Deciding on a new mower, recommendations needed

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I have a 42” tractor and it is taking forever to do both.

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So I assume you want bigger?

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would prefer a “commercial” mower

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around 5-6k?

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You’d probably have to look for a used one at that price. I like Gravely and the Pro Turn’s (commercial model) start at about $9k brand new. But you can get the ZT HD in 60” for about $7k brand new.

Doesn’t have to be bigger, just want to go faster. The yards are an acre each give or take and it’s taking me almost 2 hours of mow time.

Home Depot has a 54” deere that’s tempting me but I’ve heard either really good or really bad about Deere stuff.

LINK

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Home Depot has a 54” deere that’s tempting me but I’ve heard either really good or really bad about Deere stuff.

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Look at the Gravely ZT-X and ZT-XL and compare them. Comparable price with welded decks instead of stamped. Kawasaki engine. You get a better product for the price IMO. I have a 10 year old Gravely that has been bulletproof. I’ll probably be upgrading this year.

I bought a gravely and absolutely love it. Proturn 260 and it cost me about 11k but worth every penny

I'll also add that in my opinion, with a mower you don't need to be overly concerned with dealer support and distance. The only time a mower should go back to the dealer is warranty issues (which should be very rare on a quality residential machine). You can get OEM or knock off parts sent right to your door. Mowers are very easy to work on. I once had a nice Ferris for over 10 years that never saw a dealer. My current mower is on year 7 amd it will never see a dealer since the day I bought it.

I have a 52” Scag Patriot. About to start it’s fourth season. It has right at 200 hours on it.
Zero problems with it. Kawasaki engine. I change the oil and filter every 50 hours.
I cannot remember exactly what I paid but, it was around $6000 out the door. It is called a commercial/residential. The deck is thick and the mower is well built. I recommend it based on my personal experience.

I sold a few lines before I retired and got out of the business.

$4k to $6K you can get a prosumer unit in most major brands that will get you where you want to be.

Really want to look at the transmission usually Hydro-gear ZT 28 to ZT 30 is fine.
You don't need a Parker pump transmission.

Most brands are decent in this price range and most brands should have a fab deck.
Stamp decks are usually used in lower end units and gives you a good air flow with a smaller engine to lift the grass for a good quality of cut. They are made for neighborhood lawns not field cutting.

I sold alot of brands and I liked the Cub Cadet ZTX series which was a solid unit along with Gravely, Hustler, Toro, Exmark. Bad Boy makes a nice deck along with spartan, but the spindles use to piss my customers off. I have not seen the 2022 units as I retired in 2021. Finding units might be tough, so don't wait as mfg are still cutting dealers orders from what I am hearing.

The thing is to find you a good dealer who will service your product in a timely manner vs a dealer that will put you on the back burner to take care of their larger customers.
Biggest thing I use to see are the transmission especially if people do not change the filters and oil. Engine that is fairly easy change the filter and oil initially after 5 to 10 hours and then after that around 50 hours which is once a year for the avg homeowner.

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If you can do rudimentary maintenance, dealer support is negligible for homeowners.

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LOL, as a dealer we do nearly $3 mil annually in parts and labor, but no they don’t need us. We keep 9 mechanics busy working 40hrs a week year round, but they don’t need us. We run 2 pickup/delivery trucks full time just to pickup and deliver customers mowers for service, but they don’t need us. That’s with 80% residential customer business, most large commercial operations have their own service departments. We do all that and we only service 3 mower brands.

Many customers can’t even route a belt correctly. Many customers would rather pay us to service their mower while they play golf or fish. Not everyone needs a dealer but ask the guy who has a brand with no place for service if he wishes he’d bought from a dealer.