad on your back when sitting back in the seat.  I hadn't thought about it, until you asked, and I just have the few hours of experience from yesterday.

[Tom King]

This thing is Awesome.  This morning, I cut all the grass around the house, barn, field in front of the house, yard of the rental house, and all the way around that point, in an hour and 20 minutes.  During that time, I also cut stuff that has never been cut before, like pushing the edge of the woods back outside one of the dog pens that was too steep for anything else I've had.  It's probably somewhere between 4 to 5 acres.

Back when I was hiring a guy to run a homeowner range 54" zero-turn mower, it would take him two 5 hour days.  I've have to go get him, feed him lunch, and take him back home, and pay him at least $100, on top of other expenses. 

It would have been several hundred dollars to hire a regular crew.  One had been cutting the rental house, and that was $75 every two weeks.  Just that didn't take me more than 15 minutes.

I started at 9, finished, had the mower completely rinsed off, and back in the closed shop by 10:30.

The motor loves gas, but that's inconsequential, as it's still way less gas than was burned before.