New ZTR

[Joe]

I am looking to buy a new zero turn lawn mower. i have looked at JD, Toro Exmark, Dixon, and troy built. I am looking for 50+ inch cut with a bagger. I mow mostly in town. What do you guys think would be the best mower to buy for under $6000? Should the bagger be belt driven? Is there a best time to buy, I won't need a new one until next season.

[LwnmwnMan2]

Watch the Madison / Minneapolis / Milwaukee "C" list. As we get closer to fall you're going to find a lot of lawn care guys that didn't make as much money this summer, and start bailing on their equipment.

If you're looking for a good commercial mower, not necessarily a ZTR, you can buy a VERY nice walk-behind for under $2,000 and put a set of "jungle wheels" on it. Even with a bagging system you'd still be under $3,000.

If you'd like a ZTR, go to the local dealers, see if you can talk with the service department and see if there's anything you can find out about different models that would steer you towards or away from.

If you don't have a local dealer for a specific brand, unless you're quite handy with tools, I would stay away from them. There's nothing worse than having the grass grow 2" / day and you're busy trying to tear down, order parts, wait for parts, and put a mower back together, all while trying to live life as well.

BTW, you're administration.... don't you read all the other threads about this subject???

[Joe]

Thanks for the help, i will be sure and watch the for them as the end of the summer comes. What would you be looking for in a walk behind. Im new to them so any help would be great.

[LwnmwnMan2]

There are two types of walk-behinds, belt drive and hydro drive.

Belt drive are quite a bit cheaper in cost, but they have their issues.

Up until about '98-99, pretty much all walk behinds were belt drive. The two biggest issues are the belts will wear out, and if it's wet out, to the point where you're driving through puddles with the mower, the belts will get wet and have a tendency to slip.

If you're just mowing your own yard, or even commercially but have the option of mowing only when it's relatively dry out, you'll be fine with a belt drive.

If you're mowing alot, and cannot help but mow in the rain, then you'll want to look into a hydro drive.

It's not a big issue to change out drive belts, about an hour from start to finish the first couple of times you do it.

As far as hp to mower width rating, I know alot of the belt drives are going to be a 15 hp / 48" to 17 hp to 52" rating.

The hydros on average are going to have about 2 hp more in relation to the same size mower deck.

A very nice hydro drive, 19 hp / 52" deck is going to run about $2,500 used.

A belt drive that's been used commercially is going to be about $700, but will probably have alot of life left for a homeowner.

As far as baggers go, if you have alot of leaves or end up bagging alot, you'll not want the bagger that just hangs off the side of the mower. You'll want a "Trac-Vac" 470. It'll be a bit harsh to look around, but it'll have by far the largest capacity as well as the easiest to dump, epecially if you're transporting the clippings off site.