I bought a JD 445 when we moved here 25 years ago. Stored in the garage, still looks and runs like new. 24hp Kawasaki with 60" deck and full hydraulics. It has mown miles and miles of north Texas.

Thx for the all the info, and why I came here to ask potentailly some really dumb ??'s 'cause I've never been around, used or owned a riding lawn mower/tractor.

The more info that dribbles out here, the more I ingest, cogitate and will rely on what's important to me, as I gain hands on "Shopping" experience.

Again, I have a about a half acre backyard & a 1/3'rd acre front yard that is the major prime issue to keep clean...it has 25 tree's in the backyard alone, mostly 130'-140' tall pines and a scattering of large! oaks and several flowering decorative trees too.

The yard guy is going to come in couple weeks from now and scrape ALL the 4-5+? years worth of pine needles & cones off in a couple weeks in 3-4 humongous trailer loads, so I am hopefully starting from a Clean Slate that is "broom clean".

The 50 year old house had stood vacant for at least 2 years and was poorly maintained for several years prior to that with the owners husband's passing... and the poor old lady was left on her own, alone, with alzhiemers, for over 2 years before her family finally got her into a secured hospital last spring is what I heard.

We moved in late last April and have been concentraing on rehabing the the inside since then,...at first to provide my DinL a Hospice or a place to Rehab after the last planned brain surgery sched'd for January '17, but she passed away before reaching the surgeons table 1st week of last November...so we had to stop and work thru that scenario for a couple months before we could get back to picking up where we left off before she died unexpectedly, still fighting to hang on. This house was bought for her to die in, many many years from now.

So, here we are taking on another major project with the yard and other planned exterior maint'ce & updates, while not completely thru inside & 5-6 months behind schedule.

The budget is a balancing act for cash flow vs revenue stream in retirement. It would help if I would go get a job...but I already have a job here at home.

The BH took out a new CC last week with a long term 0% Apr and enough credit line to do what needs to be done for more than just this yard project...but we still gotta pay the monthlys ....in addition to the existing monthly $$ commitments... and would prefer to not over spend and pay off the new purcahses before we ever hit a payment that incurs the monthly interest fees....so financing is not an issue IF we do not overspend on the front end.

FWIW The house now gives me a bad taste in my mouth and I have about lost all emotional connection with it, and look at it as just another place to Flip these days, on the way to someplace else. So I will not overspend on things I might not ever use elsewhere, or make plans on living here the rest of MY life at this point. Just need to get things cleaned up at the lowest price....and ready it to sell if the opportunity arises.
Ron

It's a ford or Chevy question.

Do NOT get a Kohler Courage engine!!!! Total crap. The Kohler 7000 ("Professional") is much better.

Real lawn mowers do not have steering wheels.

I have 70 trees on two acres. Going from a front turn to a ZTR cut my mowing time in half, and lowered my blood pressure 20 inHg.

When I move to Wolfe City. I will have much less trees to negotiate, but I will continue to use a ZTR.

Some of you guys would make great bait and switch salesmen. What part of $1,000 do you not understand? Post up a picture with the price of a ZTR mower with a bagger.



I just looked. Here's one. Do you think this would be easy to get around trees? Payment plan?

http://offer.cyclonerake.com/w2017-0fi/?...CFVOewAodZS0JXg

Spent most of the day with the BH shopping for a mower...took 2-3 hours to get my BP back down... and almost cut into the time I'd allocated to go over to Jacksonville and pick up the NIB T3 SuperLite 6.5 Swede I traded my SL 308 with a guy in Pennsylvania even up for....

JeezLouise Snapper's are SPENDY...offered me a $150 discount on last years model...really? Snapper dealer does have a last years bare bones 28" cut trade in for $900 that sounds like a good deal for someone with not much needed except just a sit down lawn mower & lots of time to do it in.

Look like I'm gonna wind up with a Craftsman 46" VTwin 20 HP with everything I was looking for at $1699 + a bagger & TTL for about $2200 out the door, either a 2 or 3 year warranty I can't keep 'em straight after the first 6 mowers we looked at, delivered and the sales guy, who I've worked with on all my Kenmore Appliances, is s'posed to toss in a front bumper too....and the Snapper dealer is who does the local Craftsman Service work. Glad to finally just MAKE a decision.

NOW back to hacking on the +1" thick bamboo my 30" handled brush nippers would not cut at or below ground level before the Yard Svc guy gets here to sweep the entire yard broom clean...gonna try a 8" brush cross cut blade on the Sawzall...and then an Ax.
Ron

Dont forget to buy a 1-gal jug of SLIME and put ~20oz in ea fr tire and ~40oz in ea back tire
that should get you about 10 years with no flat tires.

Do it now (or you'll be remembering my suggestion the first time a low tire gets knocked off the bead, and you spend 2 days trying to get it back on . . . .

GTK there about the slime !!
With the Bamboo stumps I'm finding from previous attempts to control this stuff with at grade cuts just tall enough to trip over in the yard duff, as well as my own 100' long jungle of stumps ...a very important thought for sure.
Ron

you need a tractor lol

With the yard you're describing (stumps) I would have probably went with something with a welded deck vs a stamped deck. I am rough on my deck and if it wasn't welded I'm sure it'd be toast by now.

From personal experience I'd also look only at units with Kawasaki engines. Mine has been bullet proof.

Also, a lot of the dealers (not box stores) are offering great financing right now - lots of 0% deals. I got mine for 0% at 36 mos a couple of years ago.

Heed the advice about a zero turn. I don't even have many trees and I kick my own arse every time I mow for getting a regular riding mower. When and if I can ever wear this one out I will replace with a zero turn.

Once you go ZTR you'll never go back to a standard rider. Like Cochise said, whatever you decide on get one with a welded deck.