I purchased a mower from Tractor Supply Company because I generally had good luck there with most things and they had a 30 day satisfaction guarantee. In the first week of purchasing a Husky mower I called because it broke down. The satisfaction gurantee does not cover mowers the manager explained. I’ve taken it in for repairs half a dozen times since I purchased it in June. It’s my backup mower not my primary mower which runs great which is a poulan. This mower is likely bound for the dump once it’s 2 year warranty is expired. What mowers have you had the best luck with? My advice is don’t buy a husky and don’t buy from Tractor Supply. It’s had anything wrong with it from a drive belt which snapped the first day I mowed 4 inch grass to bolts shaking lose that held the battery in. It appears I’ve lost forward and reverse for a second time. Thankfully the service center is excellent because I now know them on a first name basis! I’ve mowed a total of 8 times with this mower. The poulan just keeps right on running I bought at orshelins ( over 5 yrs 1-2 x per wk with 3 minor breakdowns)
For a walk behind? Hondas are great, but not cheap. Toros are cheaper than Hondas and I like their self propelled control. It is a push handle so it goes as fast as you walk.
Mine is a riding lawn mower.
Grasshopper brand riding mowers. I have a family member who works in a store that sells mowers and other yard equipment. They are not cheap, but I guess it depends on your budget.
The spouse has for years had Toro walk-behind mowers and would swear by them. Now he swears at them.
That’s disappointing to hear about Tractor Supply
Several years ago I had a Sears Craftsman that I didn’t appreciate nearly as much when I owned it as when I didn’t.
What I disliked was when I did need parts I had to drive to Omaha and go to a Sears service center where the countermen seemed pretty uninformed about garden tractors.
My boy and his cousin seemed to think it was an ATV and dropped it in a massive hole one day driving it around the field road. Bent the frame and it was never right after that.
I bought a Cub Cadet with a Kohler engine from an actual dealer, feeling like they knew their stuff and could service it, etc. if need be. (I don’t even think Cub Cadet were offered at big box stores at that time like they are now) It was an OK unit, but I soon found that the shorter wheelbase of that particular Cadet model meant my back took a beating that the Craftsman seemed not to deliver nearly as harshly. I think the Craftsman was a bit longer and that seemed to make a world of difference.
For the last three years I’ve owned a John Deere X500 with a 54" deck. It’s been a really good unit, although less nimble than either of the other two due to it being a bit bigger. Have had zero problems with it. But they are spendy.
I think now that if I were going to buy new I’d have to look hard at the Craftsman again. I think they’re really good outfits and the prices are unbelievably low compared to days gone by IMHO.
Cub Cadet still makes a pretty decent riding mower, just dont buy one of the bottom of the line ones from tractor supply or home depot. Look on their website and find a dealer and have them order on of the higher end shaft drive units. Thats what we have and we beat the hell out of it.
The Bad Boy z-turn mowers sold at tractor supply have been very nice. Our maintenance crew at work have two of them and they are very happy with them. I have a 46" cut Cub Cadet I purchased from a Cub dealer. It has the upgraded Kawasaki v-twin engine and it’s been pretty much problem free for the 5 years I’ve owned it. My BIL has the commercial grade Cub Cadet Z-turn with the 60" cut and it also has been problem free. His z-turn is twice as fast as mine and I’m jealous. I’d love to have one but can’t justify the price considering mine is still running well. It takes me about 1.5 hours to cut my lawn but if I had my BIL Cub it would be more like 45-50 minutes.
I might look at this type of mower but won’t consider a purchase like this from Tractor supply again given their return / service policy. I will purchase this equipment from an actual mower dealer only in the future since TSC cannot service equipment. I need to hall the mower in to a service center to get it worked on. TSC could not tell me what there extended warranty was at the time. They gave me a booklet and said add it within a month so I tried the next week and they said then I could not add it but did not apologize for their mistakes. A service center is a long ways away and told me had I bought from them instead of TSC they would have came to me. Lesson learned!
Around here, all the lawn services use Exmark (either stand up, or sit down ZTR) These things are made to run 8 hrs./day every day, so if you end up buying one, you will probably never have to buy another mower again. Sometimes you can get some discount on the price by purchasing a dealer demo model, or a trade in with low hrs, which I wouldn’t be afraid of, given the quality of the mowers.
My brother bought a low hr Exmark trade in model a decade ago and mows about 3 acres with it. He’s not had any problems and loves it.
Years ago I bought a ZTR Ferris. I saved a some money with a cheaper mower, but I can tell it’s not as well built as an Exmark. I now wish I would have paid the extra money and gotten a better mower. The cutting performance of the Ferris isn’t that good, and I’ve had to replace a few parts which were cheaply built.
I think Grasshopper makes good mowers too, but like I mentioned most of the pros here use Exmark. A few use Sanders.
All these pro mowers are vastly more expensive though. When I bought my Ferris, a comparable Exmark was about 8 grand at the time (cheaper if you bought a Demo model). A regular consumer grade riding mower is probably only about 2 grand, so you could buy 4 cheap mowers before you got to the cost of a pro mower.
But a pro mower will mow much faster than a cheap one. Some of those pro mowers mow at 8mph or faster, and do an excellent job at the same time, even with wet grass.
I bought a Toro commercial 48" walk-behind mower 10 years ago and have had no problems at all with it. It is similar to Exmark/Scag in its construction and durability. The big box store tractors are fragile with their hoods getting easily bashed up and all the nonsense of throwing and burning up mower deck belts. Commercial mowers retain quite a bit of resale value, something to consider when it is time to plunk down the cash.
After getting tired of walking behind it I bought a sulky, which allows me to stand up and mow - saving my back from the bumpy lawn. Going under trees I can squat down quite low and the thing mows in tight circles if I need it to.
If you need mower parts, I have ordered from the following outfits and been satisfied with the price and quality. I like the gator blades by the way.
When we moved to the farm, we just had a Craftsman pusher, which is about 7 years old. It’s been very reliable, we still use it for trim mowing in tight spots that the rider can’t reach.
But, since we now have about 2 acres to mow, we had to get a rider. Our land also slopes downhill, so we needed something with both good power and cutting width. I did a lot of research, and it was between a 48" Deere and Husqvarna. They both got good reviews, but the Husq just seemed to be more rugged, including a reinforced mowing deck. It has a strong 24hp V engine from Briggs and Stratton.
We paid about $2200 for it from Lowe’s in summer of 2014, and have used it for 3 mowing seasons. It’s been very reliable so far, and I tend to mow in deep grass more often than I should. I’ve even mowed around some of my fruit trees, which are in some more rugged turf areas. But, I don’t do it often, it’s a bit much for this mower. I usually bush hog those areas.
I put a mulching blade kit on it last year, but hate it, as it clogs up more often. I’m thinking of putting the standard blades back on it, but my wife said the mulcher would work better if I mowed more often. We’ll see. I don’t want to mow every 5 days if I can avoid it.
I will say that I’ve noticed that some of the paint under the deck has flaked off. But thats prob to be expected. I will keep an eye on it, but I’m not too concerned. I can always repaint it. So, that’s my experience with a Husqvarna after 3 years.
Yes, Exmark is great. My other neighbor just bought one about a year ago. $12 grand, has a roll bar, and appears to go about 20 mph. lol. That thing flys!
I have a John Deere 54" Ztrak I bought 5-years ago. I have 5-6 acres of mowing and I circle around every tree and shrub. One of the best things I ever did was change the tires for ATV tires that are the same size. My terrain is very hilly. I have a John Deere dealership 4 miles from my home and that’s where I bought it. All I do is change the oil and filter and often. It’s a sound machine.
I circle more than 450 trees and shrubs and mow every week with it. When it rains for a few weeks and the turf gets up to 6" or more tall, it doesn’t hesitate. I think John Deere makes a hell of a zero turn mower for the money. I’ve changed the battery once and one belt. That’s all it’s needed thus far. I stop half way thru mowing and put it up to scrape the deck and then finish the job. I keep that mower looking brand new for each mow, maybe that’s why it continues to run so well.
Dax
about 30 years ago I purchased a DR mower with both 48 inch finish mower and 30 inch brush deck. I’ve had to replace one blade spindle, several belts for the finish mower deck, ignition coil for the engine. With the brush deck mounted it will take down 1 1/2" saplings, six foot high grass and brush.
For my 10 acres of walnuts I use a Mott (now Alamo) 88" mower with a Rears kick wheel mower attached. This was purchased in 1987 (kick wheel mower added later), I’ve replaced the knives a couple of times, repainted it once, and I believe I replaced the belt once. Mower is mounted on Kubota L3600 tractor.
For walk behind I use the Honda around trees. It costs more but you can get a 6 year warranty from Honda. 5 year standard with a 1 year extra when you register it. Tractor brush hog gets the rest. It works well
My torro i have now has been a good mower but its very heavy so i must keep lighter mowers around for when its wet. I learned to not worry as much about mowing as well.
I was recently mowing with my torro and the mower died and would not start. Naturally I thought it was the battery it was not. I bypassed the ignition using a spatula to start it after I attempted to jump start it with the old farm truck.
I’m not a lawn mower mechanic but the sky looks full of rain clouds. Had a feeling I better get it out of the field . The blades did not engage on the way back to the barn but the off switch worked fine.
Sure zapped that spatula!
My Pappy had a Kubota mower I used to mow his place years ago, it was a great machine that I think was sold with the place when he passed. At work we had a Gravely, probably from the 70s (came with the office) that was an absolute terror to use on our hillside with basically no safety features. It was a tank though. One day I noticed it was lower on oil and the boss said “It’ll be FINE!” and within an hour or two the engine had blown up. We’ve just had a company come to mow and converted most of the hill to “forest” now. My neighbors all have Cub Cadet or John Deere, and they seem to enjoy their weekly mowing (sometimes multiple times a week on the JD, retirement must be boring haha).
If I had a larger yard (30 minutes or less with a push mower, probably 15 once I plant/mulch all my trees) I would honestly go JD or Kubota, whichever I could find a good deal on used.