My JD mower's carb has been acting up. Chinese junk...they sell for $20, less than 80 hours.
Hustler was my choice for ZTR but I have slopes. ZTR's don't do slopes. Only thing I didn't like about the Hustler I was looking at was the 3/4 gallon gas tank. HUH?
Get the one your wife/girlfriend likes to drive...
The Cub Cadet RZT series steers on the front wheels and will do moderate slopes. Mine is not exactly like these as it's about 5 years old, but it has held up well and I can probably do my 3 acres in a couple of hours, maybe slightly less. They are a little more expensive than the two mentioned at the start of this thread, you're probably looking at around $3000 and up depending on cutting width, but you can get them from 42 to 54 inches.
Briggs & Straton?
Just buy a new mower. Any mower.
Any new mower is 80% of the solution and will last for years.
I have a Hustler zero-turn. It mows circles around older tractor-style mowers.
If budget is a major concern - go to your Hustler mower dealer.
They have good financing rates available to take the sting out of the price.
https://www.hustlerturf.com/financing ...I'm sure other dealers have similar financing. (HD and Lowes excluded)
Zero-turn or tractor-style: Just buy a decent new mower.
All the entry level stuff is more-less equal quality - just painted a different color.
Doing deep research in tech-specs of A versus B is just wasting your time.
And in 6 years from now, you'll be doing this again - but you'll have a better idea what you want.
Any new mower is 80% of the solution and will last for years.
I have a Hustler zero-turn. It mows circles around older tractor-style mowers.
If budget is a major concern - go to your Hustler mower dealer.
They have good financing rates available to take the sting out of the price.
https://www.hustlerturf.com/financing ...I'm sure other dealers have similar financing. (HD and Lowes excluded)
Zero-turn or tractor-style: Just buy a decent new mower.
All the entry level stuff is more-less equal quality - just painted a different color.
Doing deep research in tech-specs of A versus B is just wasting your time.
And in 6 years from now, you'll be doing this again - but you'll have a better idea what you want.
I use a 60" Bad Boy. When we bought our 3+ acres the house is on with 45 trees on it I bought a 44" Craftsman garden tractor. It took me close to 8 hours to mow around all those trees every week. All I did after work was mow. When that one wore out, went with a 50" Craftsman hydrostat. I was in heaven because it only took 5 hours to do the entire yard. When the exhaust valve went out, bought the 60" Bad Boy with a 27 HP Kohler engine. According to the hour meter on the mower, it only takes 1.8 hours now to do the entire yard even with all those trees. That's the beauty of a ZTR, you zip around the trees like they aren't even there and keep going. Ground speed is good, but there are some commercial mowers that are faster, but then your talking Grasshopper, etc, and you can expect your wallet to get really light buying one of those.
So, my advice to the OP is to spend the money right now even if you have to finance and get a mower that gets the job done quickly so you can spend time on the deck with adult beverages watching your neighbor waste their life using a too small for the property mower they feel proud of because it was cheap.
So, my advice to the OP is to spend the money right now even if you have to finance and get a mower that gets the job done quickly so you can spend time on the deck with adult beverages watching your neighbor waste their life using a too small for the property mower they feel proud of because it was cheap.
Between those, I'd go with the Cub Cadet. Craftsman parts and service are getting to be mail order only. I would, however, consider a a zero turn mower. I cut 3 of my 5 acres and save a ton of time with my new zero turn. My old Craftsman is still running strong after 14 years, but I've replaced a ton of parts. Now it's just getting expensive keeping it running.
I go through lots of mowers --- mainly because I fix them and sell them when people don't take care of them. Mainly I do John Deere stuff because it seems to run forever and is easy to work on. For what it's worth, you probably don't want a "lawn tractor". At minimum you want a "garden tractor". The difference is that the transmissions on the garden ones tend to be a lot heavier duty. for doing three acres that will buy you a lot more speed, and buy you a lot more pulling power for a lawn tractor, stumps, accessories, etc. I'd be rolling the x520 I had ALLL day long if it wasn't for the fact that I have 1/3 acre and it was a bit over kill.
My personal recommendation would be to look at what's out there on the used market (FB/CL) for the garden series tractors, or even the older tractors with a belly mower. If you can hitch stuff up then all the better. If I was really pressed to go between the two of those, I'd probably take the Cub. I looked at that one a lot and really liked it, but then decided to just quit being lazy and replace the piston rings in my LA145.
My personal recommendation would be to look at what's out there on the used market (FB/CL) for the garden series tractors, or even the older tractors with a belly mower. If you can hitch stuff up then all the better. If I was really pressed to go between the two of those, I'd probably take the Cub. I looked at that one a lot and really liked it, but then decided to just quit being lazy and replace the piston rings in my LA145.
