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Mower for big yard

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scpurgatory

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the piece of dirt that I carved out for my yard is close to 3 acres (stupid I know) and I'm looking to reduce the seat time for cutting grass. I thought about putting turf tires on my old Ford and using a finish mower, but I really need it to take care of the rest of the place and I'd lose something with the turf tires. Any suggestions...the typical 2 grand mower doesn't make it past 4 years and I spend 4+ hours in the seat. I need speed and durability....there are a bunch of 5+ foot mowers out there..snapper, JD, toro, dixie chopper, etc....in summary where is my 10grand (cringe!!) or so going to be best spent. Thanks
 
For less than $5000 you can set up a Farmall A with a Woods 5' finish mower under it... and a darn nice one at that!

Sorry, but there aren't many of the A/100/130/140 up right now on eBay, but several Cubs and a C! I've heard that the Cub can be somewhat under-powered if you let the grass get too tall or if it is a little wet...

Item #:
320232180373
320232173244
120240645363
150232124155
110238792444

Just a few examples of what is out there and prices - I wouldn't spend $10k on something else, personally.
 
if you have 10 grand to spend keep your tractor for average work discing grading bushhogging regular stuff. and take the money and find a nice used diesel zero turn it is great for speed and durability and they cut just about anything
 
Lots of old tractor out there that would fit your bill. You can buy an old H farmall for less then $1500 and have a belly mower put on have cut your seat time but 75%, or an Allis B/C, or say about 30 plus others all that will handle a woods mower and they will last till you die and your sons die also if you take care of them
Hobby farm
 
In my opinion, there's a great abundance of smaller old iron in just about any color you want that will do what you need it to do for $cheap. In my case, I use a AC-B with a Woods L59 belly mower for finish cutting the yard. I have about $2,500 in it and half of that's the Woods. As long as I take care of and keep using it so it can maintain its pride, I'll be long dead and that thing will still be ready to mow grass...maybe the whole danged cemetary where I'll be buried at that. Your choice on colors.

As a joke, years back I saw a photo, think here of a huge Versatile wearing Ford blue with a 5' hog hanging off the back. Was a funny photo. If I knew where to find it, I'd have posted it. Now...there's a mower. Chuckle.
 
First of all, if you are only mowing 3 acres, a 5ft deck is really bigger than you need. And at 10 grand, you are looking to waste money you do not need to spend. You can get a SE2350 Dixie Choppper for about 5800.00 if your local dealer bought any. other wise, you can get a SE2550 for about 6800.00. Both are 50" deck and will get it done in about 1.5 hrs or less. After 30 years selling and servicing lawn equipment, I know that Dixie Chopper are one of the best out there. If you want a better Dixie, you can get a 2760 Classic for about 8,000.00, but that really is more than you need. Again, as I tell others on here, a mower can be the best, but after sale service is a lot more important than the original sale, no matter how cheap they are.
Jim
 
I have a old super C IH and bought a used woods 5 foot belly mower for 400.00 and put that under it . Then I bought one of those 6 foot swisher pull behind jobs. Works pretty good and not a real lot of money tied up.
 
Kubota 326 pro 3cly diesel Zero turn mower with 60 inch deck.I have owned mine for two seasons with no regrets.coobie :D
 
I use a tractor with field tires and a Farm King finish mower. 85" cut and the higher speed you can go with a tractor cuts down the seat time a LOT. The mower was under $2K.
 
Man for 10 grand I think I would let it grow and bale it for hay. LOL
I see a lot of the Kubotas in use around these parts as well as the JDs.
 
If you have any triming tyo do get a zero turn. My uncle cut his mowing time in half going to a zero turn from a 4 ft rider.

Jerry
 
X-Mark, Grasshopper, Dixon (commercial) , will cut 5-6 ft. at 6-8 mph and do a good job, and have excellent reliability
 
WOW...thanks for the input...the other variable is durability...I bought a JD L130 4 years ago and for the last 2 years I've been patching holes in the deck....again, I'm cutting grass about every 5 days for 4+ hours...which is hard on the equipment and my butt....guess that's my debate...buy another tractor with a finish mower or something along the line of a dixie chopper....keep it coming please...thanks
 
Durability you say? Dixie Chopper has serial number 1 still mowing grass after 28 years. :-)
 
it's not that I have 10K on my hip...just figuring that's what it's gonna cost me to move to the next level....I'd love to get out of this for 5K
 
I've got an Encore 48 Zero Turn...It's sweet!!! If I had more lawn I'd consider a Ferris Zero Turn with independent front suspension....
 
I like the new bobcat zero-turns.
Saw a lawn-care company in fort dodge using one, and couldn't believe how fast he could whip through a yard the size of a football field. I think I'd hire 'em and negotiate to pay for mowing by the hour - it would save a bundle!
 
If you wanted to do it real fast and didn't mind paying up to $10,000 (probably a lot less), go to a commercial Toro dealer or other golf course supplier and see if they have any used groundsmasters or similar mowers. You could probably get a pretty good diesel machine with a 72 inch deck that would do circles around a home owner machine. A gas engine would be OK as well but stay away from the old machines with the Continental "R" engine (Renault). They quit making them and parts are more than a fortune for them. They will warp heads and have head gasket leaks if they get too hot. There are lots of reel mowers used but I wouldn't recommend them. Too much maintenance and too easy to wreck the reels. A rotary is best or a flail but used machines with flail heads aren't common. If you found one though, that's the cats meow. I tried a Jacobsen turfcat with a hydraulic drive flail and when it was sitting still, it was so smooth, you could put a cup of water on the deck and it wouldn't spill. This was with the cutter shaft turning at full speed. Hope this helps. Dave
 
I see a lot of xmark mowers being used by commercial grass cutters. I also talked a guy that contracts grass cutting recently and he said he used Toro's and really liked them.
 
That doesn't mean much. I've worked at several golf courses and my dad sold commercial mowing equipment for over 40 years. On golf courses it was common for the shareholders and/or members to question why they needed to buy new mowers after 4 or 5 years, when their mower at home is like new after 4 years. Cutting grass once week for an hour at home versus cutting grass 8 hours a day, 7 days a week for 4 years. It all depends on hours not how old it is. Who owns Dixie Chopper number 1? Dixie Chopper? You have to compare on a level playing field. A commercial mower will last a lot longer though and like most machines, you get what you pay for. Dave
 
If you looked around enough, you might even find a used 580D Toro that cuts about 15 feet wide. Would probably be very well used though for $10,000 but you never know. A new one is probably around $100,000 or so. They were around $80,000 fully loaded when they came out. Dave
 
You already have the Ford. Find a used Woods RM59 for $600 or $700 and forget the turf tires.
I use my RM59 behind a TO35 with cleated tires and no chloride and also with my MF165 which has chloride in the tires. They don't seem to have any adverse affect on the yard. I mow about 3 acres, not big deal AND then I can do something else with the tractor. I always figure, the fewer engines I have to maintain the better.
 
This seven gang mower cost a grand used, and it was in great shape. Lots of golf courses are getting rid of them now, but this will easily mow 6-8 acres per hour. It does not do well on weeds, and if you let the grass get too high it does not work well, but I like it. These units are made by Toro, I had some jacobson units I got rid of a while ago.

Wayne
PaulaonTractor.jpg
 
Friend has a Grasshopper 721 he uses on the farm (rough ground, rocks, gravel, etc.) and it has held up excellently. Has a 3-cylinder Kubota gas engine - they also make them in diesel. Look up Grasshopper on a search engine...
 
I have a 16 ft Toro 580D for sale. New short block at 2000 hrs. Has 2800 hrs on machine. Will mow 3 acres in 20 minutes. E-mail is open.
8500 dollars.

Dave
 
Three acres? $10K? Get a Dixie Chopper and you can fly through the open spaces and trim close around trees or whatever.

I have a 1970 Wheelhorse hydrostatic with a 42" deck. I used to pull a 60" Swisher trailing mower behind it, and offset to the left. That was a pretty good combination. Two years ago, a friend looked at it and said "Do you like that thing?" I said "Yes!" He said, "Well, I've got a Swisher like that in my garage that I don't use. Do you want it?" I jumped at the chance, and now I pull two (2) of them behind the old Wheelhorse - one offset to the right, another to the left. With a 3" overlap on each side, it cuts 13 FEET at 3mph. Smooth ride, good cut, turns sharp, will mow close to trees, and so far, no problems. I do wear hearing protection and safety goggles. Have to listen to the hum of three different engines, but it mows large spaces in a hurry, and I have very few $$ invested.
 
I had a Farmall Cub with a Woods 59 mower. If the grass got a little longer or thicker, the Cub was under powered. I have a Toro Groundmaster 345 with a 45 hp Ford engine now, and boy, that thing cuts grass. I use it almost like a brush hog. I have a cab and a 4 foot snow-blower for it, so I use it all year. I have $4800.00 in the whole thing.
 
Hey Wayne, why are the golf courses getting rid of them? Years ago I lived across the road from a golf course, and them things cut the greens awesome. But, they pretty much maintained the greens every day.
 
A reel mower can only cut grass as high as half the diameter of the reel. Any garbage or small pebbles can wreck a reel mower. Wait till you have to take it in to get sharpened. You can't do it yourself and it's not cheap. You can back lap reels yourself but will still need to take them in for a sharpening. Often times they will need all new bearings and a rebuild. You have to know what you're doing to set them up and time them. For most people, they would be more trouble than they're worth. A good jake unit is a little better than a Toro but it depends on a lot of things. You have a very nice lawn. You could probaly find a used Toro Parkmaster 7 gang, or even better a Jacobsen F10 7 gang, or F20 9 gang. The real cadillac machine in a big self propelled reel mower is a Jacobsen HF 15 7 gang with hydraulic powered reels. The jake units are better than the Toro because the reels cut before the tires flatten the grass and turn with the front wheels.
 
Golf courses still use reel mowers, just not the big ones anymore. For greens especially, they are the only type of mower that will do a proper job. Greens need to be cut at least everyday and often twice a day. The reason big 7 gang machines aren't used much is that golf courses are now cross cutting fairways and the machines are too big and clumsy for that. Fairways used to only be cut up and down. They use smaller 5 gang units to cut fairways now and also do more contour cutting. Really picky courses use walk behind greens mowers to have a smaller checkerboard pattern on the greens. A riding greens mower actually has less ground pressure than walking behind a smaller one. I've cut many greens. When it's wet and the green has a hill around it can be fun. With the slick tires, you can easily slide sideways down the hill. Dave
 
Shouldn't be hard to sell. Used mowers like that can be had for a really good price. New ones not so much. Why mess around if he wants to do it fast? Dave
 
I've been seeing those Deere rear engine front deck mowers quite a bit at auctions around here for a decent price. They have diesel engines, power steering and have 5-6 foot shaft drive decks, nice units. I've been seeing them for $1,500-$2,200.
 
good luck on getting parts. have had two zero turns bought in 03,04. second one had less than 8 hours on it by end of July due to being in dealers shop all the time. Since then have changed dealers and still get 2-6 weeks on getting parts even down to the belts. learned what is needed on an annual basis and stock it ourselves SINCE FERRIS DOSN'T GIVE A D@MN ABOUT MAINTAINING THEIR CUSTOMERS.
bought a new zero turn refused to even look at Ferris, bought a 72" Super Z with all the options because I can get parts for it if the dealer dosn't have them then they are there in 2-3 days max everytime
Ron
 
Ferris is anice ride have two of them forget getting parts in a timely manner alwasy 2-6 weeks when down and need parts. tried different dealers same deal
Just bought a Hustler Super Z with all options nice ride. parts in less than 3 days no matter what part
Ron
 
Do you really need three acres to mow? Why not move the fences back in and use it for pasture or crops. Or plant an orchard and mow it once a month. I can't imagine spending that much of my life maintaining a lawn, even with a big mower (and paying for the gas).
 
Many to choose from.
I would take a good look at Cub Cadet Commercials TANK.-This is pure commercial not the stuff thats sold at TSC or Home Depot.
Go to any dealer(any brand)and ask them to bring you out a demo for the weekend.
If you are going to lay out the money your talking about you might want to date her before you marry her.
Randy In Iowa
 
I bought one of these about 3 weeks ago after looking at every brand that I could find, Farris Dixie chopper John Deere cub cadet Toro and others. this was the heavyiest made that I could find and the price was reasonable.
cut grass here
 
I mow my 7 acre lawn every week. Last year I bought a John Deere 1600 Turbo Diesel (64 HP!) 4WD which mows about 8.5 acres an hour. These things sell for about $54,000 new but I found a good one with about 1100 hours on it that was used at the Saturn Plant (General Motors) for two years and was still under warranty. It was priced at about what a good 5-6 foot commercial zero turn would cost new. I mow my yard, trim and all, in about an hour. Sweet!
I see some decent looking ones on Ebay and some were reasonably priced. I have seen some Toros that were about the same type of setup that looked pretty good.
I always try to buy this type of item in November, December or January. The dealers are much more accommodating during that time of the year.
 
We have a 8 foot "Busch Hog" bush hog, the thing will cut a 3 inch stump likes its butter, the funny thing is it will cut grass that you would normally cut with your everyday lawn mower, just as good as our little Cub Cadet which is only about 5 or 6 years old. The Cub Cadet is nothing it used to be, I guess they don't build anything anygood anymore, its all JUNK.
 
All I can say is a get a commerical series zero turn and you"ll be happy. BTDT. I have a TORO 72" model with the 27 HP liquid cooled motor..Cut our mowing time from 8 hrs on a heavy duty riding mower to 3.5 hours on a zero turn. (about 4 acres).
Exmark is also a TORO brand which a very good machine. The machines are not cheap, but you should be able to find a model to fit your budget.
There are some other makes out there that are also good- JD, kubota...
 
Hay Guys ---

Keep your Ag. tires.....I took my tractor back and traded for Ag. tires....The turf did way more damage to my lawn, slipping......Ihough I would try Turf tires this time....I havr always had Ag.tires....Ag. tires for me....

If Ag. cut your lawm, you shouldn't be on it any way....Don
 
I am in a similar boat with mowing three acres.

It is easy to see through the two recommendations give here. Those who have mowed such a size for years and those who have not.

If you want to try a Home Depot or TSC unit good luck. They are at most 50" or lucky some will be 60" and with a top speed of 8mph or so. Most of the ones in the box stores that you do find with 60" will be way underpowered, resulting in low blade speed as you try to keep going at 7 or 8 mph, thus damaging the grass.

I even did one better then the box stores and went with a 52" Bobcat zero turn which was an advanced homeowner unit, or semi-commercial unit.

Over time you will find it is way to slow and not wide enough and wish you could go faster. 12mph or more

The key is width and speed combined with power to keep the blade speed up to make it a quick and easy job. That 12 extra inches of width or 4 mph of additional speed do not add up to much, but over time it will make it a lot easier job.


Solution ? If you cannot afford a newer commercial unit keep an eye out for some used ones. Scags or Dixie come to mind due to the numbers they sell and the parts availability are a good choice.

Just my two cents.
 
Look at the huge dixie chopper with dual engines it can mow a football field in 7-8 minutes ,how much faster do you need to go .
 
I always get a kick out of people talking about mowing at 12 mph. I watch those lawn care companies flying around yards with their ZTR mowers and I just chuckle. They're not doing the turf any favors by mowing that fast (especially when they whip around at the end of the pass!). I use a 60" wide JD on my home lawn but I never utilize anywhere near the full travel speed of the mower. Even though it has plenty of power to plow through the grass at full speed, that's just way too fast to do a good job. Going anywhere near the manufacturer's claimed top speed doesn't give the deck enough time to process the clippings into a fine mulch (not a problem if you bag, I guess) with leads to premature thatch build up. A good rule of thumb is: high (blade) tip speed, low ground speed. Don't even get me started on my other pet peeve: mowing when it's too wet.

Maybe this is what you need:
http://www.progressiveturfequip.com/PM36_Slides.htm
 
If you were mowing several different propertys a day ,I am willing to bet your ground speed would increase quite a bit .
 
(quoted from post at 10:05:05 04/03/08) I bought one of these about 3 weeks ago after looking at every brand that I could find, Farris Dixie chopper John Deere cub cadet Toro and others. this was the heavyiest made that I could find and the price was reasonable.
cut grass here
Click to expand...

They sure do look an awful lot like Bobcats? Are they similar?
 
(quoted from post at 22:05:02 0
Click to expand...

Lawn here looks better cutting it with a 12mph versus the 8mph machine. All about tip speed and the new mower can keep the tip speed up higher even at 12mph then the old machine could at 8mph. Just more powerful of a motor.

Plus I get less tire stripes on the lawn. I would never go back to an 8mph machine. Learned my lesson.
 
You're right... if I was mowing commercially, I would care a lot more about speed and a lot less about the health of the turf.
 
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