Riding mowers

[Royall]

My body is telling me it is time to think of a riding mower! I know nothing of what to look for in one. I do see some that are pretty nice and turn on a dime but I'm sure those are way out of the budget... I have an acre and I mow about 1/3 of it, maybe a bit more. I do have a few trees and hibiscus bushes to go around but really, what size and horse power does one need? I know there is a point if you go too small or too cheap, you'll run the machine into the ground but don't want to buy the top of the line either. Know of any good deals on a used machine? I'm pretty handy with a wrench or two!!

Any input from you guys??

[Tink]

I've always bought the riding mower with the "lug nut" type rear wheels, instead of the "wheelbarrow" type rim, along with the sturdiest mower deck I could find. Grew up with a Sears 12 horse, 1/8 inch steel sheet mower deck, impossible to find these days. My newer version is a 26 horse Sears with a 48 inch deck. I have used it on rolling hills and It's a little light on hills for power/traction, mower deck is OK as long as you don't hit rocks, then the mower blade shaft mandrel snaps. Look at what might break/wear frequently and order extras right away along with an extra drive belt to save you grief! I mentioned the Sears, as I am to believe they are a "Husqvarna" manufacture with "Sears" tagging. Another point to look into if buying is to find out who actually manufactures mower for the brand name.

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[Peter Epperson]

I've been very happy with my John Deere from Home Repot. It's the only mower that I've owned that can hit rocks without shearing the blade from the mandrel. 3 years now and about 900 rocks and still going strong.

[Tink]

You have the larger one?

Community begins with Aloha

[Royall]

I always "try" to stay away from Sears. Just have had nothing but bad luck with their service dept. I took a Sears chainsaw in and they wanted 80 bucks to look at it and the guy said it would for sure need a carb. That would run the repair bill higher than what I paid for the machine 3 years before. I took a chance back at home, took it all apart and gave it a good cleaning. replaced the fuel lines from Garden Exchange, and its been running good for the last 4 years.

But thanks guys for the pointers. My property is flat where the grass that I cut is growing.. Normally I would go "big is better"!! LOL but have to be very frugal on this venture.

[Tink]

Have always worked on my own stuff unless absolutely necessary. You know best what you will be putting it through and with that wisdom look carefully as to how it is built to suit your needs. Thick grasses and fibrous, look closely at the mow deck and horsepower to drive it, same check on the drive train if you have ruts, etc. the wider the mow deck the faster you will be done, naturally and good luck in your search!

Community begins with Aloha

[Royall]

thanks Tink... I do all my own repairs for about everything I own. Can't afford to pay the other guy! I don't know how many of my woodworking tools I've replaced bearings, brushes, and switches in over the years..

[Jeffhale]

Thanks to methanol you can pick and choose through several verities of lawn tractors, if you've the patience.

I just bought, (in Florida) an up-grade fer myself because current one is beginning to wear. Shopping on Craig's list cheap to really cheap price for a nice shinny clean mower that the owner is sick and tired of replacing carburetors or paying annual fee to repair, 'carburetor rebuild'. .

60 bucks for a 5 year old very lightly used lawn tractor which I evaluated as a carb problem. just exactly what I was looking for except, priced much lower than I was expecting to pay! {Grinn}

Chemtrol B-12, 3 bucks most anywhere. the methanol is gumming up carbs so fast peps are rebuilding, or having carbs dipped and rebuilt nearly every season. Personally I've replaced carbs or yanked and cleaned em too. Until I Got B-12!

My newest mower was missing and spudering so as soon as got home with it, put the B-12 in and presto!.. But it did not completely fix it,, yet.. with good inspection I discovered the previous owner got frustrated as he'd broken off the plastic limiter on the carb's air/fuel mixture screw and twisted it into to much fuel range. preformed a quick search on the net to find the proper turn setting on it's carb, and wa-la, she runs smooth as silk!

missing can screw a engine up pretty bad, but,, in majority of cases if the oil is clean they didn't screw it up long enough, couldn't use it long enough to damage it permanently.


And so I'm a happy camper once again, albeit it's tempting to friggen buy all the mowers I see on craig's list fer cheap to super cheap, B-12 em, and flip back for major profits! Just yesterday near me, a push mower in free section, photograph in ad, it was so clean and shiny,, it'll guarantee the owner was just plain so P.O. he/she was giving it away, short of taking a sledge hammer to it!. I didn't go after it, but, just from the photos, I knew.

I've tried to get my neighbor to stick some inside of his, whenever I'd hear it starting to miss. but, he'd rather pay repair guy 200 buck every 18 months or so to have picked up and cleaned, go figure? LOL

just do your homework on the majority of mowers and engines, beware that there's some which are complete and total trash the day built, you can search the net about complaints to learn more about nearly every mower sold.. Albiet you have to expect most complaints are dopes too. still, you can narrow down certain pure trash qualities that are out there.. as example, I do not need a full sized one, so really liked certain little 28-30 inched tractors, until I discovered there's a few types that have freaken plastic gears!!. once you've narrowed down what ya want in a lawn tractor, or even a push mower,, wait, watch, and jump on em!



disclaimer: during my wait, for "the one" Occasionally I'd call up sellers and inform em about b-12.. [wink]

My current, hardly nothing wrong, just begging to wear and i'd bought it 4 years ago, same reason, carb. Now I've up-graded, I'll be selling old fer more than paid, I.E. Thanks to methanol gumming up carbs, I ride mowers for free because, I'll get double out of old mower. Still shiny and clean but a few more years and things will break.

[Wao nahele kane]

What is perhaps one of the most important things is the mower deck gauge thickness. The environment here can rust through a mower deck in as little as 3 years.
Most the residential grade machines will have very thin mower decks.
Of all the mowers in the residential grade range, John Deere has a Z235 tractor that has a thicker gauge steel deck than other like type residential grade machines.
For smaller yards with trees and shrubbery within the yard and around the perimeter, the zero turn feature is abundantly helpful and a narrow 42" deck combined with zero turn is capable of getting into areas other tractors of larger size and non zero turn capability cannot.
We manage about 2.5 acres of complex lawn surface with the John Deere Z235 and it works wonderfully. Our former Cub Cadet 50" rusted out on the deck after 2 years use and I able to weld stitch it for another year and it took longer to mow the grounds with the cub cadet also even though it had a 50" deck. It was also not capable of mowing some of the more complex regions of the grounds. The Cub took 8 hours to mow the grounds and our John Deere takes around 5 with far more detailed results. I will never purchase a standard lawn tractor again.

My advice for a small yard or large complex grounds is the John Deere Z235. If not using a bagger, I'd highly recommend a mulching cover at minimum for the Z235.
Aside from the superior performance, it's just fun to use. It reminds me of driving those old electric bumper cars, a blast.

I've welded up several of my neighbors mower decks, all differing makes so I know our cub was not unique to rusting out within a few short years.

[Wao nahele kane]

Also the z235 continues to mow even if backing up and has none of those anti back mowing safety nuisances. The Z235 has one negative feature... no gas gauge. It will run for 2.4 hours on a full tank, so keeping it topped off regularly helps reduce running out of gas in the midst of a run.