Kawasaki® FT730V - EFI, 26 horse
Kawasaki® FT730V - EFI, 26 horse
The Briggs Commercial series is regarded as junk.
The Vanguard stuff seems to have more of a following among pro landscapers, particularly the larger ones.
Kawasaki makes a nice engine with strong reputation, but I think one of the 730 engines was known to be their most problematic in recent times. I see two different 730 engines on Ferris' site so not sure which one might be more of a headache than others.
Not to send you to another forum, but these guys have far more experience and in-depth knowledge with the current crop of engines. It's probably worth at least searching around there for more info. Maybe even posting your specific details for comparison to see what they suggest.
I remember the twin cylinder Kohlers having a bad rep. Something like 300 hours was their expected life for some of them. I'm sitting at 480 hours on my 23hp Kohler and it seems fine. Loud af because apparently 12 years of WOT cleans out that muffler pretty well. Going to have to do something about that.
I posted on LawnSite (oops commercial side, should have done homeowners) and the two people who replied are saying to go with the Vanguard. I guess it's not universally accepted that one is better than the other or that EFI > carb. I'll take the salesman's word for it that it's better (famous last words)
We bought a brand new ISX800 with a 61" deck and a carbureted 26 hp Vanguard 810cc. $7,599 with the church discount so we still have $5,700 sitting in the bank for mower repairs or replacement down the line, which suits me fine. If you're in it for the better ride and have the cash, I would suggest that you go for a 2200 (+$2k, +2 hp) or 3300 (+ another $2k, but with a 37 hp motor instead) because in my limited tests it seems that a heavier mower rides better, in general.
The old eXmark Lazer Z HP would do the whole lawn in 5+ hours and this Ferris did it in 3. The two have almost identical top speed and the deck is only a foot wider so I attribute a lot of the time savings to the faster average speed that can be kept because of the smoother ride.
It's worlds better than no suspension - the Scag, for instance, literally kept cutting out because my butt kept leaving the seat and triggering the seat safety switch - but it's still a rough ride over our terrain. If they offer to let you mow with something, really take them up on it and mow until they ask you to stop. The newness wore off after about 45 minutes and then I could really tell how it drove. After that, I realized that it was impossible to make the ride truly comfortable, like a car, and the best I could settle for was it not beating me up. In some spots in the back (the parts I wish we'd stop maintaining) we have root hills and a dry river delta, it's horrible and nothing short of a Baja truck would tame that. I had a few different dealers try to avoid bringing a mower out to us besides their demos, saying they probably had something comparable on their lot, which would be nearly impossible unless they'd paid someone to do a concrete test pad like you'd see for Jeep or Land Rover sales gimmicks. If you press them on it most of them will bring one out anyway, FYI. And if you're at all as particular with how you spend your $$$ like I am, you'd better do it, too, because of the three brands I tried the most -- Ferris (800 and 2200), Scag (Patriot, Tiger Cat, Turf Tiger 2), and Bad Boy (Maverick and Rogue) -- no matter how similar the platform, each model rode differently.
Regarding the engine, we'd missed a week of mowing and it bogged down thru some of the thicker areas when I tried it at full speed. If you're like me and don't want to ever slow down, you'll need more guts than 26 or 28 hp on 61".
I went through roughly 3/4 of a 5.5 gal tank in 2.7 hours.
This concludes my POV buying guide of a low-to-mid level commercial zero turn mower in 2020. If it goes to crap I'll update.
You'll need to log in to post.
