Zero Turn Mowers

JoGa · Jun 9, 2015

I just bought a new mower, but have been immediately told many times that I should have went with a zero turn. I have a 5 acre lot, probably 4 acres of mowing. Do zero turns really mow that much faster?

buckhunter24_7 · Jun 9, 2015

Yes yes and yes

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Took me an hour with my old mower to mow my yard I got a 12 trees in it. 20 minutes to do it now. If I'm in a hurry I can get done in less than 15

Kickemup · Jun 9, 2015

I run a cub cadet and a grass hopper both zero turns at the mother in laws house. I can run both at wot the grass hopper dose a better job I tried running a 24hp normal mower and it took me about 2 hours longer to do the same amount.

Yoby · Jun 9, 2015

I mow about 3-4 acres. I bought a 29 hp 54 inch regular lawn tractor.... I am regretting it a bit. If you have any obstacles or even just turning around on the end of a run the zeros really make up time. My neighbor has a 46 in zero turn and he will beat me every time.

huffranger · Jun 10, 2015

My zero turn 54" leaves drag marks around all my trees and will not side hill at all. On my hills I have to go straight up and down. My yard is far from flat so that causes problems. So I like my zero turn but they are far from perfect.

My next mower will be a tractor with 4 wheel steer. That way I can hold a beer while I mow, they get all shook up in the holder !!

PrairieGhost · Jun 10, 2015

I mow two acres and have 30 trees and multiple other obstacles. My Sears garden tractor took eight hours. My old 42 inch Dixon took four hours, and was poor on steep ditch sides. My new 54 inch John Deer with hydro steering is good on side hills and if I really push it will do the lawn in 2 hours.

huffranger · Jun 10, 2015

PrairieGhost said:
I mow two acres and have 30 trees and multiple other obstacles. My Sears garden tractor took eight hours. My old 42 inch Dixon took four hours, and was poor on steep ditch sides. My new 54 inch John Deer with hydro steering is good on side hills and if I really push it will do the lawn in 2 hours.

What model of John Deere you running there PrairieGhost ?

DirtyMike · Jun 10, 2015

I stole my brothers push mower while his lawn comes up. Took me 4 beers to finish the lawn last friday. Then the throttle got kinda turned up so I decided to kill off some dandelions with another coating of weed and feed. I forgot to close the hopper and now have a nice dead patch in my front lawn. Don't drink and fertilize, kids.

thriller1 · Jun 10, 2015

Zero turns are great if you have flat land. My Cub Cadet ZTR is horrible on any kind of a slope.

guywhofishes · Jun 10, 2015

I mow around 1.75 acres including a steep dike with my dixon kodiak and it handles slopes quite well. handles modest slopes quite well in any direction - climbing up slopes at angles is way easier than down since slippage can only be addressed by accelerating the slower side - which equates to "run away" conditions on occasion when mowing steep downhill at angles - quite a thrill the first time or two :;:rockit- except when there's trees directly downhill - you only do that once

takes 1/3 time of my old john deer rider which was narrower - I have maybe a dozen trees to mow around

get a DEEP deck so that weekly cleaning of the underside of the deck is not a weekly chore

LOV2HNT · Jun 10, 2015

I got little over 2 acres to cut, and with my zero turn I can get it done in about an hour and 15 minutes. My property is basically flat except for the ditch, which will occasionally give me fits cause of the angle but nothing major. Would buy another one in a heart beat.

Tommyboy · Jun 10, 2015

huffranger said:
My zero turn 54" leaves drag marks around all my trees and will not side hill at all. On my hills I have to go straight up and down. My yard is far from flat so that causes problems. So I like my zero turn but they are far from perfect.

My next mower will be a tractor with 4 wheel steer. That way I can hold a beer while I mow, they get all shook up in the holder !!

It is called "tire scrub". And I am very sorry to tell you this, but it is not the mower, it is the driver. In-vision your mower like a shopping cart. 2 wheels up front that swivel and 2 ridged in the back. No matter what direction you are moving, the 2 back tires have to move. You have to understand that the inside tire (closest to the tree) is not turning, but getting dragged around the tree by the outside tire. You kinda have to get a feel for it. The inside tire needs to move along with the outside tire. Keep the inside tire moving even just a little bit, and you will eliminate your tire scrub. I dont have any advice on the side hill problem.

remm · Jun 10, 2015

huffranger said:
My zero turn 54" leaves drag marks around all my trees and will not side hill at all. On my hills I have to go straight up and down. My yard is far from flat so that causes problems. So I like my zero turn but they are far from perfect.

My next mower will be a tractor with 4 wheel steer. That way I can hold a beer while I mow, they get all shook up in the holder !!

Exactly, downfall of the zero turn John Deere I have is gotta use both hands to steer, which means gotta stop to have a swig of beer which has already been half spilled by being shaken in the holder. The zero turns with the steering wheel rather than the 2 handles would be my choice. I do have a lot of trees to go around, if it was large area with no trees, I think either would work just fine.

Mort · Jun 10, 2015

I bought the Toro SW5000 here a few weeks back..my yard is basically flat. acre, a few obstacles, just did the the lawn last night....done in a hour versus one and three quarter hour on a old craftsman 38" tractor. Had the yard done and trimmed in hour and half. Only problem I have is, I have lots of trees up on the boulevard, so I have to go picked up branches before I mow. Otherwise, so far I am happy with it for now, clean it after every use. I would have gone to 54" but don't think a 54' will fit in the shed...lol. So, yes they do cut your mowing time down and will vary from person to person and type of landscape you have. Only down fall of mowing is, if your lawn has open patches of loose dirt, you gonna get covered with dirt after you are done, I pretty much have to take a shower after I'm done, I just don't have a thick grass for a lawn , my soil is more sand than dirt in some areas wish I had the funds to do something about that...oh well.

espringers · Jun 10, 2015

love my john deere zero turn. bigger the deck, the more problems you will have with poor cutting on uneven ground. as far as the beer drinking goes, considering i cut my time on the machine by about 60%, i've got no problem waiting 50 minutes to drink my next beer. if you don't let it get too long, you can cut at nearly WOT. and once you get the hang of them, slopes get easier to handle and the drag marks start to disappear unless you are careless. i cut across my slopes and not up and down them. i flipped mine trying to go up the steep ditch once. not cool.

SupressYourself · Jun 10, 2015

I would love to upgrade to a zero turn as I have a few hundred trees to mow around on my nearly-flat two acres.
However, I currently have a John Deere tractor with a 42" snow blower attachment. I really like the blower for my big driveway.
I've looked a bit, and it doesn't seem like you can do a blower on a zero-turn unless you spend some serious coin, and even then I'm skeptical on how well they would work on a slippery driveway. Anyone have any suggestions that don't include keeping two mowers or buying a lame walk-behind blower?
;:;hijacked

PrairieGhost · Jun 15, 2015

huffranger said:
What model of John Deere you running there PrairieGhost ?

Sorry I didn't answer, but I have been away from home and not back yet. The mower is the 25 hp with oil filter. There is a less expensive 22 hp that is without oil filter. I am not sure of the model. The mower is offset about 8 inches left. They call it easy trim, and it doed aid in cutting under low hanging spruce branches and around flowers without running over them. Sorry I can't give you the model right now.

Redmist · Jun 15, 2015

I mow about 4.25 acres. Just bought a Hustler X-1 60in 28 hp fuel injected. I used to mow with a 26hp, LA 175, 54in john deer tractor. Great mower but the zero turn cut time by atleast a third to half. I have alot of trees 100 plus so just turning around them saves time let alone how much faster the new one is. Yard is flat with a slight slope on the long drive way no problems. Anybody looking for good used John Deer?

Jigaman · Oct 9, 2017

Redmist said:
I mow about 4.25 acres. Just bought a Hustler X-1 60in 28 hp fuel injected. I used to mow with a 26hp, LA 175, 54in john deer tractor. Great mower but the zero turn cut time by atleast a third to half. I have alot of trees 100 plus so just turning around them saves time let alone how much faster the new one is. Yard is flat with a slight slope on the long drive way no problems. Anybody looking for good used John Deer?

I have a 2010 LA 175 with a little over 300 hours. That thing has not given me a lick of trouble, not one damn issue! I use it to mow my 3 acre lot (about 2 acres to mow) and blow snow. It does a decent job, especially for what it cost but I sure wish it had power steering since I have alot of trees and was a little faster. I have an old 318 with a tiller on it that is getting tired too. I would like to get rid of both and get one machine to mow, till, and snowblow. My neighbor has a JD X485 that I really like and I see they make that model in AWS (all wheel steer). Does anyone have experience with AWS? I was originally thinking of getting a zero turn but would still need something for tilling/blowing. Would like to stay under 10k.

wslayer · Oct 9, 2017

Bought Deere x380 54" , steers like it has power but for less money than the PS model.

Zero Turn Mowers

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