Follow Up Good Riding Mower

[Steve@Advance]

Got some good advise to pass along. Now for the rest of the story...

I've been looking for a small ZTR for use on my city lot yard. Up to now my wife and I have kept it mowed with a push mower. It about wears her out, and my knees are saying enough, so I had been looking for a riding mower.

Well last week I found one on Ebay. It definitely fell into the category of a "too good to be true" scam. I almost didn't bid, but since they have buyer protection, I got brave and gave it a shot.

At first I thought it was turning bad. The seller was reluctant to communicate through Ebay Email, wanted to talk on the phone, but I could not understand him, giving vague answers. I did make arrangements to come get it, 400 miles away in Louisiana.

Texting turned out to be the way to communicate. I still wasn't convinced it was for real so I had him send me a picture of it in front of his house with the address showing in the same photo. He did, so I went.

Everything went really well. He turned out to be a really nice guy, met his wife and 2 little girls. He was just as distrustful of me as I was of him at first! First time for both of us doing a "Local Pick Up Only" deal.

His wife told me they personally knew someone that was lured to their death on a Craigs List deal gone bad, so I guess they had reason to be afraid of a stranger coming to their house.

Anyway, what I bought was a 34" Hustler Dash mower. It is brand new, 6 hours on the clock. Got the original paper work where he bought it from Lowes the end of summer. He paid $2400, I got it for $1500 including tax. It's not a real well built machine, but with just me operating it, and as small as this yard is, it will hopefully last the rest of my days.

I asked why it didn't work out for him, said he nor his wife liked it, just couldn't master driving something without a steering wheel!

OK...

Then he starts asking me about what he should look for in a replacement. I told him I would do some research and get back to him. Kinda feel sorry for them, thinking lawn care must be something new to them.

Thanks for the advise!

 

[37chief]

Some times things just work out. You drove 400 miles, that's quite a drive. I am glad I don't have much of a lawn. It's about 20x30 ft. for some reason the wife took to mowing it a year or so ago. She kind of likes it. Dad never had a lawn when I was young. He had to haul our water, so not much water was wasted on a lawn. Stan

 

[BAnNC]

Glad it worked out for you, Steve. I feel for the guy not understanding the two lever concept. You shoulda seen me trying to get our first ZTR on and then off the trailer when I went to pick it up.

 

[coshoo]

They do have ztr's with a steering wheel, but I've never tried one. They might be happier with a conventional rider.

 

[steve19438]

"city lot yard"

watch it if you have mow near or around curbs.

 

[ztrmowers]

I cannot believe you went 400 mile for a LAWNMOWER oh well, yea that unit will work had a 30" unit here sold couple months ago 1750 with suspension. when they said the did not like the steering, did you actually drive it, cause if they are not set right people do shy away real fast from them. lowes setup people are to be desired. let me know how it really turns out when you drive it

 

[Steve@Advance]

I drove it around and put it on the trailer, everything seemed fine.

This was supposed to be a combined purpose trip. My wife was wanting to visit her sister in Houston, plan was to get the mower, stop by Houston and spend the night.

But, wife started getting sick Friday after I had already committed to go get it. So she couldn't go, it turned into a turn and burn back home.