Your mower of choice?

cmy330go

My weapon of choice

...and can be used year-round

A bit pricey, but an awesome machine!

jeremymarcinko

My 10 year old Cub Cadet rider still cuts beautifully. Only performed routine maintenance,changed the battery once, and sharpened the blades.

pitdogg2

cmy330go wrote: »

My weapon of choice

...and can be used year-round

A bit pricey, but an awesome machine!

One word
DAAYAAAAM....

joecoulson

No doubt^
Beast mode.

Tony M

Dethatching tines too!

I only have a 1/3 acre but I want one!

pitdogg2

I thought those were De-mining or body rolling doo hickies...

PSOVLSK

cmy330go wrote: »

My weapon of choice

...and can be used year-round

A bit pricey, but an awesome machine!

We have a winner.

scubalab

Been a fan of Wheel Horse garden tractors for 15+ years now. Currently have two - A 312A set up for mowing and leaf collection, and a 314H set up with weights, chains, a full cab, and a snowthrower. Nice having one for spring/summer/fall, and one for winter.

Both are right around 30 years old, and run like champs. The single cylinder Kohler cast iron engines on them are work horses. Both are hydrostatic tranny's, and the 314 has a hydraulic lift (nice for the snowthrower).

Parts are still readily available for both on the rare occasions I need something.

For trimming, I just made the best move. Picked up a DeWalt 20v string trimmer. Opted for that over the 60v since I already have many other 20v tools and plenty of good batteries. Tried it for the first time last evening, and MAN, wish I'd have gone to the battery powered trimmer long ago. I'll never go back to the two-stroke gas trimmers... Nothing but a big PITA with mixing fuel, getting them to run right, and constantly replacing cracked fuel lines... I just grab the DeWalt, snap on a charged battery, and pull the trigger when I want it to spin. I used my smallest battery (2 AH) and it only dropped one out of 3 bars of charge trimming for 20 minutes (not full time obviously).

That Grasshopper rig though... JEALOUS!

Mikey081057

pitdogg2

Its a Yarley...

BlueFox

A redneck Yarley.

mhardy6647

vmaxer wrote: »

Z930A for me, beast.

Note the help sitting on it.

Oh, I thought that was a theft-deterrent.

Mikey081057

No mice gonna take up residence in that mower!

mhardy6647

Kitteh does look like he (or she) belongs there.

mlistens03

vmaxer wrote: »

Z930A for me, beast.

Note the help sitting on it.

"Back away from my throne, human."

Upstatemax

Just got this from my neighbor yesterday:



Sold his house and is moving across state, could not fit it in the moving truck so he gave it to me!

Needs belts and I’m going to do a full maintenance sweep on it, but it’s going to be awesome once the leaves start to fall...

Now I need to clean the garage out from all the other projects going on!

verb

Nice! Love the Chevy too!

joecoulson

That’s killer bro!!

Nightfall

I'm a bit of a Honda fanboy so... of course that's what I'd go with. I have a commercial 21" hydrostatic Honda here. It used to mow 20-30 lawns a day 5 days a week but now it's on residential duty. Thing has literally mowed tens of thousands of lawns for years, still runs great. They're not cheap at around $1,300 though.

https://powerequipment.honda.com/lawn-mowers/models/hrc216hxa

Maybe you'd rather have one that does 0-100 miles per hour in 6 seconds? Honda's got ya covered there too.

https://www.motor1.com/news/353857/honda-mean-mower-guinness-record/

mhardy6647

Our son (visiting us for a week with his girlfriend) and I spent a remarkably drama-free afternoon changin' the drive belt on my aged (late-1990s vintage) US-made John Deere LT166 lawn tractor.

A couple of weeks ago, the belt jumped off the pulley on the (hydrostatic) transmission. I was able to get it back on, but I discovered that the drive belt was in pretty bad shape. $28 and a couple of hours of fairly straightforward wrenching later, the ol' tractor was up and running again.

I figure it's probably got another couple of decades left in it now.

treitz3

Well, it took me from February to September to figure out which brand and model was the clear winner for my household lawn duties. I think I looked at all of the major commercial brands that were available on the East Coast. I was Sooooo close to buying a Kubota but one gentleman I talked to told me the differences between the Husquvarna's, Kubota's, Wright's, X-Mark's and the Gravely's. We must have talked for 2 hours straight.

Key points of our conversation. Gravely has had parts for his neighbor's mower for the past 16 years. He stated that Gravely does not stop making parts after 10 years like some of the other companies (mostly non-commercial).

They have a balanced engine. Less vibrations equals greater comfort. I really did not care about this until I cranked it up and sat on it full throttle with the PTO engaged...THEN it hit me like a feather. There was barely ANY vibration. Smooth as silk.

Serviceable hydro drives. You can change the fluids in the two drives instead of having to replace them when they need more fluid. Being able to replace the fluids leads to longer life. The cost is also about $500 cheaper than the sealed counterparts if and when they need replacing.

The fact that they still make parts for older models was the main reason for ultimately choosing Gravely. I didn't want to blow 8K to turn around and have to do it again in 10 years. I wanted something that would last me the rest of my life.

Our conversation aside, these things are built like a tank. You can tell that they are overbuilt and built to last. I can't see one area where Gravely cheaped out on something. Everything on this thing is industrial.

I work in construction as a Rehab Manager, so I took it out to one of my bigger properties to see how it could perform on a property bigger than mine. This was about a 2 acre property. Eh, I was done in I believe an hour and a half. I looked over to a "field" that has grass that was up to my nipple and I'm 6, tall. I said to myself....."Let's see what she can handle"! I thought the property would look better if that section was mowed anyway. What better way to test the capabilities of this machine, eh?

For the next 45 minutes, I cut that 1/3rd of an acre - get this - While it was raining!. When I left, that field looked like it was always maintained and it was as flat as can be. 2 passes and while the first pass was rather slow going, she never bogged down to the point to where I had to stop. She slowed down when I hit an anthill that was a foot tall but quickly regained power. The engine never even came close to stopping at any time, while it was raining and while grass was rubbing up against my head, elbows and shoulders as I was cutting this field.

I will probably never try that again with this mower but it was nice to put her to an extreme test, knowing that she passed with flying colors. Here she is, already dirtied up for you...





I noticed Decal has one as well, albeit a 60"...

decal wrote: »

Gravely ProTurn 160 Commercial.23 HP Kawasaki engine.60 inch cut. I mow my 5 acres in about 2 1/2 hours.

I got the 52" because of some slopes on my property I didn't want to scalp but I'd probably be able to do the same with mine....just give me an additional 20 minutes. I was able to shave off a hour and a half of my mowing time on my yard. A little over an hour as to with my old mower? 3 and a half.

End result? I got my weekends back.

I can mow, blow and edge the yard now in half the time it used to take me just to cut the lawn.

Tom

joecoulson

Sweet bro

verb

Nice! IIRC, are the Gravely's are built in the Ariens factory in Wisconsin?

treitz3

I think so, Verb. I don't know for 100% certain but I heard through the grapevine that they are built in the good ol' USofA.

Tom

jdjohn

My answer is: my wife.

tonyb

Tom,

8k on a mower bro ? Have a service do it and really get your weekends back.

Good choice anyway, now just find a way to strap a cooler full of beer to it.

muncybob

We needed a small front end loader and also a mower to handle 2+ acres of grass. Could not justify spending $2k+ on something that just cuts grass. Didn't want 2 machines and needed a low profile machine with a mower in the front. Pic is not mine but same model. Ours does not have the ROP(roof). They make about 30 different attachments for these things. 4 hydraulic wheel motors gets you out of sticky situations and built like a tank. Disconnect the hydraulic quick connect hoses and attach a bucket(or whatever) to the front while sitting on your butt. Obviously not intended for small yards but is a real work saver for me.

treitz3

Tony, it was a lot of money. I can't argue that point.

I tried having a lawn guy come to take care of the lawn for me but it cost $45 every mow. During most of the spring and summer months, my lawn grows so fast that I need it mowed on average twice a week. I don't feel like paying $350 plus a month for someone to do something that I am fully capable of doing myself. Plus, he introduced more weeds from other lawns onto my green grass.

With the old mower, I would go through about 4-5 "adult drinks". With this mower? I'd be lucky to down two "adult drinks" before I am done. It holds my SS 30oz cup perfectly.

Perhaps I could not mow as much as I do but I have a lawn service that comes and treats the lawn throughout the year. I aerate and over seed but when the lawn grows, it GROWS! Trust me when I say that you don't want to let it go more than a day or two past the point of where it needs to be mowed. It gets so thick that it lays down layers and rows of grass that you have to either pick up, bag or it kills the grass, it's so thick.

It is what it is but I do love a green lawn.

Tom

treitz3

Well, following up here. 3 seasons have passed since I bought her and have since gotten a tow hitch, so she does that same duties as my old Cub Cadet tractor (except for leaf cleanup in the fall because I now mulch them).

I have had 3 flat tires in the front due to thorns getting in them but once I went in for the second time? The dealer took both front tires off and installed tubes after thoroughly checking for anything else that would cause flats. No flats ever since for 2 years running now.

Other than normal service/maintenance, nothing has been done to her and she currently has about 150 or so hours on her. Here she is, helping me haul some tree branches to the fire pit...



I ended up paying her off just by doing the lawns in the area for one of the investment companies I worked for, the year after I bought her, so she paid for herself quickly.

In the meantime, the Cub Cadet is in a million pieces right now and it looks like I may have to take the engine off to address a reed breather issue. Same amount of hours are now on this one as with my Gravely....and both are equally as abused (amount of work, that is).



My son has started mowing lawns in the neighborhood, so the Cub Cadet is the one he's using.....albeit not at the moment.

All in all, I'm glad I took the time to do the research and speak with as many folks as I did because the gravely will be the last mower I will buy. I already have 4 sets of blades for easy swap out and I just sharpen them all in bulk when I install my last sharpened set. Makes life easier. She cuts like a dream and striping is no problem at all. After 3 years? I would highly recommend a Gravely, if you are in the market. Now is the time to buy, as the mowing season is coming to and end and new models will be introduced for next year. You may just find a good deal this time of year. FWIW

Tom

skrol

I've been walking behind a Toro SuperRecycler since 2005 to cut my 0.5 acre lot. The B&S still starts with one pull.