Who knows riding mowers?

I know it's been covered before, but I'm interested in current stuff.

Had a bottom line MTD for 11 years, and it was perfect. Replaced it with a top line MTD, that's been in for warranty repair a dozen times, and now out of warranty. Every minute I work on it, is time I'm not spending working on my toys. My wife cuts the grass, no questions asked, so I don't want to upset the apple cart here.

I have about 3-4 acres to cut. Thinking of a 46"-48", and she wants a John Deere. I hear it's the same deal as electronics at the big box stores. Lowes depot gets special cheapo models, and the tractor dealers get the real ones.

I'm sure somebody here has the skinny.

I bought the bottom of the line Deere L100 tractor at Lowe's Depot in 2003 and I've been more than happy with it. Nothing but routine maintenance, all of which I have done myself. It's even still got the original battery, which is freaking me out more than a little.

That's all I've got, except that consumer reports consistently rates the basic Deere tractors very highly.

Dixie Chopper. Done. Trust me, once you own one you'll never buy anythign else.

Bobzilla wrote: Dixie Chopper. Done. Trust me, once you own one you'll never buy anythign else.

But will Mrs. Woof see it the same way?

Here's an article on the subject: http://www.homeconstructionimprovement.com/should-you-buy-john-deere-mowers-at-box/

We have 2 acres. We bought a new Craftsman when we purchased the property and it worked great. Only problem was with the 30+ trees, house and shed on the property it took a minimum of 3 hours to mow, not even trim. If it rained that week, it would take 4. If you waited more than a week it took 4.5 hours to mow, plus another hour to trim.

My foather bought a used Commercial Dixie and brought it over. First time using it I cut the yard in an hour and 40 minutes. We bought a smaller 50" "American Eagle" Dixie 4 summers ago. I average an hour and a half of mowing time, and about a half hour to trim. It gets so close that I only trim ever OTHER time I mow now.

Yes, it's expensive, but the amount of time I save and the amount of work I save myself from is well worth the $4k we spent.

I just replaced my John Deere G110. It wasn't the greatest Deere ever made. The front ends were poorly designed. I found a slightly used GT245 model and it fells much better. It has a 54" deck. I didn't want anything smaller. The real ones are not cheap, even used. As far as engines, I've researched the following: Kohler Command engines are good, the new Kohler Courage series are not. Briggs "Vanguard" and Kawasaki's are good, although some turn away from Kaw's because they're Japanese and not American Made. I've heard good things. Anyway, check out this website: mytractorforum.com

I thought about a zero-turn but went with a garden tractor because I want to use a snowblower and some other attachments with it.

My dad runs a lawn service, and he always has at least one less expensive residential model lawn mower as a backup for when his expensive stuff is broken. One of his longest running machines has been a Craftsman mower. It is a rebadged John Deere. The same mower is (was) sold under more than one brand name, with the only differences being the color, the badge, and sometimes the hood itself.

I'm assuming you have an open 3-4 acres. In that case, I wouldn't recommend a ZTR mower. The cost to benefit ratio isn't in your favor. Mowers like the Dixie Chopper mowers are far too expensive for the average homeowner. They start out at new Kia prices.

I'd look for deals on last year's Craftsmen mowers. Make sure it's a Deere mower, not an MTD mower. The MTD mowers are crap, and have been crap for many years. The local Sears store has 2010 mowers for $800 off, and because they're a local store, will haggle.

My family had the same Simplicity mower for 14 years... It's now at my uncle's place and being used as a tow rig for when he really needs to load the trailer up with mulch/whatnot, still runs like a tank.

Just walk around looking at the Deere riding mowers at a Deere dealership and then look at the Deere riding mowers at Home Depot. The difference is very obvious to a gear head.

MTD is a funny machine. It's bottom of the barrel junk, and as such, works just fine. It's when MTD tries to upscale itself that they turn out horrible. MTD, Murray, etc all work real well and reliably as basic no frills mowers. Be it push or ride.

If she is the one who mowes, I'd suggest having her do some shopping and find out what she wants. That may well play to your favor.

We have 3.5 acres, and it's all mowable grass...no forrest, etc...just empty field.

When we first moved in a few years ago, I had a Craftsman riding mower I had in our previous home (1/2 acre plot in a large cookie cutter development). That poor thing, which had been wonderful in typical suburbia housing, gave up the ghost after about 2 months. Besides, it took 4 hours to cut the lawn, even going in top gear most of the time (some spots are too rough for top speed).

Wound up finding a Toro Z4200 zero turn at Home Depot. It was a resell...sold new, returned with some problem, sent back to Toro for repairs and then back to Home Depot. By time they got it back, it was fall and nobody wanted it. They had the darn thing stored outside. We bought it for about 50% of what it was new.

I'll never go back to a standard mower. It had one or two glitches when we first got it, which I chalk up to being stored outside, and the local Toro dealer fixed it at no charge. I can now cut the entire lawn in about 2 hours. Driving it takes a few minutes to get used to, but once you get the hang of it, it's really easy. It's held up great, especially with all the ruts in our property after a hard winter.

For a property your size, definitely check out a zero turn.

Love my LT155 JD - I had an old Cub - 1:15 cut time. Push mower was about 1:30. Lots of hills and obstacles. The LT155 can do it in under 40 minutes due to a ton of speed and a VERY tight turning radius. I picked it up used at a JD dealer for $950. You know what I did for the winter? Nothing. New gas and an oil change and it started right up and mowed the lawn again in the spring. So easy to drive my 3 year old can do it (please don't post anything about how it's too dangerous and I'm a bad father and everything). Highly recommended.

ZERO TURN DEERE! Had one for 3 years now with 3 acres. I have trees so I still need a smaller mower in the tighter places when trees are too close to go between.

Service is wonderful. I bought mine at Lowes but Deere comes out and picks yours up while leaving you one to use in the interim.

My only service was when we were racing and I hit a stump.

Some bonus answers!

I had to go to HD this afternoon, so I checked out the Deeres there today. Tomorrow I'll go to the tractor dealer, and see how they look... and price.

I like the zero turn mowers, but the wife's not a fan. My current MTD has the Kohler courage twin cam. I guess it works OK, but it's a bear to start under ideal conditions. No way it would start in cold weather.

+1 for zero turn. My wife wasn't a fan either until she got to drive it. If you have trees or the occasionally parked car they are great. We even added a receiver to ours (A toro 44" deck) and it moves trailers around like nobody's business.

We have about 3 dozen fruit trees, and just about a hundred others around the house. It's not as many as you think.

I'm the last person who would be considered "brand-loyal" but for me, John Deere is the way to go for mid-sized L&G.

Look for a used Deere; 317, 320, or even better, the diesel 430. The Deere's hydrostatic drive is bulletproof and super easy to use. If you feel you need something larger, find a used 655 or 755. Rock solid, parts are dirt cheap, and they're built VERY well.

As far as I'm concerned, the 80s and 90s were Deere's golden age. Starting in the late 90s they started spreading a little thinner. Their own stuff is still great, but at a premium price. They have branched out into subbing out their cheap stuff so someone else can put their sticker on it and its starting to show.

http://www.tractordata.com/lawn-tractors/tractor-brands/johndeere/johndeere-lawn-tractors.html

I bought one of these when I moved to the country. Been really pleased with it.

It doesn't answer the question, but if I had three acres of lawn I'd be figuring out how to let most of it go back to nature so I didn't have to mow it all.

I wouldn't shy away from anything old if you find it used, I have a 1978 wheel horse lawn tractor that I got from my parents who bought it new. It starts and runs on the first try every spring, I've only ever had to replace the battery on it. I also had to patch the mower deck was getting rust holes, so I fixed it with stainless steel plate. This thing still has the original tires on it! I never really want to get rid of it because lawn tractors definatly aren't made like they used to be.

Believe it or not you can still get parts for this thing too, although I've never had to replace anything, the deck was like $800 to replace so I patched it myself, just because I didn't want to replace the other wise perfect mower! Chris Rummel

Your wife doesn't like a zero turn? Then she hasn't driven it.

I hardly get to drive my Zero turn as my wife won't let me near it. She has too much fun on it.

Zero turn is wonderful, don't get me wrong, but they are just mowers. With acreage, he might need a tractor for something else than just mowing... like when one of those trees gets trimmed and he needs to haul the wood, or he needs to attach a PTO tiller when the wife wants a garden, or a snow blade... or a small bucket... or a stump that needs to be pulled... or a car that needs to be moved. Need access to your plumbing? Go rent a backhoe attachment for the day. Need to level off a pad to build a shed? Rent a blade for the day. Need to run electric to the new shed? Rent a ditch witch attachment for the day.

A mower is a mower. A tractor is a million things, including a mower.

I have an old MTD with a 38" deck for my postage stamp lawn. The next door neighbor (same size lawn) bought a Husqvarna with a 48" deck, that thing is cool.

In your case, I like curtis73's idea: a small tractor. If you sniff around, you can get a Yanmar or similar dirt cheap and they can use all kinds of attachments. My DB club had a Kubota which could be used with a bush hog, 60" mower deck, Class 1 blade, loader, etc etc etc. You could even get a generator attachment; it mounted on the Class 1 3 point and used a short driveshaft. You now had a 10KW diesel generator that could also mow your grass.

Got that covered with a loader.

I need a lawn mower. I'm going to the JD dealership tomorrow to have a look. I never thought I'd say this, but I'd prefer to buy new, and keep it forever.

The Husqvarna's are very nice, too.

Buying new is something everyone with the financial means should do in this situation. I can't think of any reason other than it needing work to sell a fairly new tractor, and old ones aren't always as good as you'd expect.

In my situation, I want the cheapest running mower I can find. A $50 mower is really what I'm looking for.