Riding Lawn Mower Purchase: CVT vs Hydrostatic Transmission

[dlbleak]

The JD's with the Kawasaki engines start with the 300 series. Good mowers with a solid frame front wnd

 

[TwoForFlinching]

I do not know where you were lead to believe otherwise.

It was a logical conclusion I came to years ago. You see, when my pride and joy $200 Jacobsen kicked the bucket, catastrophic piston/top end failure. So I went in search for a new mower. This was in 2009. Knowing JD's rep, and availability at Lowe's in my small town, I decided to buy one. But, when I would try to cross reference the unique model numbers, zero info would pop up on the JD website. Granted, this was years ago. So instead of buying a Korean JD, I decided to rebuild my grandpa's old Jacobsen Ford 145. Been pulling reels with it since. That's what lead me to believe that.

In hindsight, it would have been far cheaper to buy one of those, and pay to rebuild it since, but it just wouldn't have the style.

 

[Riley]

Unless you really need the tractor functions a zero turn will do the mowing much better and faster.

Used commercial will hold up well and be about the same or less money. Welded deck not stamped, as heavy as you can afford....

 

[VIKING]

Been thinking about this since I posted earlier..I guess if or when my John Deere 176 spits the bits I will probably go with one of the cheaper mowers..Why? Simply because I'll soon be 65 years old and I just don't see buying a mower that I feel should last 20 years..I probably got no more then 8 or 10 years left to mow and so why spend the big bucks..Now if I was a young man there would be no doubt about it..I'd go with a John Deere with a Kawasaki motor..

 

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

I guess I'll go against the grain a bit. I've had a Lowe's JD since 2003. Kohler engine. Works just fine. Sure, I've had to replace the mower belt a few times and blades as well, but that's because the kids have a bad habit of leaving metal objects in tall grass.

The transmission has been flawless. It has just under 200 hours.

 

[dennishoddy]

Unless you really need the tractor functions a zero turn will do the mowing much better and faster.

Used commercial will hold up well and be about the same or less money. Welded deck not stamped, as heavy as you can afford....

I'll just pass along my experience.
When we moved to the country, I bought a craftsman 46" garden tractor with manual shift. We have 40+ trees on the place that is aprox 6 acres including our road easement.
It took 8+ hours to mow with that 46". Ran that thing until the frame started coming apart.
Bought a 48"hydrostatic shift craftsman. Cut the time down to 6.5 hours because of all the trees, the hydro was much quicker to get around.
Wore that out, and finally bought a 60" bad boy ZTR. My mow time for the main yard with the trees is 1.8 hours now. 28hp Kohler hasn't used a drop of oil with regular oil changes of Mobil 1.
The road easement is about an acre, but I do it with a tractor and brush hog now.

 

[_CY_]

check out my Kubota G1900 riding mower, 18hp 3cylinder diesel, 54in deck, HST

 

[Okie4570]

check out my Kubota G1900 riding mower, 18hp 3cylinder diesel, 54in deck, HST

How big of an area do you mow?

 

[trickydick]

That Kubota is super sweeeeeet, but what would that run a guy $4-5k? I looked at their zero turn mowers before buying my Gravley, they wanted about $8k for the mower I would've wanted(but it was built like a tank!!!).

 

[makeithappen]

I really appreciate all of the replies. I was hoping to buy new so that I knew how the tractor had been handled from day 1, but given the general consensus, I might keep trolling Craigslist for used mowers. I can appreciate staying away from B&S motors. I'm only really mowing about half an acre, maybe a bit more, so a zero turn seems like overkill, especially when it comes to storing it space-wise. If I found one at the right price though....

Guess I'll prepare to doll out more money than originally and hope I can get a machine that lasts.